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.
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.
Viewing graphic anti-smoking images on cigarette packs triggers activity in brain areas involved in emotion, decision-making and memory as observed via brain scans. Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center and Truth Initiative reported their findings online this week in Addictive Behaviors Reports.
Love can make you feel different things –- sometimes happy, sometimes fixated, and sometimes down right sick. And it turns out that drugs almost work in the same way.
But how close are love and addictive drugs related? To the brain, love and drugs act similarly. Being in love floods the brain with chemicals and hormones that help form a connection and produce feelings of euphoria and fascination – the same effects as many drugs.
How has new legislation affected marijuana use in the United States? The best available data suggest that marijuana use is increasing in adults but not teens, with a decrease in marijuana-related arrests but an increase in treatment admissions, according to an update in the January/February Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
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.
Alcohol withdrawal adds challenges to caring for critically ill patients, and nurses must be diligent at each stage of care to minimize complications, according to an article in the clinical practice journal, Critical Care Nurse. The article provides much-needed guidance to critical care nurses and other clinicians whose patients may have alcohol use disorder, including abuse and dependency conditions of varying severity.
Psychosocial interventions, used together with effective medications, are a key part of recommended treatment for opioid addiction. But while research generally supports the effectiveness of psychosocial treatments, there are major gaps in the evidence on their use in conjunction with medications, according to a review and update in the January/February Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and New York State Psychiatric Institute have found that while cigarette smoking rates have declined among younger people in the United States, those who do smoke are more likely to have a psychiatric or substance use disorder compared with those who began smoking in earlier decades.
A UAB study found that minority Americans who encounter discriminatory sentiments and actions are more likely to experience panic attacks, and smoking or consuming excessive amounts of alcohol were also identified as factors.
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.
Combining the drug topiramate with psychological counseling curbed marijuana use among young smokers significantly more than did counseling alone, according to newly published results of a small randomized, controlled trial at Brown University. The results come with a caveat, however: many study volunteers couldn't tolerate the medicine's side effects.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered that a lipid (fat molecule) in brain cells may act as a “switch” to increase or decrease the motivation to consume nicotine.
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.
Adolescents are more likely to say they will try electronic cigarettes if they perceive TV ads for these products as effective, according to a new study by RTI International researchers.
A liver hormone works via the brain’s reward pathway to reduce cravings for sweets and alcohol in mammals, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.
Brain scans from nearly 200 adolescent boys provide evidence that the brains of compulsive video game players are wired differently. Chronic video game play is associated with hyperconnectivity between several pairs of brain networks. Some of the changes are predicted to help game players respond to new information. Other changes are associated with distractibility and poor impulse control. The new findings, a collaborative effort between the University of Utah School of Medicine, and Chung-Ang University in South Korea, were published online in Addiction Biology on Dec. 21, 2015.
Opting for smaller rewards immediately instead of waiting for bigger payoffs later is associated with problems such as impulsive behavior and addiction to food, drugs and alcohol. Washington University School of Medicine researchers are reporting that such decision-making tendencies have a genetic link to brain pathways that underlie those disorders.
Prescription opioid abuse has reached epidemic proportions, but new research led by UB psychiatric nursing researcher Yu-Ping Chang found motivational interviewing, a form of behavioral counseling, is an effective tool at curbing misuse.
The study is among the first nationally representative studies in the US to examine the linkages between nonmedical use of opioids and heroin in high school seniors. The researchers examined associations between frequency and recency of nonmedical use of opioids and heroin. Sociodemographic correlates of use of each drug were also examined.
Higher taxes and prices for cigarettes are strongly associated with lower infant mortality rates in the United States, according to a new study from Vanderbilt University and the University of Michigan released Dec. 1 in the journal Pediatrics.
The two-year, $1.6 million grant, which comes with the possibility of an additional three years of funding, will support preclinical studies of a potential heroin vaccine.
From terrorist propaganda distributed by organizations such as ISIS, to political activism, diverse voices now use social media as their major public platform.
Organizations deploy bots — virtual, automated posters — as well as enormous paid “armies” of human posters or trolls, and hacking schemes to overwhelmingly infiltrate the public platform with their message.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor of information science has been awarded a grant to continue his research that will provide an in-depth understanding of the major propagators of viral, insidious content and the methods that make them successful.
A URI researcher is developing a nicotine vaccine and accompanying drug delivery system that he believes could lead to one of the most effective methods of combating cigarette smoking and other tobacco use.
A group of experts, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, today issued recommendations aimed at stemming the prescription opioid epidemic, a crisis that kills an average of 44 people a day in the U.S.
A new workbook by a UCLA expert in recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction lays out an array of approaches, including one that emphasizes looking for enjoyment in all the right places.
More than half (52%) of women and a third (38%) of men reported doctor-prescribed painkillers as their first contact with opioid drugs, a family of drugs which include prescription medicines such OxyContin and codeine, as well as illicit drugs such as heroin.
A long-acting enzyme that rapidly and safely metabolizes cocaine in the blood stream is currently being investigated in animal models as a possible treatment for cocaine overdose. This research is being presented Oct. 29 at the 2015 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition, the world’s largest pharmaceutical sciences meeting in Orlando, Fla. Oct. 25–29.
Substance abuse treatments that target main issues such as serious drug and alcohol addiction are not frequently being used to also wean adolescents from tobacco, a University of Georgia study finds.
Drug abusers are not completely abandoning prescription opioids for heroin, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Instead, many use the two concurrently based on their availability. The findings also reveal regional variations in the use of heroin and prescription painkillers.
Alcohol and nicotine use have long been known to go hand in hand. Previous research shows that more than 85 percent of U.S. adults who are alcohol-dependent also are nicotine-dependent. Now, researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine have found that nicotine cancels out the sleep-inducing effects of alcohol. It’s a finding that sheds light on the reason alcohol and nicotine usage are so closely linked.
For hundreds of millions of people around the world, chewing betel nut produces a cheap, quick high but also raises the risk of addiction and oral cancer. Now, new findings by a University of Florida Health researcher reveal how the nut’s psychoactive chemical works in the brain and suggest that an addiction treatment may already exist.
A few minutes of counseling in a primary care setting could help steer people away from risky drug use, and possibly full-fledged addiction. In a clinical trial called Project QUIT, researchers found that this sort of intervention helped patients reduce their risky drug use by one-third.
If Republican senators from tobacco-growing southern states believe in social responsibility, they would fully explore the TransPacific (TPP) trade agreement’s potential impact on countries around the world — including provisions that influence the ability of American tobacco corporations to flood the globe with cheap, cancer-causing cigarettes — suggests the author of a book on the history, social costs and global politics of the tobacco industry.
From 2003 to 2013, the percentage of nonmedical use of prescription opioids decreased among adults in the U.S., while the prevalence of prescription opioid use disorders, frequency of use, and related deaths increased, according to a study in the October 13 issue of JAMA.
During the decade from 2004 to 2013, use of treatment remained low for individuals with opioid use disorders, according to a study in the October 13 issue of JAMA.
More than one in four Americans has taken prescription painkillers in the past year, even as a majority say that abuse of these medications is a very serious public health concern, according to new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research.
Teenage girls who compulsively text are more likely than their male counterparts to do worse academically, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
First introduced in the United States in 2007, electronic cigarettes have risen dramatically in part because they are popularly considered safer and more socially acceptable than combustible cigarettes and because there are fewer restrictions on their purchase and use. A study by University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, points to aggressive online marketing tactics that make purchasing e-cigarettes easy for all ages.
Two decades after a UCSF researcher proposed that reducing nicotine in cigarettes as a national regulatory policy might facilitate quitting, a new study he co-authored has added to a body of evidence that indicates that doing just that may accomplish this goal.