Addiction News

Popular Addiction News

• Sex-Deprived Fruit Flies Could Provide Answers for Human Addictions
• Why Deaf People With High Alcohol Intake Suffer Brain Damage
• Cocaine and the Teen Brain
• Why Does the Brain Prefer Opium to Broccoli?
• How Hemp Got High
• Bath Salts Emerging as New Recreational Drugs
• From Russia: Krocodil Drug that Eats Junkies
• Psychoactive Mushrooms Studied
• Heroin in our Cornflakes?

Initiation and Escalation of Substance Use Occurring During Late Childhood

New research published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, co-led by professors Roisin O’Connor of Concordia University and Craig Colder of State University of New York at Buffalo, has found that around the tween-age years kids are decidedly ambivalent toward cigarettes and alcohol.

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Underage Alcohol Abuse Costs 755 Million USD a Year

Hospitalization for underage drinking is common in the United States, and it comes with a price tag — the estimated total cost for these hospitalizations is about $755 million per year, a Mayo Clinic study has found. Researchers also found geographic and demographic differences in the incidence of alcohol-related hospital admissions. The findings were published online today in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Binge Drinking as Contagious as the Common Cold

Do couples influence each other’s drinking habits? Over a 28 day time frame, researchers were able to predict one partner’s binge drinking based the other partner’s binge drinking.

Why People Like Drinking Alcohol and Become Addicted

Drinking alcohol leads to the release of endorphins in areas of the brain that produce feelings of pleasure and reward, according to a study led by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco.

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Step’n Out to Reduce Drug Abuse and Crime

A study from Rhode Island Hospital has found that collaborative behavioral management may be effective in reducing substance abuse among convicted marijuana users who are paroled. The findings have important implications for the management of a substantial proportion of the U.S. community correctional population.

Help for Pregnant Women at Risk of Substance Abuse

A program for women at risk of substance abuse during pregnancy could save nearly $2 billion annually in health care costs if implemented nationwide, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ journal, Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Ecstasy Drug Produces Lasting Toxicity in the Brain

Recreational use of Ecstasy – the illegal “rave” drug that produces feelings of euphoria and emotional warmth – is associated with chronic changes in the human brain, Vanderbilt University investigators have discovered.

Private Patients Pay 15,000 USD for Ineffective Methamphetamine Treatment

A recent study has found that PROMETAT, a popular but controversial treatment for methamphetamine addiction, is no more effective than placebo in reducing methamphetamine use, keeping users in treatment, or reducing cravings for methamphetamine. The study was funded by Hythiam, the company that owns the PROMETAT protocol, and is published online today in the scientific journal Addiction.

Mobile Drug Testing With Instant Results

The world’s first prototype of a hand-held fingerprint drug testing device has been created by University of East Anglia spin-out company Intelligent Fingerprinting.

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Nicotine Primes Brain for Cocaine Use Cigarettes and alcohol serve as gateway drugs, which people use before progressing to the use of marijuana and then to cocaine and other illicit substances; this progression is called the “gateway sequence” of drug use.

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Addiction Recovery Initiative Helps Addicts C.W. started getting high when he was only 13.

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Helping Others Helps Teens Stay on the Road to Addiction Recovery A new study of teens undergoing substance abuse treatment precipitator of relapse. finds helping others helps the adolescent helper by reducing cravings for alcohol and drugs, a major

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Abnormal Brain Structure Linked to Cocaine Addiction

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have identified abnormal brain structures in the frontal lobe of cocaine users’ brains which are linked to their compulsive cocaine-using behaviour.

Caffeine Use and Risk of Cocaine Abuse

Parents of young caffeine consumers take heed: that high-calorie energy drink or soda might present more than just obesity risk.

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Psychoactive Mushrooms Studied

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have zeroed in on the dose levels of the “sacred mushroom” chemical capable of yielding positive, life-changing experiences, while minimizing the chance of transient negative reactions in screened volunteers under supportive, carefully monitored conditions.

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Evidence for Food Addiction in Humans Research to be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, suggests that people can become dependent on highly palatable foods and engage in a compulsive pattern of consumption, similar to the behaviors we observe in drug addicts and those with alcoholism.

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“Chasing the Dragon” heroin use causes Brain Dysfunction and Death “Chasing the dragon,” a form of heroin use in which the drug is heated and the resulting vapor is inhaled, can produce a progressive and permanent brain disorder and even death, according to a study published in the November 10 issue of Neurology, the American Academy of Neurology’s scientific journal.