Is addiction a choice or a disease? A psychiatrist explains how repeated substance use changes brain reward and impulse-control circuits, turning behaviour into a chronic medical condition.

Addiction is a condition that has long baffled physicians and philosophers, to say nothing of those struggling with it and those around them. People have long debated whether addiction is a habit or a ...

January is Substance Use Disorder Treatment Month, which is designed to raise awareness about those suffering with substance ...

Is addiction a disease? Do the kids I work with at CASTLE have a pathological response to drugs and alcohol? The disease model of addiction is compelling, and has served its purpose in bringing needed ...

Whenever a news story is broadcast on social media and the public weighs in, I can usually count on one consistency: Within the first few comments, someone will weigh in to disagree with the generally ...

For years, addiction was seen as a matter of personal failure—a bad habit or a lack of discipline. People believed those who struggled with substance abuse could stop if they simply wanted to. But ...

The author overcame his dependence on pills and alcohol. Now he wants to beat back misconceptions about the science of addiction. “How should we think about addicts’ aims and agency?” This is the ...

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“How should we think about addicts’ aims and agency?” This is the animating question behind Owen Flanagan’s “What Is It Like to Be an Addict?” An emeritus professor of philosophy and neurobiology at ...

For many addicts, guilt and shame are two emotions that keep them from seeking help. Their problem, they mistakenly believe, is a moral failing, a result of a lack of willpower that they don’t see ...

I am very sad to read Sarah Rahal’s article (“Homeless nonprofit to cut staff and services,” Metro, Sept. 21) concerning cuts to what I feel is the best program in Boston. We need to do more to help ...