Addiction News

Latest Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs News From Medical News Today.

Total news: 43
Last news: August 31, 2007 08:00:00

* Heavy alcohol use can lead to structural and functional changes in the brain. * New findings show that even when structural damage may not be apparent, brain activation can still be reduced. * Researchers refer to this alcohol-induced damage as "latent lesions. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

* Previous brain-imaging studies have suggested cognitive deficits in alcoholic patients. * New findings indicate that alcoholic patients show emotional processing deficits as well. * These deficits primarily affect processing for negative emotional expressions. Alcoholics tend to be deficient in both cognitive and emotional processes. Previously, most brain-imaging research focused on cognition rather than emotion. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

New findings that one in 20 North Carolina men who have sex with men (MSM) reported using crystal methamphetamine during the previous month suggests increased risk for spreading HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STD), according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues.The rate of methamphetamine use among 1,189 MSM was 30 times higher than levels reported in the general U.S. population over the same period. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

The decreased use of cocaine in the United States over the last 20 years mostly occurred among the highly educated, while cocaine use among non-high school graduates remained constant, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study authors suspect that the inverse relationship between cocaine use and education is related to access to health warnings and resources. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

A NASA safety review released Wednesday found no evidence to support claims that astronauts were impaired by alcohol when they flew in space. NASA chief of Safety and Mission Assurance Bryan OConnor conducted the monthlong review to evaluate allegations included in the Astronaut Health Care System Review Committees report, which was released in late July. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

A large new Japanese study suggests that middle aged men who drink heavily could see their blood pressure rise, regardless of whether their levels of "good" cholesterol also go up.Study author Ichiro Wakabayashi also found that the older men who participated all in their 50s were more susceptible to the blood pressure-boosting effects of heavy drinking than younger men. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

"With African-Americans and other minority groups having both problem and pathological gambling rates that are 2-3 times higher than Caucasian gamblers, accurate diagnosis is essential to treat gambling addiction," says Renee Cunningham-Williams, Ph.D., a leading gambling addictions expert and visiting associate professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

Quitting smoking is not easy, but thousands of New Yorkers succeed at it every year. Whos trying to kick the habit, and whos succeeding? In a new report titled Whos Still Smoking, the Health Department sheds light on both questions. The report, based on a large survey of New York City adults, shows that two thirds of the citys smokers -- almost 800,000 adults -- tried to quit in the past year, but only 17% of those succeeded. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

Public health officials may soon be able to flush out more accurate estimates on illegal drug use in communities across the country thanks to a screening test described at the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the worlds largest scientific society. The test doesnt screen people, it seeks out evidence of illicit drug abuse in drug residues and metabolites excreted in urine and flushed toward municipal sewage treatment plants. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

If you think the big cities of Toronto and Montreal have the highest rate of alcohol and drug use problems, think again. A new study entitled "Geographical Variation in the Prevalence of Problematic Substance Use in Canada" authored by three researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) discovered that Ontario and Quebec had markedly lower concentrations of people with alcohol and drug problems. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

Persistent cocaine use among highly educated individuals dramatically decreased after 1990, whereas use among non-high school graduates remained constant. Researchers used data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse to investigate the relationship between cocaine use and educational achievement among adults aged 19-50 between 1979 and 2002. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

The prevalence of alcohol, marijuana and cocaine use and risk of alcohol abuse is significantly higher among Mexican migrants and family members of Mexican migrants than among other Mexicans. Researchers utilized the World Mental Health version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview to conduct 5,826 interviews. Participants were aged 18 to 65 and lived in Mexico in cities with a population of at least 2,500 people. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

For the first time, pain researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that its possible to separate the good effects of opiate drugs such as morphine (pain relief) from the unwanted side effects of those drugs (tolerance, abuse and addiction).The investigators, led by Zhou-Feng Chen, Ph.D. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

In one of the first studies to focus on the relationship between racial discrimination and health risk behaviors, researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health with colleagues from the Universities of Minnesota, Alabama (Birmingham), and California (San Francisco), and Harvard University found African Americans experiencing racial discrimination were more likely to report current tobacco use or recent alcohol consumption and lifetime use of marijuana and cocaine. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found a link between alcohol consumption and HIV disease progression in HIV-infected persons. The study appears online in the August issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.Alcohol use is common among HIV-infected persons, and its impact on HIV disease progression has been examined in in-vitro, animal and human studies. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

DOCTORS leaders in Wales unveiled a new set of tough measures designed to crack Wales growing drink problem. In yet another offensive against irresponsible drinking, BMA Cymru Wales unveiled a set of new policy proposals designed to stem the growing tide. The BMA in Wales is calling on the Welsh Assembly Government and the UK Government to work jointly in taking forward a set of new policies. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

The Commissioners Court in Bexar County, Texas, on Wednesday unanimously voted to move forward with a pilot initiative that will establish the states first needle-exchange program, the San Antonio Express-News reports (Finley, San Antonio Express-News, 8/15). [click link for full article] - [Read more]

Is your first craving in the morning for your computer mouse? Do you obsessively check email in the middle of the night?If so, you may be among the ten percent of all Internet surfers afflicted with "Internet addiction disorder," a pathological condition that can lead to anxiety and severe depression. To better diagnose and treat Internet addiction, Dr. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

For years, scientists have known that some people are biologically more susceptible to drug addiction than others, but they have only been able to speculate why.In the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers at the University of Chicago report on a study that may help answer this question. [click link for full article] - [Read more]

Young adults who use methamphetamine may be more vulnerable to age-related brain degeneration when they grow older, new animal research suggests."The emergence of behavioral deficits in animals months after methamphetamine discontinuation may be relevant to human methamphetamine abusers," says Nora Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute for Drug Abuse. [click link for full article] - [Read more]