Feature Channels: Drugs and Drug Abuse

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Johns Hopkins Bayview center helps babies by helping moms get clean: “Most of us wouldn’t have survived what some of these mothers have been through.”

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International research led by the University of Adelaide has for the first time shown a direct link between continued marijuana use during pregnancy and pre-term birth.

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With opioid addiction and prescription drug abuse considered one of the biggest public health threats of our time in the U.S., many are asking why so many Americans are struggling with addiction to illegal drugs and prescription medications. New research suggests that chronic pain may be part of the answer.

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The over-the-counter anti-diarrhea medication Imodium®, or its key ingredient loperamide, is increasingly being abused by people attempting to self-treat their opioid addiction, with sometime fatal results. Two case studies outlining the phenomenon were published online Friday in Annals of Emergency Medicine.

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Infection is a serious complication of intravenous drug abuse and a major cause of illness and death among intravenous drug users. As the national problem of opioid abuse, including of heroin, continues to grow, new research by clinicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the VA Boston Healthcare System, published today in the May issue of the journal Health Affairs, offers new insights into the significant impact of the trend on opioid-related hospitalizations, infectious complications and health care costs.

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Chronic heavy alcohol consumption may lead to an increase in the rate of nicotine metabolism, which could be a contributing factor to poor smoking cessation rates in smokers addicted to alcohol.

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As the U.S. battles an epidemic of deaths from misused pain pills, a new study suggests an inexpensive way to cut risky use of these drugs by people with a high chance of overdosing. And it could happen exactly where many patients get those drugs in the first place: the ER of their local hospital.

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Impulsiveness, crime and problems with social interaction. Many substance abusers also struggle with antisocial personality disorders, which makes it difficult for them to complete a drug or alcohol treatment programme. New research from the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research at Aarhus BSS reveals that just six additional counselling sessions may lower the drop-out rate and increase the outcome of the treatment programme.

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AMGA today endorsed the efforts by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to ensure patients seeking treatment for substance use can benefit from the type of care coordination and integrated care delivery that AMGA members provide.

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In a general sense, medical studies support the popular intuition -- a staple of movies and literature -- that suicidal behavior and substance misuse are linked. But the relationship between the two is not so simple. A new study of hundreds of suicidal emergency department (ED) patients from around the U.S. found that the significance of the link varied with age, gender and race. Across the board, however, the use of cocaine and alcohol together was a red flag.

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In the United States, prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is the most common preventable cause of developmental delay. Animal studies have shown some of the adverse effects of PAE on placental development, but few studies have examined these effects in humans. This is the first study to examine the effects of prenatal exposure to methamphetamine, marijuana, and cigarette smoking on human placental development.

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The Addiction Medicine Foundation today announced the accreditation of four additional fellowship programs to train addiction medicine physicians. The Foundation has supported the establishment of 40 addiction medicine fellowship training programs to date, based at major medical schools and hospitals across North America.

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Developmental psychologist finds adolescents with severe alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems have a low regard for others, as indicated by higher rates of driving under the influence and having unprotected sex with a history of sexually transmitted disease.

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A clinical trial from NYU Langone Medical Center and others finds use of long-term, extended-release naltrexone leads to decreases in opioid addiction relapse. Learn more.

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The once-a-month drug naltrexone was more effective at preventing drug relapse in ex-prisoners addicted to heroin and other opioids compared to the usual treatment modalities, including counseling and community treatment programs, according to results from a multisite, randomized trial led by researchers at the Center for Studies of Addiction at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Most people know that heroin is a dangerous drug, but its cousins, the legal, pharmaceutical opioids, such as codeine or hydrocodone, must be safe, right?

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Experts take an in-depth look into a favorite college pastime by understanding the dangers and risks of alcohol.

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In a recent study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, a research team led by Dr. Dorit Ron at the University of California, San Francisco examined whether a single exposure to alcohol can induce memory and behavioral changes that could promote future drinking.

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Dr. Palamar and his team of researchers are the first to examine whether ecstasy users are unknowingly or unintentionally using "bath salts" and/or other novel psychoactive drugs.

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Psychedelic drugs such as LSD hold promise for palliative care for an aging population, said University of Saskatchewan medical historian Erika Dyck.

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With use of synthetic opioid “designer drugs” rising, scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have a new strategy to curb addiction and even prevent fatal overdoses, reporting successful preclinical tests of a vaccine that prevents the synthetic opioid fentanyl from reaching the brain.

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Native Americans are more likely to abstain from alcohol than whites are, and heavy drinking and binge drinking rates are about the same for both groups, according to a UA study.

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Proposals to restrict access to ketamine by making it a "Schedule I" drug would have a major impact on the availability of anesthesia and surgery in low- to middle-income countries (LMICs)—where ketamine is often the only general anesthetic drug available, according to a series of commentaries in Anesthesia & Analgesia.

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A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine looks at the relationship between lifetime marijuana use and cognitive function in middle-aged adults.

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When it comes to prescription painkillers, the difference between controlling pain and dying from an overdose may come down to how strong a prescription the doctor wrote, according to a new study in veterans. And the threshold for safe prescribing may be lower than most people think – or than most guidelines recommend.

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New Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests there may actually be less serious crime near outpatient drug treatment clinics than other community businesses.

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A Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health analysis of registered medical marijuana users found that a hodgepodge of law and policy changes since 2001 had varying effects on the number of people consuming what in many states remains an otherwise illegal drug for its purported health benefits.

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Working with mice, researchers have contributed significant new evidence to support the idea that high doses of cocaine kill brain cells by triggering overactive autophagy, a process in which cells literally digest their own insides. Their results, moreover, bring with them a possible antidote.

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Individuals addicted to cocaine may have difficulty in controlling their addiction because of a previously-unknown 'back door' into the brain, circumventing their self-control, suggests a new study led by the University of Cambridge.

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Researchers have developed a speedy, controllable way to get two or more ingredients into the same tiny capsule and only have them mix when triggered by a signal like vibrations or heat