Addiction News and Research

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Waismann Method examines link between chronic pain and Opioid-Induced Hyperalgesia

Results from a recent study issued by the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration revealed that treatment admissions for prescription painkiller abuse rose 345 percent over a 10 year period extending from 1998 to 2008.

5 Feb 2011

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

New Spanish version of ASPIRE for Hispanic teens

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center's popular web-based teen prevention and smoking-cessation program, ASPIRE, now speaks Spanish.

2 Feb 2011

French guy says Parkinson’s drug induced gambling and gay sex addiction, tries to sue GSK for $610,000

GlaxoSmithKline is being sued this week by a French father-of-two, alleging the British pharmaceutical firm’s drug – Reqip (Ropirnirole) to treat Parkinson’s disease turned him into a gay sex and gambling addict. Parkinson’s disease is a seriously and progressively debilitating disease that leads to tremors, slowing of movements and ultimately total immobility.

1 Feb 2011

New nicotine addiction mechanism revealed

A new discovery has shown why some people cannot give up tobacco and may lead to new anti-smoking treatments. The researchers have found a brain pathway which when defective leads to an uncontrollable desire to smoke. This is a “sub-unit” of a receptor protein sensitive to nicotine.

31 Jan 2011

Research sheds light on role of helping in addiction recovery

Participating in community service activities and helping others is not just good for the soul; it has a healing effect that helps alcoholics and other addicts become and stay sober, a researcher from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine reports.

29 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

Reuters examines how Russia's 'drug problem' has 'become an AIDS problem'

Reuters, in a piece exploring the issue of heroin use in Russia describes how the country's "drug problem has now become an AIDS problem."

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

Majority of Americans unaware of law mandating equal coverage of mental health benefits

An overwhelming majority of Americans remain unaware of a law mandating equal coverage of mental health benefits by insurance companies, a cause for concern by psychologists at a time when one-quarter of Americans are reported to have a mental health disorder and only a minority are receiving treatment.

25 Jan 2011

New study: Workplace's key employees may experience high levels of job stress

A workplace's key employees may be at the greatest risk of experiencing high levels of work stress, according to a new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

25 Jan 2011

Roundup: NY Times on mental health cuts; Wis. GOP agenda moves ahead; Minn. Medicaid expansion

Gov. Mark Dayton said during his campaign that enrolling 95,000 people in an expanded Medicaid program would be his top priority when he took office -- and he meant it. Less than three weeks after he was told by members of former Gov. Tim Pawlenty's administration that it could take until October to enact the change, Dayton announced Thursday that it would be done by March 1.

21 Jan 2011

Major breakthrough: Genome-based medicine for treatment of alcoholism

For the first time in alcohol addiction research, UVA investigators have successfully treated alcohol-dependent individuals with medication that is tailored specifically to match their genetic profile.

21 Jan 2011

American Lung Association releases 2010 State of Tobacco Control Report

The American Lung Association released its State of Tobacco Control 2010 report today, which tracks progress on key tobacco control policies at the federal and state level, assigning grades based on whether laws are adequately protecting citizens from the enormous burden caused by tobacco use.

20 Jan 2011

Long-term use of khat drug decreases self-control, leads to undesirable behaviour: Study

Researchers at the universities of Leiden, Amsterdam and Granada were the first to investigate the effects of the drug khat on a person's ability to inhibit undesirable behaviour.

20 Jan 2011

Singapore study finds video game addiction exists globally

A new study by an international research team -- including an Iowa State University psychologist -- found further evidence that video game "addiction" exists globally and that greater amounts of gaming, lower social competence and greater impulsivity were risk factors for becoming pathological gamers.

20 Jan 2011

Adult children of divorce are more likely to have suicidal ideation

Adult children of divorce are more likely to have seriously considered suicide than their peers from intact families, suggests new research from the University of Toronto.

20 Jan 2011

Privatization of alcohol sales results in more alcohol-related death

Alcohol industry watchdog Marin Institute joined with Canadian and American researchers today to call attention to disturbing findings in a new study that should put the debate over privatizing alcohol sales in U.S. control states to rest once and for all.

19 Jan 2011