The Brain And Addiction | Addiction Treatment Strategies

 Researchers have long known that individuals with a positive family history of alcoholism (FHP) are at an increased risk themselves for alcoholism. This increased risk may be due to their different reaction to alcohol than individuals with a negative family history of alcoholism (FHN). This study investigated how sensitive individuals with an FHP of type I form of alcoholism – characterized by a relatively late onset of dependence in socially well-adjusted individuals, low prevalence of familial alcoholism, and a milder course – are to alcohol’s stimulating properties.
 
Results will be published in the August 2011…

In a systematic review of current evidence published in this week’s PLoS Medicine, the authors—Jim McCambridge from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK, and colleagues—conclude that there is enough evidence to recommend that reducing drinking during late adolescence is likely to be important for preventing long-term adverse consequences of drinking, as well as protecting against more immediate harms.
Although there is an urgent need for better studies in this area, research to date provides some evidence that high alcohol consumption in late adolescence often continues into adulthood and is associated…

Binge drinking is prevalent among university students, especially in the United States. One brain structure particularly sensitive to alcohol’s neurotoxicity during development is the hippocampus, which plays a key role in learning and memory. A study of the association between binge drinking and declarative memory — a form of long-term memory — in university students has found a link between binge drinking and poorer verbal declarative memory.
Results will be published in the August 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
“In northern European…

Among women, whites more likely than Hispanics, blacks to down 5 or more drinks a day, study finds
(HealthDay News) — Alcohol consumption is on the rise in the United States due to a number of factors, including social, economic and ethnic influences and pressures, a new study has found.
Researchers analyzed national alcohol consumption patterns among people who took part in the 1991-1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey and the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Study on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Each survey included about 43,000 people.
Drinkers were defined as people who had consumed at least 12 drinks that…