Substance dependence | Addiction Treatment Strategies

Often, for people suffering with drug addiction meditation has never been a matter for contemplation.  As soon as they experience any feelings of restlessness, anxiety or depression, they usually turn to their drug of choice to alter their state. Although the truth is that for many people world wide suffering from drug addiction meditation has achieved a safe and natural cure for them. For people going into rehabilitation for drug addiction meditation provides an alternative method for recovering. Going through drug rehabilitation is probably the hardest thing anyone could have to do in their life, and the physical discomfort, pain and…

What drives addicts to repeatedly choose drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, overeating, gambling or kleptomania, despite the risks involved? Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have pinpointed the exact locations in the brain where calculations are made that can result in addictive and compulsive behavior. UC Berkeley researchers have found how neural activity in the brain’s orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex regulates our choices. These astonishing new findings could pave the way for more targeted treatments for everything from drug and alcohol abuse to obsessive-compulsive disorders. ‘The better we…

  Researchers have shed new light on dopamine’s role in the brain’s reward system, which could provide insight into impulse control problems associated with addiction and a number of psychiatric disorders.   A joint study by the University of Michigan and University of Washington found that, contrary to the prevailing conception, differences in individuals’ styles of response to environmental cues can fundamentally influence chemical reward patterns in the brain.   Deeper understanding of these differences between individuals may lead to new preventive tools or treatments for compulsive…

Previous studies have found that health outcomes improve during an economic downturn. Job loss means less money available for potentially unhealthy behaviors such as excessive drinking, according to existing literature on employment and alcohol consumption. A new study by health economist Michael T. French from the University of Miami and his collaborators has concluded just the opposite–heavy drinking and alcohol abuse/dependence significantly increase as macroeconomic conditions deteriorate.   French and his team found that binge drinking increased with a rise in the state-level unemployment rate. Driving while intoxicated and…

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…

Giving Medicaid patients with substance abuse problems access to buprenorphine (Subutex, Suboxone) is ultimately less expensive than maintaining them on methadone, the experience in one state showed. Despite more frequent relapses into addiction, buprenorphine patients cost about $1,330 less per year than methadone patients when the drugs were used for maintenance treatment, Robin Clark, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts, and colleagues reported in the August issue of Health Affairs.   “Our paper shows that the cost concerns [that Medicaid systems have about buprenorphine] aren’t so valid if you look at everything…

A team of Scripps Research Institute scientists has found a key biological mechanism underpinning the transition to alcohol dependence. This finding opens the door to the development of drugs to manage excessive alcohol consumption. “Our focus in this study, like much of our lab’s research, was to examine the role of the brain’s stress system in compulsive alcohol drinking driven by the aversive aspects of alcohol withdrawal,” said Scripps Research Associate Professor Marisa Roberto, Ph.D., senior author of the study. “A major goal for this study,” added Research Associate Nicholas Gilpin, Ph.D., the…

— Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed an imaging protocol that allows them to visualize the activity of the brain’s reward circuitry in both normal individuals and those addicted to drugs. The technique could lead to better insight into why people take recreational drugs as well as help determine which treatment strategies might be most effective. Drug addiction is a complex process that involves numerous biological and environmental factors, but a central element is how the drugs affect the activity of dopamine, the chemical that regulates pleasure and reward in the…

From heroin and cocaine to sex and lies, Tetris and the ponies, the spectrum of human addictions is vast. But for Dr. Nora D. Volkow, the neuroscientist in charge of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, they all boil down to pretty much the same thing. She must say it a dozen times a day: Addiction is all about the dopamine. The pleasure, pain and devilish problem of control are simply the detritus left by waves of this little molecule surging and retreating deep in the brain. A driven worker with a colorful family history and a bad chocolate problem of her own, Dr. Volkow, 55, has devoted her career to studying this chemical tide. And…