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VIEWS & REVIEWS: Ike Iheanacho Dunno, mate BMJ 2007; 335: 160-a [Full text]

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Drug research, alcohhol and drug addiction.

Peter O'Loughlin   (22 July 2007)

Drug research, alcohhol and drug addiction. 22 July 2007
Peter O'Loughlin, Drug and Alcohol Recovery Therapist Beckenham BR3 3AT Send response to journal: Re: Drug research, alcohhol and drug addiction.	One can't help wondering just how rigorous the 'research' on the latest 'wonder' drugs to treat alcohol and drug addiction is? So often he results show positive benefits, such as reduction in quantity or frequency of use, neither of which affects the presence of addiction. Further concerns are the relative shortness of the trials, with six months seeming to be the favoured period, together with the fact that although the trials sometimes claim that the patients were 'dependent', it is not clear if they are addicted, or what screening methods were used to establish either. The difficulty with the former is that although 'dependency' is commonly used because it is considered less pejorative than addiction, it is a clincially and hopelessly inacurrate description of addiction. Competing interests: None declared