Maia Szalavitz

Maia Szalavitz is a journalist who covers health, science and public policy, and is a Senior Fellow at the non-profit, non-partisan Statistical Assessment Service (STATS). www.stats.org
She is co-author of Recovery Options: The Complete Guide and author of a HuffingtonPost blog.
Articles by this Author
Battling Pain: Are Doctors Too Reluctant to Prescribe Opioids?
- By Maia Szalavitz
- Published 02/24/2010
- Addiction In The News
- Unrated
Decisions about a patients' pain treatment are now made much more
collaboratively, but even in modern times, the process is fraught with
moral judgment, stemming largely from the nature of available pain
treatments and an incomplete understanding of how to use them. Patients
who ask for more pain drugs are eyed as potential addicts; doctors who
prescribe pain medications too frequently fear being arrested for it.
But with
about 10% to 15% of Americans, mostly in middle-age or older, suffering
from chronic pain severe enough to interfere with daily life, figuring
out which pain medications work best — and which are safest — is of
crucial interest.
Addiction: Tough Love Or Tough Luck? Empathy Works Better
- By Maia Szalavitz
- Published 02/19/2010
- Help Another with their Addiction
- Unrated
One of the main reasons I wanted to write about empathy in my
forthcoming book with Bruce Perry, MD, Phd, Born for Love, was my
experience of the lack of empathy we show towards people with
addiction. As a former heroin and cocaine addict, I was horrified by
what I learned about treatment before I sought help: the idea was that
addiction is cured by "tough love," by breaking people in order to fix
them.
Why Falling Off the Wagon Isn't Fatal
- By Maia Szalavitz
- Published 01/4/2010
- Managing Thinking , Alcohol
- Unrated
That moment of yielding fully to addiction is what Alan Marlatt,
director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University
of Washington, calls the abstinence-violation effect (AVE). "The
abstinence-violation effect is a form of black-and-white thinking,"
says Marlatt. "You blame [your failure] on internal factors that you
consider beyond your control." Those factors — whether they are, as in Oprah Winfrey's case, a thyroid
condition that causes weight gain, or a belief that addiction is a
disease that robs you of free will — are what derail thousands of
quitters and abstainers from their New Year's resolutions.
The Real Date Rape Drug
- By Maia Szalavitz
- Published 10/30/2009
- Alcohol News
- Unrated
Should young women worry about “spiked” drinks and “date rape” drugs?
A new study published in the British Journal of Criminology including
surveys of both American and British coeds suggests that the real
problem is what's already in the glass, not what a surreptitious date
or stranger might add to it.
Drinking By Either Partner Cuts Odds of IVF (fertilization) Success
- By Maia Szalavitz
- Published 10/30/2009
- Alcohol News
- Unrated
Couples having difficulty conceiving may want to skip one item that is
ordinarily considered helpful to the process—alcohol—at least if they
are using in-vitro fertilization (IVF). A new study of 2,574 couples
undergoing 5,363 IVF cycles between 1994 and 2003 found that couples in
which both partners drank four or more alcoholic beverages per week
decreased their chances of having a live birth by 26%.
Treating Alcohol Addiction: A Pill Instead of Abstinence?
- By Maia Szalavitz
- Published 07/31/2009
- Alcohol News
-
Rating:




They call it "the switch." Alcoholics who take an anticraving
medication called baclofen say the drug allows them to resist the most
powerful triggers of relapse: former drinking buddies, a favorite bar,
the sight of alcohol or even the most potent drinking cue of all,
having a single drink. French cardiologist Dr. Olivier Amiesen wrote about his experience with baclofen in his memoir The End of My Addiction.
Falling off the Wagon Isn't Fatal
- By Maia Szalavitz
- Published 12/30/2008
- Control and Impulse Control
- Unrated
"The abstinence violation effect is a form of black-and-white thinking," says Marlatt. Those factors — whether they are, as in Winfrey's case, a thyroid
condition that causes weight gain, or the belief that addiction is a
disease that robs you of any free will — are what derail thousands of
quitters and abstainers from their New Year's resolutions every year.
Evil Internets Trying to Hook Your Kids on Digital Drugs
- By Maia Szalavitz
- Published 10/3/2008
- Internet and gaming addiction
- Unrated
Are the evil internets trying to hook your children on aural drugs?
Either USA Today and ABC News don't read the opinion columns they post
on their websites, or the mainstream media is so far gone that it's
beyond help. From the column in question, by a radio host named Kim Komando:
"websites are targeting your children with so-called digital drugs.
These are audio files designed to induce drug-like effects."
Performance Enhancement for the Brain
- By Maia Szalavitz
- Published 09/2/2008
- Drug News
- Unrated
Calming the Anxious Brain
- By Maia Szalavitz
- Published 07/11/2008
- Drug News
- Unrated
Could people with anxiety disorders be suffering because they’re not
producing enough endogenous opioids—the brain chemicals best known as
natural painkillers? This could help explain why people with anxiety disorders and those who
suffer childhood trauma have elevated rates of addiction to opioid
drugs like heroin and Vicodin.




