Alcohol News and Research

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Quit-smoking drug Chantix effective in cocaine and alcohol addiction

Varenicline is unique among anti-addiction medications in the way it affects the brain. Like nicotine, varenicline activates a specific receptor for a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, but it does so less intensely than the active ingredient of cigarettes does. The net effect is that the drug seems to help by both cutting cravings and making the formerly desired drug less pleasant — without making non-drug pleasures less intense. Alcohol works on the same chemical receptors in the brain as nicotine, and it may enhance the pleasurable effects of smoking.

18 Feb 2012

Ala. mental hospitals to close; La. hospital copes with budget cuts; D.C. gets mental health system

Alabama will shut down most of its mental health hospitals by the spring of 2013 in a sweeping plan to cut costs and change how the state's psychiatric patients receive treatment, state officials announced on Wednesday.

18 Feb 2012

WHO should regulate alcohol consumption with legally binding convention, global health expert says

The "WHO should regulate alcohol at the global level, enforcing such regulations as a minimum drinking age, zero-tolerance drunken driving, and bans on unlimited drink specials," Devi Sridhar, a lecturer in global health politics at the University of Oxford, argues in a commentary published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, Scientific American reports.

17 Feb 2012

Longer looks: GOP contraceptive amendment could have wider effect; The love of caregiving

In their latest move in the battle over contraception coverage, top Republicans in Congress are going for broke: They're now pushing a bill that would allow employers and insurance companies to pick and choose which health benefits to provide based simply on executives' personal moral beliefs. ... Last week, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) offered a "conscience amendment," to the law, pitching it as a way to allay religious employers' qualms about providing birth control to their employees.

17 Feb 2012

Low choline intake increases risk of liver scarring in menopausal women with NAFLD

Menopausal women with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) who don't consume enough of the essential nutrient choline appear to be at higher risk for liver scarring, according to research led by scientists at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

17 Feb 2012

Over 7.5M children reside with a single-parent with alcohol problems

A new report shows 7.5 million children under age 18 (10.5 percent of this population) lived with a parent who has experienced an alcohol use disorder in the past year. According to the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 6.1 million of these children live with two parents—with either one or both parents experiencing an alcohol use disorder in the past year.

17 Feb 2012

National Guard soldiers more likely to develop alcohol-related problems after deployment

Soldiers in the National Guard with no history of alcohol abuse are at significant risk of developing alcohol-related problems during and after deployment, according to a new study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal.

16 Feb 2012

Women with cancer have worse health behaviors after mammography

A recent study conducted by researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., has found that female cancer survivors receiving screening mammography have "worse health behaviors" than women receiving mammography screening and who had never had cancer.

16 Feb 2012

Alcohol-related hospitalization common among U.S. teens and costs $755M per year

Hospitalization for underage drinking is common in the United States, and it comes with a price tag — the estimated total cost for these hospitalizations is about $755 million per year, a Mayo Clinic study has found. Researchers also found geographic and demographic differences in the incidence of alcohol-related hospital admissions.

16 Feb 2012

UCI's Health Education Center to expand DUI awareness program

California reported the largest decline in drunk-driving deaths of any state in the nation in 2010, according to recent statistics, and a $232,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety - through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - to UC Irvine's Health Education Center is helping to keep the trend on track.

16 Feb 2012

Mediterranean diet could prevent brain damage in the long term: Study

A new study suggests that people who follow a Mediterranean-style diet have less small blood vessel damage in the brain. The study appeared in the February issue of the Archives of Neurology.

15 Feb 2012

Scientists identify and describe molecular mechanism behind holoprosencephaly

Researchers of the Max Delbr-ck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have now identified and described a molecular mechanism underlying the most common malformation of the brain in humans. In holoprosencephaly (HPE), the forebrain (prosencephalon) is only incompletely formed.

14 Feb 2012

Healthy, loving relationship is good for the heart

Being involved in a healthy, loving relationship is good for the heart, says Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute cardiologist Julie Damp, M.D.

14 Feb 2012

Norwegian government introduces legal limits for 20 illegal drugs and medicines

Legal limits for twenty illegal drugs and medicines with an abuse potential have been introduced by the Norwegian government. Norway is the first country to define both impairment-based legislative limits and limits for graded sanctions for drugs other than alcohol. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health participated to provide the scientific basis for the new limits.

14 Feb 2012

Cannabis and automobile accidents: Analysis finds link

A new Canadian study suggests that drivers who use cannabis up to three hours before driving are twice as likely to cause a collision as those not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The researchers say that this is because cannabis impairs brain and motor functions needed for safe driving. The study in bmj.com reviewed nine studies of 50,000 people worldwide who had been in serious or fatal crashes.

13 Feb 2012

Even in dramatic times of crisis it is possible to assure public health

Even in dramatic times of crisis, when the Gross National Product collapses, it is still possible to assure a good level of public health. If one is prepared to strengthen the public system of healthcare. "Look for instance to Cuba in the nineties", say scientists from the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine.

13 Feb 2012

RUMC sponsors Nutritional Medicine workshop

Rush University Medical Center is sponsoring a Nutritional Medicine workshop March 15 to 16, 2012, that features internationally-renowned faculty who are leaders in research in nutritional medicine.

13 Feb 2012

Most young Spaniards do not consume alcohol or illegal drugs

Despite the clich-s surrounding the habits of adolescents, the results of a study by the University of Seville show that most young people do not fit the risk profile of taking substances. Some 60% of Spaniards aged 13 to 18 say they do not take drugs and rarely drink alcohol - only in moderation - and at the same time, less than 10% admit to have taken some form of illegal drug.

10 Feb 2012

Acid reducing drugs could raise risk of C. diff diarrhea

U.S. health regulators, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), have announced that ulcer drugs such as AstraZeneca Plc's blockbuster Nexium could increase the risk of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD).

9 Feb 2012

After-school program can help young adolescents avoid alcohol

A voluntary substance prevention program held after school and presented by trained facilitators can help reduce alcohol use among young adolescents, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

9 Feb 2012