Feature Channels: Addiction

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Recent studies have shown that behaviors such as happiness, obesity, smoking and altruism are “contagious” within adult social networks. In other words, your behavior not only influences your friends, but also their friends and so on. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego and Harvard University have taken this a step farther and found that the spread of one behavior in social networks influences the spread of another behavior, adolescent drug use.

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Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center hope they have begun paving a new pathway in the fight against drug dependence.

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Bees prefer nectar with small amounts of nicotine and caffeine over nectar that does not comprise these substances at all, a study from the University of Haifa reveals. "This could be an evolutionary development intended, as in humans, to make the bee addicted," states Prof. Ido Izhaki, one of the researchers who conducted the study.

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Exposure to severe stress early in life increases the risk of alcohol and drug addiction. Yet surprisingly, some adults sexually abused as children — and therefore at high risk for alcohol problems — carry gene variants that protect them from heavy drinking and its effects, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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New research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine may help more smokers keep their New Year’s resolution by helping them quit smoking. Extended use of a nicotine patch – 24 weeks versus the standard eight weeks recommended by manufacturers – boosts the number of smokers who maintain their cigarette abstinence and helps more of those who backslide into the habit while wearing the patch, according to a study which will be published in the February 2 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

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The brain’s innate interest in the new and different may help trump the power of addictive drugs, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. In controlled experiments, novelty drew cocaine-treated rats away from the place they got cocaine.

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Davidson College psychology professor Mark Smith has received a grant of almost $1 million from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to support five years of animal studies to more precisely determine the benefits of exercise at various stages in the addictive process.

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Adult male monkeys exposed to cocaine while in the womb have poor impulse control and may be more vulnerable to drug abuse than female monkeys, even a decade or more after the exposure, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. The findings could lead to a better understanding of human drug abuse.

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A new study finds that adults who legally were able to purchase alcohol before the age of 21 in their states are more likely than others are to be alcoholics or addicted to drugs.

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Drawing enhances emotional verbalization among children who live under the shadow of drug-addicted fathers. "The use of art seems to help with verbalizing trauma. It is usually difficult to express the trauma through speech, yet the body remembers it," said Prof. Rachel Lev-Wiesel, Head of the Graduate School of Creative Arts Therapies who carried out the study.

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For decades, finding clues to substance addiction has been much like searching for a needle in a haystack. But researchers may finally be honing in on specific genes tied to all types of addictions - and finding that some of the same genes associated with alcohol dependence are also closely linked with addictions to nicotine, cocaine, opoids, heroin and other substances.

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A University of Kentucky researcher finds there are too few treatment programs available for adolescent addicts.

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Internet-addicted teens seem more prone to aggression than other adolescents, according to new findings from Taiwanese researchers. However, Americans who study violence are not ready to make any conclusions about a possible link.

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Each January 1, many of us resolve to alter ourselves in some way. We will give up smoking. We will eat healthier. We will be more patient. However by January 15, we've chucked it out the window. But all is not lost, says John O'Neill, LCSW, LCDC, CSAT, director of Addiction Services for The Menninger Clinic in Houston.

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A new study from the Abramson Cancer Center and Department of Psychiatry in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine shows that smokers who carry a particular version of a gene for an enzyme that regulates dopamine in the brain may suffer from concentration problems and other cognitive deficits when abstaining from nicotine "“ a problem that puts them at risk for relapse during attempts to quit smoking. The findings pave the way to identify novel medications to treat nicotine addiction.

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The tendency to become addicted to nicotine and other drugs involves an interplay of genetics and environmental factors. In a unique study looking at the chemistry underlying the propensity to develop nicotine craving, scientists are gaining insight into predicting individual addiction to nicotine, forecasting nicotine tumorigenesis, and developing individualized treatments for this disorder.

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Consuming large amounts of caffeine while taking acetaminophen, a widely used painkiller, could potentially cause liver damage, according to a preliminary laboratory study. The toxic interaction could occur not only from drinking caffeinated beverages while taking the painkiller but also from using large amounts of medications that intentionally combine caffeine and acetaminophen, the researchers say.