Archives for Addiction

Talk of the Towns 11/11/16

Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Addiction—Emerging Research and Best Practices in treatment

Key Discussion Points:

What is the most recent research, leading to an understanding of addiction as a chronic health issue “addiction falls along the spectrum of behavioral disorders with clear genetic neurobiological and environmental influences”
Where does addiction show up in humans… to what are we addicted?
What factors influence human tendency toward addiction… how much is genetic, how much is environmental?
How do humans become addicted… what happens when they try to eliminate the things that they are addicted to?
How has this research changed how addiction is treated?
What factors are behind the current trends in opioid addiction?
What are the public policy choices that relate to opioids?
What do policy makers most need to consider when devising solutions to problems like the opioid problem?
What are helpful community responses to opioid and other addictions?

Guests:
Dr. Dan Johnson, Executive Director, Acadia Family Center
Dr. Vivek Kumar, Assistant Professor, The Jackson Laboratory and board member, Acadia Family Center

Healthy Options 2/3/16

Host and Producer: Andrée Bella
Engineer: John Greenman

Program Topic: “A Different View of Depression and Addiction”

Key Discussion Points:
a) How does our culture contribute to depression? How is grieving done in the Mayan culture, and how is this different than in Western culture?
b) What is the relationship between depression, violence and war?
c) Can a whole culture be depressed? What are the consequences of this? Can these consequences be passed on to later generations?
d) What role can parents play in helping their children grow up in a culture where depression and addiction are no longer such a threat to the happiness and stability of everyone?
e) What is the relationship between grief and praise?
f) How can grief turn losses into beauty?

Guest: Martin Prechtel – author, social activist – director of the international school Bolad’s Kitchen