Substance Use Disorder News and Research

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Prolonged exposure therapy is more effective in treating veterans with PTSD, alcohol use disorder

Prolonged exposure therapy is more effective at treating PTSD than Seeking Safety, a coping skills therapy, for patients who also have alcohol use disorder, found a VA San Diego Healthcare System study.

24 Apr 2019

Research shows mindful body awareness training helps women recover from drug addiction

A novel type of body awareness training helps women recover from drug addiction, according to new research from the University of Washington. People in the study made marked improvement, and many improvements lasted for a year.

17 Apr 2019

Opioid epidemic fuels growing rates of some infectious diseases

The United States faces a converging public health crisis as the nation's opioid epidemic fuels growing rates of certain infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, heart infections, and skin and soft tissue infections.

4 Apr 2019

People under age 50 with hearing loss more likely to misuse alcohol and drugs

People under age 50 with hearing loss misuse prescription opioids at twice the rate of their hearing peers, and are also more likely to misuse alcohol and other drugs, a new national study finds.

26 Mar 2019

Aspiring doctors seek advanced training in addiction medicine

The U.S. Surgeon General’s office estimates that more than 20 million people have a substance use disorder. Meanwhile, the nation’s drug overdose crisis shows no sign of slowing.

22 Mar 2019

Many individuals recovering from addiction continue to suffer from chronic physical disease

Alcohol and other substance-use problems take enormous psychological and societal tolls on millions of Americans.

22 Mar 2019

Mothers with children taken into out-of-home care more likely to receive inadequate prenatal care

Mothers whose first child was taken into care were found to have inadequate or no prenatal care during subsequent pregnancies, according to a study published in CMAJ.

25 Feb 2019

Discharged, dismissed: ERs often miss chance to set overdose survivors on ‘better path’

The last time heroin landed Marissa Angerer in a Midland, Texas, emergency room — naked and unconscious — was May 2016. But that wasn't her first drug-related interaction with the health system.

15 Feb 2019

Relapse dreams more common in people with severe alcohol, drug addiction history

Vivid dreams involving drinking and drug use are common among individuals in recovery. A study from the Massachusetts General Hospital Recovery Research Institute, published in the January issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment after online release in October 2018, finds these relapse dreams are more common in those with more severe clinical histories of alcohol and other drug problems.

13 Feb 2019

What ‘dope sick’ really feels like

Detoxing off heroin or opioids without medication is sheer hell. I should know. For many users, full-blown withdrawal is often foreshadowed by a yawn, or perhaps a runny nose, a sore back, sensitive skin or a restless leg. For me, the telltale sign that the heroin was wearing off was a slight tingling sensation when I urinated.

8 Feb 2019

MUSC researchers examine the way estrogen affects drug addiction

Male rats have held steady as the focus of most addiction studies in the past. But as the field begins to take female rats into account, scientists see that drugs like methamphetamine affect the sexes differently, suggesting the basis for a change in addiction treatment.

7 Feb 2019

Mutant mice administered with cocaine failed to exhibit hyperactivity, shows study

Cocaine is a highly addictive psychostimulant that induces complex molecular, cellular and behavioral responses. Despite various approaches and years of pre-clinical studies, effective, mechanism-based therapies to assist with cocaine misuse and dependence are still sorely lacking.

16 Jan 2019

Most substance use disorder treatment facilities do not offer medication treatment

Despite the mounting death toll of America's opioid crisis, only a minority of facilities that treat substance use disorders offer patients buprenorphine, naltrexone or methadone--the three FDA-approved medications for the long-term management of opioid use disorder, according to a new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

16 Jan 2019

Lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals more likely to suffer severe substance use disorders

Researchers know that lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals are more likely than heterosexuals to use alcohol, tobacco or other drugs, but until now they didn't know to what degree.

14 Jan 2019

Study explores causes for rising rate of hospitalizations among homeless individuals

A homeless individual is one who lacks fixed and reliable housing, and approximately 553,000 people fit that description on any given night in the United States.

21 Dec 2018

Study finds epigenetic differences in the brains of individuals with schizophrenia

A study using a PET scan tracer developed at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital has identified, for the first time, epigenetic differences between the brains of individuals with schizophrenia and those of unaffected study participants.

17 Dec 2018

Study finds increasing rate of hospitalizations among homeless individuals

A homeless individual is one who lacks fixed and reliable housing, and it is estimated that 553,000 people fit that description on any given night in the United States.

14 Dec 2018

Telemedicine for treating substance use disorders remains underused, study shows

Despite the enormous unmet need for treatment of substance use disorders and the promise of telemedicine to fill some of the gaps in care, the tool remains woefully underused, according to research led by investigators from the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School.

5 Dec 2018

Study reveals significant increase in hospitalization rates among homeless adults

Hospitalization rates among homeless adults have increased sharply in recent years, with a very different set of causes from those in non-homeless individuals, reports a study in the January issue of Medical Care. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

30 Nov 2018

Brain imaging study reveals 'hot spot' for cue-reactivity in substance users

When patients with dependence on alcohol, cocaine or nicotine are shown drug cues, or images related to the substance, an area of their brain known as the medial prefrontal cortex shows increased activity, report investigators at the Medical University of South Carolina in an article published online September 7, 2018 in Translational Psychiatry.

21 Nov 2018