Dirk H.'s Posts - Wellsphere

The Tobacco Industry as Disease Vector by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction A review of The Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition Part II The famous Surgeon General’s Report of 1964, offic ... Read on »

The Hidden Story of How Big Tobacco Invented Freebasing by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction Review of The Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition. Part I It’s easy to think of cigarettes, and the machina ... Read on »

Energy Drinks: What’s the Big Deal? by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction The sons of Red Bull are sporting record concentrations of caffeine. Are energy drinks capable of pushing some people into caffeine-induced psychotic states? Some m ... Read on »

A Look at the Recent Study of Cannabis and Multiple Sclerosis by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction Smoked marijuana reduced spasticity in a small trial of MS patients. The leading wedge of the medical marijuana movement has traditionally been centered on pot a ... Read on »

Marijuana Can Make You Vomit, and Other Stories by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction Short subjects, various. First, a recap of an earlier story, and a very strange story at that. Cannabinoid hyperemesis, as it's known, was not documented in the ... Read on »

What It Means to Say Alcoholism is Genetic by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction One woman’s journal. From Insanity to Serenity , by Tommi Lloyd Excerpts: "I was born in 1963 in Toronto, Canada, to a family struggling long before ... Read on »

Gateway to Absurdity by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction State law criminalizes “gateway sexual activity.” It’s the gateway to hell and perdition, that’s what it is. It doesn’t necessarily lead to drugs but it will dra ... Read on »

Review: Memoirs of an Addicted Brain by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction “I’m a drug addict turned neuroscientist.” What’s it like to swallow 400 milligrams of dextromethorphan hydrobromide, better known as Romilar cough syrup? “Flashes ... Read on »

What's in That X Pill, Ravers? by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction Ecstasy comes loaded with other drugs. I'm not a huge fan of infographics, mostly because they tend to overpromise and are often marred by factual errors. But ... Read on »

Addiction Doctors Pick Top Ten Journal Articles by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction A screen for problem gambling, medications for insomniac alcoholics, and more. A group of addiction doctors presented a Top Ten List of peer-reviewed article ... Read on »

A Drug For Marijuana Withdrawal? by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction Researchers get good results with gabapentin. Marijuana, as researchers and pundits never tire of pointing out, is the most widely used illegal drug in the wor ... Read on »

Dude, where’s my metaconsciousness? by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction “Lost in the sauce.” I have to admit I was taken with the opening sentence of this 2009 study published in Psychological Sciences : “Alcohol consumption al ... Read on »

“Addiction Fiction” by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction Coming-of-Age Drug Novels Call it “addiction fiction.” In the past few years we have seen a blossoming of this genre, where the private eye goes to 12-Step me ... Read on »

Ivan Oransky on the Disease Model at TEDMED 2012 by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction What we think about when we think about “disease.” It’s a safe bet that the number of M.D.s who have made a mid-career switch to journalism is rather small. And ... Read on »

From Their Mouth to Your Ear: Researchers Talk Drugs by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction A collection of five-question interviews. I’ll be away from the Addiction Inbox office this week, attending the big TEDMED health and medicine powwow ... Read on »

Interview with Cognitive Neuropsychologist Keith Laws by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction LSD, E, CBT, and “Mind-Pops.” Our latest participant in the “Five Question Interview” series is Dr. Keith Laws, professor of cognitive neuropsychology and head of r ... Read on »

MDMA Likes It Hot by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction X and ambient air temperature. One of the enduring mysteries about MDMA, the popular amphetamine derivative known as Ecstasy, or X, is the relationship between the ... Read on »

The Mysteries of the Blunt by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction Why do so many smokers combine tobacco with marijuana? People who smoke a combination of tobacco and marijuana, a common practice overseas for years, and increas ... Read on »

“Bath Salts” and Ecstasy Implicated in Kidney Injuries by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction “A potentially life-threatening situation.” Earlier this month, state officials became alarmed by a cluster of puzzling health problems that had suddenly popped up ... Read on »

LSD and Alcohol: The History by Dirk H. Patient Expert

Posted in: Blog Posts in Drug Addiction Back when acid was legal. After last week’s blitz of coverage concerning studies done in the 60s on the use of LSD for the treatment of alcoholism, I thought it wou ... Read on »