Drug Abuse News and Research

RSS

New non-addictive pain-killers

Two University of Adelaide pharmacologists working with one the world's leading neuroscientists have helped pave the way for the development of new pain-killing drugs that are not addictive.

20 Nov 2007

University of Illinois at Chicago receives $2.2 million grant to develop drugs to suppress cocaine cravings

The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy has received a $2.2 million federal grant to develop therapeutics to suppress the cravings of cocaine addicts.

19 Nov 2007

Smoking cessation during pregnancy is focus of study

Despite warnings from experts and media campaigns marketing healthy living techniques, approximately one-third of women of childbearing age smoke cigarettes and 25-50 percent of women smoke during pregnancy.

13 Nov 2007

Genes play important role in risk for dependence on illicit and licit drugs

The genes that play a role in illegal drug abuse are not entirely the same as those involved in dependence on legal substances like alcohol and nicotine, and caffeine addiction appears to be genetically independent of all the others, according to a study led by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers.

6 Nov 2007

Educating teens about the dangers of tobacco use

"As a teen, no one ever told us that cigarettes would affect our health," says Jerry Berkowitz, a throat cancer survivor who started smoking at age 13. "Everyone smoked."

2 Nov 2007

Medicaid pays for one-third of drug abuse hospitalizations

Medicaid paid for more than one-third of the 1.3 million hospital stays related to prescription or illegal drug abuse in 2005, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

2 Nov 2007

Researchers discover drug-craving brain region in rats

Chilean researchers have identified a region of the brain - the insular cortex - that plays a role in drug craving in amphetamine-addicted rats, according to a report published in the 26 October issue of the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the nonprofit science society.

25 Oct 2007

Most parents ignorant to teenager's substance use

New research results from the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) suggest that most parents are aware of and accurately evaluate the extent of their teenager's cigarette smoking, marijuana use, drinking and overall substance use.

24 Oct 2007

Insulin levels affect the brain's dopamine systems

Insulin, long known as an important regulator of blood glucose levels, now has a newly appreciated role in the brain.

18 Oct 2007

How does the opioid system work?

The opioid system controls pain, reward and addictive behaviors. Opioids exert their pharmacological actions through three opioid receptors, mu, delta and kappa whose genes have been cloned (Oprm, Oprd1 and Oprk1, respectively).

15 Oct 2007

Feline virus, antiviral drug studied to understand drug resistance

Researchers at Ohio State will spend the next two years testing their theories about just how an AIDS-like virus in cats is able to resist the powerful medicines that are thrown against it.

10 Oct 2007

Peer influence can help young adults avoid drug use

High-risk teenagers who participate in peer-led substance abuse prevention programs reduce their drug use by approximately 15 percent versus traditional curricula, suggests a study led by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC).

9 Oct 2007

OxyContin drug company sued for millions

A private company in the United States is being sued by a number of counties in the state of Kentucky over the potent painkilling drug OxyContin.

7 Oct 2007

The role of working for pay on adolescent tobacco use

Fourteen to 18-year-old adolescents are at an increased risk to initiate smoking when they start to work, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

1 Oct 2007

Stealth learning fosters science education

Rochelle Schwartz-Bloom, a Duke University pharmacology professor who left the lab bench to focus on science education, has developed a tactic for keeping students hands in the air at the end of class.

27 Sep 2007

Link between genetic variant and effectiveness of smoking cessation meds

A genetic variant present in nearly half of Americans of European ancestry is linked to greater effectiveness of the smoking cessation medication bupropion (Zyban), according to research by scientists supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

11 Sep 2007

1,000 strains of mice that feature the genetic diversity of the world population

Mice that are part of the Collaborative Cross project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are helping scientists around the world learn more about possible causes of drug abuse, diabetes, sleep disorders, stress and pain, kidney disease and a number of other conditions that affect millions of people.

30 Aug 2007

Cocaine use linked to academic level achieved

The decreased use of cocaine in the United States over the last 20 years mostly occurred among the highly educated, while cocaine use among non-high school graduates remained constant, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

29 Aug 2007

Sewage reveals community-wide illegal drug use

Public health officials may soon be able to flush out more accurate estimates on illegal drug use in communities across the country thanks to screening test described at the 234 th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

22 Aug 2007

Study looks at how children's anxiety and depression may be associated with substance abuse throughout adulthood

Research underway at Rutgers University Camden seeks to examine links between children's mental health problems and alcohol, nicotine, and illegal drug use over time.

17 Aug 2007