Newsletter

I have recently enjoyed working with addiction medicine fellows at Maine Medical Center. A patient was referred to our office with cirrhosis due to alcohol use disorder, to maybe start naltrexone (NTX). The fellow was nonplussed; why wouldn’t we start it? And there I was: Crusty. I had seen some folks with cirrhosis prescribed NTX, […]

Apps and Websites Everywhere, Can They Stop the Drink? How can we better support patients in thinking about or changing their use of alcohol? In a recent newsletter, I reviewed a study showing a possible benefit of a breathalyzer-linked smartphone app among people with alcohol use disorder (Osth et al., 2025). This led me on

Even with therapies and medication, we have a long way to go in helping people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) to cut back or quit. There is an early but growing body of evidence1,2 suggesting that “digital interventions” may be helpful in this regard. Before widespread smartphone access, most were text message-based interventions, but smartphone