Addiction Treatment Strategies – Part 14

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…

Regular cannabis users who start using the drug before the age of 15 perform worse on brain tests than those who start later, according to new research published in the June issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Researchers from the Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo say their study suggests that early cannabis use may have more harmful effects on people’s cognitive functioning.
The researchers asked 104 chronic cannabis users to take part in a series of neuropsychological tasks. These tested their executive functioning, attention, perseverance, ability to form abstract concepts, visual and motor skills, and mental…

Heavy alcohol consumption may be linked to a greater risk of developing lung cancer, while higher BMI and increased consumption of black tea and fruit are associated with lower risk of the deadly disease. In three separate studies presented at CHEST 2011, the 77th annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), heavy alcohol consumption was related to increased risk of lung cancer, while specific ethnic groups, including African American men and Asian women, had slightly higher risks for lung cancer. Conversely, black tea consumption was shown to reduce lung cancer risk in nonsmoking women, while higher BMI and increased…

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.

New research findings suggest that structural abnormalities in the brains of cocaine addicts are related in part to drug use and in part to a predisposition toward addiction

LONDON – Nine major pharmaceutical companies have agreed to pool data on with academic institutions in an effort to improve ways of developing of new medicines to treat psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.
The collaboration, which involves Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Roche among others, will bring together data on 67 trials on 11 licensed drugs and will make up the largest database of clinical trial data in psychiatric research, according to the project’s leaders.
“We have learnt a lot of brain science in the last 30 years … and the expectation is that this knowledge would automatically and quickly…

Prescription painkiller sales per person were more than 3 times higher in Florida, which has the highest rate, than in Illinois, which has the lowest.
In 2008/2009, nonmedical use of painkillers in the past year ranged from 1 in 12 people (age 12 or older) in Oklahoma to 1 in 30 in Nebraska.
States with higher sales per person and more nonmedical use of prescription painkillers tend to have more deaths from drug overdoses.
Related articles
Painkiller Overdose Deaths Triple (addictionts.com)
Prescription painkiller overdoses at epidemic levels (addictionts.com)
Substance Abuse Treatment Admission Rates Increase Across U.S….

According to the Surgeon General’s Advisory on Alcohol Use in Pregnancy, when a pregnant woman drinks, so does her baby; thus, women, their partners, families, and friends need to understand that no amount of alcohol has been proven safe during any stage of pregnancy. Alcohol causes abnormalities when it crosses from the mother’s bloodstream through the umbilical cord into the unborn child. Children who were exposed to alcohol as a fetus experience a range of physical and mental problems that last a lifetime.[i] These children often have bone defects and a slower growth rate. Even though alcohol can cause different parts of the fetus to…

Making an Accurate Diagnosis is Difficult
By Buddy T, About.com Guide
“Dual Diagnosis” refers to those who have been diagnosed with major mental health disorders and alcohol or substance addictions at the same time. At least 50 percent of the 2 million Americans with severe mental illness abuse illicit drugs or alcohol, compared to 15 percent of the general population, according to the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration.
The problem for professional counselors and mental health care providers in trying to help these patients is making an accurate diagnosis. According to Patrick Smith, M.A., of PacifiCare…

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…