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NIDA grant offers support to develop couples-based drug use intervention for partnered gay men

Dr. Tyrel Starks, an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and faculty affiliate of the Hunter College Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training, has been awarded a three-year grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, totaling $666,900, to develop a couples-based drug use intervention for gay male couples.

22 Mar 2017

Study to assess effectiveness of two OTC medications for treating alcoholism in bipolar patients

Researchers have long wondered if medications could treat alcohol abuse. Ihsan Salloum, M.D., chief of the Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, hopes to answer that question in part with a new clinical trial with E. Sherwood Brown, M.D., Ph.D., at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

22 Mar 2017

Blocking hypocretin signaling may provide new avenue for treating cocaine addiction, study suggests

The hypocretin/orexin (HCRT) system of the brain is best known for promoting wakefulness and appetite. A new paper in Biological Psychiatry suggests that blocking hypocretin signaling via the HCRT-1 receptor (HCRT-R1) might also reduce the appetite for cocaine.

16 Mar 2017

Study shows how mutations allow HCV to elude immune responses and vaccines

Unlike its viral cousins hepatitis A and B, hepatitis C virus (HCV) has eluded the development of a vaccine and infected more than 170 million people worldwide.

16 Mar 2017

ER visits may serve as effective 'teachable moments' for drug use, study suggests

An emergency room visit for an illness or injury may seem like a strange time to try to motivate someone to cut back on using drugs.

13 Mar 2017

Study shows how socially contagious itching is hardwired in the brain

Some behaviors — yawning and scratching, for example — are socially contagious, meaning if one person does it, others are likely to follow suit. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that socially contagious itching is hardwired in the brain.

10 Mar 2017

Giving up cigarettes may be vital for smokers in recovery from illicit substance use disorders, study shows

Smokers in recovery from illicit drug use disorders are at greater risk of relapsing three years later compared with those who do not smoke cigarettes. Results of the study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the City University of New York appear online in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

7 Mar 2017

Student researcher awarded NIDA grant to support dissertation research on syndemic factors

Mr. Raymond Moody - a 4th year doctoral student in Health Psychology and Clinical Science training program at the CUNY Graduate Center and a graduate student researcher at Hunter College's Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training has been awarded a two year grant totaling $155,972 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to support his dissertation research.

7 Mar 2017

UB researchers shed light on perception of danger, satisfaction levels of e-cigarette users

Daily users of e-cigarettes see them as about as satisfying or even more satisfying, and less harmful, than cigarettes, according to the results of a small study from the University at Buffalo.

3 Mar 2017

Researchers explore changes in prevalence of depression among current, former and never smokers

The prevalence of smoking has remained fairly stable over the past decade after declining sharply for many years.

1 Mar 2017

New anti-cocaine monoclonal antibody moves forward towards clinical studies in humans

A University of Cincinnati researcher who has developed an immunotherapy to help reverse cocaine addiction that's been successful in animal models says he hopes to have it in clinical trials in human volunteers within a year.

28 Feb 2017

Cocaine use by fathers may negatively impact cognitive development in male offspring

Fathers who use cocaine at the time of conceiving a child may be putting their sons at risk of learning disabilities and memory loss.

24 Feb 2017

Brain scans could improve prediction of problem drug use among teenagers

There's an idea out there of what a drug-addled teen is supposed to look like: impulsive, unconscientious, smart, perhaps - but not the most engaged. While personality traits like that could signal danger, not every adolescent who fits that description becomes a problem drug user. So how do you tell who's who?

22 Feb 2017

Weak working memory and impulse control pose serious risk for later substance abuse in adolescents

Drug use in adolescence is often linked to later substance-abuse problems, but a new study suggests that a key risk factor is a combination of weak working memory and difficulties with impulse control.

16 Feb 2017

Sex risk behaviors more prevalent among delinquent youth as they age, study reveals

Delinquent youth are more likely to have high-risk HIV/AIDS sexual behaviors as they age, including multiple sexual partners and unprotected vaginal sex with a high-risk partner, reports a Northwestern Medicine study. The study tracked the youth 14 years after detention.

15 Feb 2017

CU Boulder scientists develop brain-based model to predict pain using variables beyond sensory input

Pain is a signal of actual or potential damage to the body, so it is natural to think of it as a localized sensation: knee pain in the knee, back pain in the back and so on.

14 Feb 2017

Rewards can be effective treatment for alcohol abuse in people with mental illness

Researchers at Washington State University have shown that offering prizes - from simple shampoo to DVD players - can be an effective, low-cost treatment for alcohol abuse, the nation's third leading preventable cause of death.

7 Feb 2017

Study confirms that cocaine makes users more willing to partake in risky sex

Cocaine use has long been tied anecdotally to higher-than-usual rates of impulsive behavior, including risky sex, but the tie-in has been difficult to study with any scientifically controlled rigor.

2 Feb 2017

Deep brain stimulation can reduce heroin relapse in rat models of addiction, TSRI study shows

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found that deep brain stimulation (DBS) can greatly reduce the compulsion to use heroin in standard rat models of addiction.