full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Mark Tyndall: The harm reduction model of drug addiction treatment

Unscramble the Blue Letters

In fact, our entire medical approach to drug use is upside down. For some reason, we have decdied that abstinence is the best way to treat this. If you're lucky enough, you may get into a detox program. If you live in a community with Suboxone or methadone, you may get on a substitution program. Hardly ever would we offer people what they desperately need to survive: a safe pioserrpctin for opioids. Starting with abstinence is like asking a new diabetic to quit sugar or a severe amsatithc to start running maatnorhs or a depressed person to just be happy. For any other medical ctoidonin, we would never start with the most extreme option. What makes us think that sargttey would work for something as comlepx as addiction?

Open Cloze

In fact, our entire medical approach to drug use is upside down. For some reason, we have _______ that abstinence is the best way to treat this. If you're lucky enough, you may get into a detox program. If you live in a community with Suboxone or methadone, you may get on a substitution program. Hardly ever would we offer people what they desperately need to survive: a safe ____________ for opioids. Starting with abstinence is like asking a new diabetic to quit sugar or a severe _________ to start running _________ or a depressed person to just be happy. For any other medical _________, we would never start with the most extreme option. What makes us think that ________ would work for something as _______ as addiction?

Solution

  1. asthmatic
  2. strategy
  3. prescription
  4. complex
  5. condition
  6. marathons
  7. decided

Original Text

In fact, our entire medical approach to drug use is upside down. For some reason, we have decided that abstinence is the best way to treat this. If you're lucky enough, you may get into a detox program. If you live in a community with Suboxone or methadone, you may get on a substitution program. Hardly ever would we offer people what they desperately need to survive: a safe prescription for opioids. Starting with abstinence is like asking a new diabetic to quit sugar or a severe asthmatic to start running marathons or a depressed person to just be happy. For any other medical condition, we would never start with the most extreme option. What makes us think that strategy would work for something as complex as addiction?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
harm reduction 13
supervised injection 8
drug users 8
injecting drugs 3
injection site 3
injection sites 3
drug overdose 3
research project 2
public health 2
clean needle 2
scientific evidence 2
stop people 2
illegal drugs 2
reduction programs 2
law enforcement 2
overdose deaths 2
north america 2
prescription drugs 2
overdose epidemic 2
illegal drug 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
supervised injection site 3
supervised injection sites 3
harm reduction programs 2

Important Words

  1. abstinence
  2. addiction
  3. approach
  4. asthmatic
  5. community
  6. complex
  7. condition
  8. decided
  9. depressed
  10. desperately
  11. detox
  12. diabetic
  13. drug
  14. entire
  15. extreme
  16. fact
  17. happy
  18. live
  19. lucky
  20. marathons
  21. medical
  22. methadone
  23. offer
  24. opioids
  25. option
  26. people
  27. person
  28. prescription
  29. program
  30. quit
  31. reason
  32. running
  33. safe
  34. severe
  35. start
  36. starting
  37. strategy
  38. suboxone
  39. substitution
  40. sugar
  41. treat
  42. upside
  43. work