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Reducing nicotine content in cigarettes may help decrease addiction, research suggests

The FDA is right - when it comes to disease culprits, cigarette smoking tops the list. While recognized as the number-one cause of preventable disease and death, it's an incredibly tough habit to break due to the addictiveness of nicotine.

23 Aug 2017

Antipsychotics commonly prescribed to adults with IDD, study finds

Antipsychotic medication is frequently being prescribed to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), often without a psychiatric diagnosis, a new study conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences has found.

23 Aug 2017

Dying at home in an opioid crisis: Hospices grapple with stolen meds

Nothing seemed to help the patient — and hospice staff didn't know why. They sent home more painkillers for weeks. But the elderly woman, who had severe dementia and incurable breast cancer, kept calling out in pain.

22 Aug 2017

New vaccine could offer protection against opioid combinations

Substance abuse is a continuing problem in the U.S., particularly with heroin and other opioids, to the point of being an epidemic.

21 Aug 2017

Opioid crisis strains foster care system; programs aim to keep kids with mom

After Raven Mosser gave birth six years ago, she woke up to a social worker in her hospital room. Her newborn son had been born exposed to opioids — drugs she had been abusing for years. If she didn't get clean, she was at risk of losing him.

18 Aug 2017

Study identifies link between e-cigarette and tobacco use in school children

A new study, published in the journal Tobacco Control has found a link showing that school children who use e-cigarettes are more likely to try tobacco within a year.

18 Aug 2017

Teenagers’ impulsive and risk taking behavior not related to brain deficit symptoms

A popular theory in recent neuroscience proposes that slow development of the prefrontal cortex - and its weak connectivity with brain reward regions - explains teenagers' seemingly impulsive and risky behavior.

17 Aug 2017

Researchers discover synthetic compound effective at relieving neuropathic pain

A team of scientists led by chemists Stephen Martin and James Sahn at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered what they say is a powerful pain reliever that acts on a previously unknown pain pathway.

17 Aug 2017

A long and winding road: Kicking heroin in an opioid ‘treatment desert’

Heather Menzel squirmed in her seat, unable to sleep on the Greyhound bus as it rolled through the early morning darkness toward Bakersfield, in California's Central Valley.

11 Aug 2017

Opioid crisis results in increased admissions to hospital ICUs and deaths

The opioid crisis in the United States is resulting in increased admissions to hospital intensive care units and in increased numbers of ICU deaths from opioid overdoses, according to new research published online, ahead of print in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

11 Aug 2017

People with opioid use disorder 50% more likely to get treatment after implementation of ACA

Once the Affordable Care Act was fully implemented in 2014, people who struggled with misusing opioids were 50 percent more likely to get treatment and twice as likely to have that treatment paid for by insurance than before, according to a new Drexel University study.

10 Aug 2017

Pharmaceutical companies may have strong hold on how doctors prescribe opioids, study suggests

One in twelve physicians - and nearly one in five family medicine physicians - accepted payments from pharmaceutical companies related to opioids, according to a new study out of Boston Medical Center's Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine.

10 Aug 2017

FDA focusses on discouraging e-cigarettes use by kids

In a press release the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said that the agency would focus on a new public health education campaign that would discourage the use of e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) by kids. The campaign is titled “The Real Cost”.

9 Aug 2017

Psychedelic drugs could help mental health patients recover from their symptoms

The altered state of consciousness and temporary lack of ego that results from using psychedelic drugs could help some mental health patients recover from their symptoms, according to academics at the University of Adelaide.

8 Aug 2017

Discovery of new biological pathway involved in pain processing offers hope for new treatments

The discovery of a new biological pathway involved in pain processing offers hope of using existing cancer drugs to replace the use of opioids in chronic pain treatment, according to scientists at McGill University.

8 Aug 2017

Opioid prescription use found to be more common among cancer survivors

A new study found that opioid prescription use is more common in cancer survivors than in individuals without a history of cancer.

7 Aug 2017

Researchers explore why physicians underprescribe drug approved to treat opioid addiction

A drug approved for private physicians to treat opioid addiction is being underprescribed, and a survey of addiction specialists suggests that many of them are not willing to increase their use of it, despite an expanding opioid addiction epidemic in the United States, according to research presented at the 125th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.

4 Aug 2017

UVA researchers identify connection between dopamine neurons and brain’s circadian center

Neurons in the brain that produce the pleasure-signaling neurotransmitter dopamine also directly control the brain's circadian center, or "body clock" - the area that regulates eating cycles, metabolism and waking/resting cycles - a key link that possibly affects the body's ability to adapt to jet lag and rotating shift work, a new University of Virginia study has demonstrated.

3 Aug 2017

AbbVie hosts roundtable meeting to agree priority actions needed to eliminate hepatitis C in London

Representatives from the London Assembly and local authorities in the Capital are set to meet with third sector and public health representatives in a roundtable meeting hosted by biopharmaceutical company, AbbVie, on World Hepatitis Day.