Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation May Help People Manage Their Drive for Gambling, Sex, Alcohol or Overeating
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health SciencesUCLA study looks at theta burst stimulation as intervention in problem behaviors
UCLA study looks at theta burst stimulation as intervention in problem behaviors
In the largest study of its kind, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers and colleagues in Europe identified a gene variant that suppresses the desire to drink alcohol.
Stefan Kertesz, M.D., says a better understanding of what caused and what sustains the opioid epidemic is needed among policymakers and physicians to best serve patients and address the crisis.
A Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher has found that addiction treatment results improved when teens in a residential program stopped smoking.
Researchers from around the country who are studying alcohol’s negative effects on the body discussed their latest findings during a meeting at Loyola University Chicago’s Health Sciences campus.
Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs, Director of the Friedman Brain Institute (FBI) and Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, began his term as President of the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) at the 2016 annual meeting last evening.
Research from the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions suggests the approach to preventing alcohol and drug use by some adolescents should begin in early childhood.
Repeated binge drinking during adolescence can affect brain functions in future generations, potentially putting offspring at risk for such conditions as depression, anxiety, and metabolic disorders, a Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study has found.
Siblings bear responsibility for the spread of problem behaviors. Identifying the exact nature of that influence has proven difficult, because behavior problems in siblings can also be traced to friends, shared genetics and shared experiences with parents. Evidence describing how problem behaviors spread between siblings has been scarce – until now, thanks to a first-of-its-kind longitudinal study on identical and fraternal twins.
The Quit & Stay Quit Monday goal is to use this year’s Great American Smokeout as the kickoff to kick the habit. In the weeks that follow, QSQM stands ready to provide proven tobacco cessation tips and tools to help quitters stay smoke free through the holidays and into the New Year. These resources are available for free at: www.quitmonday.org.
Researchers at the Texas A&M College of Medicine, the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the Omni-Net Birth Defects Prevention Program in Ukraine have identified a blood test that may help predict how severely a baby will be affected by alcohol exposure during pregnancy.
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Texas A&M College of Medicine and the Omni-Net Birth Defects Prevention Program in Ukraine have identified a blood test that may help predict how severely a baby will be affected by alcohol exposure during pregnancy.
Researchers at the University of Washington tested a telephone-based intervention for military members struggling with alcohol abuse, with promising results. Participants significantly reduced their drinking over time, had lower rates of alcohol dependence and were more likely to seek treatment.
Researchers found that rodents that had been exposed to stress had a weakened alcohol-induced dopamine response and voluntarily drank more alcohol compared to controls. The blunted dopamine signaling to ethanol arose due to changes in the circuitry in the ventral tegmental area, the heart of the brain's reward system.
Scientists who use postmortem brain tissue to study alcohol’s effects on brain structure and function will find this research interesting. Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) is an alcohol metabolite and its concentration in whole blood samples is a biomarker of drinking habits. For this study, scientists examined PEth levels in postmortem brains of individuals known to have had alcohol use disorders (AUDs).
A paper published today in Science shows that smoking tobacco causes added mutations in the DNA of lung cells and in the DNA of other cells in the body. This is the first study to show the process by which smoking causes these cancers.
A broad computational study of cancer genome sequences identifies telltale mutational signatures associated with smoking tobacco and demonstrates, for the first time, that smoking increases cancer risk by causing somatic mutations in tissues directly and indirectly exposed to tobacco smoke.
Overdose of prescription pain killers may seem like a grown-up problem, but children are increasingly being hospitalized for opioid poisoning.
Mothers in therapy for drug and alcohol use recover faster if their children take part in their treatment sessions, according to a first-of-its-kind study.
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a new personalized assessment tool that could better predict lung cancer risk in never, light and heavy smokers using a large Taiwanese prospective cohort study.
Children who are sexually abused are nearly five times more likely to inject drugs in adulthood as those who are not — while children who witness violence are about three times more likely — according to new research released today at the American Public Health Association’s 2016 Annual Meeting and Expo in Denver.
The latest research and features in the fields of psychology and psychiatry.
State actions to regulate retail sales of tobacco nearly doubled between 2012 and 2014, according to new research from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, but much of that activity involved e-cigarettes, perhaps the least harmful tobacco product.Researchers surveyed tobacco-control officials from 48 states in 2012 and again in 2014 to determine the extent of their policy activity at the retail level.
Yes, you spend a lot of time on social media. You might even check your phone every few minutes to see how many people have liked your latest Facebook post. But are you addicted? And even if you are, what’s the big deal?
In a remarkable “two for one” discovery, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have illuminated a key molecular player in the addictive effects of morphine in animal models.
Smoking as a social habit is increasingly on the nose for many in modern society, but the reverse is true when it comes to portraying strong female characters in French and Chinese cinema, according to researchers from the University of Adelaide.
This is the first quantitative study of business manager encounters with drug use which suggests overdose recognition and naloxone training, combined with the operation of supervised injection facilities, could save lives.
With 40 percent of opioid medications in Michigan prescribed by surgeons, a team from the University of Michigan has launched an effort to encourage safer prescribing across the state, and a map of drug takeback locations.
Have you heard of the CNN effect? There is also a “fake ID effect:” This is when a fake piece of identification facilitates later harms. Researchers already know that underage college students who obtain and use false identification are at risk for negative outcomes. This study investigated the strength of the fake ID effect to determine whether having a fake ID is a signal of being at risk or it actually increases the likelihood that a student will suffer alcohol-related problems.
Researchers conducted a cross-sectional chart review of 1,085 patients older than 18 who presented to the KATH emergency department within eight hours of an injury and found 382 subjects, or 35 percent, tested positive for any level of alcohol in their systems.
Research from the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions has found the abuse of prescription drugs by college students can play a role in negative sexual events such as sexual assault and regretted sex.
In an effort to put the brakes on sobering statistics related to teenagers driving under the influence, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine will join forces with the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) to reduce alcohol-impaired driving among San Diego youth ages 15 to 20.
A unique research project at The Ohio State University aims to analyze drinking behavior the way engineers might analyze a mechanical system.
Many doctors and public health experts assume that people smoke cigarettes simply because they’re addicted to the nicotine.
Bringing the world one step closer to when destructive addiction-fueling memories can be erased with a single treatment, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have received a National Institutes of Health grant through the Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network and the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
A team led by Wayne State University School of Medicine researcher Mark Greenwald, Ph.D., will use a four-year, $2,279,723 competitively renewed grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health to explore whether the opioid addiction treatment medication buprenorphine can decrease the magnitude and/or duration of responses to stressors faced by recovering addicts. The results of the study could reveal a new therapeutic feature of the drug, possibly helping drug-abstinent individuals avoid relapse.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Houston Independent School District (HISD) have reached a first-of-its-kind agreement to provide access to an evidence-based, youth-oriented tobacco prevention and cessation program for all 110,000 HISD middle and high school students.
Researchers from New York University’s College of Global Public Health and School of Medicine have published a new study on the growing epidemic of hookah use among America’s youth and young adults. As reported today in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, the research finds that current waterpipe use has doubled among US adults in a very short time span.
A new series of research papers presents key findings of state and community tobacco control research to help guide state and community tobacco control policies and practices.
Adolescence can be a challenging time for both young people and their parents. Adolescents often face temptations to experiment with various substances and, unfortunately, this is the time when problem substance use typically begins. Vulnerability likely stems from at least two changes that occur during adolescence: although there are rapid increases in sensation seeking during early- to mid-adolescence, gradual improvements in impulse control become evident only during later adolescence. This study examines how these processes develop in high-risk youths.
Individuals with alcohol dependence (AD) often have sleep-related disorders such as insomnia, circadian-rhythm sleep disorders, breathing-related sleep disorders, movement disorders, and parasomnias such as sleep-related eating disorder, sleepwalking, nightmares, sleep paralysis, and REM sleep behavior disorder. The last comprehensive review on this topic was published in March 2005. This review examines the various aspects of insomnia associated with AD, especially using findings over the last decade, and employing updated diagnostic criteria for sleep disorders found in the third edition of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders.
Doctors and public health officials differ on the potential long-term effects of vaping and the use of e-cigarettes as smoking cessation tools. But they agree the devices shouldn't explode in your face.
UCLA experts are available for interviews about opioid-related topics
A scientific blueprint to end tobacco cravings may be on the way after researchers crystallized a protein that holds answers to how nicotine addiction occurs in the brain.
Researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health found that, from 2002 to 2014, there was an increase in the probability of having a prescription opioid use disorder among young adults using prescription opioids for non medical purposes.