Substance Abuse News and Research

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Recreational drugs significantly increase the risk of stroke

The recreational drugs cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines significantly increase the risk of stroke – including among younger users – Cambridge researchers have concluded after analyzing data from more than 100 million people.

9 Mar 2026

Despite their successes, some mobile crisis response teams are in crisis

It was a snowy afternoon in Bozeman, a city of nearly 60,000 nestled among the mountains of southern Montana. Temperatures hovered in the mid-30s.

4 Mar 2026

Substance use among healthcare workers linked to poorer patient care

Their job is to protect, promote, and restore human health and lives, but healthcare workers believe that their own use of alcohol and illegal drugs reduces the quality of care they provide to patients.

3 Mar 2026

Prenatal infection increases risk of alcohol misuse in adulthood

Exposure to infection and other immune stress in the womb increases the likelihood of alcohol misuse in adulthood, a risk that may be reduced through prenatal antioxidant treatment, a new Washington State University study shows.

19 Feb 2026

Dual approach strengthens recovery for military PTSD

Military service members and veterans frequently experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is linked to a range of psychological challenges and adverse effects.

17 Feb 2026

Sprint-based exercise reduces panic attacks and improves mental health

High-intensity exercise shows promise in retraining fear responses in panic disorder, providing a sustainable and engaging alternative to traditional therapies.

11 Feb 2026

Foreign legislation strongly influences domestic novel psychoactive substance deaths

Ric Treble is a retired forensic chemist, who has studied the development of novel drugs for over thirty years.

30 Jan 2026

Bradycardia emerges as key clinical sign of xylazine-opioid overdose

Researchers have identified bradycardia-an abnormally low heart rate–as a symptom of xylazine-opioid overdose.

14 Jan 2026

Rare sugars activate metabolic signaling to reduce alcohol consumption in mice

While investigating the FGF21-oxytocin-dopamine system, a mechanism that regulates sugar appetite, a team of researchers at Kyoto University noticed reports suggesting that the protein FGF21 may regulate alcohol ingestion.

12 Jan 2026

Varenicline helps young people quit nicotine vaping regardless of cannabis use

Adolescent and young adult nicotine vaping has become an urgent public health concern, as 2024 marked the first year that nicotine vaping was the most initiated drug.

12 Dec 2025

Medical cannabis evidence falls short for most conditions

Medical cannabis lacks adequate scientific backing for most of the conditions it is commonly used to treat, including chronic pain, anxiety and insomnia, according to a comprehensive review led by UCLA Health.

3 Dec 2025

11 genetic loci that shape impulsive decision-making

Researchers identify distinct genetic loci involved in delay discounting and how these variants are involved in physical and psychiatric health outcomes.

3 Dec 2025

Study finds early neural markers of addiction risk differ between boys and girls

The roots of addiction risk may lie in how young brains function long before substance use begins, according to a new study from Weill Cornell Medicine.

21 Nov 2025

Rising youth e-cigarette use threatens children’s health and human rights

Exposing children to e-cigarettes compromises their human rights. These products should be regulated in a way that puts children's best interests first and protects them from the harms associated with nicotine consumption in all its forms, argue experts in The BMJ today.

12 Nov 2025

ChatGPT can provide trustworthy information for pregnant women seeking advice on opioid use disorder

When trained correctly on medically accurate information, ChatGPT can provide trustworthy information for pregnant women seeking medical advice for treating opioid use disorder, according to new research in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, based at Rutgers University.

23 Oct 2025

FAU launches transformative community initiative to prevent substance use among youth

Florida Atlantic University has received a $3 million, five-year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, to lead a transformative community initiative designed to prevent substance use among South Florida's youth.

13 Oct 2025

Depression and psychosis rise after childbirth while suicide risk declines

Depression and psychosis are more common in women after childbirth than before, but the risk of suicide attempts decreases. This is shown by two new studies from Karolinska Institutet.

25 Sep 2025

GLP-1RAs linked to lower risk of mortality and cardiovascular events in psoriasis patients

Psoriasis patients treated with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) face a 78% lower risk of death and a 44% lower risk of major cardiovascular events compared to those taking other diabetes or weight-loss medications, new research has shown.

17 Sep 2025

Global review links firearm access and ownership to mental health harms

Interventions to address firearm accessibility and related dangers should account not only for direct exposure to violence but also for complex psychosocial pathways through which firearms affect mental health across populations, according to a systematic scoping review published in the September/October issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry, part of the Lippincott portfolio from Wolters Kluwer.

13 Sep 2025

Alcohol assay from Carolina Liquid Chemistries receives CLIA moderate complexity categorization on Abbott ImmTox™ 270 chemistry analyzer

An ethyl alcohol (ETOH) assay from Carolina Liquid Chemistries Corp. (CLC) has been categorized as moderately complex under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) for use on the Abbott Laboratories ImmTox™ 270 clinical chemistry analyzer.

From Carolina Liquid Chemistries Corp. 19 Aug 2025