- Inflicting greater harm judged to be less harmful September 9
- Low grades in adolescence linked to dopamine genes September 3
- Social networks influence health behaviors September 2
Archive for the ‘Addiction’ Category
Excessive drinking may lead to poor brain health via obesity
Prior research has shown that alcohol abuse and dependence are typically associated with higher rates of obesity, as evidenced by a high body mass index (BMI). Findings from a new study of the relationship between BMI and regional measures of brain structure, metabolite concentrations, and cerebral blood flow suggest that alcohol-related brain injuries may result from a complicated fusion of hazardous drinking, chronic cigarette smoking, and even elevated BMI.
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MeCP2 protein linked to cocaine addiction
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a protein that may act as the trigger controlling the addictive impact of cocaine in the brain. The findings may one day lead to new therapies to treat addiction.
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Stopping smoking cessation treatments too soon reduces odds of success for 45 percent of smokers
A study led by researchers in the Oregon Health and Science University Smoking Cessation Center may change the way clinicians make treatment decisions for their patients who smoke. Their findings published online in the journal Addiction suggest that current treatment theories that maintain any smoking after the planned target quit day predicts treatment failure need to be expanded to take into account a more dynamic quitting process.
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Sensitivity to alcohol odors may indicate a genetic predisposition to alcohol dependence
A study of responses to the aromas of alcoholic drinks according to subjects’ genotyping at a SNP in GABRA2 has found that this genotype can affect the brain’s reward responses to cues such as alcohol odors. Results will be published in the December 2010 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
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School-based intervention successfully lowers drinking rates in at risk children
Researchers at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry describe a successful personality-based intervention for substance abuse delivered by teachers in the September 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
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Smoking increases depressive symptoms in teens
While some teenagers may puff on cigarettes to ‘self-medicate’ against the blues, scientists at the University of Toronto and the University of Montreal have found that smoking may actually increase depressive symptoms in some adolescents.
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Chronic drinking can disrupt circadian rhythms
Circadian rhythmicity is regulated by circadian clock genes, and animal studies have shown that chronic drinking can alter expressions in these genes. A new study has found that significantly lower levels of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) – a molecule of RNA that helps to manufacture proteins – in circadian clock genes in alcohol-dependent (AD) patients support a relationship between circadian clock gene dysregulation and drinking in humans.
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Alcohol dependence damages both episodic memory and awareness of memory
Alcohol dependence (AD) has negative effects on cognitive processes such as memory. Metamemory refers to the subjective knowledge that people have of their own cognitive processing abilities, such as their monitoring and control of memory. A new study has found that AD has a negative impact on both episodic memory as well as metamemory.
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Opiate addicts get hooked via prescriptions
If you want to know how people become addicted and why they keep using drugs, ask the people who are addicted. Thirty-one of 75 patients hospitalized for opioid detoxification told University at Buffalo physicians they first got hooked on drugs legitimately prescribed for pain.
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Binge drinking increases death risk in men with high blood pressure
If you have high blood pressure, binge drinking may dramatically raise your risk of stroke or heart-related death, according to a South Korean study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
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