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Affiliates with Notre Dame’s Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities found that greater exposure to the opioid crisis increases the chance that a child’s mother or father is absent from the household and increases the likelihood that he or she lives in a household headed by a grandparent.

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Young adults and adolescents who are prescribed opioids for the first time may be at a slightly greater risk of developing a substance-related problem later in life, according to a new study co-authored by Indiana University researchers. However, the risk may not be as high as previously thought.

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Drug overdoses are psychologically traumatic events that can lead to symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a study focused on female sex workers in Baltimore City led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Critics of the universal hepatitis C screening argue that it’s wasteful to test pregnant women for a disease that can’t be immediately treated, but results of a small phase I clinical trial suggest otherwise: pregnancy could be an excellent time to diagnose and cure hepatitis C infection.

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A longitudinal study of more than 230 teens and young adults in Washington state finds that teens may be more likely to use marijuana following legalization – with the proliferation of stores and increasing adult use of the drug -- than they otherwise would have been.

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Researchers from Michigan State University and California State University-Fullerton conducted the first study comparing problematic use between Facebook and Snapchat — while also uncovering surprising findings about users' personality traits.

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Tufts awards seed funding to 8 projects that seek to address the complex individual & community challenges wrought by the opioid epidemic. The inaugural awards of the Tufts Initiative on Substance Use and Addiction demonstrate a multidisciplinary drive to address this pressing public health crisis.

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Smoking cessation initiatives notwithstanding, along with provocative public health campaigns and clinical guidance, quitting tobacco has remained elusive for many smokers. The American Thoracic Society’s new clinical practice guideline on treatment for tobacco dependence in adults addresses how clinicians may deal with patients’ reluctance to quit, one of a number of issues not previously assessed in the older guidelines.

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E-cigarettes are highly addictive nicotine products with unclear health impacts, particularly on young people. Instagram is a visual social media platform which is wildly popular, particularly with young people

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The opioid epidemic didn’t go away when the coronavirus pandemic began. But rapid changes in regulations and guidance could also help many more people get care for addiction, experts say. They caution that it will take more changes to truly lower barriers that stand in the way of delivering evidence-based addiction care to more people via telemedicine.

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Researchers at The University of Kansas Cancer Center are studying vaping to better understand its effects on our health, as well as reduce vaping among adolescents.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins Medicine Media Relations is focused on disseminating current, accurate and useful information to the public via the media. As part of that effort, we are distributing our “COVID-19 Tip Sheet: Story Ideas from Johns Hopkins” every Tuesday throughout the duration of the outbreak.

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A study published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research provides support for treatment goals based on reducing drinking, and not necessarily stopping completely, for people recovering from alcohol use disorder (AUD). AUD is linked to damaging reductions in the gray and white matter of certain brain regions. This tissue loss, particularly in the frontal brain lobes, can contribute to cognitive deficits and may increase the risk of relapse following treatment. In people with AUD who quit alcohol completely, brain tissue volumes can increase quite dramatically during abstinence, in parallel to cognitive improvements. Complete abstinence is also associated with improvements in general health and quality of life - therefore abstinence is the usual goal of treatment for AUD.

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Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a team of internationally acclaimed researchers led by UNC School of Medicine’s Bryan L. Roth, MD, PhD, aims to create new medications to effectively and rapidly treat depression, anxiety, and substance abuse without major side effects.

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In a study published today (15 June 2020) in Addiction, University of Bristol researchers have found evidence for a causal link between prolonged experience of loneliness and smoking.

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In a sign that designer drugs are becoming more prevalent in Australia, synthetic cathinones – commonly known as ‘bath salts’ – have been detected in the nation’s wastewater in the largest study of its kind in the country.

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The $2.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will enable researchers to identify interventions that will lead to a healthier, more resilient Native American community.

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Middle-aged and older adults who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual have higher rates of using certain substances in the past year than those who identify as heterosexual, according to a new study led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) at NYU School of Global Public Health.

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Female college students appear to be more affected by high alcohol use than men, which may lead to less interest in academics, according to new research including by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

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Users of high-potency cannabis are four times more likely to report associated problems, and twice as likely to report anxiety disorder, than users of lower-potency strains, according to new research from the University of Bristol.

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Early exposure to anesthetics may make adolescents more susceptible to developing alcohol use disorder (AUD), according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

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A University of Louisville study will evaluate how health care, public health and social services organizations are working together to improve the health and well-being of individuals served through Freedom House programs in Louisville and Manchester, Ky.Freedom House, operated by Volunteers of America Mid-States (VOAMID), is a residential treatment program for alcohol and/or drug dependent pregnant women and women with young children.

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New research from Cornell University shows the more alcohol ads someone was exposed to, the more likely they were to report consuming at least one alcoholic drink in the previous month. And among drinkers, exposure to more ads correlated to consuming more drinks.

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When Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced the early release of some Kentucky inmates due to COVID-19 concerns, the team behind the HEALing Communities Study worked quickly to fast-track one of the evidence-based practices for preventing opioid deaths that was due to launch later this year: the distribution of naloxone to individuals at highest risk for overdose, particularly those being released from local jails.

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Job skills training for low-income youth does more than just help them get better jobs – it makes them significantly less likely than others to use some illicit drugs, even 16 years later.

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A new West Virginia University research collaborative is working to address the many challenging conditions facing the state and Appalachia.

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UAB is launching a pilot program aimed at getting more opioid users into treatment, using telemedicine in three rural counties and emploing the Alabama One Health Record®, a statewide health information exchange, to track outcomes in these patients.

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Offering $750 to emergency medicine physicians exponentially increased those trained to prescribe buprenorphine.

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They know it’s addictive, linked to dangerous lung diseases, and delivers more nicotine than the cigarettes it’s supposed to replace. But the social aspects of vaping drives young people to use e-cigarettes, according to nearly two-thirds of teens and young adults in a new study.

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The generation a person was born into – Silent Generation, Baby Boomer, Generation X or Millennial – strongly predicts how likely they are to die from a drug overdose, and at what age. Within each generation, there was a steady march toward greater overdose risk at younger ages.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins Medicine Media Relations is focused on disseminating current, accurate and useful information to the public via the media. As part of that effort, we are distributing our “COVID-19 Tip Sheet: Story Ideas from Johns Hopkins” every Tuesday throughout the duration of the outbreak.

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A new survey of U.S. primary care physicians from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that nearly one-third, 32.9 percent, do not think treating opioid use disorder with medication is any more effective than treatment without medication.

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First responders in Texas can now call a confidential helpline to seek treatment for substance use and mental health disorders through a new clinical research program at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The Heroes Helpline comes at a time when first responders are serving on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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A new study led by University of Kentucky researcher April Young and Emory University researcher Hannah Cooper shows that a number of pharmacies in the Appalachian region of Kentucky are limiting the dispensing of buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder (OUD).

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Antibiotic treatment — which depletes gut microbes — drastically changes the parts of a rat’s brain that are activated during opioid addiction and withdrawal.

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Lactating mothers who use e-cigarettes or nicotine replacement therapies may be putting their breastfed babies at risk for skull defects, a new study in animals suggests.

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New research performed in mice suggests that chemical modifications to buprenorphine can improve its effectiveness to treat cocaine addiction while minimizing abuse potential.

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A new study explains how cocaine modifies functions in the brain revealing a potential target for therapies aimed at treating cocaine addiction. The study was published this week in Cell Reports.

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For more information about coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from Johns Hopkins Medicine, visit hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus. For information on coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from around the Johns Hopkins enterprise, including from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The Johns Hopkins University, visit coronavirus.jhu.edu.

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Substance use by youth remains a significant public health concern. While social media provides youth the opportunity to discuss and display substance use-related beliefs and behaviors, little is known about how posting drug-related content, or viewing posted content influences the beliefs and behaviors of youth relative to substance use.

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Many people trying to manage their pain and addiction have lost their support programs due to COVID-19. A Rutgers expert in Emergency Medicine discusses how patients can manage the disease during the coronavirus crisis.