Addiction Treatment Strategies – Part 12

A new national study shows that from 2005 to 2009 there was a 55 percent increase in emergency department visits for drug related suicide attempts by men aged 21 to 34 — from 19,024 visits in 2005 to 29,407 visits in 2009. In 2009, there were a total of 77,971 emergency department visits for drug-related suicide attempts among males of all ages.
The report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows that visits from younger adult males involving certain pharmaceuticals increased substantially.
Among males aged 21 to 34, emergency department visits for suicide attempts involving antidepressants…

Binge or “heavy episodic” drinking is prevalent during adolescence, raising concerns about alcohol’s effects on crucial neuromaturational processes during this developmental period. Heavy alcohol use has been associated with decrements in cognitive functioning in both adult and adolescent populations, particularly on tasks of spatial working memory (SWM). This study examined gender-specific influences of binge drinking on SWM, finding that female teens may be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of heavy alcohol use.
 Results will be published in the October 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical &…

Yes, alcoholism is a disease

Via Scoop.it – addiction treatment
We know that drinking too much alcohol is bad for us. It gives us hangovers, makes us feel tired and does little for our appearance – and that is just the morning afterwards.
Via www.addictionts.com
Related articles
How We Get Addicted (addictionts.com)
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“I don’t remember how I got home from the party.” This could be a text from last night to one hard-partying college student from another.
New research from Northwestern Medicine shows that 50 percent of college drinkers report at least one alcohol-induced memory blackout – a period of amnesia – in the past year during a drinking binge. Despite being fully conscious during such blackouts, students could not recall specific events, such as how they got to a bar, party or their own front door.
Published online in Injury Prevention, June 2011, the study found college drinkers who reported alcohol-induced memory…

Deaths related to prescription opioid therapy are under intense scrutiny, prompting those in pain medicine — clinicians, patient advocates, and regulators — to understand the causes behind avoidable mortality in legitimately treated patients. Studies reporting on statistics, causes, and adverse events involving opioid treatment are now available in a special supplement of Pain Medicine, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM).
Opioids are prescribed to treat moderate to severe pain and include extended-release opioid analgesic drugs such as methadone, morphine, and…

A new study has shown harmful prescription patterns of powerful painkillers among a substantial number of Ontario patients who received methadone therapy to treat their opioid addiction.
Methadone, which is a type of long-acting opioid, has proven to be an effective therapy for opioid dependence.
 
According to a new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), 18% of methadone maintenance therapy patients also received prescriptions for more than a week’s supply of other opioids.
“It is concerning when large quantities of these types of opioids are combined with…

For risk-takers and impulsive people, New Year’s resolutions often include being more careful, spending more frugally and cutting back on dangerous behavior, such as drug use. But new research from Vanderbilt finds that these individuals–labeled as novelty seekers by psychologists–face an uphill battle in keeping their New Year’s resolutions due to the way their brains process dopamine.
The research reveals that novelty seekers have less of a particular type of dopamine receptor, which may lead them to seek out novel and exciting experiences–such as spending lavishly, taking risks and partying like there’s…

Yoga has a greater positive effect on a person’s mood and anxiety level than walking and other forms of exercise, which may be due to higher levels of the brain chemical GABA according to an article in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online.
Yoga has been shown to increase the level of gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, a chemical in the brain that helps to regulate nerve activity. GABA activity is reduced in people with mood and anxiety disorders, and drugs that increase GABA activity are commonly prescribed to improve mood…

Sales of opioid analgesics, such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, have increased more than 600% since 1997, according to data from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Opioid analgesic sales increased from 96 milligrams per person in 1997 to 698 milligrams per person in 2007. During the same time period, the number of unintentional deaths involving opioid analgesics quadrupled, from 2,901 in
1999 to 11,499 in 2007 (the most recent year for which data are available). The increase in deaths and sales are highly correlated (r=0.99), supporting previous research1 showing a strong, statistically significant correlation between states with…