Baldwin Research Institute, a leading voice in addiction research, has found through a review of available drug addiction statistics and literature, that treating addiction as a disease is not only erroneous, but has contributed to the deaths of over 33,000 people. They display their findings in a recent infographic.
Amsterdam, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/23/2015 -- Baldwin Research Institute (BRI), a leading addiction research firm and parent company of Saint Jude Retreats, has recently released an infographic based on a literature review they conducted which they claim proves, contrary to popular belief, that addiction is not a disease.
The infographic, titled "You Spent $1 Billion Per Year To Cure Addiction. How Did Your Investments Do?" takes on an investment point of view. It claims that, by paying taxes, American citizens are essentially investors in their own country, and it further points out that they invest billions per year studying diseases. In an effort to prove whether or not the investments "paid off," BRI took data from various sources, governmental and otherwise, and displayed them in the infographics.
The findings of what amounts to a literature review by BRI shows that over the past decade or so great advancements have been made in the fields of heart disease, cancer, and stroke. For example, the review found that there has been 38% reduction in deaths from heart disease between 2003-2013. Further, the review found a 20% reduction in the death rate from cancer in the past 20 years, which amounts to 1.3 million lives saved. Finally, the review also states that monies allocated to stroke research was well spent, as this research has translated to a 35% reduction in deaths and a 50% decrease in incidence of stroke according to one long-term study.
Looking at the effects of research into drug addiction, however, the review found that the money had little to no impact on the number of deaths caused by a wide number of drugs. Looking at US governmental data, BRI was able to discover that there have been significant increases in death from prescription drug abuse as well as illicit drug abuse, including a 30% increase in death from benzodiazepine and a 95% increase in deaths caused by heroin. All of this drug-related refers to the latest data available, that being between 2008 and 2012, when approximately $10 billion was spent on drug addiction research.
The ultimate conclusion drawn from this data is that treatment for diseases tends to have better results with more research. However, BRI states, since drug addiction only gets worse the longer it is treated like a disease, drug addiction is not, in fact, a disease at all, and it is a waste of time, money, and (according to the review) 33,755 lives, to treat it like one.
About Baldwin Research Institute
Since 1989, Baldwin Research Institute has been on the cutting edge of addiction research, and is the parent company of Saint Jude Retreats. BRI, through the Saint Jude Retreats program, has become the leading non-treatment addiction program in the country, and has succeeded in revealing to thousands the inadequacies of 12-step addiction treatment.
Baldwin Research Institute
mholden@saintjuderetreats.com
Amsterdam NY
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