Dopesick by Beth Macy

DOPESICK by Beth Macy is a fascinating work of non-fiction that deals with “Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America.” Macy, an award-winning journalist and author of Factory Man, explores the opioid crisis through the lives of four families whose teenage children’s addiction resulted in devastating emotional and economic costs. As she tells it, this is a story of rehab and prison, of recovery and relapse, of “the crushing and sometime contradictory facets of an inadequate criminal justice system often working at cross-purposes against medical science.” Macy argues that “the flood of painkillers pushed by rapacious pharma companies,” particularly Purdue Pharma, began in isolated and politically unimportant places. A resident of Roanoke, Virginia, she attempts to “retrace the epidemic as it shape-shifted across the spine of the Appalachians, roughly paralleling Interstate 81 as it fanned out from the coalfields and crept north up the Shenandoah Valley.” In addition to the collapse of work, she points to denial coupled with fear and ready stereotypes (“affliction of jobless hillbillies”) plus the lack of resources for local papers to cover the enfolding story as several reasons for why it took so long for this epidemic to be widely recognized. 

The abuse of opioids is a high interest topic for our students, both in Health classes and for Junior Theme and they will find much valuable information in Macy’s work, as well as other titles such as Sederer’s The Addiction Solution and Quinones’ Dreamland (to which Macy refers). DOPESICK is extensively researched, with more than twenty percent of the book devoted to notes. Chosen as an Amazon Best Book of August 2018, DOPESICK also received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.

LOST CONNECTIONS by Johann Hari

LOST CONNECTIONS by Johann Hari was just published this week and deals, as the subtitle notes, with “Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions.”  This was actually a very surprising and quite interesting book to read because the author builds an argument against more commonly accepted causes of depression such as serotonin levels and genetics.  Hari argues instead that depression and anxiety are caused by society and by our increasing disconnections from meaningful work, from each other, from nature, etc.  I found myself wanting to learn more, especially because Hari does not have a medical degree (which he acknowledges), but does speak with authority due to his own experience with depression. He supplements his personal observations with thousands of hours of interviews and numerous studies; these are cited in the wide-ranging notes, in part a reaction to past questions in the UK about his sources. Hari describes in detail, for example, the research regarding loneliness that University of Chicago professor John Cacioppo and others have conducted. Coincidentally, the UK Prime Minister last week appointed a Minister of Loneliness which is estimated to impact over nine million Brits. In 2010, AARP projected the corresponding American figure to be almost 43 million.

In his conclusion, Hari writes, “We need to stop trying to muffle or silence or pathologize that pain. Instead, we need to listen to it, and honor it. It is only … when we can see its true causes, can we begin to overcome it.” Calling LOST CONNECTIONS a “sure-to-be-controversial book,” Kirkus says, “Hari delivers a weighty, well-supported, persuasive argument against treating depression pharmaceutically.”  I can think of several groups who will be curious to read more about his claims: our Social Work Department, Health Services, various teachers, and, of course, students and their parents.

ADHD Nation and A Boy Made of Blocks

ADHD Nation by Alan Schwarz is a fascinating look at the patterns of ADHD diagnosis and the [over]use of medication for treatment.  Schwarz is a New York Times award-winning author and he provides statistics and background on scientific studies as he crafts his argument about ADHD. Schwarz makes the content more accessible by profiling three individuals:

•  -- Keith Connors, a doctor who pioneered ADHD treatments like Ritalin but who now calls the many diagnoses "a national disaster of dangerous proportions";
•  -- Kristin Parber, [mis]diagnosed as a young girl, she reluctantly accepted medical treatment, later becoming an addict; and
• -- Jamison Monroe who faked symptoms in order to get prescriptions for Adderall.

ADHD Nation is a thoughtful exploration of a subject which impacts so many students. Throughout, Schwarz notes that ADHD is real, but that diagnoses are much higher than would be expected.  As his subtitle, (children, doctors, big pharma, and the making of an American epidemic) indicates, Schwarz has a point of view and a message to share.  This new non-fiction book will be of interest to both students and faculty.

For additional background, readers can consult online sources like those from the CDC which provided the graphic below showing the obvious regional patterns in diagnosing ADHD:

Here is another new title - a work of fiction which explores what it is like to be a parent of a child with autism.  A Boy Made of Blocks by Keith Stuart is the story of Alex, his wife, Jody, and their autistic 8 year-old son, Sam.  As the story begins, Alex and Jody are separating after a decade of marriage due to the many challenges of raising Sam.  I found A Boy Made of Blocks to be relatively easy to read, and I could definitely picture the scenes such as a trip to the park or the local café where Sam preferred certain established patterns of behavior or was badly frightened by an overly friendly dog.  However, I did not have much empathy for Alex who seemed quite distanced from his son and unable to accept the responsibilities of parenthood. I am still reading the book, though, and hoping that he and Sam manage to bond more fully over Minecraft and all of the creativity that game inspires.

Having raised two young children in England, I enjoyed the many British references in Stuart’s work (e.g., almost falling asleep in the nappy aisle at Waitrose), but am not sure that our students will be able to interpret them.  Although A Boy Made of Blocks is funny in places, I would frankly be more apt to first recommend a novel such as Its. Nice. Outside by local author Jim Kokoris or Riding the Bus with My Sister (a long time student non-fiction favorite).