Background Sex addiction is a disorder that can have serious adverse functional consequences. Treatment effectiveness research for sex addiction is currently underdeveloped, and interventions are generally based on the guidelines for treating other behavioral (as well as chemical) addictions. Consequently, there is a need to clinically evaluate tailored treatments that target the specific sympt...

The infrastructure to treat addictive illness, when compared with treatment for other traditional medical illnesses, is lacking in the United States. This situation is tolerated by a public that views addiction more as a social problem than an actual disease, despite scientific evidence supporting a disease concept of addiction based on neuronal mechanisms, heritability, treatment responses and...

substance use disorder is conceptualized as a chronic relapsing condition where relapse is usually defined as the return to problematic substance use following treatment. an issue of great importance is the identification of the predictors of relapse and the development of treatments that may help prevent relapse. one of the strongest predictors of relapse is craving. the purpose of the present...

Abstinence is the deprivation of previously abused substances that lead to addiction. The long-term and excessive use of a drug causes different biochemical and neurophysiological changes. After addiction is established, deprivation causes withdrawal, whose symptoms, duration and degree vary among substances. Common symptoms include anxiety, depression, tremors, impaired thinking, and changes i...

In a recent article, Lund et al sought to compare maternal and neonatal outcomes of various treatment regimens for opioid dependence during pregnancy.1 In their background, discussion the authors state that "In the United States buprenorphine plus naloxone [Suboxone(®)] … has been the preferred form of prescribed buprenorphine due to its reduced abuse liability relative to buprenorphine alone [...