Feature Channels: Addiction

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The etiology (i.e., underlying causes) of a behavior, such as alcohol drinking, can change during adolescence and young adulthood. Prior alcohol research has shown that, in general: shared/common environment influences are strongest in early adolescence, declining in strength until young adulthood; unique environmental influences are moderate, but stable, during adolescence and young adulthood; and genetic influences are weakest during early adolescence, steadily increasing in strength until young adulthood. This study examined the relations between genetic and environmental etiologies of alcohol use and the influence of peer use, parental autonomy granting, and maternal closeness on this behavior.

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Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey’s most comprehensive health care network, hosted a symposium to update providers and the community on the network’s strategies to help those suffering from substance use disorders, an event that drew 450 people and featured a compelling personal story of recovery and call to action from former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy.

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Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is one of 29 sites participating in a national study to determine whether a daily transdermal nicotine patch will have a positive effect on attention and early memory impairment in older adults diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Paul Newhouse, M.D., director of the Center for Cognitive Medicine at VUMC is the national director of the study.

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As more states consider legalizing recreational marijuana, University of Colorado researchers are launching a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to examine the impact legalization has on career fulfillment, family life, and substance use.

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Using advanced machine learning, a cross disciplinary team of University of California San Diego researchers developed technology that mined Twitter to identify entities illegally selling prescription opioids online.

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Survey data indicate that in recent years, teens have become far less likely to abuse alcohol, nicotine and illicit drugs, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Teens also are less likely to engage in behaviors like fighting and stealing, and the researchers believe the declines in substance use and delinquency are connected.

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About a quarter of adults whose marijuana use is problematic in early adulthood have anxiety disorders in childhood and late adolescence, according to new data from Duke Health researchers.

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In every U.S. state, it is illegal for adults to drive with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 grams per deciliter (g/dL) or greater. In 2013, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that states lower the BAC limit for driving from .08 to .05 grams. Most industrialized nations have already enacted a .05 BAC limit. This study investigated whether lowering the BAC limit to .05 would be an effective alcohol policy in the United States.

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Any amount of alcohol exposure during pregnancy can cause extreme lasting effects on a child, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

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Anesthesiology and pain medicine should play a leading role in developing effective alternatives and solutions to the US opioid crisis, according to the November issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia—a special thematic issue presenting information on the "background, problems, and possible solutions to the opioid epidemic."

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Three faculty members from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).

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Over a Quarter of Teens Taking Adderall On Their Own Do Not Report Taking Amphetamine

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Alfgeir Kristjansson, an assistant professor in WVU’s School of Public Health, is studying data related to teen substance abuse in West Virginia. In 2016, his findings showed that at one high school in Wood County, 27 percent of students had smoked cigarettes, 41 percent had consumed alcohol and 20 percent had smoked marijuana.

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E-cigarettes appear to trigger unique immune responses as well as the same ones that cigarettes trigger that can lead to lung disease, according to new research published online in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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Alcohol use disorder (AUD) often co-occurs with chronic pain (CP), yet the relationship between the two is complex – involving genetic, neurophysiological, and behavioral elements – and is poorly understood. This review addressed the genetic influences on brain reward and stress systems that neurological research suggests may contribute to the co-occurrence of AUD and CP.

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For many of the 2 million Americans addicted to opioids, getting good treatment and getting off prescription painkillers or heroin may seem like a far-off dream. But a new study suggests the answer could lie much closer to home, in the primary care clinics where they go for basic medical care.

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Recently many college campuses around the country have banned the use of vaping nicotine products (VPNs) and e-cigarettes. A new study published in Risk Analysis: An International Journal found that people’s opinions of public vaping, are heavily influenced by what they see around them, how risky they think it is and what they think about addiction.

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The book, titled “Drinking, Drug Use and Addiction in the Autism Community,” explores why addiction is more common among individuals with ASD than it is within the general population and investigates how addiction and autism affect one another.

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Surgeons performing 11 common operations can turn to a free new prescribing tool based on data about how many opioid painkillers patients across Michigan actually took after their operations.

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Sometimes scientists do not see the value of sharing their knowledge and expertise with non-scientists and members of the public may believe that researchers enjoy a rarefied existence. This critical review addresses the important, yet limited gap that exists between these two realms by discussing the Spit for Science project. Spit4Science is a university-wide research undertaking at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) that focuses on alcohol and other drug use and related mental-health outcomes. It incorporates two forms of participatory research that have gained increasing attention in recent years, community-engaged research and citizen science.