ADD Medication is a Cause For Concern
June 20th, 2008
ScienceDaily (June 17, 2008) — Concerned by the growing numbers of people using stimulant medications such as methylphenidate (MP)–either legally or illegally–to improve attention and focus, researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) imaging with the radiotracer fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) to assess the effects of the drug on brain function in the normal human brain.
“MP is often prescribed appropriately for individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who are unable to focus their minds in order to perform everyday tasks,” said Nora Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Md. “We wanted to better understand how the drug works in ‘normal, healthy’ people when they are performing a cognitive task, as well as when they are not.”
Tracking The Effects Of Addictive Drugs On Brain
May 19th, 2008
ScienceDaily (May 18, 2008) — Mount Sinai researchers may have unlocked the key to better understanding the effect addictive drugs have on the human brain.
“The research findings give us a new window into the brain, helping us to better understand the role addictive drugs have on the inner workings of brain cells ,” said Ravi Iyengar Ph.D., study author and Dorothy H. and Lewis Rosenstiel Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
“This type of research provides may clues for targets within brain cells against which drugs that block addiction may be targeted.”
Mount Sinai researchers looked at the systems biology approach in order to study molecular networks underlying addiction.
The findings start to unravel the complex interactions within brain cells, which are involved in processing signals from receptors in the brain that recognize the addictive drugs.
Researchers discovered that a drug that works through the cannabinoid 1 receptor recognizing the active ingredient of marijuana activates many different transcription factors, triggering the differentiation of neurons, causing permanent changes in a person’s brain.
Another result of study was the discovery of a new role of the breast cancer gene BRCA 1 in neuronal differentiation and the effects of addictive drugs upon them.
Smoking May Interfere with Recovery
July 7th, 2007
Science Daily — Alcoholics frequently smoke. Anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of individuals in North America who seek alcoholism treatment are also chronic smokers. New findings indicate that smoking may interfere with alcoholics’ neurocognitive recovery during their first six to nine months of abstinence from alcohol.
“There are several possible explanations for the concurrent use of alcohol and tobacco products,” said Timothy C. Durazzo, assistant adjunct professor in the department of radiology at the University of California San Francisco, and corresponding author for the study. “Nicotine and alcohol may enhance each other’s rewarding properties; nicotine may decrease some of alcohol’s negative effects on cognition and motor incoordination; paired use of nicotine and alcohol may produce a strong association between the two substances such that the use of one leads to cravings for the other; and there may exist a genetic vulnerability for concurrent active cigarette smoking and alcohol dependence.”
Oregon loves Vicodin
March 19th, 2007
ANDY DWORKIN - The Oregonian
A Roseburg clinic and OHSU test a treatment for one of Oregon’s biggest drug abuse problems.
Nearly 177,000 Oregonians abuse pain pills such as OxyContin and Vicodin for nonmedical reasons each year — almost six times the number that use methamphetamine.
Oregon has one of the highest rates of painkiller abuse in the 50 states, especially among kids 12 to 17. And while the use of most illegal drugs, including meth, seems to be falling, there’s no evidence of a decrease in the number of people popping pain pills.
Cravings are Real
February 24th, 2007
A novel experiment conducted by Carnegie Mellon University Professor George Loewenstein and colleagues may explain why people try a drug, such as heroin, for the first time despite ample evidence that it is addictive. The results of the study, which are being published in the Journal of Health Economics, reveal that even longtime addicts underestimate the influence that drug cravings have over their behavior.
Almost all drugs produce a craving in their users. Loewenstein and his colleagues hypothesized that people experiment with drugs that they know are addictive in part because they can’t appreciate the intensity of drug cravings, and thus underestimate the likelihood that they will become addicted. Because they can’t imagine what it would be like to experience a craving, people also discount the possibility that they will do terrible things in order to satisfy that craving, such as commit crimes or abandon their children.