Medication development efforts for cocaine dependence have yet to result in an FDA approved treatment. The powerful rewarding effects of cocaine, the profound disruptive impact of cocaine dependence on one's lifestyle, and the tendency of cocaine to attract people who make poor life choices and then exacerbate impulsive behavior all make cocaine a vexing clinical condition.
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The BUPA Foundation has awarded a high commendation prize for research led by the University of York into effective ways of helping tuberculosis patients in Pakistan to give up smoking.
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Nearly half of alcohol and drug addiction counselors now find it acceptable for their patients to drink or take drugs occasionally, a survey has found.
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Young adults undergoing addiction treatment benefit from regular participation in Twelve Step-based self-help groups after discharge, according to a naturalistic study published electronically and in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
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Compared to a survey conducted nearly 20 years ago, about twice the proportion of addiction counselors now find it acceptable for at least some of their patients to have a drink occasionally - either as an intermediate goal or as their final treatment goal, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.
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A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Cordoba links moderate physical activity in males with better hormone levels and sperm characteristics that favour reproduction compared to sedentary men.
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The authors write: "We found that if a hospital's surgical inpatient volume is not growing, such a program results in negative cash flow. We also found that if a hospital's surgical volume is growing, and if the hospital can sufficiently reduce the average length-of-stay for surgical patients without complications, the cash flow could be positive. We recommend that hospitals with limited growth prospects that are nonetheless contemplating a surgical complication reduction program establish agreements with payers to share in any savings generated by the program."
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In a new study published in Frontiers, Dr Timothy Durazzo and colleagues from the San Francisco VA Medical Center and University of California, San Francisco, expand upon their decade of research showing that smoking while kicking the alcohol habit impairs memory, learning and other cognitive skills--ultimately making it more difficult to weather the long storm of sobriety.
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Disadvantaged groups living in poor neighborhoods are much more likely to suffer alcohol problems than their wealthier counterparts, research shows.
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"Twenty-eight years since the first HIV/AIDS case was reported in Kenya, organizations are proposing a new model to fight the epidemic," Sabahi reports. "The model, called 'SAVE,' an acronym for 'Safer practices, Access to treatment, Voluntary counseling and testing, and Empowerment,' hopes to improve the traditional ABC model, which focused on 'Abstinence, Being faithful, and using Condoms,'" the news service adds.
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Adolescent girls participating in a sexual risk reduction (SRR) intervention study were more likely to practice abstinence and, if sexually active, showed substantial decreases in unprotected sex, number of partners, and unintended pregnancies, reports a research team led by principal investigator Dianne Morrison-Beedy, PhD, RN, WHNP-BC, FNAP, FAANP, FAAN, Senior Associate Vice President of USF Health and Dean of the College of Nursing at the University of South Florida.
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In Tuesday's health section of The New York Times, "When a Drug Addict Isn't Ready to Accept Help" and "In Business, Nondrinking Can Be a Costly Expense," both articles address the harsh realities of what happens when addiction hits home.
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Despite Uganda's national HIV prevention campaign that endorses the "ABC-plus" model – "which includes abstinence, being faithful and condom use, as well as measures to prevent the mother-to-child-transmission of HIV and, more recently, methods such as medical male circumcision" -- many young Ugandans do not use condoms consistently during sex, "spurring new measures to promote the prophylactic," PlusNews reports.
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Abstinence from alcohol for 2 months could correct the imbalance between bone formation and resorption in alcoholic men, a study shows.
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Abstinence from smoking seems to affect teens differently than adults in a couple ways, but a new study provides evidence that most of the psychological difficulties of quitting are as strong for relatively new, young smokers as they are for adults who have been smoking much longer.
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While the Western press often targets religious groups for their roles in handling the African AIDS crisis, these groups tend to play positive -- and critical -- roles in fighting the epidemic, according to sociologists.
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In Foreign Policy's "Passport" blog, Associate Editor Uri Friedman reflects on former President George W. Bush's efforts against AIDS, highlighting PEPFAR, which he "established in 2003 and which now supports antiretroviral treatment for 4.5 million people around the world."
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The use of electronic cigarettes has no adverse impact on cardiac function, a study suggests.
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A "contingency management" approach—offering incentives for negative drug tests—can help promote drug abstinence among pregnant women with heroin or cocaine addiction, reports a study in the September Addictive Disorders & Their Treatment. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
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Thirty years into the HIV epidemic, many people who are at high risk of HIV infection cannot or will not adopt safer sexual practices, such as abstinence and condom use. This means there is room in the market for alternative methods to reduce either exposure to or transmission of HIV among these individuals.
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