Alcohol Addiction News and Research

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New instrument to measure Facebook addiction

Are you a social media enthusiast or simply a Facebook addict? Researchers from Norway have developed a new instrument to measure Facebook addiction, the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale.

7 May 2012

Dentists to screen for too much alcohol intake

The UK Government is proposing that dentists should question their patients on alcohol consumption, or that dental receptionists hand out drinking questionnaires to patients to be filled in while they wait for appointments. The plans have been drawn up by dentists at Cardiff University to try to combat excessive drinking. Patients who are deemed to drink too much would be referred on to sessions with dental nurses or hygienists for advice on cutting down.

5 Apr 2012

TLR4/MD-2 protein complex triggers morphine-induced inflammation

A University of Colorado Boulder-led research team has discovered that two protein receptors in the central nervous system team up to respond to morphine and cause unwanted neuroinflammation, a finding with implications for improving the efficacy of the widely used painkiller while decreasing its abuse potential.

3 Apr 2012

Alcohol linked to 25% increase in liver disease deaths

The first report from the fledgling National End of Life Care Intelligence Network warns that the victims of liver disease are getting younger, with deaths increasing among people in their forties. Deaths rose from 9,231 in 2001 to 11,575 in 2009; some 60% of these were men, and 90% of them were under 70. Deaths are more common in England's northern regions marked by high unemployment and low educational achievement.

25 Mar 2012

LSD for alcohol addiction: Study

Hallucinogenic drug LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) could help alcoholics give up drinking, according to an analysis of studies performed in the 1960s. A study, presented in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, looked at data from six trials and more than 500 patients. It said there was a “significant beneficial effect” on alcohol abuse, which lasted several months after the drug was taken.

12 Mar 2012

Middle aged ignoring health messages on alcohol consumption

A new survey finds that adults aged 45 and over are more than three times as likely to drink alcohol almost every day as those under 45. This could mean that the middle aged population is ignoring the serious health risks associated with excessive drinking. The age disparity is most pronounced among women. Those aged 65 and over are 12 times more likely than those aged between 16 and 24 to drink on a near-daily basis according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

11 Mar 2012

Gaps in knowledge about alcohol limits

A Centre for Alcohol Policy Research report, released today, found 95 per cent of people surveyed were unable to correctly identify the Australian guidelines for safe drinking levels. Between 30 and 50 per cent were unable to even provide an estimate.

5 Mar 2012

Quit-smoking drug Chantix effective in cocaine and alcohol addiction

Varenicline is unique among anti-addiction medications in the way it affects the brain. Like nicotine, varenicline activates a specific receptor for a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, but it does so less intensely than the active ingredient of cigarettes does. The net effect is that the drug seems to help by both cutting cravings and making the formerly desired drug less pleasant — without making non-drug pleasures less intense. Alcohol works on the same chemical receptors in the brain as nicotine, and it may enhance the pleasurable effects of smoking.

18 Feb 2012

New editorial offers clarity on confusing drug and alcohol addiction terminology

A new editorial released this week offers clarity and structure on confusing drug and alcohol addiction terminology for prescribers, users and regulators. "Through a glass darkly: can we improve clarity about mechanism and aims of medications in drug and alcohol treatments?" is published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the official journal of the British Association for Psychopharmacology, published by SAGE.

4 Feb 2012

Heavy drinking may reinforce itself by stimulating endorphin release: Study

A new study has shown that drinking alcohol causes a pleasant feeling because it releases endorphins, the brain’s natural opioids. It adds that problem drinkers differ from social drinkers in the way alcohol affects one part of the brain. The report appeared Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine.

15 Jan 2012

At least two alcohol free days per week recommended

Those who drink regularly are advised to abstain from alcohol for at least two days a week. A committee of MPs has found current drinking guidelines are unclear and need to be revised. Currently the “sensible limits” for drinking, which were defined 25 years ago, are 21 units of alcohol a week for men and 14 for women. But the report by the Science and Technology Committee found many people do not know how much a unit is.

9 Jan 2012

David Cameron’s “big bang” approach to raising alcohol taxes and discouraging drinking

The British Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered officials to develop a scheme in England to stop the sale of alcohol at below 40p to 50p a unit in shops and supermarkets. There could also be a more sophisticated system of taxes based on the number of alcohol units contained in the drink. Both options would cost drinkers an estimated extra £700 million a year, with any extra tax revenue potentially going to the NHS.

29 Dec 2011

Unit pricing of alcohol on the agenda in the UK

The cost of alcohol must be increased to stem the thousands of drink-related diseases diagnosed each year, a group of medical experts said on Wednesday. Debate is on the rationality of unit pricing of alcohol across Britain.

15 Dec 2011

A woman’s brain can get damaged faster with alcohol abuse: Study

A latest study has shown that female alcoholics suffer damage to the part of their brain that controls moods, impulses and sleep three times faster than their male counterparts.

10 Nov 2011

UNC professor wins 2011 PECASE award for research into alcohol addiction

During a White House ceremony next month, Thomas L. Kash, PhD, assistant professor in the department of pharmacology and the UNC Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine will receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

30 Sep 2011