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UT Southwestern leads national effort to find effective treatments for drug addiction

UT Southwestern Medical Center psychiatry researchers are leading the Texas arm of a national network that conducts clinical trials aimed at finding effective treatments for drug addiction.

3 Feb 2011

Current prevention efforts delay but do not prevent HCV among injection drug users

A recent 20-year study of injection drug users (IDUs) in Baltimore found a significant decline in new cases of HIV infection but only a slight decline in new cases of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The findings suggest that efforts to curb blood-borne transmission of these viral infections have had success but must be expanded against the highly transmissible HCV.

1 Feb 2011

U.S. Senators urge Army to help National Guard troops for mental health support

U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy and Lindsey Graham, the co-chairs of the Senate National Guard Caucus, are urging the U.S. Army to do more to help National Guard troops cope with the stresses of combat.

29 Jan 2011

Amity engages Rick Engineering for development plans of new Children and Family Reunification center

Amity Foundation announced that it engaged Rick Engineering of Tucson, Arizona for the development plans of their new State-of-the-Art Family and Children's Center 'Dragonfly Village'.

29 Jan 2011

Roundup: Florida considering major cuts to mental health programs; Texas patient groups fight back on Medicaid plans; Calif. weighs limiting Medicaid patients' trips to doctors

In the committee rooms and corridors of the state Capitol, lobbyists are looking for clues about which programs will get slashed. On Wednesday, mental-health and substance-abuse programs got more than a clue. In fact, it looked like a bulls-eye (Saunders, 1/27).

28 Jan 2011

New insight on rehabilitating brain function in addicts

People with addictions to stimulants tend to choose instant gratification or a smaller but sooner reward over a future benefit, even if the future reward is greater. Reduced value of a future reward, called "delay discounting" by neuroscientists, is the major challenge for treatment of addiction. A new study in the February 2011 (Vol. 69, Issue 3) Biological Psychiatry appears to present a strategy for increasing the value of future rewards in the minds of addicts.

28 Jan 2011

Cognitive training may help end hijacking of imagination by drugs of abuse

The growing numbers of new cases of substance abuse disorders are perplexing. After all, the course of drug addiction so often ends badly. The negative consequences of drug abuse appear regularly on TV, from stories of celebrities behaving in socially inappropriate and self-destructive ways while intoxicated to dramatization of the rigors of drug withdrawal on "Intervention" and other reality shows.

28 Jan 2011

Teen brains react with erratic excitement during reward-driven tasks

University of Pittsburgh researchers have recorded neuron activity in adolescent rat brains that could reveal the biological root of the teenage propensity to consider rewards over consequences and explain why adolescents are more vulnerable to drug addiction, behavioral disorders, and other psychological ills.

27 Jan 2011

Six key points to tackle substance abuse, addiction problems among nurses

As many as ten to 20 per cent of nurses and nursing students may have substance abuse and addiction problems, but the key to tackling this difficult issue - and protecting public safety - is support and treatment, not punishment. That is the key message in a paper in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

27 Jan 2011

AHRQ finds 30% increase in Medicaid-covered patient hospital admissions

Hospital admissions of patients covered by Medicaid jumped by 30 percent between 1997 and 2008, compared to a 5 percent growth in those of patients with private health insurance, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

21 Jan 2011

Australia’s child abuse rates fall but foster care rates rise: Report

Statistics show that the total number of Tasmanian children in state care has risen by 60% in six years. This is the second highest number of children per 1,000 in child protection in the Australia. This means more children are being removed from their families for issues such as substance abuse, mental health and family violence.

20 Jan 2011

Abuse of legal substances

The Internet, smart phones and teens' endless search for self-acceptance in their technology connected yet isolated world is driving a revival of substance abuse of salvia, an herb from flower seeds that induces psychedelic effects but is not detectable with usual drug tests, and synthetic cannabis, a psychoactive herbal and chemical concoction, also undetectable, popularly known around high schools as "spice".

13 Jan 2011

Huge falloff in teens' recalled exposure to drug abuse prevention messages

The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study (MTF) – the largest survey on teen drug abuse tracking over 46,000 8th, 10th and 12th graders – found a huge falloff in teens' recalled exposure to drug abuse prevention messages over the past seven years. The new data from the MTF study have been released at a time when teens themselves report finding the drug-prevention messages to be effective.

13 Jan 2011

Roundup: Penn. and Conn. insurance issues; MD. hospital's uncompensated care; Calif. budget

Pennsylvania's subsidized health insurance for low-income working people will likely end next month, officials on Gov.-elect Tom Corbett's transition team said Tuesday, leaving more than 40,000 people with less palatable options and dashing the hopes of more than 400,000 on the waiting list.

13 Jan 2011

Roundup: Calif. and health reform; Conn. mental health parity; Insurance premium increases in Iowa, Fla.

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield's proposed 11 percent health insurance premium increase is excessive, two experts have concluded. The company, which insures three-quarters of Iowans who buy their own policies, already raised premiums on those plans an average of 18 percent last spring. Wellmark sparked outcries when it announced in November that it wants to raise those rates again in order to keep up with rising prices and increased use of medical care (Leys, 1/7).

7 Jan 2011

Unique vaccine produces long-lasting anti-cocaine immunity in mice

Researchers from The Scripps Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Cornell University have produced a long-lasting anti-cocaine immunity in mice by giving them a unique vaccine that combines bits of the common cold virus with a particle that mimics cocaine.

5 Jan 2011

Researchers develop unique vaccine that produces long-lasting anti-cocaine immunity in mice

5 Jan 2011

New innovative program to identify and treat combat veterans suffering from PTSD

An innovative program to identify and treat combat veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - but who have not sought treatment - has been started by U.S.VETS, the nation's largest nonprofit devoted to providing housing and other services to homeless and at-risk veterans.

29 Dec 2010

New study shows striking changes, variations by region in admission rates for substance abuse treatment

Although the overall rate of admissions to substance abuse treatment in the U.S. remained stable between 1998 and 2008, at about 770 admissions for every 100,000 persons in the population, a new study shows striking changes and variations in admission rates by region. For example, the rate of admissions for alcohol as the primary drug has declined by 15 percent nationally. However admission rates for alcohol in West North Central states (Ark., Iowa, Kan., Minn., Mo., N.D., Neb. and S.D.) remained the same.

24 Dec 2010

Calif. insurers opt to resume kids' policies; Meanwhile, other plans cut mental health benefits in response to health law

Some California insurers have decided to resume offering children's individual health insurance policies — a step that reverses decisions made last fall to exit this market. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that, as a result of requirements in the new health law, some health plans are opting to cut mental health benefits.

24 Dec 2010

Substance Abuse News and Research

UT Southwestern leads national effort to find effective treatments for drug addiction

Current prevention efforts delay but do not prevent HCV among injection drug users

U.S. Senators urge Army to help National Guard troops for mental health support

Amity engages Rick Engineering for development plans of new Children and Family Reunification center

Roundup: Florida considering major cuts to mental health programs; Texas patient groups fight back on Medicaid plans; Calif. weighs limiting Medicaid patients' trips to doctors

New insight on rehabilitating brain function in addicts

Cognitive training may help end hijacking of imagination by drugs of abuse

Teen brains react with erratic excitement during reward-driven tasks

Six key points to tackle substance abuse, addiction problems among nurses

AHRQ finds 30% increase in Medicaid-covered patient hospital admissions

Australia’s child abuse rates fall but foster care rates rise: Report

Abuse of legal substances

Huge falloff in teens' recalled exposure to drug abuse prevention messages

Roundup: Penn. and Conn. insurance issues; MD. hospital's uncompensated care; Calif. budget

Roundup: Calif. and health reform; Conn. mental health parity; Insurance premium increases in Iowa, Fla.

Unique vaccine produces long-lasting anti-cocaine immunity in mice

Researchers develop unique vaccine that produces long-lasting anti-cocaine immunity in mice

New innovative program to identify and treat combat veterans suffering from PTSD

New study shows striking changes, variations by region in admission rates for substance abuse treatment

Calif. insurers opt to resume kids' policies; Meanwhile, other plans cut mental health benefits in response to health law

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