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The prescription drug Naltrexone, a narcotic antagonist used in some recovery treatment programs to help control alcohol consumption in alcohol-dependent adults, has been found to effectively treat both men and women despite large disparities among gender-related factors that complicate treatment. A new study has found that women undergoing substance abuse treatment for alcohol dependence respond to Naltrexone similar to male patients on a wide range of measures.
American Indians and Alaskan Natives are less likely than the general U.S. population to consume alcohol on a regular basis, but are more likely to engage in binge drinking, according to a new study. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that the rate of past month alcohol consumption among American Indian and Alaskan Native adults was significantly lower than that of the national average (43.9% vs. 55.2%), but that this group experiences a higher rate of binge drinking (30.6%) compared to the overall population (24.5%).
Regardless of whether you’re drinking wine, hard liquor, or beer, your risk of stroke seems to double during the hour after having just one drink. A new study published in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke found that the impact of alcohol on a person’s risk of stroke depends on how much and how often that person drinks.
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules are known to play important roles in the translation of genetic information into proteins. Over the last ten years, researchers have started noticing a population of small RNAs—called microRNAs—that represent a new class of molecules.
As evidenced by data gathered from state-licensed substance abuse treatment facilities across the country, five substances represent 96 percent of treatment admissions ages 12 and older. These substances were alcohol (41%), opiates (20%), marijuana (17%), cocaine (11%), and methamphetamine/amphetamines (6%). The survey report also presented significant changes in trends concerning ethnic groups, concurrent abuse of alcohol and drugs, and single substance abuse.
When people drink alcohol and feel euphoric, the neurotransmitter dopamine has been released in the brain, affecting the individual’s mood. But alcohol affects some people differently than others, so researchers at the National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, set out to find the reasons why.
New research shows that smoking during pregnancy not only can have lasting effects on the child’s health, but can also lead to psychiatric problems, increasing the need for children to take psychotropic medication.
A recent study sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) called The TEDS Report (Treatment Episode Data Set) revealed a significant difference between Mexican-American men and women suffering from substance abuse addictions.
New research adds to the considerable evidence that genes play a role in alcohol dependence. Denis M. McCarthy, associate professor of psychology at the University of Missouri, and his colleagues have found that genetic differences in enzymes that metabolize alcohol can alter an individual’s risk for developing alcohol dependence. The study will be published in the July 2010 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
In an effort to put those “this is your brain on drugs” commercials to use in real life, researchers have discovered a way to visualize brain activity after an individual uses cocaine, alcohol, and other recreational drugs. This should help determine better addiction treatment strategies, which could be of immense help to treatment centers.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed an imaging protocol that allows them to visualize the activity of the brain’s reward circuitry in both normal individuals and those addicted to drugs. The technique could lead to better insight into why people take recreational drugs as well as help determine which treatment strategies might be most effective.
A study was presented at the Association of American Geographers’ annual meeting that featured the use of a map to trace the movement of a drug addict as he went through Baltimore. Clinicians from a methadone clinic gave him a GPS unit that tracked his movements every 25 meters. If he was still, his location was tracked every 25 miles.
A new study discovered that indoor tanning among U.S. college students is linked to addiction, anxiety, and substance use. Georgiann Caruso of CNN writes that researchers polled more than 400 undergraduates between the ages of 18 and 25 in the northeastern U.S, and half of them said they used tanning beds. The participants were asked about their tanning habits as well as their use of alcohol and other substances, and found that people who used tanning beds also tended to drink alcohol and use marijuana. They were also more likely to have anxiety.
A recent study by Idaho State University’s Psychology Department found that cases of substance abuse developed during young adulthood—including alcohol and illicit substances—can be linked to sleep deprivation during childhood.
Unlike illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin, alcohol consumption can’t be tested after a certain amount of time has passed. Because alcohol is metabolized quickly, it’s hard to discriminate between excessive and responsible levels of drinking without having witnessed the drinking. Researchers at Penn State College have found that measuring protein changes in the blood that are linked to alcohol use might lead to a more accurate diagnostic test for alcohol consumption. Their results were published online in Biological Psychiatry
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