ATS | Addiction Treatment Strategies

A study conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory demonstrated that drug addicted individuals who have a certain genetic makeup have lower gray matter density — and therefore fewer neurons — in areas of the brain that are essential for decision-making, self-control, and learning and memory.
Nelly Alia-Klein, a study coauthor who is a Brookhaven Lab medical scientist, said, “This research shows that genes can influence the severity of addiction. The results suggest that addicted individuals with low MAOA [monoamine oxidase A] genotype may need a different kind of treatment than…

If you want to know how people become addicted and why they keep using drugs, ask the people who are addicted.
 Thirty-one of 75 patients hospitalized for opioid detoxification told University at Buffalo physicians they first got hooked on drugs legitimately prescribed for pain.
Another 24 began with a friend’s left-over prescription pills or pilfered from a parent’s medicine cabinet. The remaining 20 patients said they got hooked on street drugs.
However, 92 percent of the patients in the study said they eventually bought drugs off the street, primarily heroin, because it is less expensive and more effective than…

The Minnesota Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case involving the accuracy of a device that measures blood-alcohol levels in people who have been accused of driving under the influence (DUI).
According to The New York Times, about 4,000 people in the state have challenged the results of the breath-testing device used by law enforcement agencies. The state says the test results are correct, and can be used to punish people who are found to be driving with alcohol levels that are above the legal limit of .08.
A state judge this year ruled that while the source code for the device, called the, had errors, this did not affect the results’…

New research to be presented at next week’s International Conference on Drugs and Young Peopleshows that many 12-17year olds are attracted to drinking alcoholic energy drinks (AEDs), especially when they look like soft drinks or regular energy drinks.
The research undertaken by the University of Wollongong presents the views of Australian adolescents talking about alcohol energy drinks. These products – which combine alcohol, soft drinks, and ingredients such as caffeine and guarana – are a relatively new entry to the alcopop market.
Almost half of those surveyed (43%) agreed that they would be more likely to purchase an…

It’s cheaper, perhaps more powerful and definitely more dangerous than even crack cocaine. The new illicit drug is “oxi,” known, The Rio Times of Brazil notes, “as the drug of death” because those hooked on it often die within a year. But what it amounts to before death is an attempt by users to turn themselves into insensible zombies.
One Brazilian user of the drug described the experience to Al Jazeera reporter Gabriel Elizondo. Oxi, the user said, “is to make my mind go to sleep.”
Derived from cocaine, oxi (short for oxidado or “rust”) may also contain kerosene or gasoline as well as acetone, battery acid or…

Understanding the genetics of bipolar disorder could lead to new treatments, but identifying specific genetic variations associated with this disorder has been challenging.
A new study in Biological Psychiatry implicates a brain protein called Piccolo in the risk for inheriting bipolar disorder. In the orchestra of neuronal proteins, Piccolo is a member of a protein family that includes another protein called Bassoon. Piccolo is located at the endings of nerve cells, where it contributes to the ability of nerve cells to release their chemical messengers.
Choi and colleagues conducted a creative study to implicate the gene coding for…

A new national study shows that from 2005 to 2009 (the most recent year with available figures) there was a 49-percent increase in emergency department visits for drug related suicide attempts by women aged 50 and older — from 11,235 visits in 2005 to 16,757 in 2009.

Despite warnings about borrowing medication prescribed to other people, past studies have demonstrated that many Americans say they have used someone else’s medication at least once in a given year. In low income, urban populations, this rate was stereotypically thought to be higher due to a number of factors, including a perceived lack of access to health care and higher rates of crime and drug abuse.
However, a study led by Temple researchers has found the rates of using someone else’s medication among this population were about on par with the rest of the country.
“The trend of borrowing or using someone…