substance abuse treatment

In 2001, a nonprofit drug treatment provider called Bridges joined a bold new venture with the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). It was aimed at better serving the children of parents who had come into contact with the child welfare system because of drug use or addiction.

My teen years were spent in the 1960s; you know, hippies, long hair, rock-n-roll, changing norms, social unrest and drugs. I had the good fortune to be raised with a strong moral compass that helped me navigate the tumultuous times and come out unscathed.

My son is always unhappy when he hears classical music. When I first noticed this, I asked him why. He told me that in the months he was in foster care, the group home caretakers listened to classical music after he was sent to bed.

The result of a new study published in JAMA Psychiatry shows that childhood maltreatment may predict an increased tendency to relapse among patients dealing with substance-abuse disorders. In the “Childhood Maltreatment, Altered Limbic Neurobiology, and Substance Use Relapse Severity via Trauma-Specific Reductions in Limbic Gray Matter Volume,” researchers used structural magnetic resonance imaging to assess the gray matter volume, subsequent substance use relapse, length of time until relapse, and acuteness of relapse among 79 participants engaged in treatment as well as a control group of healthy participants.