Addiction

New research provides evidence that people who grew up in an unstable environment are more susceptible to food addiction. The findings, published in the journal Appetite, indicate that unpredictability in one’s earlier stages of life is associated with maladaptive patterns...

A new study published in Addictive Behaviors explores the connection between internalized alcohol stigma, depression, and self-compassion. For women who have experienced sexual assault and alcohol use disorder, the presence of self-compassion eased the consequences of internalized alcohol stigma. This...

New research provides insight into the underlying psychological factors related to depressive symptoms during alcohol hangovers. The findings, which appear in the journal Addictive Behaviors, indicate that both emotion dysregulation and repetitive negative thinking play a key role.

Scientists from Germany and Canada have shown in Frontiers in Psychiatry that in humans, cocaine use disorder (CUD) leads to changes in the ‘methylome’ of a subregion within the prefrontal cortex, Brodmann Area 9, thought to be important for self-awareness and inhibitory...

Cannabis shows some preliminary promise in the treatment of opioid withdrawal, according to new research published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence. But more controlled studies are need to better understand the proper dose range that provides safe and effective therapy...

A new analysis of hospital discharges in California showed that 1% of children whose mothers were diagnosed with the cannabis use disorder died in the first year of life. This percentage was 0.4% for mothers without this disorder. The study...

Research published in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy finds that compulsive sexual behavior is related to religious practices requiring intense commitment and inflexible expectations for belief and behavior. The study found that when moral disapproval is utilized to...

A recent experiment used intravenous infusions of alcohol in heavy drinkers and healthy controls to study the relationship between levels of ghrelin, a hormone that is produced in the stomach, and the effects of alcohol. Results showed that alcohol significantly...

A study in a virtual reality bar setting assessed the effects of being subjected to painful heat on alcohol consumption. Results showed that men decreased intervals between sips of the alcoholic drink, but did not drink more in each sip....

Addiction can be extremely detrimental to an individual in many different domains, including brain functioning. A new study published in Alcohol and Alcoholism provides hope by suggesting that alcohol detox can greatly improve cognitive impairments within weeks.

Many people love to play video games, but for some people, it can become an addiction. This raises the question; how can we tell if someone’s at-risk for their video game consumption to become a problem? A study published in...

A new study analyzed medical data of patients who were addicted to smoking cigarettes at the time they suffered injuries to specific regions of the brain and reported that certain brain injuries resulted in the addiction disappearing.

New research published in Frontiers in Psychology found a connection between alcohol consumption in college and adverse experiences in childhood. The study revealed that as scores on a measure of adverse childhood experiences increased, so did the likelihood that the...

A study using functional magnetic resonant imaging (fMRI) compared brain activities of persons suffering from smartphone addiction (excessive smartphone use) and those who use their smartphones in a less intrusive way. It reported systematic differences in brain activity during rest...