drug abuse
A team of investigators has created a strain of mice scientists can use to study nicotine addiction and its associated behaviors. ''Nicotine addiction is the largest cause of preventable mortality in the world, leading to more than 4 million smoking-related deaths annually.'' This new strain of mice, created through a process in which the researchers altered only one amino acid through what they call ''knock-in'' technology, is exceptionally sensitive to nicotine. The scientists have shown that these mice display addiction-related behaviors, including reward, tolerance, and sensitization to the drug.
Adults with nicotine dependence and/or psychiatric disorders consume 70 percent of all cigarettes smoked in the United States, according to results of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study reported in the November issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry (Volume 61). Based on the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), the article provides the first national estimates among U.S. adults of the prevalence and co-occurrence of nicotine dependence and a broad array of other psychiatric disorders including alcohol and drug abuse and dependence, mood and anxiety disorders, and personality disorders as defined by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV).
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered a key mechanism in the brains of people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) dementia. The study is the first to document decreases in the neurotransmitter dopamine in those with the condition, and may lead to new, more effective therapies. HIV dementia is a type of cognitive decline that is more common in the later stages of HIV infection.
Researchers have demonstrated that a combination of drug therapies targeting the region of the brain that controls drug abuse and addiction significantly reduces cocaine use in nonhuman primates. These findings, which appear in the June issue of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, have implications for developing treatments for cocaine addiction in humans.
Teens with higher levels of a personality trait known as novelty-seeking have been shown to be more receptive to tobacco industry promotional campaigns than teens with low levels of the trait. Novelty-seeking is a heritable trait characterized by a tendency toward excitement in response to new experiences; engagement in sensation-seeking, impulsive, and risk-taking behavior; and sensitivity to reward. Scientific data indicate that teens' receptivity to tobacco marketing campaigns may play an important role in the choice to start smoking.
A recently published study shows that buprenorphine, an effective and well-tolerated office-based treatment for opiate addiction, may significantly reduce abuse of heroin and cocaine in people addicted to both drugs. In the study, conducted at the National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) Intramural Research Program in Baltimore, scientists tested different doses of liquid buprenorphine in 200 men and women addicted to heroin and cocaine. The researchers found that the highest dose of buprenorphine--16 mg daily--was well tolerated and effective in reducing use of both drugs.
The anti-spasticity medication baclofen holds promise for helping cocaine abusers overcome their addiction, a study by a UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute researcher finds. No medication currently holds U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for treatment of cocaine addiction. Published in the Dec. 15 edition of the peer-reviewed Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, the randomized, double-blind study found that baclofen used in conjunction with substance abuse counseling significantly reduced cocaine use in recovering addicts compared to placebo coupled with counseling. The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse as part of a project to screen medications with potential for treating cocaine dependence.
With the recent revelations about steroid use in Major League Baseball and the bust last week of several Oakland Raiders players for drug abuse, a Northeastern University researcher who studies the link between steroid use and aggression, has recently found evidence that use of anabolic steroids may have long-term effects on players' behavior and aggression levels well after they stop using these performance enhancing drugs.
Women with HIV who are young, in poor physical health, in conflict with others, and who have been physically abused by a partner in the past are at greater risk for developing mental health and drug abuse problems, according to a new study. The study of HIV-infected women published in the May-June issue of Women's Health Issues found that women who reported past physical abuse were 2.1 times more likely to have a probable psychiatric disorder than women without a history of past abuse, according to Cathy Sherbourne, Ph.D., of RAND, and colleagues.
A study by researchers at Harvard University has provided more evidence that using stimulant medications such as methylphenidate to treat children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may reduce their risk of developing drug and alcohol use disorders later in life.
Children who start to use alcohol, marijuana or other illicit drugs in their early teen years are more likely to experience psychiatric disorders, especially depression, in their late 20's. Although teens who started smoking at an early age were at increased risk for alcohol dependence and substance use disorders in their late 20's, they did not appear to be at an increased risk for depression or other psychiatric disorders. However, initiating tobacco use in late adolescence was associated with depression and other psychiatric disorders in the late 20s.
An analysis of all available studies that examine the possible impact of stimulant treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on future substance abuse supports the safety of stimulant treatment. Using a statistical technique called meta-analysis, the researchers found that medication treatment for children with ADHD resulted in an almost two-fold reduction in the risk of future substance abuse. "We know that untreated individuals with ADHD are at a significantly increased risk for substance abuse. And we understand why parents often ask whether stimulant medications might lead to future substance abuse among their children," says Timothy Wilens, MD, MGH director of Substance Abuse Services in Pediatric Psychopharmacology, the paper's lead author. "Now we can reassure parents and other practitioners that treating ADHD actually protects children against alcohol and drug abuse as well as other future problems."
This year's annual Monitoring the Future survey of American secondary school students provides much good news for the nation, reports the University of Michigan. Ecstasy use is finally beginning to decline among adolescents, the proportion using any illicit drug is also down, the proportion drinking alcohol has dropped, and the proportion reporting cigarette smoking continues to drop sharply.
Despite perceptions that additive-free cigarettes and the hand-rolled cigarettes from India called bidis may provide a less-toxic smoke than conventional cigarettes, new research suggests the opposite may be true. For the study, researchers asked 10 volunteers to smoke an unfiltered, additive-free American Spirit cigarette, a strawberry-flavored bidi, a non-flavored bidi and one of the participants' own preferred brands of conventional cigarette. Results showed that two minutes after smoking the unfiltered, additive-free American Spirit cigarette or either type of bidi, participants' plasma nicotine levels were significantly higher than when they smoked their own cigarettes. The high nicotine levels lasted longest with the American Spirit cigarette. Study results are published in the December issue of Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
