Patients with addiction complain of cravings so frequently that sometimes it’s difficult to make sense of them. They are a common symptom and one that may serve as a predictor of whether a patient will relapse.

Dr. Thomas McLellan discusses how treating addiction with a chronic care model like that used to treat diabetes and asthma may be the key to helping patients stay sober and healthy.

In September, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed safety labeling changes for extended-release and long-acting (ER/LA) opioid analgesics intended to treat pain.

The possibility that food can be addicting has been getting some serious attention in recent years (see for example Gearhardt AN et al, J Addict Med 2009;3(1):1–7). The idea isn’t half-baked: food and other natural rewards, like sex, activate the same brain regions that are hijacked by drugs of abuse.

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Despite a large body of evidence providing overwhelming proof that misuse of cannabis can lead to the typical problems of substance abuse, some people continue to question the entire concept of cannabis (marijuana) addiction.

A list of cannabis-related statistics.

While many people think marijuana is harmless, some people do become addicted to it. Roughly one million people receive substance abuse treatment for cannabis each year and the majority resume using marijuana following program discharge.

Separate the facts about cannabis use from the myths in an interview with Itai Danovitch, MD, director of Addiction Psychiatry Clinic Services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Smoking remains a scourge despite almost universal acknowledgement of its harms. This raises a puzzling question: If smoking is so bad for you, why do people continue to smoke?