For many decades, it's been widely accepted that alcoholism (or addiction) is a disease. The "disease concept" is taught in addiction training programs and to patients in treatment programs. It is ...

Is addiction a disease? Most people think, "yes." The idea has become ingrained in the minds of media, courts, treatment facilities, and addicts. It's also a stigma. A debatable concept is that if you ...

Just after graduating from medical school, Carl Erik Fisher was on top of the world. He was winning awards and working day and night. But a lot of that frantic activity was really covering up his ...

May 16—If there was one take-away from the WNC Drug Awareness Walk held Sunday in Waynesville, it was that drug addiction is not a choice, not a parental failure and not a moral failing. Addiction is ...

Re “Calling Addiction a Disease Is Misleading,” by Carl Erik Fisher (Opinion guest essay, Sunday Review, Jan. 16): Dr. Fisher’s opinion piece about addiction was misleading and polarizing. His ...

The conversation about addiction within Black families requires a fundamental shift toward understanding it as a medical condition rather than a moral failing. This perspective change proves crucial ...

Dr. Fisher is an addiction physician and bioethicist. He’s the author of “The Urge: Our History of Addiction.” In 2010, a little more than a year after graduating from medical school, I was admitted ...

Carl Erik Fisher, psychiatrist and author of The Urge: A History of Addiction. Just after graduating from medical school, Carl Erik Fisher was on top of the world. He was winning awards and working ...