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. During a speech delivered in Vienna, UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa pointed to "increasing use of heroin in East Africa, cocaine in West Africa, and synthetic drugs in the Middle East and South East Asia as warning signs" of a growing drug problem in impoverished nations (3/8)... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

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... (Source: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs News From Medical News Today)

(NaturalNews) For years, advocates of natural health have been hammering away at the message that soda causes diabetes and obesity. The soda industry, meanwhile, has remained in denial mode, mirroring the ridiculous position of the tobacco industry that "nicotine is not addictive." Soda doesn't cause diabetes, the industry claims, and it's perfectly safe to consume in essentially unlimited quantities.The Corn Refiners Association has joined the denial with its own spin campaign that seeks to convince people High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is totally natural and completely harmless. HFCS is, of course, the primary sweetener used in sodas and soft drinks.Now comes new research presented at the American Heart Association's Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention annual conference i...

(Cell Press) 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. (Source: EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science)

Authors: Bryon Adinoff, Michael D Devous, Mark J Williams, Susan E Best, Thomas S Harris, Abu Minhajuddin, Tanya Zielinski & Munro Cullum Keywords: Acetylcholine; Addiction & Substance Abuse; Biological Psychiatry; cocaine addiction; Imaging; Clinical or Preclinical (Source: Neuropsychopharmacology)

Authors: Jiansong Xu, Elise E DeVito, Patrick D Worhunsky, Kathleen M Carroll, Bruce J Rounsaville & Marc N Potenza Keywords: Addiction & Substance Abuse; Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences; Biological Psychiatry; Imaging; Clinical or Preclinical; Diffusion tensor imaging; Behavioral therapy (Source: Neuropsychopharmacology)MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

The current study examines the role of the dorsal and ventral hippocampus, and anterior cingulate in the interactive effects of ethanol and nicotine on learning, anxiety and locomotion in the plus-maze discriminative avoidance task, which allows dissociation of drug effects on each behaviour. At training, time spent in each of the arms of the elevated plus-maze was recorded for 5 minutes. Each time that the mouse entered the aversive enclosed arm, a light and white noise were turned on. At testing, no cues were turned on and time spent in each arm was recorded for 3 minutes. The effects of systemic ethanol (1.0 or 1.4 g/kg) and nicotine (0.35 µg/0.50 µl/side) infused into the anterior cingulate, dorsal and ventral hippocampus were examined, as were the interactive effects of systemic eth...

This study investigated the effects of the preferential D2 antagonist, haloperidol (3 mg) on reward-related betting behavior in 20 subjects with pathological gambling (PG) and 18 healthy Controls. Hierarchical regression assessed the prospective relationship between Payoff and Bet Size on consecutive trials, along with potential moderating effects of Cumulative Winnings and Phase of game (early/late) under drug and placebo. Payoff predicted Bet Size on the next trial regardless of other factors, consistent with an instrumental view of slot machine gambling. Under placebo, this correlation varied as a function of Winnings and Phase in PG subjects but was strong and invariant in Controls. Under haloperidol, the Payoff[ndash]Bet Size correlation in PG subjects resembled the invariant pattern ...

Smoking-related cues elicit craving and mesocorticolimbic brain activation in smokers. Severity of nicotine dependence seems to moderate cue reactivity, but the direction and mechanisms of its influence remains unclear. Although tobacco control policies demand a ban on tobacco advertising, cue reactivity studies in smokers so far have not employed tobacco advertisement as experimental stimuli. We investigated whether tobacco advertisement elicits cue reactivity at a behavioral (subjective craving) and a neural level (using functional magnetic resonance imaging) in 22 smokers and 21 never-smokers. Moreover, we studied the influence of severity of dependence on cue reactivity. In smokers, tobacco advertisement elicited substantially more craving than control advertisement whereas never-smoke...

In conclusion, our data suggest that extracellular concentrations of dopamine and taurine are interconnected and that swelling of astrocytes contributes to the acute rewarding sensation of EtOH. (Source: Addiction Biology)

Heroin dependence (HD) is a chronic relapsing brain disorder characterized by a compulsion to seek and use heroin. Stress is seen as a key factor for heroin use. Methadone maintenance and the prescription of pharmaceutical heroin [diacetylmorphine (DAM)] are established treatments for HD in several countries. The present study examined whether DAM-maintained patients and methadone-maintained patients differ from healthy controls in startle reflex and cortisol levels. Fifty-seven participants, 19 of each group matched for age, sex and smoking status, completed a startle session which included the presentation of 24 bursts of white noise while eye-blink responses to startling noises were recorded. Salivary cortisol was collected three times after awakening, before, during and after the start...MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

The endocannabinoid system has been implicated in the motivational effects of nicotine and nicotine-associated stimuli but the neural circuitry underlying tobacco addiction is not fully characterised. The present study aimed to establish a second-order schedule of nicotine reinforcement to compare the role of the endocannabinoid system in nicotine- and cue-maintained responding. The male rats were successfully trained to respond on a second-order schedule [FR5 (FR5: S) or FI 10' (FR3: S)] under which presentation of the CS (brief light oscillation) was intermittently reinforced by nicotine (0.03 mg/kg/infusion). The relative contribution of nicotine and the CS towards responding was then compared. Nicotine and the CS were only able to independently maintain responding to similar level unde...

This study compared the effect of acute and chronic non-contingent nicotine administration on responding for an unconditioned reinforcing stimulus (UCS) and a visual conditioned stimulus (CS) and the role of CB1 receptors was examined. Male hooded Lister rats were trained on a second-order schedule [FI 15' (FR5: S)] under which presentation of the CS (5s/5Hz light oscillation) was intermittently reinforced by the UCS (food). The rats were treated with daily saline or nicotine (0.4 mg/kg, subcutaneous [s.c.]) throughout the study. The effect of the acute nicotine challenge (0.05, 0.1 and 0.2 mg/kg, s.c.) and the CB1 receptor antagonist AM251 (0.1, 0.3 and 1 mg/kg, intraperitoneal [i.p.]) on responding for the CS and/or UCS was examined. The acute nicotine challenge increased responding for ...

Poor drug addicts around the world face a host of problems from stigma and imprisonment to lack of treatment, according to the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). (Source: Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News)

The objective burden on caregivers of patients with bipolar disorder is significantly higher than for those with unipolar [straightforward] depression.” Due to the cyclical nature of the illness and the stresses arising from manic and hypomanic episodes, it “causes uncertainty regarding how best to structure family interventions to optimally alleviate burden.” Studies on U.S. caregiver burden in bipolar disorder suggest that the burden is “high and largely neglected.” As well as depression, caregivers can experience poor physical health, low social support, disruption of household routine, financial strain, and can neglect their own health needs. According to Eduard Vieta, MD, and colleagues at the University of Barcelona, Spain, the most burdensome aspects f...

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. While the gap had been cut by more than half in the 1970s, it grew again in the '80s with the advent of crack cocaine. The researchers find the gap most pronounced in communities with higher rates of divorce, unemployment and illegal drug use... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

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... (Source: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs News From Medical News Today)

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." Study 114 top-line results demonstrate that two different potentially abused excess oral doses of Acurox® Tablets are significantly disliked compared to equivalent excess oral doses of oxycodone HCl tablets alone (without niacin)... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

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... (Source: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs News From Medical News Today)

Research indicates that for many students excessive drinking in college is a continuation of high school drinking tendencies. However, there have been limited theory-driven, systematic interventions targeting students so as to prevent alcohol misuse in their transition to college. Almost all current prevention approaches tend to be focused on younger populations and college-drinking interventions are typically delivered to students when they are already on campus. These analyses draw from a novel program of research involving parents of college freshmen based on the work of Turrisi et al. [Turrisi et al. [2001] Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 15(4), 366-372; Turrisi, et al. [2009] Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 7, 315-326] and focuses on examining: (1) the relationship between pa...