Addiction specialist Keith Humphreys explains how the pandemic has affected three factors driving substance use — cues, comfort and convenience.
Author: Keith Humphreys
The tweet that ate my week
What's it like to go viral on Twitter? Stanford Medicine professor Keith Humphreys recently found out when he tweeted an insight about COVID-19.
How people with mental illness get left out of medical research studies
One of the enduring challenges of evidence-based medicine is that the characteristics of people who participate in clinical trials can differ markedly from those of …
Medical marijuana and the risk of painkiller overdose
After a study published this fall showed that that opioid overdoses (e.g., with painkillers such as Oxycontin) occur at lower rates in states with legalized …
Increasing access to an anti-overdose drug
In the past decade, the U.S. has experienced a surge of fatal opioid overdoses, driven partly by increased heroin use but mostly by the greatly …
What the experience of Swedish snuff can teach us about e-cigarettes
A new study in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that e-cigarettes don't help tobacco smokers quit. This study will no doubt attract enormous attention because it …
We just had the best two months in the history of U.S. mental-health policy
For decades, descriptions of the status of U.S. mental health services have included references to service cuts, funding constraints and poor access to care. That …
Managing primary care patients' risky drinking
Centers for Disease Control Director Thomas Frieden, MD, wants more physicians to screen patients for risky alcohol consumption. From a public health viewpoint, this makes …
Breaking Good: How to wipe out meth labs
Earlier today I testified about methamphetamine laboratories to West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s Advisory Council on Substance Abuse. Like more than a dozen other states in the …
The disturbing trend of science by press release
The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor and Time were among the respected media outlets that recently covered the sensational alleged scientific finding that Oreos are …
Upcoming Stanford Health Policy Forum to focus on mental illness
The horrifying mass murders at the Washington Navy Yard and Sandy Hook Elementary School were both committed by individuals with long-standing mental-health problems. The events galvanized a …
How police officers are tackling drug overdose
Drug overdose is now the most common cause of accidental death in the United States, primarily because of the vastly increased availability of pharmaceutical-grade opioids …
Alcoholism: Not just a man’s problem
Updated 11:45 AM: Audio from the Forum show is now available here. *** When I first started working in alcoholism treatment programs 25 years ago, women were …
Quitting smoking for the baby you plan to have together
My best friend finally succeeded in his efforts to stop smoking when he experienced a highly motivating life change: Fatherhood. Likewise, many women discover that wanting …
Stopping criminal men from drinking reduces domestic violence
Living in London this year on sabbatical, I worked with the Mayor’s Office and Parliament on a law that gave courts the power to sentence …
How to prevent prescription-drug misuse among teens
The Medicine Abuse Project is being launched this week by a coalition of public-health, public-safety, governmental and private-sector organizations. The Project is a response to …