Pinsky is a board-certified internist who became interested in addiction while running the medical department at a psychiatric hospital. “In general medicine, people often go from dying to chronically ill,” says Pinsky. “With addiction, there were young people going from dying to better than they ever thought they could be. It was an interesting thing to be a part of.”
His speech will focus on the biology of addiction, the disruption of the motivational systems in the brain and the relationship of addiction and trauma. “It’s all a brain disease,” he notes. “You’re dealing with people whose brains have a broken motivational system. As such, things like thinking and judgment become not just impaired, but actually service the addict’s distorted motivations.”
The event is sponsored by Arapahoe House, a non-profit substance-abuse treatment facility; it will be held in the Seawell Ballroom in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Tickets are $50 for students and $75 for adults; for more information, go to www.ArapahoeHouse.org or call 303-412-3643.
Fri., Sept. 24, 11:30 a.m.-1:15 p.m., 2010
