Archive for the ‘Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs’ Category
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Children exposed to cocaine in the womb face serious consequences from the drug, but fortunately not in certain critical physical and cognitive areas as previously believed, according to a new comprehensive review of research on the subject from scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine...
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Researchers from the University of California's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) have found "reasonable evidence that cannabis is a promising treatment" for some specific, pain-related medical conditions. Their findings, presented to the California legislature and public, are included in a report available on the CMCR web site at http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu...
Monday, February 15th, 2010
Thinking about a typical victim of college dating violence, you're probably imagining her, not him. Researchers often think the same way, according to a Kansas State University expert on intimate partner violence. Sandra Stith, a professor of family studies and human services, said most research has looked at men as offenders and women as victims...
Friday, January 29th, 2010
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Food and Drug Administration "this week released a draft of voluntary guidelines to assist drug makers in figuring out which compounds should be placed under the Controlled Substances Act...
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Prenatal alcohol exposure is widely known to impair brain development in exposed offspring. Rodent studies have shown that developmental deficits in newborns related to altered levels of a brain chemical called serotonin (5-HT), leading to subsequent alterations in patterns of neonatal acute pain responses and/or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress reactivity...
Monday, December 7th, 2009
Case Western Reserve University researchers, from the School of Medicine's Department of Nutrition, discovered two new metabolic pathways by which products of lipid peroxidation and some drugs of abuse, known as 4-hydroxyacids, are metabolized. The pathways were identified by a combination of metabolomics and mass isotopomer analysis...
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
A new study from Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research has found evidence that the amount and timing of alcohol consumption in pregnancy affects child behaviour in different ways. The study has just been published online in the international journal Addiction...
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) has been linked to a wide array of developmental deficits, including significant impairments in social skills. An examination of a social- skills intervention called Children's Friendship Training found that it led to a decrease in hostile attributions or perceptions of children with PAE...
Friday, November 20th, 2009
Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) have a number of cognitive deficits, but mathematical ability seems particularly damaged. Little is known about the brain structures related to mathematical deficits in children with FASD...
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug by adolescents, with almost 42% of high school seniors admitting to having experimented with it. Continued marijuana use may result in a number of serious consequences including depression, cognitive impairment, cardiovascular disease, and certain forms of cancer. As such, it is critical to prevent marijuana use by adolescents and numerous behavioral and medical scientists have been trying to establish the best means of prevention.
Monday, October 26th, 2009
Ten percent of young adolescent boys -- or one in 10 -- exhibit a symptom of conduct disorder as well as a symptom of risky or problem gambling, according to new research findings from the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA). As the number of conduct disorder symptoms increase, the number of problem gambling symptoms increase in step, the study showed.
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
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. The study was presented yesterday at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago.
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
Saint Louis University researchers in the department of family and community medicine have received an $880,000, three-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to develop and test a new program aimed at helping older children and young adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) successfully transition into adulthood.
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
Clinicians treating patients with chronic pain must assess their alcohol use and, if necessary, provide counseling regarding problems associated with mixing alcohol and pain medications, according to a study published in The Journal of Pain, the peer review publication of the American Pain Society. Researchers from the University of Florida College of Dentistry examined use of alcohol to relieve pain in more than 4,000 adults with tooth pain, jaw or face pain and arthritis.
Monday, September 21st, 2009
Cytokines are small proteins secreted by cells that serve as molecular messengers between cells. Pro-inflammatory cytokines - which function in the immune system- may be involved in alcohol dependence (AD). A study of three polymorphisms of the interleukin-1 gene complex (IL-1) and one of the tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) has found that IL-1 may directly contribute to AD among Spanish Caucasian males.
Monday, September 21st, 2009
There is a strong relationship between drinking and taking one's own life. In any given year, people with alcohol dependence (AD) commit more than 20 percent of suicides in the general population; some 80 to 90 percent of AD suicides are by men, mostly white. A new look at suicide and alcohol has found that both attempted and completed suicides occur at greater rates in rural communities with greater bar densities.
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
In recognition of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Week, the Pennsylvania Department of Health today reminded women about the serious implications of drinking while pregnant. "Studies show that 50 percent of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned and many women consume alcohol before they realize they are pregnant," Deputy Secretary Janice Kopelman said during an event hosted by Gaudenzia's Vantage House for Women.
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
Teen years are for experimenting. Sometimes that means experimenting with drugs and engaging in other risky behaviors. Nearly 400 teens, half of which were prenatally exposed to cocaine, will be studied in their adolescent years. Researchers will look at the youths' choices when it comes to using drugs, having sex or engaging in delinquent behaviors, and see if there is an association with prenatal cocaine exposure.
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
On Tuesday September 1, Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) is launching a course of workshops for gay men who feel they are losing control when it comes to drugs and/or alcohol. The group will take place each Tuesday for 8 weeks from 6.30 - 9pm in Central London. The 'Are you losing control?' group aims to help people who feel that their drug/alcohol use is having a negative impact on their lives. It is led by expert facilitators who have training to deal with addiction issues.
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
A new service for health care providers prescribing methadone to treat chronic pain or opioid addiction -- the Physician Clinical Support System for Methadone (PCCS-M) -- opens this week with a mechanism to connect prescribers of methadone with experienced clinicians for one-to-one mentoring regarding the use of this medication.
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
Young men who stay at home with their parents are more violent than those who live independently, according to new research at Queen Mary, University of London. The new study* indicates that men still living at home in their early twenties have fewer responsibilities and more disposable income to spend on alcohol. This group makes up only four percent of the UK's male population but they are responsible for 16 per cent of all violent injuries in the last five years.