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Smoking rates remain alarmingly high among American Indians, LGBT smokers and people with mental health issues

While the overall number of people who smoke in the United States is at an all-time low, not everyone is quite ready to celebrate. "We're making great strides, but it's evident that there are large groups of people who continue to struggle with tobacco and the chronic diseases associated with it," said Amy Lukowski, Psy.D., clinical director of Health Initiatives at National Jewish Health in Denver and for its QuitLogix program, the largest non-profit smoking quitline in the country.

20 Nov 2015

NIH-led collaboration details research strategy to address brain disorders

Infants are starved of oxygen during difficult births. Children's cognitive function is permanently damaged due to malnutrition or exposure to infections or toxins. Adults suffer from crippling depression or dementia. The breadth and complexity of these and other brain and nervous system disorders make them some of the most difficult conditions to diagnose and treat, especially in the developing world, where there are few resources.

19 Nov 2015

FDA approves Narcan nasal spray to prevent or reverse effects of opioid overdose

Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan nasal spray, the first FDA-approved nasal spray version of naloxone hydrochloride, a life-saving medication that can stop or reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. Opioids are a class of drugs that include prescription medications such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine, as well as the illegal drug heroin.

18 Nov 2015

Research: Some 15% of women experience incapacitated rape during their freshman year at college

Some 15 percent of women are raped while incapacitated from alcohol or other drug use during their freshman year at college, according to new research.

18 Nov 2015

Experts issue recommendations aimed at stemming prescription opioid epidemic

A group of experts, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, today issued recommendations aimed at stemming the prescription opioid epidemic, a crisis that kills an average of 44 people a day in the U.S.

17 Nov 2015

Financial incentives offered to help pregnant women quit smoking are highly cost-effective: Study

The scientific journal Addiction has today published the first cost-effectiveness analysis of financial incentives to help pregnant women stop smoking. The report found that financial incentives are highly cost-effective, with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of £482 ($734) per quality-adjusted life year (QALY), which is well below recommended thresholds in high income countries.

12 Nov 2015

Dartmouth researchers reveal involvement of designer brain receptors in cravings

Dartmouth researchers studying rats have discovered that activation of designer neural receptors can suppress cravings in a brain region involved in triggering those cravings.

12 Nov 2015

Women need different treatment from men with addiction, says McMaster University-led study

Painkillers prescribed by doctors are the starting point for an opioid addiction for more than half of female methadone clinic patients, and they need different treatment from men with addiction, says a study led by McMaster University researchers.

10 Nov 2015

Braeburn, Camurus announce FDA Fast Track designation for CAM2038 to treat opioid addiction

Braeburn Pharmaceuticals and Camurus announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Fast Track designation for the CAM2038 weekly and monthly buprenorphine subcutaneous injection products under development for the treatment of opioid addiction.

5 Nov 2015

Tobacco cessation program needs to be more widely used for teens with substance abuse issues: Study

Substance abuse treatments that target main issues such as serious drug and alcohol addiction are not frequently being used to also wean adolescents from tobacco, a University of Georgia study finds.

4 Nov 2015

Oxford professor wins Heinrich Wieland Prize for pioneering method that helps control nerve cells with light

Gero Miesenböck was the first to insert a light-controlled on/off switch into brain cells. His pioneering method allows scientists to switch nerve cells on and off selectively and observe how the behaviour of, for example, fruit flies or mice changes as a result. In this way, researchers can learn in a step-by-step process what behaviour the studied brain circuits control and what goes awry in disease. For his method, hailed as a "breakthrough of the decade," Professor Gero Miesenböck of the University of Oxford will receive the 100,000-euro Heinrich Wieland Prize of the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation in Munich on November 6, 2015.

4 Nov 2015

Hypersexual disorder can be linked to hyperactive stress systems

New research from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that hypersexual disorder - known popularly as sex addiction - can be linked to hyperactive stress systems. In a stress regulation test using the cortisone drug dexamethasone, men with hypersexual disorder showed higher levels of stress hormones than controls, a finding that the researchers hope will contribute to improved therapy for this patient group.

3 Nov 2015

People with psychosis and addiction disorder may respond better to disorder-specific treatment

People with psychosis often develop an addiction disorder: almost one in two patients with schizophrenia are affected once during their lifetime. Patients with a dual diagnosis mostly have a poorer prognosis, and their disorder often becomes chronic.

31 Oct 2015

Novel enzyme therapy offers possible treatment for cocaine overdose

A long-acting enzyme that rapidly and safely metabolizes cocaine in the blood stream is currently being investigated in animal models as a possible treatment for cocaine overdose.

30 Oct 2015

Rising cigarette exercise taxes push consumers toward more danger

Increasing cigarette exercise taxes may have the unintended consequence of encouraging consumers to seek higher nicotine content and more dangerous cigarette products, according to a study published in Marketing Science, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

29 Oct 2015

ASH study shows excessive smoking contributes to ongoing poverty in West Midlands

New figures from Action on Smoking and Health show that of the 513,000 households in the West Midlands that include an adult smoker 172,000 (34%) are below the poverty line.

29 Oct 2015

New research reveals regional variations in use of heroin and prescription painkillers

New research shows that drug abusers are not completely abandoning prescription opioids for heroin. Instead, many use the two concurrently based on their availability, according to a survey of 15,000 patients at drug-treatment centers in 49 states.

29 Oct 2015

New research shows that using e-cigarettes related to problematic drinking

Using e-cigarettes is related to problematic drinking, according to new research published in Addictive Behaviors. In a study involving around 1400 people, researchers also found that more women than men use e-cigarettes socially, opposite to patterns seen in regular cigarette smoking.

29 Oct 2015

Study: Pediatric patients prescribed more opioid medication than necessary following surgery

Although it is not uncommon for pediatric patients to be prescribed opioids to treat certain types of moderate to severe pain, new research suggests these patients may be prescribed more opioids than necessary following surgery. A study presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2015 annual meeting found nearly 60 percent of opioids dispensed to pediatric patients following surgery remained unused, which could lead to the unused medication being abused by other adolescents in the household.

26 Oct 2015

Major shift needed in global fight against tuberculosis, say researchers

Unless there is a major shift in the way the world fights tuberculosis--from a reliance on biomedical solutions to an approach that combines biomedical interventions with social actions--the epidemic and drug resistance will worsen, say researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

26 Oct 2015

Addiction News and Research

Smoking rates remain alarmingly high among American Indians, LGBT smokers and people with mental health issues

NIH-led collaboration details research strategy to address brain disorders

FDA approves Narcan nasal spray to prevent or reverse effects of opioid overdose

Research: Some 15% of women experience incapacitated rape during their freshman year at college

Experts issue recommendations aimed at stemming prescription opioid epidemic

Financial incentives offered to help pregnant women quit smoking are highly cost-effective: Study

Dartmouth researchers reveal involvement of designer brain receptors in cravings

Women need different treatment from men with addiction, says McMaster University-led study

Braeburn, Camurus announce FDA Fast Track designation for CAM2038 to treat opioid addiction

Tobacco cessation program needs to be more widely used for teens with substance abuse issues: Study

Oxford professor wins Heinrich Wieland Prize for pioneering method that helps control nerve cells with light

Hypersexual disorder can be linked to hyperactive stress systems

People with psychosis and addiction disorder may respond better to disorder-specific treatment

Novel enzyme therapy offers possible treatment for cocaine overdose

Rising cigarette exercise taxes push consumers toward more danger

ASH study shows excessive smoking contributes to ongoing poverty in West Midlands

New research reveals regional variations in use of heroin and prescription painkillers

New research shows that using e-cigarettes related to problematic drinking

Study: Pediatric patients prescribed more opioid medication than necessary following surgery

Major shift needed in global fight against tuberculosis, say researchers

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

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