When news broke that Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found fatally stabbed in their Los Angeles home and their 32-year-old son was arrested in connection with their deaths,

Who gets better medical care in the United States: “addicts,” or “people with substance use disorders”? The terms, of course, mean functionally the same thing. But in the field of addiction medicine, the question presents something of a crisis.

Recognizing an addiction problem in someone you know can be harder than it seems. The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) defines addiction as a chronic disease that affects the brain’s reward, motivation, and memory functions. Someone with an ...

When people see compulsive and damaging behaviors in friends or family members -- or public figures such as celebrities or politicians -- they often focus only on the substance use or behaviors as the problem. However, these outward behaviors are actually ...

Heroin started rewiring and taking control of Will's brain in the early 2000s, as he turned 40. "Back then, if you used drugs people didn't want anything to do with you," Will recalls. "People gave up on me." Will lost almost everything: jobs, his driver's ...

Methamphetamine is an addictive drug that has energizing (stimulant) effects. It can be found in pill form or as a white-colored powder. As a powder, it can be snorted or dissolved in water and injected. Crystal methamphetamine is generally pale blue in color.

Dr. Fisher is an addiction physician and bioethicist. He’s the author of “The Urge: Our History of Addiction.” In 2010, a little more than a year after graduating from medical school, I was admitted to a psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital after a ...

Like drugs and alcohol, video games can become an addiction you can't control, despite their harmful effects. Too much screen time and gaming can hurt your health and relationships. Video game addiction is also called internet gaming disorder. You may have ...