Feature Channels: Addiction

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As a primary point of contact for patients receiving anesthesia, procedural sedation, and pain management services, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) are answering the Surgeon General’s call to end the opioid crisis with a more holistic approach to pain management designed to reduce dependence on prescription medications and offering patients greater transparency, understanding and engagement in their own care.

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As many as 600 million people in Southeast Asia chew areca nuts with betel leaves, sometimes adding tobacco leaves. Many users are addicted to this harmful “betel quid” preparation, which can create a sense of euphoria and alertness. Yet researchers have now discovered that compounds derived from the nut could help cigarette smokers — as well as betel quid chewers — kick their habits.

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People drink alcohol for a number of reasons. This study focused on understanding why people drink and the consequences of their drinking. First, researchers identified “clusters” of drinkers in New Zealand, based on how much alcohol they drank, their beverage of choice, and a preference for public or private drinking locations. Second, it investigated the relations among drinker types and harms experienced, and considered their policy implications.

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Mothers who binge drink before they become pregnant may be more likely to have children with high blood sugar and other changes in glucose function that increase their risk of developing diabetes as adults, according to a new study conducted in rats. The results will be presented Sunday at the Endocrine Society’s 99th annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

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Flavored e-cigarettes and e-cigarette marketing could be increasing e-cigarette use among youth and young adults, according to researchers from the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health in Austin. These findings are part of a series of papers by UTHealth researchers that were published today in the journal Tobacco Regulatory Science.

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New research from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) suggests that the reason methamphetamine users find it so hard to quit—88 percent of them relapse, even after rehab—is that meth takes advantage of the brain’s natural learning process.

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In the study, hair samples from 80 young adults outside of NYC nightclubs and dance festivals, were tested for 82 drugs and metabolites (including NPS) using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry.

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As a physician, I urge caution as we cut back opioids

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Researchers found that women in methadone treatment who use cannabis are 82 per cent more likely to continue using opioids. This means that women who use cannabis are at high risk of failing methadone treatment.

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Large portions of the Southeast don’t have enough opioid treatment programs to match their high rates of opioid use disorder.

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Large, multi-site study sheds light and dispels misconceptions about drinking in people with serious mental illness.

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A UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center-led study found broad support, even among smokers, for increasing the size of health warnings on cigarette packs.

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More than 35 million Americans are trying to quit smoking. Experts reassure clinicians and their patients that varenicline, whose brand name is Chantix, is a safe and effective way to achieve smoking cessation and that failure to use this drug has caused preventable heart attacks and deaths from cardiovascular disease. Just a few months ago, the FDA removed the black box warning from varenicline.

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Most older Americans drink alcohol. Given that this segment of the population is projected to almost double by 2050, reaching 112 million, in the future, there will likely be many more older drinkers in the United States than currently. Importantly, older individuals are more sensitive to alcohol’s effects than their younger counterparts, and are also more likely to take prescription medications that can interact negatively with alcohol, potentially leading to falls and other injuries. This study examined trends in drinking status among U.S. adults 60 years of age and older.

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Despite greater awareness of the dangers of prenatal exposure to alcohol, the rates of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders remain alarmingly high. This study evaluated academic achievement among children known to be prenatally exposed to maternal heavy alcohol consumption as compared to their peers without such exposure, and explored the brain regions that may underlie academic performance.

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Heroin use is associated with excessive histone acetylation, an epigenetic process that regulates gene expression, and more years of drug use correlate with higher levels of hyperacetylation, according to research conducted at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

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Although college can be demanding for young adults, it may be particularly so for transgender students struggling with identity-formation and other emotional, social, and developmental challenges. Prior research suggests that transgender students may experience greater drinking and negative alcohol-related consequences than their cisgender peers (i.e., those whose gender matches their sex at birth). This study examined levels of drinking, frequency of blackouts and other alcohol-related consequences, and drinking motivations among transgender college students.

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Opioids, including heroin and prescription drugs, killed 33,000-plus people in 2015, more than any year on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. President Trump’s proposed budget aims to bring a $500 million increase in funding for prevention and treatment, but that amount isn’t enough to address the crisis, says an expert on substance use disorder treatment at Washington University in St.

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Dawn Andersen lost her husband to lung cancer, and as a longtime smoker herself, she also was at high risk for the disease. So Loyola Medicine pulmonologist Sean Forsythe, MD, recommended Mrs. Andersen undergo a CT lung cancer screening test, which has been shown to save lives among longtime smokers by detecting lung cancer in early stages when it’s most treatable.

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States where Medicaid coverage was expanded under the Affordable Care Act have had a significant increase in prescribing of buprenorphine—a medication that plays an important role in addressing the opioid epidemic, reports a study in the April issue of Medical Care. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

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Veterans who have drug or alcohol problems are more than twice as likely to die by suicide as their comrades, a new study finds. And women veterans with substance use disorders have an even higher rate of suicide -- more than five times that of their peers, the research shows.

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Online media briefing to announce first saliva test to measure steady-state opioid drug levels in doctors’ offices. Test verifies therapy compliance and helps prevent drug misuse and diversion.

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A study by researchers at the University of Vermont has revealed a link between adult opioid misuse and childhood emotional abuse, a new finding that suggests a rethinking of treatment approaches for opioid abusers.

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Major national studies provide little evidence that e-cigarette users move to smoking cigarettes as a result, researchers from UB, Michigan write.

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A legal analysis published today examines the FDA’s regulatory authority to provide consumers with information via tobacco products and their labeling; how actively FDA could do that within existing First Amendment constraints; and new approaches to interpreting and applying the federal Tobacco Control Act and the First Amendment.

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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. But a new study suggests that even a half-hour chat with a trained counselor, or a few minutes using a special tablet computer program with a “virtual therapist”, can turn an emergency room trip into the basis for a long-lasting drop in a person’s use of illegal drugs or misuse of prescription medicines.

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Stress and anxiety are widely believed to contribute to drinking. Alcohol is thought to reduce tension caused by stress (the “flight or fight” response) as well as alleviate the unpleasant symptoms of anxiety (anticipation of the unpredictable, impending threats). Prior research, however, has yielded inconsistent findings as to the unique relations between stress and anxiety, on the one hand, and alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorders, on the other hand. This study was designed to examine how differences in self-reported levels of anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and perceived stress impact the frequency and intensity of drinking, alcohol craving during early withdrawal, and alcohol craving and stress reactivity.

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The U.S. medical community needs a better understanding of the biology of pain and how it plays out in individuals to be able to combat the national epidemic of addiction to painkillers.

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Latinos experience significant disparities in health care including higher rates of particular cancers, lower cancer screening rates and cancer diagnoses at more advanced stages. Researchers at The University of Kansas Cancer Center want to help Latinos with tobacco cessation treatment (both medication and behavioral support) via text messaging.

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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.

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The need to belong and experience social connections is a fundamental human characteristic. Prior research has shown that social rejection is linked to increases in negative emotions, distress, and hostility. This study examined the impact of social rejection on alcohol use, and whether the impact differed when the social rejection was by close others, such as friends, spouses or family members, or by strangers or acquaintances.

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Addiction medicine expert Petros Levounis says a maintenance treatment that combines medication with behavioral treatment and recovery support gives patients the best chance of sustainable recovery

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Dr. Chaudhry (FSMB President and CEO) sits down with Dr. Daniel Gifford, Immediate Past Chairman of the FSMB Board of Directors and Chair of the Workgroup on FSMB’s Model Policy on the Use of Opioid Analgesics in the Treatment of Chronic Pain. Drs. Chaudhry and Gifford discuss the work of FSMB's Workgroups as they prepare for the future of medical regulation and assisting state medical boards in their mission to protect the public.

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People with intermittent explosive disorder (IED)—a condition marked by frequent physical or verbal outbursts—are at five times greater risk for abusing substances such as alcohol, tobacco and marijuana than those who don’t display frequent aggressive behavior, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Chicago.

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More than two in five people receiving buprenorphine, a drug commonly used to treat opioid addiction, are also given prescriptions for other opioid painkillers – and two-thirds are prescribed opioids after their treatment is complete, a new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study suggests.

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Fathers who use cocaine at the time of conceiving a child may be putting their sons at risk of learning disabilities and memory loss. The findings of the animal study were published online in Molecular Psychiatry by a team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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UNC scientists found that as mice learn to associate a particular sound with a rewarding sugary drink, one set of prefrontal neurons becomes more active and promotes reward-seeking behavior while other prefrontal neurons are silenced, and those neurons act like a brake on reward-seeking.

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Listen up ladies. Women simply don’t metabolize alcohol in the same way as men. It’s called the telescoping effect.

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Underage youth are nearly twice as likely to recall seeing alcohol marketing on the internet than adults, with almost one in three saying they saw alcohol-related content in the previous month, according to a new pilot survey led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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How easy do adolescents think it is to get heroin? A Saint Louis University researcher examines how their perceptions have changed from 2002 to 2014.

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Problem gambling among credit counseling clients is the focus of a $34,500 seed grant awarded to the School of Social Work and Guidewell Financial Solutions.

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UKanQuit, a joint inpatient program between the University of Kansas Medical Center and The University of Kansas Hospital, is helping more smokers quit the habit

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The average news consumer might be surprised to learn that the economic costs of alcohol abuse far exceed those related to illegal drug use. In California, alcohol abuse cost $129 billion in 2010, $3,450 per California resident. That was almost three times the $44 billion bill for illicit drug use. The largest cost contributors were mortality, impaired driving, and violence. The costs varied greatly from city to city and county to county.

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In this month’s release, find new embargoed research about: Affordable Care Act television news content; housing assistance’s link to resident health; and the effect of CVS ending tobacco sales on cigarette purchasing.

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Rather than inciting fear, anti-smoking campaigns should tap into smokers’ memories and tug at their heartstrings, finds a new study by Michigan State University researchers.

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At a glance: New research shows great variation among clinicians’ opioid prescribing practices and links physician prescription patterns to patients’ risk for subsequent long-term opioid use. Being treated by an emergency room physician who prescribes opioids more frequently increases a patient’s risk of long-term opioid use and other adverse outcomes. The results suggest that differences in clinicians’ prescribing habits may be helping to fuel the opioid epidemic sweeping the United States.

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The first successful randomized trial of its kind provides preliminary evidence that telephone-based smoking cessation counseling given to smokers shortly after undergoing lung cancer screening can be effective at helping people stop smoking.

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Nicotine -- the primary compound found within tobacco smoke -- is known to change the grouping of some subtypes of nicotine receptors, but the mechanisms for nicotine addiction remain unclear. This inspired a group of University of Kentucky researchers to explore the role nicotine plays in the assembly of nicotine receptors within the brain. During the Biophysical Society meeting, Feb. 11-15, 2017, Faruk Moonschi will present the group’s work, which centers on a fluorescence-based “single molecule” technique they developed.