Die trying? Or dichotomy? –
May 5 2020 – He had misused opioids since he’d been sidelined by a football injury in high school, later adding Xanax and other benzodiazepines to his mix. He’d already been through dozens of different treatment programs, often dropping out and relapsing the same day. He desperately wanted to change his life. “Yeah, yeah, of course,” he told James Mahoney, who is assistant professor of neuropsychology at West Virginia School of Medicine and part of his treatment team, “Anything that I could possibly do to give me a better chance at recovery, I’m all about it.”
But Mahoney and his colleagues wanted to be sure he considered his choice carefully. “I’m very impulsive,” he said, “I’ll make a decision right now without thinking it through—good or bad. Just all about doing.”
Impulsivity is a common characteristic of addiction, of course. It presents an ethical dilemma to those who study it, especially in the case of experimental treatments like brain surgery that carry serious risks.
