Substance abuse is quite common among people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, better known as HIV. In many cases, cocaine is the preferred substance of abuse for HIV-positive people. Current evidence indicates that use of cocaine can harm the health of HIV-positive individuals in a variety of ways, including increasing the amount of the…
Robert Weiss, senior vice president of clinical development with Promises Behavioral Health and director of the Sexual Recovery Institute, talks about his own recovery from sexual addiction and the founding of his treatment center in L.A. Weekly’s People 2013 issue. In the magazine’s annual roundup of what it calls “the city’s most fascinating people,” Weiss…
Schizophrenia is a severe disorder that alters aspects of normal mental health such as the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy and the ability to exhibit appropriate emotional and social responses to a given situation. People affected by the disorder often have debilitating degrees of mental and social impairment. Statistically speaking, schizophrenics smoke marijuana much…
Co-morbidity is a technical term which describes the event of two conditions which occur together. Co-occurring conditions are quite common in medicine. Knowing which conditions tend to go hand-in-hand gives doctors and other health care providers clues as to what illnesses they must be on guard against or watchful of.
A traumatic event can have a lasting impact on an individual. For some, the memory of the event generates feelings of shame, guilt, anger, fear and other emotions. In the medical field, such reactions are often referred to as appraisals as they relate to the perceptions developed due to the traumatic event. If these appraisals…
Naltrexone is a medication that alters normal function in the brain and body by blocking access to sites called opioid receptors, which appear on the exterior surfaces of certain nerve cells. Originally developed to combat the addictive effects of opioid narcotics such as heroin, oxycodone, and codeine, it is now also used to reduce the…
Dysthymia (or dysthymic disorder) is a serious form of depression that, by definition, lasts for a period of at least two years. While it produces relatively moderate symptoms, its long-term effects on a person’s mood and life outlook can easily be as disruptive or debilitating as the effects associated with major depression (major depressive disorder).…
Diabulimia is a term used to describe an unofficial eating disorder that sometimes appears in people with type 1 diabetes. It involves the purposeful skipping of scheduled injections of the hormone insulin, which diabetics need to take in order to properly regulate their blood glucose levels. When diabetics skip their insulin doses, they can control…
This month, internationally renowned addictions expert, author and presenter Robert Weiss, LCSW, CSAT-S, speaks about the intersection of digital technology and addiction at two prominent conferences in the UK and Singapore.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has signed into law a bill that protects drug overdose patients and those who seek medical help for them from prosecution. The Overdose Protection Act seeks to assure that overdose victims receive timely medical assistance without fear of being arrested for drug possession. “Leaders of this state want them to…