Substance Abuse

October 18, 2019

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid pain medication that is the most widely used synthetic opioid in medicine.  It’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. It was initially developed for surgical cases and for end of life care. As a street drug, it’s now killing more Americans annually than…

August 14, 2019

For the first time since 1990, deaths from drug overdoses dropped last year from the year before. Why the drop? Prescription opioid overdose deaths declined (though sadly, Fentanyl deaths continue to climb). So, some progress is being made. And according to experts in the field, it’s being made in large…

May 31, 2019

China has long been a country with a troubled history in experimental treatments for drug addiction. They are now attempting to add another option.  This treatment involves brain surgery to insert electrodes into the brains of addicts. There are currently eight studies being conducted on this approach around the world. …

May 10, 2019

Researchers from the University of Michigan have made a troubling discovery. People younger than 50 with impaired hearing (deaf or hard of hearing) are twice as likely to misuse prescription opioids and struggle with alcohol abuse syndrome. These findings come from data on 86,186 U.S. adults who recently took part…

April 12, 2019

For hundreds of years, cultures all over the world have viewed alcoholism (or alcohol use disorder as it is now called) as a moral failing – a problem of succumbing to temptation. Seemed reasonable.  After all – why was it that some people had a drinking problem while others did…

March 26, 2019

The health risks of excessive drinking are well known. Now scientists are beginning to explore the impact of both consumption and binge drinking on brain development in adolescents. And what they’re finding is troubling. Researchers from the University of Chicago have just released the results of a study that shows…

March 06, 2019

It's an increasingly accepted notion in medical circles that medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder improves the odds of recovery and saves lives. Given this fact, one would think gaining access to this level of care would be easy. Well, according to researchers at Oregon Health and Safety University (OHSU)…

February 20, 2019

Aware Recovery Care is proud to announce that the Addiction Policy Forum has, for the second year in a row, singled out our addiction treatment programs for innovations that are changing the field of addiction. The Addiction Policy Forum is a nationwide nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating addiction as a…

January 08, 2019

Aware Recovery Care, an innovative and promising drug and alcohol addiction treatment program created in concert with addiction specialists at Yale University, has opened its doors in Maine. The program is unique in the nation. Aware Recovery Care’s unique and innovative in-home addiction treatment program was founded on the research-supported…

January 08, 2019

Mike Moore used to be the Attorney General for the state of Mississippi.  He is also the guy who decided to sue Big Tobacco for lying about nicotine addiction and to hold them accountable for the health-care costs of sick smokers.  Though derided and told he had no shot at…

November 21, 2018

These are the FACTS about America’s problem with opioids… Approximately 40,000 Americans are now dying annually from opioid overdoses.  That’s approximately 115 people every single day. More than two million Americans are now addicted to opioids. Americans make up 5% of the world’s population – but consume 80% of the…

November 09, 2018

For decades, scientists have been trying to unravel the mystery of addiction, how it gets started, and why it often persists so stubbornly. And for years, there’s been a theory that a chemical in the human nervous system called dopamine lies at the core of that mystery. Dopamine is what’s…

October 26, 2018

Sadly – the drug addiction crisis in America continues to roar ahead – seemingly unabated. In data recently released by the Centers for Disease Control, bleak new estimates put the number of drug overdose deaths in 2017 at 72,000. That number is not a typo. The Vietnam War (1961-1975) took…

October 16, 2018

A few years ago, physicians, like Elliot Tapper at the University of Michigan Medical School, began noticing an alarming increase in the number of young adults seeking help for liver disease. Their observation led them on a quest to understand why. The medical journal BMJ has just published the results…

September 28, 2018

With an opioid crisis choking the nation, it’s understandable that few are talking about what drugs might create the next crisis. Addiction treatment specialists, however, are seeing the beginnings of a worrying trend – a surge of adolescents addicted to Xanax and other sedatives in a class of anti-anxiety drugs…

September 06, 2018

Why is it that some succumb to drug or alcohol addiction and others do not? Well, we’ve known for a while that there’s a genetic link.  But could something else be a significant contributor? According to a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and confirmed by Kaiser Permanente…

June 22, 2018

As the opioid crisis deepens across America, the pharmaceutical industry’s role in the crisis has gained increased attention. What did the industry actually know about the dangers these drugs posed? And if they knew of the dangers, what did they do, if anything, to restrain their use? All great questions.…

June 08, 2018

Anyone struggling with addiction knows there are literally thousands of treatment options available in the U.S. And if you’re battling addiction – the chances are also very good that you’ve tried a number of these options without achieving long-term abstinence. Aware Recovery Care is the brainchild of addiction specialists at…

May 18, 2018

Many think of marijuana and assume it is a relatively benign drug. After all, many states are moving to legalize its use and distribution. That benign view may now be changing with the arrival of dangerous synthetic versions. Physicians in different parts of the U.S. are now receiving patients in…

April 27, 2018

Innovation… Since Aware Recovery Care first opened its doors, we’ve focused on finding and deploying innovative new tools capable of improving the odds of recovery for folks addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.  We believe this approach is one reason our clients achieve long-term sobriety at such high rates. One of…

April 19, 2018

As the opioid crisis continues to rage across America, a new and very significant danger has emerged.  Cocaine laced with Fentanyl.  Fentanyl is dangerous, and it’s often lethal.  It’s a synthetic opioid that’s between 50 and 100 times more powerful than morphine. And it kills quickly – so quickly that…

April 02, 2018

The answer to that question may be more important than you think. Researchers from the Opioid Response and Education program at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston have just completed a study on Naloxone use and overdose death rates. They found that Naloxone reverses 93% of all overdoses.  What troubled…

January 18, 2018

New provisional data has been released from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) regarding the drug crisis in America – and the news is discouraging. From May 2016 to May 2017, 17% more drug-related deaths were reported in the U.S. when compared to the previous 12-month period. What does that…

December 07, 2017

Much has been written about the epidemic of opioid use in America. As a class of drugs – opioids are killing at a stunning rate. But has the focus on opioids obscured an equally vexing and deadly problem? According to new research just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine,…

November 30, 2017

New Hampshire is without question one of the most beautiful states in the nation. Sadly, it also has the second worst death rate from opioid overdoses relative to its population (behind West Virginia). Remarkably, it also has the highest death rate from Fentanyl overdoses. So what exactly is going on?…