Podcast XTRA: Q&A with Dr Steven Klein

Podcast XTRA: Q&A with Dr Steven Klein

How do people cope with the challenges of staying sober while new treatments and tech race ahead? This Q&A with Dr Steven Klein gives parents a front-row seat to some fast-changing ideas in addiction care. Answering questions from mums and dads in the My Child & Addiction community, Dr Klein talks about GLP-1 medications – originally used for obesity and type 2 diabetes – and how they’re now being studied for addiction. He explains that retrospective data from 600,000 U.S.

veterans showed diagnoses of alcohol, cocaine, opioid and nicotine use disorders dropping by about 20% in those on GLP-1 meds, and all-cause mortality falling by 50% in people who already had substance use disorders. Prospective studies suggest alcohol consumption can be reduced by roughly 40%. You’ll hear him suggest a different way of looking at obesity, viewing it as potentially an addiction to food, driven by compulsive eating and reward-seeking behaviour.

The same brain circuits that push people toward substances can push them toward food, and GLP-1 medications may help calm those reward centres down. He even calls these medicines "the next wave of addiction treatment." Dr Klein also breaks down how artificial intelligence is being used as a practical tool rather than a replacement for clinicians.

At Caron Treatment Centers, ambient listening technology records sessions and writes clinical notes in the background, so the doctor can focus fully on tough conversations about shame, trauma, abuse and lived experience without a computer screen getting in the way. The goal is more genuine human connection and less time spent typing.

For parents trying to understand what’s coming in addiction treatment – and how it might affect their children – this session offers a mix of hard data, clear explanations and a glimpse of the future. How might these emerging tools change the way you think about help and hope for your family?