With prescription drug abuse at epidemic levels nationwide, a new study provides striking new data about the misuse of potent prescription painkillers and sedatives by teens and young adults. In all, 10.4 percent of those treated in the emergency room for any reason admitted to misusing a prescription painkiller or sedative at least once in the last year.
New research published in JAMA Psychiatry reveals that topiramate, a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat epilepsy and migraine headaches, also could be the first reliable medication to help treat cocaine dependence.
Three of North America’s top experts in addiction medicine, research, prevention, diagnosis and treatment have published a “Viewpoint” in the October 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in which they find that “many in the medical community fail to diagnose and treat substance use disorders, in part because of the failure to educate physicians about addiction medicine.” A new training pathway, however, will help address this problem.
Connecticut College students and a professor of neuroscience have found “America’s favorite cookie” is just as addictive as cocaine – at least for lab rats.
In a study designed to shed light on the potential addictiveness of high-fat/ high-sugar foods, Professor Joseph Schroeder and his students found rats formed an equally strong association between the pleasurable effects of eating Oreos and a specific environment as they did between cocaine or morphine and a specific environment. They also found that eating cookies activated more neurons in the brain’s “pleasure center” than exposure to drugs of abuse.
Doctors who abuse prescription drugs often do so for "self-medication"—whether for physical or emotional pain or stress relief, reports a study in the October Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
People with mental illness smoke at much higher rates than the overall population. But the popular belief that they are self-medicating is most likely wrong, according to researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Instead, they report, research indicates that psychiatric disease makes the brain more susceptible to addiction.
About half of smokers seeking treatment for smoking cessation have a history of depression. Compared with smokers who are not depressed, those who suffer from a major depressive disorder (MDD) have greater difficulty quitting.
For the first time, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have been able to erase dangerous drug-associated memories in mice and rats without affecting other more benign memories. The surprising discovery points to a clear and workable method to disrupt unwanted memories while leaving the rest intact.
Alcohol intoxication reduces communication between two areas of the brain that work together to properly interpret and respond to social signals, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.
Mayo Clinic’s Nicotine Dependence Center (NDC) in Rochester is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. As one of the first centers in the country to focus exclusively on treatments for tobacco dependence when it opened in 1988, the NDC has been at the forefront of the battle of nicotine addiction nationally as well as globally, offering the latest education and training programs, advancing research aimed at tobacco dependence interventions and offering treatment approaches to tobacco users.
The nature of the teenage brain makes users of cannabis amongst this population particularly at risk of developing addictive behaviors and suffering other long-term negative effects.
With water pipes or hookahs gaining popularity, scientists today described a step toward establishing their health risks. In a study that they said provides no support for the notion that hookahs are safer than cigarettes, they reported that hookah smoke and tobacco contain lower levels of four toxic metals. It was part of the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society being held here this week.
Key details of the way nerve cells in the brain remember pleasure are revealed in a study by University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researchers published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience. The molecular events that form such “reward memories” appear to differ from those created by drug addiction, despite the popular theory that addiction hijacks normal reward pathways.
A new report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows that people aged 12 to 49 who had used prescription pain relievers nonmedically were 19 times more likely to have initiated heroin use recently (within the past 12 months of being interviewed) than others in that age group (0.39 percent versus 0.02 percent). The report also shows that four out of five recent heroin initiates (79.5 percent) had previously used prescription pain relievers nonmedically.
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have described findings that could enable the development of more effective drugs for addiction with fewer side effects.
An experimental treatment for alcohol dependence works better in individuals who possess specific combinations of genes that regulate the function and binding of serotonin, a brain chemical affected by the treatment, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health. A report of the finding appears online in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
NanoString is introducing an Early Access Program for nCounter Elements™, a line of General Purpose Reagents (GPRs) developed specifically to meet the needs of translational research and clinical laboratories. nCounter Elements GPRs enable researchers to independently develop multiplexed genomic assays, and then rapidly translate those assays into clinical diagnostics offered as Laboratory Developed Tests.
Singulex, Inc., first to commercialize Single Molecule Counting technology, today announced that the AACC has recognized two studies featuring Singulex’s Erenna® technology with theNACB’s Distinguished Abstract Award.
Rheonix, Inc. is entering into a joint development agreement with Life Technologies Corp. to introduce a molecular testing platform for their Applied Markets business.
Children who grow up in poverty are more likely than wealthier children to smoke cigarettes, but they are less likely to binge drink and are no more prone to use marijuana, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.
Mindray and MedTest jointly announced a US exclusive partnership that will greatly expand collaboration between the two organizations providing in-vitro products and services for low - mid volume clinical laboratories.
Researchers from the University Medical Center Göttingen and Chronix Biomedical announce they have received a National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry Distinguished Abstract Award for their results from a pilot study which demonstrated the utility of a blood test to monitor organ transplant rejection.
A research team led by scientists from the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco has identified circuitry in the brain that drives compulsive drinking in rats, and likely plays a similar role in humans.
UCLA researchers have measured how the brain behaves in so-called hypersexual people who have problems regulating their viewing of sexual images. The study found that the brain response of these individuals to sexual images was not related in any way to the severity of their hypersexuality but was instead tied only to their level of sexual desire.
The drug topiramate, typically used to treat epilepsy and more recently weight loss, may also help people addicted to both cocaine and alcohol use less cocaine, particularly heavy users, researchers in the department of Psychiatry at Penn Medicine report in a new study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have published one of the first laboratory studies of MDPV, an emerging recreational drug that has been sold as “bath salts.” The TSRI researchers found evidence that it could be more addictive than methamphetamine, one of the most addictive substances to date.
A missing brain enzyme increases concentrations of a protein related to pain-killer addiction, according to an animal study. The results will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society’s 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found evidence that an emotion-related brain region called the central amygdala—whose activity promotes feelings of malaise and unhappiness—plays a major role in sustaining cocaine addiction.
The last few years have seen the emergence of a new drug problem in so-called "bath salts"—actually "designer stimulants," packaged and sold in ways that skirt drug laws. A review and update on these designer drugs is presented in the June Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have unraveled the molecular foundations of cocaine’s effects on the brain, and identified a compound that blocks cravings for the drug in cocaine-addicted mice. The compound, already proven safe for humans, is undergoing further animal testing in preparation for possible clinical trials in cocaine addicts, the researchers say.
The offspring of parents who were addicted to drugs or alcohol are more likely to be depressed in adulthood, according to a new study by University of Toronto researchers.
In a paper published online in the journal Psychiatry Research this month, investigators examined the association between parental addictions and adult depression in a representative sample of 6,268 adults, drawn from the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey. Of these respondents, 312 had a major depressive episode within the year preceding the survey and 877 reported that while they were under the age of 18 and still living at home that at least one parent who drank or used drugs “so often that it caused problems for the family”.
St. Louis College of Pharmacy, the city of St. Louis, and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration collaborate to collect unwanted and expired medicine. This year, the result was more than 16,000 pounds collected.
Nationwide, only one in ten people with substance abuse disorders receive medical intervention, opposed to nearly 90% of those with diabetes – a problem that becomes exponentially worse in the Appalachian region, where deaths from prescription drug overdoses have jumped 360% in the last decade. Experts gathered at the Fourth Annual Scientific Meeting of The Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), to share ideas and examples to help reverse the deadly substance abuse trends that are further complicated by health disparities, social and economic issues unique to a region that spans 13 states.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have reported successful preclinical tests of a new vaccine against heroin. The vaccine targets heroin and its psychoactive breakdown products in the bloodstream, preventing them from reaching the brain.
A study of adolescents receiving treatment for methamphetamine dependence has found that girls are more likely to continue using the drug during treatment than boys, suggesting that new approaches are needed for treating meth abuse among teen girls.
Research from the University of Adelaide suggests that mothers who eat junk food while pregnant have already programmed their babies to be addicted to a high fat, high sugar diet by the time they are weaned.
Young adults reduce their overall prescription drug misuse up to 65 percent if they are part of a community-based prevention effort while still in middle school, according to researchers at Iowa State University.
By stimulating one part of the brain with laser light, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UC San Francisco (UCSF) have shown that they can wipe away addictive behavior in rats – or conversely turn non-addicted rats into compulsive cocaine seekers.
Data from a statewide survey of sixth-, eighth-, and 11th-grade Iowa students found an increased risk for alcohol use, binge drinking, and using marijuana and other illegal drugs, among children of deployed or recently returned military parents compared to children in non-military families.
A Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center team studying alcohol addiction has new research that might shed light on why some drinkers are more susceptible to addiction than others.
New research from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine for the first time explains exactly how two brain regions interact to promote emotionally motivated behaviors associated with anxiety and reward. The findings could lead to new mental health therapies for disorders such as addiction, anxiety, and depression.
Abuse of the anesthesia drug propofol is a "rapidly progressive form of substance dependence" that is being more commonly seen among health care professionals, reports a study in the April Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.