Departments join to discuss substance abuse

The College of Behavioral and Emotional Health (COBE) and VCU Life Sciences held a town hall on substance abuse in young people April 14 and 15.

The town hall, titled “From Research to Recovery” advocated for research into substance addiction by bringing together doctors, researchers, and recovering addicts.

The event, which had more than 350 people registered to attend, composed of guest lectures and breakout sessions that discussed addiction research and substance abuse. Among the lecturers was Bill Maher, a professional interventionist.

Maher said a key piece to combating the addiction epidemic is paying attention to families because families also fall victim to a loved one’s addiction, and need treatment so they can better communicate with the addict themselves.

“Immediately as a result of addiction, this defensive posture gets created in a household and we lose the ability to communicate effectively,” Maher said. “If you don’t know the language of recovery, how are you going to effectively communicate with them?”

Formal Naval Flight Surgeon Kevin McCauley was another guest lecturer. McCauley began to study addiction after he himself was sent to a military prison for his own addiction to opioids.

“For the first time in the history of these numbers being recorded, the leading cause of death is not motor vehicle accidents, it’s opioids,” McCauley said.

McCauley said most patients who are prescribed opioids will either not like it, or only associate the high with the injury that caused them to be prescribed. However, for a select few, Opioids can be very addictive.

McCauley’s studies use brain scans to show how the release of dopamine in the brain can cause the brain to misassociate pleasure with harmful activities.

McCauley however, praised the work of collegiate recovery programs, saying that they were very helpful for addicts in recovery.  

“In many ways collegiate recovery programs are the brightest star in the sky,” McCauley said.

According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Addiction, more than 23 Million people over the age of 12 suffer addiction to Alcohol and other Drugs.

At VCU, Rams in Recovery offers a daily open house at 815 S. Cathedral St., and weekly meetings are held Wednesday nights at the Wellness Resource Center.

Danielle Dick, founder of COBE organized the event. Dick said the town hall was trying to answer the question of how to connect researchers in the community with practitioners to have a dialog.

“We can make sure our research is actually getting out in the field and making a difference,” Dick said. “What we ultimately want to do with our research is presumably make a difference. For that to happen it requires researchers to get their information out not just to other scientists, but to individuals who are really effected.”

Print News Editor, Fadel Allassan

Fadel is a sophomore print journalism major. He is fluent in English, French and Sarcasm, and he probably doesn’t like you. Fadel enjoys writing about politics and making people drive him to Cook-Out. // Facebook | LinkedIn

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