The Dr Suzette Glasner Podcast

Dr. Suzette Glasner
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Medicine
  • Updated Weekly

Dr. Glasner is a clinical psychologist, addiction scientist, award-winning author, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA in the David Geffen School of Medicine. The Dr. Suzette Glasner podcast discusses the latest advances in addiction science, trends in alcohol and other substance use, misuse, and addiction across the lifespan, and how to use the science underlying addictive behaviors and the effects of substance use on the brain to shape our health behaviors and every day lives. drglasner.substack.com

  1. Ep. 57: Mental Illness Is Now The World's Leading Cause of Disability

    Jun 5

    Ep. 57: Mental Illness Is Now The World's Leading Cause of Disability

    In this episode, Dr. Suzette Glasner examines a striking new finding from one of the largest health studies ever conducted: for the first time in recorded history, mental illness has become the leading cause of disability worldwide. Drawing on a major analysis published in The Lancet that tracked mental disorders across 204 countries from 1990 to 2023, Dr. Glasner explains what researchers found, why anxiety and depression are driving much of the increase, and what this shift tells us about the state of global mental health today. You can watch or listen to the full episode of The Dr. Suzette Glasner Podcast here: The study found that approximately 1.17 billion people—roughly one in seven people worldwide—were living with a diagnosable mental disorder in 2023. Mental illness has now surpassed low back pain and other physical health conditions as the leading cause of years lived with disability, marking a profound change in the global burden of disease. Dr. Glasner explores why adolescents, particularly those between the ages of 15 and 19, are experiencing the sharpest increases in anxiety and depression. She reviews the evidence surrounding smartphones and social media, sleep deprivation, the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the complex relationship between mental health and substance use. She also discusses psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s widely debated book The Anxious Generation and what current research supports—and does not yet support—about the role of technology in the youth mental health crisis. Most importantly, Dr. Glasner highlights five evidence-based strategies that can help reduce the risk of anxiety and depression in young people, including improving sleep, increasing physical activity, strengthening in-person social connections, delaying substance use, and recognizing early warning signs before problems become more severe. If you’re a parent, educator, healthcare professional, or simply someone trying to better understand the growing mental health challenges facing young people today, this episode provides a clear, science-based overview of one of the most important public health findings of the decade. Thank you for being here and being part of this community. ⸻ Have a question about today’s episode? Or a question you’d like me to cover in a future episode? Email: askdrglasner@gmail.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit drglasner.substack.com

    16 min
  2. The Opioid Defense: What Alex Murdaugh's Case Reveals About Addiction and Accountability

    May 29

    The Opioid Defense: What Alex Murdaugh's Case Reveals About Addiction and Accountability

    The South Carolina Supreme Court just ordered a retrial in the Alex Murdaugh case — and the opioid defense his attorneys raised is about to get a second look. To be precise: the defense never claimed opioids made Murdaugh kill his wife and son. They claimed opioids made him lie to police in the aftermath. That’s a narrower argument, but from an addiction science standpoint, it’s actually the more interesting one — and the one that tends to get flattened in media coverage. Can a decade-long opioid addiction impair the way someone processes and responds to acute stress? Can it distort judgment, emotional regulation, and self-protective behavior in the hours after trauma — even without intoxication in that moment? These are real clinical questions, and the answers are more complicated than either side in that courtroom wants them to be. In this episode, I walk through Murdaugh’s psychological profile from an addiction and forensic psychology lens: his self-reported opioid use, what we know about how chronic opioid dependence affects the brain’s decision-making and stress response systems, and what the science can and cannot support when it comes to culpability claims like this one. This is the kind of case that forces a harder question: as our understanding of addiction deepens, how do we think about responsibility — and what do we owe to that complexity inside a courtroom? Episode 56 is out now. Watch the full episode here: 👋 ABOUT DR. SUZETTE GLASNER Dr. Suzette Glasner is an addiction scientist and clinical psychologist. The Dr. Suzette Glasner Podcast brings evidence-based conversations on addiction, recovery, and mental health to people who want the science alongside the story.📩 Questions or topic suggestions: AskDrGlasner@gmail.com 🔔 Subscribe for evidence-based mental health and addiction content. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit drglasner.substack.com

    19 min
  3. Hayden Panettiere: Postpartum Addiction

    May 23

    Hayden Panettiere: Postpartum Addiction

    Hayden Panettiere’s memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, is out now. Inside, she describes a postpartum crisis that millions of mothers experience — but almost no one talks about how it’s connected to addiction. In this episode, addiction scientist and clinical psychologist Dr. Suzette Glasner unpacks what postpartum depression actually is, why it co-occurs with alcohol and substance use so often (and at such high rates), who is most at risk, and what we now know works to prevent and treat both. Featuring clips from Hayden Panettiere on Good Morning America and On Purpose with Jay Shetty — plus context from Brooke Shields, Drew Barrymore, Adele, and Serena Williams. You can watch the full episode here: 🎯 WHAT YOU’LL LEARN * What postpartum depression (PPD) actually is (and what it isn’t) * Why women with substance use during pregnancy have nearly 2x the PPD rate of the general population * Why women with PPD have 3–4x higher binge drinking rates * How birth trauma multiplies postpartum mental health risk * The science behind brexanolone, zuranolone, and integrated treatment for co-occurring PPD + SUD 🆘 IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE IS STRUGGLING * Postpartum Support International: 1-800-944-4773 (call or text), 24/7 * 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (call or text) * SAMHSA National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357), free and confidential 👋 ABOUT DR. SUZETTE GLASNER Dr. Suzette Glasner is an addiction scientist and clinical psychologist. The Dr. Suzette Glasner Podcast brings evidence-based conversations on addiction, recovery, and mental health to people who want the science alongside the story. 📩 Questions or topic suggestions: AskDrGlasner@gmail.com 🔔 Subscribe for evidence-based mental health and addiction content. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit drglasner.substack.com

    19 min
  4. Ep. 54: BuzzBallz: A High-Risk Gen-Z Drinking Trend

    May 16

    Ep. 54: BuzzBallz: A High-Risk Gen-Z Drinking Trend

    A 13-year-old in Sheffield asked her mother to add BuzzBallz to a New Year’s Eve shopping list last December. The mother — who runs a sobriety group for women — had never heard of them. Her daughter said, “All my friends are drinking them.” Today, BuzzBallz are a $500 million brand. The colorful, 15% ABV cocktails in plastic balls are the second-fastest-growing prepared cocktail brand in America, stocked in convenience stores, gas stations, and supermarkets nationwide. They are sweet, single-serve, cheap (under $5), and increasingly in the hands of underage drinkers. In this episode, clinical psychologist and addiction scientist Dr. Suzette Glasner explains why the design of these drinks is creating the perfect conditions for a particularly dangerous drinking practice that addiction researchers call high-intensity drinking — and what that means clinically for the teenagers and young adults consuming them. Watch the full episode here: Dr. Glasner walks through the standard-drink math first. A single 200 mL BuzzBall at 15% ABV contains roughly 1.7 standard drinks — nearly two drinks of alcohol in a single ball that looks like a piece of candy. The supersize line goes further: the “Biggies” deliver the alcohol equivalent of about 17 standard cans of beer in a single two-liter container, and the recently released “Boulders” approach 25 standard drinks in a single three-liter package. The TikTok chug challenge currently trending — where influencers drink three BuzzBallz in succession — delivers over five standard drinks rapidly, already at or above the binge drinking threshold for both women and men. She then introduces what addiction researchers call high-intensity drinking — consumption at two or more times the binge drinking threshold (8+ drinks for women, 10+ drinks for men in a single sitting).The episode then unpacks the clinical research on rapid drinking specifically. Dr. Glasner explains why drinking the same amount of alcohol quickly produces dramatically worse cognitive and motor impairment than drinking it slowly — and why this directly translates to elevated risk for impaired driving, injury, and alcohol use disorder progression. The format of BuzzBallz — colorful, sweet, easy to chug, and impossible to count accurately — actively defeats the harm-reduction strategies that work for traditional drinking. The episode closes with practical guidance: how parents can have an evidence-based conversation with a teenager about BuzzBallz, the warning signs that someone you love may be developing alcohol use disorder, and the evidence-based treatments available for adolescents and young adults. — 📋 Resources mentioned in this episode: 🔗 NIAAA’s Rethinking Drinking — standard drink sizes, low-risk drinking guidelines, and free tools to track your drinking: https://rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov 🔗 NIAAA Treatment Navigator — find evidence-based alcohol treatment near you: https://alcoholtreatment.niaaa.nih.gov 🔗 Dr. Glasner’s Addiction Recovery Skills Workbook — exercises for identifying triggers and pleasurable replacement activities, available on Amazon — If you or someone you love is in crisis: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988, or visit https://988lifeline.org SAMHSA National Helpline 1-800-662-HELP — 24/7, English and Spanish — The Dr. Suzette Glasner Podcast brings clinical and addiction science to the mental health stories everyone is already discussing. 📩 Questions or topic suggestions: AskDrGlasner@gmail.com 🧩 More: https://drglasner.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit drglasner.substack.com

    13 min
  5. Ep. 53: Beating Phone Addiction

    May 10

    Ep. 53: Beating Phone Addiction

    For most of the past decade, the conversation about phone and social media addiction has been stuck at a single question: is this real? In March, a California jury answered it. They found Meta and Google liable for designing addictive social media platforms that harmed a young user — the first time at this scale that the companies were ruled responsible for the addictive design choices baked into their products. In this episode, clinical psychologist and addiction scientist Dr. Suzette Glasner takes the question the verdicts have now opened — what do we actually do about it? — and answers it from inside the science and practice of addiction treatment. You can watch the full episode here: Phone addiction, Dr. Glasner argues, is clinically a behavioral addiction with striking similarities to drug and alcohol addiction. It is driven by the same variable reinforcement schedule that makes slot machines and methamphetamine so neurologically compelling, and the same therapeutic principles that work for substance use disorders apply directly to compulsive scrolling. She walks through evidence-based principles, drawn from the same framework she uses with patients in her private practice. Stimulus control — the family media plan, and why the bedroom and the dining room are the two highest-yield environments for restriction. Why content matters more than minutes — the role of intermittent variable reinforcement. The replacement principle — why removing the phone without replacing the reward fails, and how to match replacement activities to the specific function the phone was serving. And when self-management isn’t enough — what evidence-based treatment for behavioral addiction actually looks like, and how to recognize when phone overuse is masking depression, anxiety, ADHD, autism, body dysmorphic disorder, or trauma. She also reacts to recent public statements from Lara Trump on her household’s no-screens policy, Bill Gates on his decision not to give his own children phones until age 14, and Jonathan Haidt’s recommendations to keep screens out of bedrooms — translating each of these positions into actionable steps. — Tools mentioned in the episode: Brick (https://getbrick.com) — physical app blocker. Freedom — phone internet blocking app. Bloom — screen time tool. Further reading: Brian X. Chen, Phone Addiction Remedies, New York Times Personal Tech, April 30, 2026. Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation. Dr. Glasner’s Addiction Recovery Skills Workbook — available on Amazon. — The Dr. Suzette Glasner Podcast brings clinical and addiction science to the mental health stories everyone is already discussing. 📩 Questions or topic suggestions: AskDrGlasner@gmail.com 🧩 More: https://drglasner.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit drglasner.substack.com

    17 min
  6. Ep. 52: The Body Dysmorphia and Addiction Risk Behind Looksmaxxing

    May 3

    Ep. 52: The Body Dysmorphia and Addiction Risk Behind Looksmaxxing

    Most of the coverage of the looksmaxxing trend has framed it as a viral aesthetic phenomenon. From the perspective of clinical psychologist and addiction scientist Dr. Suzette Glasner, it looks like something else: the convergence of two clinical pictures — body dysmorphic disorder and stimulant use disorder — repackaged in the language of self-optimization and delivered to adolescent boys at scale. In this episode, Dr. Glasner discusses what the trend actually is, clinically, tracing its core practices to the diagnostic criteria for BDD — a recognized mental health condition with an elevated suicide rate, typically beginning between ages 12 and 13, and just as common in men as in women. She summarizes what published research now shows about social media and BDD, including recent work on adolescents’ use of filters and self-image. And from an addiction perspective: how the looksmaxxing community’s normalization of anabolic steroids, SARMs, peptides, and amphetamines is creating a permission structure for stimulant use in early adolescence - and the overdose risk that comes with it. The Clavicular case is the entry point. The 20-year-old “looksmaxxing” influencer collapsed during a livestream in Miami this month in a suspected overdose, and afterward told followers that “all of the substances are just a cope trying to feel neurotypical while being in public.” That statement has important implications self-medication framing layered on top of a community-validated drug culture, in a young man whose audience includes thirteen-year-olds. You can watch the full episode here: Dr. Glasner closes with a summary of science-based treatments for BDD and stimulant addiction — and with internist Dr. Lucy McBride’s recent framework for evaluating health information from influencers, applied to the specific case of a 20-year-old livestreamer recommending hormones, stimulants, and off-label growth hormone to minors. If you or someone you love is in crisis: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988, or visit https://988lifeline.org SAMHSA National Helpline (1-800-662-HELP) — 24/7, English and Spanish. Further reading: Loannou et al. (2024), #NoFilter: The impact of social media body dysmorphic disorder in adults, Mental Health Science. McBride, L. (2026), Yes, Credentials Do Matter, Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper. — The Dr. Suzette Glasner Podcast brings clinical and addiction science to the mental health stories everyone is already talking about. 📩 Questions or topic suggestions: AskDrGlasner@gmail.com 🧩 More: https://drglasner.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit drglasner.substack.com

    20 min
  7. Ep. 51: Joe Rogan on Ibogaine: What the Science Actually Says | The Dr. Suzette Glasner Podcast

    Apr 26

    Ep. 51: Joe Rogan on Ibogaine: What the Science Actually Says | The Dr. Suzette Glasner Podcast

    When Joe Rogan recently called Ibogaine a near-miraculous cure for opioid addiction — and the White House announced it would accelerate federal research into psychedelic medicines including Ibogaine — a powerful narrative took hold: one dose, addiction gone. The viral statistic? An 80% cure rate. But what does the research actually say? In this episode, addiction scientist and clinical psychologist Dr. Suzette Glasner traces that 80% number back to its potential sources in the published research literature — and walks through what the studies to date have actually shown. Dr. Glasner explains the data through the lens of conservative methodology for interpreting treatment success rates, which suggests that the outcomes are closer to 50% abstinent at one month and 30% at one year. That’s still a meaningful signal worth investing in. It’s just not a miracle cure. Watch the full episode here: Dr. Glasner also unpacks what Ibogaine is and why it’s drawn the attention of addiction researchers — particularly its action in the brain’s reward circuit. She gets into the cardiac risks and how they can be reduced before and during treatment (e.g., cardiac screening, EKG monitoring during the session, and co-administered magnesium). 🧠 Key Takeaways The bottom line: the scientific signal is real, and accelerated federal investment in rigorous trials is genuinely needed. But the gap between what the evidence shows and what people are hearing in viral podcast clips is where people can get hurt. And while we wait for clinical trials to be completed, FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorder already exist, save lives, and are available right now. 🔍 Episode Breakdown 00:00 Joe Rogan and the ibogaine "miracle" story00:47 The "80% cured, 90%+ on the second dose" claim01:22 Trump's executive order accelerating psychedelic research01:59 Why this addiction scientist is excited — and concerned04:14 Three questions this episode answers04:35 What ibogaine is06:18 How ibogaine works in the brain: GDNF and the reward circuit08:18 What the clinical evidence actually shows10:26 Breaking down the 80% figure13:50 The 2024 Stanford TBI study and the gap in the evidence15:40 The safety conversation that isn't happening: hERG and QT17:56 Documented deaths and why cardiac monitoring matters19:11 Dr. Glasner’s final take and practical guidance Listen to Episode 51 for an evidence-based look at what Ibogaine can — and can’t — do, and why the gap between the science and the headlines matters. 📩 Questions or topic suggestions? Email AskDrGlasner@gmail.com 🔗 Subscribe for evidence-based discussions on addiction, recovery, and mental health : www.YouTube.com/@drglasner This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit drglasner.substack.com

    22 min
  8. Ep. 50: Can GLP-1s Reduce Cravings? Rethinking Addiction and the Brain

    Apr 20

    Ep. 50: Can GLP-1s Reduce Cravings? Rethinking Addiction and the Brain

    In this episode, Dr. Suzette Glasner explores a rapidly emerging question: could medications like Ozempic and Wegovy do more than support weight loss—and actually reduce cravings for alcohol and other substances? The conversation is sparked by Oprah Winfrey’s recent reflection that after starting a GLP-1 medication, she lost her desire to drink alcohol—without trying. Drawing on the latest research, Dr. Glasner breaks down how GLP-1 medications work in the brain, particularly their effects on dopamine and the brain’s reward system, and why this may lead to reduced cravings not just for food, but for alcohol, nicotine, and other substances. You can watch the full episode on The Dr. Suzette Glasner Podcast here: She also reviews findings from large-scale studies involving tens of thousands of individuals, showing significantly lower rates of alcohol use disorder and relapse among people taking medications like semaglutide, along with emerging evidence across other substances. Beyond the science, this episode explores a deeper shift in how we understand addiction—from a model centered on willpower and choice to one rooted in brain biology. As widely used medications begin to impact craving itself, they may not only change treatment approaches, but also reduce the stigma that prevents many people from seeking help. Finally, Dr. Glasner discusses who might benefit from these medications, important limitations of the current research, and why GLP-1s should be viewed as a potential tool—not a cure—within a broader, evidence-based approach to addiction care. If you or someone you care about is struggling with alcohol or substance use, this episode offers a clear, grounded, and clinically informed perspective on where this field is headed. ⸻ Have a question about today’s episode? Or a topic you’d like me to cover in a future episode? Email: askdrglasner@gmail.com ⸻ #GLP1 #Ozempic #Wegovy #Addiction #AddictionRecovery #AlcoholUseDisorder #MentalHealth #BrainHealth #Dopamine #Cravings #SubstanceUse #ObesityMedicine #HealthPodcast #Psychiatry #Wellness This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit drglasner.substack.com

    11 min
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5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Dr. Glasner is a clinical psychologist, addiction scientist, award-winning author, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA in the David Geffen School of Medicine. The Dr. Suzette Glasner podcast discusses the latest advances in addiction science, trends in alcohol and other substance use, misuse, and addiction across the lifespan, and how to use the science underlying addictive behaviors and the effects of substance use on the brain to shape our health behaviors and every day lives. drglasner.substack.com

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