Summary: How are fetal alcohol spectrum disorders diagnosed? What are the primary and secondary disabilities associated with FASD? And-most important of all-what is the human cost? This program addresses these questions through the firsthand experiences of Ann Streissguth, director of the University of Washington's Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit; Kathy Mitchell, vice president of NOFAS; Erica Lara, who...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Set in the Canadian addiction treatment center of Edgewood, this program explores the private world of substance abuse rehabilitation through the eyes of six addicts and their families. Despite varied backgrounds, the goal of these patients is to turn their backs on substance dependence by facing their addiction and to arrive clean and sober to Cake Night, the monthly celebration of recovery....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, three well-meaning friends take their buddy Bryant "HairKutt" Johnson to a remote cabin for a week of improvised detox in the hope of helping him break his 15-year addiction to heroin. But when withdrawal turns to internal bleeding and life-threatening dehydration, they have to rush him to a hospital, where life and death hang in the balance. HairKutt survives, but becomes...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Sadly, tobacco use among young people is on the increase. This program, targeted at middle and high school students in both urban and rural areas, tries to persuade viewers not to smoke or chew tobacco, and coaches them on how to quit if they already do. The focus is on the toll which nicotine takes on the body. Graphic examples of people with emphysema, chronic bronchitis, cancer of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Psychiatric diagnosis can be classified into several main categories. This program, filmed in the U.K., focuses on alcoholism and the five main areas involving psychoactive substance abuse: dependence syndrome, withdrawal state, withdrawal state with delirium, psychotic disorder, and amnestic syndrome. Interviews with several alcoholics illustrate the various mental disorders associated with...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This video presents a summary of this class of drugs and then details its constituent parts: solvents and aerosols, nitrites, and nitrous oxide. A doctor of pharmacology, an addiction specialist, police officers, a historian, recovering addicts, and others delve into the history and biological effects of these drugs. Together, they share case studies and personal experiences to address the use,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: After the high-profile tobacco lawsuits of a decade ago, many believe America's smoking problem has been addressed. But as Peter Jennings reveals in From the Tobacco File, policy makers and public health leaders have failed to capitalize on legal triumphs. In rare interviews with key players in the tobacco wars, Jennings explores what occurred behind the scenes in the industry during the 1990s,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Like an avenue filled with neon signs, the brain's so-called pleasure pathway can light up or go dark, depending on what sort of stimulation it receives. This program explores the workings of the human nerve center under the influence of cocaine, amphetamines, and other stimulants, and shows how our understanding of brain disorders and drug addiction has increased by studying these drugs....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Whether it's caffeine, nicotine, or morphine, drugs of choice have defined our lives and history, with sometimes benevolent, sometimes tragic results. This program focuses on the history of America's drug use and abuse, from the days when the early European settlers became enamored of tobacco, through Prohibition, and up to today. The problems we see today existed in other forms and with other...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Part dramatization, part documentary, this engrossing study of crack cocaine makes a powerful statement on the drug's highly addictive nature. The docudrama profiles "Daniel Preston," an upwardly mobile user of recreational drugs who gets high on crack as part of an experiment and finds he cannot shake his craving for it. Interspersed throughout this program, a drug counselor, a psychiatrist,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: David Vandenbrink seems like a normal, bright, articulate 21-year-old man. There is little to suggest, on the surface, that while in his mother's womb he suffered permanent brain damage. David suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome or FAS, a condition that went undiagnosed for the first eighteen years of his life, causing confusion, anger, and pain for him and his adoptive family. The damage from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Aided by powerful new diagnostic tools, scientists are making dramatic discoveries about how addiction affects the brain. In this program, Moyers goes into the laboratory to follow researchers engaged in charting an "image of desire" in the brain. We actually see images of a cocaine user's brain as the drug takes effect, and a doctor explains how these scans reveal addiction as a chronic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Cheap, accessible, powerful, and tragically misunderstood is a description that neatly sums up the class of drugs known as inhalants. This program offers the straight dope on how the vapors of easily obtained substances such as hair spray, paint thinner, and gasoline are abused, including the mechanics of metabolization and the debilitating short- and long-term side effects. The program is an...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The vast majority of drug addicts are not criminals; tobacco and alcohol, both perfectly legal in most societies, are used and abused in staggering abundance. This program details the ways smoking and drinking chemically take hold of the brain. Explaining the many reasons-besides nicotine-for tobacco's stealthy effects, the program describes the existence of thousands of other addictive...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: For decades, heavy marijuana use has been linked to impaired judgment and mental ability. This program explores new research into another link-this time between marijuana and mental illnesses, specifically schizophrenia and paranoid psychosis. Citing a wealth of clinical evidence and observations by neurologists, psychiatrists, and psychologists, the program delves into the frightening effects...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The story of how our society meets the challenge of translating what scientists, doctors, counselors, and recovering addicts have learned into rational public policy is complex and sometimes contradictory. This program looks at Arizona's struggle to find an alternative to established drug-related policies. Proposition 200 proposed a reassessment of the status of nonviolent drug addicts now...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this video, a pharmacist, an addiction counselor, a police officer, a historian, a pastor, and recovering users provide background on psychedelics and hallucinogens as a class of drugs, and study the history and biological effects of mescaline, psilocybin, LSD, and the designer drug MDMA. Utilizing case studies and personal experience, they explore the uses, abuses, and hazards of these...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Beginning with an overview of stimulants as a class of drugs, this video examines caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, methamphetamines, and cocaine-in both powder and crack form. A doctor of pharmacology, police officers, an addiction specialist, a historian, recovering addicts, and others profile the history and biological effects of stimulants, employing case studies and personal experience to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This video examines THC and the cannabinoids marijuana, hashish, and hash oil. Expert commentary is presented by former NFL player Charles Hunt, a pharmacist, a police officer, addiction counselors, a historian, a pastor, recovering addicts, and others. Together, they explain the history and biological effects of THC, investigating its use, abuse, and hazards, and its reputation as a gateway drug.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: There are over 23 million Americans addicted to alcohol or other drugs, with devastating consequences not only for the addicts and their families, but also for the nation as a whole. This program explains current research into why people become addicted, what puts them at risk, and what the best treatments may be. The program profiles an individual who was an alcoholic and has gone through the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This documentary takes viewers on a tour of the world's most prolific manufacturer and user of drugs-the human brain. The biochemistry of the brain is responsible for joggers' highs, for the compulsion of some people to seek thrills, for certain kinds of obsessive-compulsive behavior, even for the drive to achieve power and dominance. The program explores developments in the biochemistry of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Does addiction have a genetic factor? Can any type of addiction be treated medically? What steps can family members take to help a loved one struggling with addiction? This program provides answers to several addiction-related questions, focusing on the complexities of the addictive personality. Viewers will benefit from a case study featuring a patient with a serious gambling addiction, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Many experts consider methamphetamine, also called crank or crystal meth, a greater drug problem than cocaine and heroin combined. Meth leaves tragedy after tragedy in its wake-addiction, crime, burn victims, neglected children, and toxic materials. This program measures meth's shocking impact on one Tennessee town. It examines the phenomenon of ever-widening abuse of the drug, the legislation...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Hallucinogenic plants may be the oldest drugs in the world, and were probably used in rituals during prehistoric times. In the 20th century, LSD and ecstasy became the hallucinogens of choice. This program recounts how science has gradually become aware of the properties of hallucinogens, both natural and synthetic. It also provides a detailed look at the effects of such substances on the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006