Children whose mothers abused methamphetamine (meth) during pregnancy show brain abnormalities that may be more severe than that of children exposed to alcohol prenatally, according to a study in the March 17 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. While researchers have long known that drug abuse during pregnancy can alter fetal brain development, this finding shows the potential impact of meth...

Doctors yesterday (Tuesday, 16 March 2010) welcomed the launch of the DOE consultation on a new road safety strategy. Dr Paul Darragh, Chairman of the BMA's Northern Ireland Council said, "Doctors deal with the horrific aftermath of road traffic accidents on a daily basis, and believe that a new road safety strategy is important to continue to build on what has already been achieved...

Normal individuals who scored high on a measure of impulsive/antisocial traits display a hypersensitive brain reward system, according to a brain imaging study by researchers at Vanderbilt University. The findings provide the first evidence of differences in the brain's reward system that may underlie vulnerability to what's typically referred to as psychopathy...

Men and women with a history of alcohol abuse may not see long-term negative effects on their memory and thinking, but female smokers do, a new study suggests. In a study of 287 men and women ages 31 to 60, researchers found that those with past alcohol-use disorders performed similarly on standard tests of cognitive function as those with no past drinking problems...

Educational leaders from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) believe teaching the subject of unhealthy substance use must be incorporated into internal medicine residency training and can be done within existing teaching venues...

Combining the antidepressant sertraline with the alcohol dependence treatment naltrexone produced a 54 percent abstinence rate in patients with both major depression and alcohol dependence, whereas the rates were only 21 to 28 percent for patients taking a placebo, sertraline only, or naltrexone only...

R-rated movies portray violence and other behaviors deemed inappropriate for children under 17 year of age. A new study finds one more reason why parents should not let their kids watch those movies: adolescents who watch R-rated movies are more likely to try alcohol at a young age...

BMJ Group, publisher of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), has recognized University of British Columbia Clinical Associate Prof. Evan Wood with its first annual Junior Doctor of the Year honour...

AIDS 2010, the International AIDS Conference to be held July 18-23 in Vienna, Austria, will "highlight the situation in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, regions experiencing fast growing [HIV/AIDS] epidemics largely through unsafe injecting drug use," conference organizers announced Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports...

More 12 year olds have used potentially lethal inhalants than have used marijuana, cocaine and hallucinogens combined, according to data released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in conjunction with the 18th annual National Inhalants & Poisons Awareness Week...

Obesity and alcohol act together to increase the risk of liver disease in both men and women according to two studies published on bmj.com today. These findings have significant clinical and public health implications. In the UK, rates of liver disease and obesity are increasing. Alcohol is a major cause of liver cirrhosis...

New research provides exciting insight into the molecular mechanisms associated with addiction and relapse. The study, published by Cell Press in the March 11 issue of the journal Neuron, uncovers a crucial mechanism that facilitates motivation for alcohol after extended abstinence and opens new avenues for potential therapeutic intervention...

Normal-weight women who drink a light to moderate amount of alcohol appear to gain less weight and have a lower risk of becoming overweight and obese than non-drinkers, according to a report in the March 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. More than half of American adults drink alcoholic beverages, according to background information in the article...

Queensland drug-users experience significant positive outcomes from drug intervention, according to a UQ study in which almost half of the participants reduced drug use following diversionary tactics...

Men who engaged in domestic violence consistently overestimated how common such behavior is, and the more they overestimated it the more they engaged in abusing their partner in the previous 90 days, according to new research conducted at the University of Washington...

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Monday warned of an impending "health disaster facing developing countries if wealthy nations fail to control drugs," Agence France-Presse reports...

The U.S. 'race gap' in the commission of violent crime has narrowed substantially, yet persists - with murder arrest rates for African Americans still out-distancing those for whites - concludes a new 80-city study by the University of Maryland, Florida State University and the University of Oregon...

Nicotine takes much longer than previously thought to reach peak levels in the brains of cigarette smokers, according to new research conducted at Duke University Medical Center. Traditionally, scientists thought nicotine inhaled in a puff of cigarette smoke took a mere seven seconds to be taken up by the brain, and that each puff produced a spike of nicotine...

Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACUR) and King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE: KG) today announced top-line results from Study AP-ADF-114 ("Study 114") titled "A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo- and Active-Controlled Study to Assess the Relative Abuse Potential of Acurox® (oxycodone HCl and niacin) Tablets in Non-Dependent Recreational Opioid Users...

A new study from the US found that normal weight women in their 40s and older who drank a light to moderate amount of alcohol gained less weight and had a lower risk of becoming obese and overweight compared to their non-drinking counterparts...