Polysubstance Use Defines Overdose/Substance Disorders Now
Psychology Today | 12.05.2026 02:51
Addiction medicine is in the midst of a conceptual tectonic shift. Recent work by Director Nora Volkow and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) colleagues is crystallizing the direction of the change. What clinicians have historically labeled as separate conditions—alcohol use disorder, opioid use disorder, cocaine use disorder—is now better understood as different expressions of one common vulnerability.
