Substance Use Disorder News and Research

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Study illuminates an invisible crisis in children’s mental health

One in eight children have mental disorders that cause symptoms and impairment and therefore require treatment, but even in high-income countries most of these children will not gain access to services to treat them, reports a study published in the journal Evidence-Based Mental Health.

19 Jul 2021

NIH leaders address how using appropriate language can reduce mental health and addiction stigma

In a perspective published in Neuropsychopharmacology, leaders from the National Institutes of Health address how using appropriate language to describe mental illness and addiction can help to reduce stigma and improve how people with these conditions are treated in health care settings and throughout society.

19 Jul 2021

How ERs fail patients with addiction: One patient’s tragic death

Jameson Rybak tried to quit using opioids nearly a dozen times within five years. Each time, he'd wait out the vomiting, sweating and chills from withdrawal in his bedroom.

15 Jul 2021

New study finds an association between alcohol use and higher risk of several cancers

A new study from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), published in the journal Lancet Oncology, has found an association between alcohol and a substantially higher risk of several forms of cancer, including breast, colon, and oral cancers.

14 Jul 2021

KU researchers investigate how parental substance use is associated with child neglect

Substance use disorder has long been considered a key factor in cases of parental neglect. But new research from the University of Kansas shows that such substance abuse does not happen in a vacuum.

12 Jul 2021

California lawmakers push feds to allow a therapy that pays meth users to abstain

In his multiple attempts to overcome a methamphetamine addiction that ground through two decades of his life, Tyrone Clifford Jr. remembers well the closest he came. "The most success I had," he said, "is when my dealer was in jail."

2 Jul 2021

Dentists need to be aware of medication history even in younger patients, study suggests

A new study demonstrates that many younger adult dental patients are taking medications and highlights the importance of dental providers reviewing medication histories regardless of age.

24 Jun 2021

More research needed to clarify effects of cannabis on brain development of young adults with ADHD

At least so far, the currently limited research base does not establish that cannabis has additional adverse effects on brain development or functioning in adolescents or young adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), concludes a review in the July/August issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

21 Jun 2021

Study reveals prevalence of multimorbidity among people using methamphetamine

People who use methamphetamine are more likely to have health conditions, mental illness, and substance use disorders than people who do not use the drug, according to a new study by researchers at the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) at NYU School of Global Public Health.

3 Jun 2021

Methamphetamine users more susceptible to have medical, mental, and substance use issues

People who use methamphetamine are nearly twice as likely to have medical multimorbidity, and over three times as likely to have a mental illness.

2 Jun 2021

WVU gets ECHO Superhub designation

The West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute Project ECHO program has been spreading specialty care knowledge across the Mountain State for five years.

1 Jun 2021

The effects of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on pregnancy and birth

The severe impact of this infection has given rise to a study by Theiler et al. (2021), which investigated the effects of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in pregnancy in order to examine the protection it could provide to combat the infection.

19 May 2021

Real-life social support linked to better overall mental health

Social media may make it easier for people to engage online, but it does not provide certain benefits of real-life human interactions, says a Michigan State University researcher.

4 May 2021

New genetically encoded sensor helps detect drugs of abuse

A genetically encoded sensor to detect hallucinogenic compounds has been developed by researchers at the University of California, Davis. Named psychLight, the sensor could be used in discovering new treatments for mental illness, in neuroscience research and to detect drugs of abuse. The work is published April 28 in the journal Cell.

29 Apr 2021

CARA bill to increase nurse practitioner’s buprenorphine prescribing falls short

Since 2016, a federal regulation has allowed nurse practitioners and physician assistants to obtain a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder as a medication assisted treatment.

9 Apr 2021

OCD patients with psychiatric comorbidities can benefit from deep brain stimulation

A new study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry finds that patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as well as other psychiatric comorbidities, such as autism spectrum or tic disorders, may respond well to Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS).

31 Mar 2021

Naloxone can save lives but stigma is preventing its use among newly abstinent opioid users

Opioids are the main driver of fatal drug overdoses in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, resulting in 46,802 deaths in 2018, usually because the person stops breathing.

26 Mar 2021

Inherited behaviors, traits that appear during adolescence may be related to adult cannabis use

While some youth experiment with marijuana but don't go on to long-term use, others develop a problematic pot habit that continues into adulthood.

22 Mar 2021

Study sheds light on experience of patients with substance use disorder during the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect across society, but it has been especially devastating for people with substance use disorder.

5 Mar 2021

Real-time fMRI neurofeedback offers a novel treatment method for psychiatric illness

In recent years, researchers have begun using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) not just for better understanding the neural bases of psychiatric illness, but also for experimental treatment of depression, ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, substance use disorder, and schizophrenia with a technique called real-time fMRI neurofeedback.