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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Most medical experts say that addiction is a disease—whether that addiction is to drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes. That ever-expanding list is one reason why neuroscientist Marc Lewis takes issue with ...

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 ...

Carl Erik Fisher, psychiatrist and author of The Urge: A History of Addiction. Just after graduating from medical school, Carl Erik Fisher was on top of the world. He was winning awards and working ...