For many decades, it's been widely accepted that alcoholism (or addiction) is a disease. The "disease concept" is taught in addiction training programs and to patients in treatment programs. It is ...

Is addiction a disease? From a medical perspective, are substance use disorders (SUDs) on par with, say, heart disease—if not, how do they differ? Source: Jesse Orrico/Unsplash These questions are ...

The conversation around addiction has evolved dramatically over recent decades, with medical and scientific communities now firmly classifying it as a chronic brain disorder rather than a moral ...

There, substance use disorders are described as “ chronic diseases that affect the brain.” The National Institutes for Drug Addiction describe addiction as “ a chronic, relapsing brain disease.” But a ...

Is addiction a disease? Most people think, "yes." The idea has become ingrained in the minds of media, courts, treatment facilities, and addicts. It's also a stigma. A debatable concept is that if you ...

Before 1934, the idea was that alcoholism was a moral weakness. People who were viewed as alcoholics were looked down upon by society and seen as having weak wills to stop the drinking that resulted ...

A modest opposition to the brain disease concept of addiction has been mounting for at least the last decade. Despite the good intentions behind the brain disease rhetoric – to secure more biomedical ...

Just after graduating from medical school, Carl Erik Fisher was on top of the world. He was winning awards and working day and night. But a lot of that frantic activity was really covering up his ...

The conversation about addiction within Black families requires a fundamental shift toward understanding it as a medical condition rather than a moral failing. This perspective change proves crucial ...

A year ago, as she went into the final week of organizing and planning for the inaugural “Hijacked” addiction and recovery summit, Jan McCoy would have been elated had 50 people showed up. She’s a ...

Editor’s note: The next president is in for a rough welcome to the Oval Office given the list of immediate crises and slow-burning policy challenges, both foreign and domestic. What should Washington ...