Addiction News and Research

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68 percent of smokers want help quitting

According to a study just published in Preventive Medicine, 68 percent of smokers who were offered free cessation treatment at their regular clinics took advantage of the invitation.

11 May 2004

Identifying the addiction genes, new treatments for addiction, and the possibility of individually tailored drugs

Identifying the addiction genes, new treatments for addiction, and the possibility of individually tailored drugs are just a few of the issues a new Foresight project announced today will be investigating.

10 May 2004

Gambling increases level of brain chemical

Researchers, using a new combination of techniques, have discovered that dopamine levels in our brains vary the most in situations where we are unsure if we are going to be rewarded, such as when we are gambling or playing the lottery.

7 May 2004

Gene therapy helps alcoholic rats

As a follow up to previous work showing that gene therapy can reduce drinking in rats trained to prefer alcohol, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have used the same technique to cut drinking in rats with a genetic predisposition for heavy alcohol consumption.

5 May 2004

Adult marijuana abuse increased during 1990's

In an article appearing in the May 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), addiction researchers at the National Institutes of Health compared marijuana use in the U.S. adult population in 1991 - 92 and 2001 - 02.

4 May 2004

Russia’s harsh drug policies are fueling an AIDS epidemic

Russia’s burgeoning AIDS epidemic is fueled by government policies that deny HIV-prevention services to those most at risk and also allow discrimination against people with AIDS to flourish, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

29 Apr 2004

Mothers who smoke increase the likelihood of daughters smoking 3 fold

The illusion of smoking can be just as deadly as the real thing for minority inner-city girls who believe their mothers have the habit, a new University of Florida study finds.

28 Apr 2004

Likely closure of Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital

Members of Greater Glasgow NHS board will consider the financial crisis at today's meeting. The same meeting is expected to take a decision on closing the Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital – a proposal which has already caused uproar in the west of Scotland and beyond.

20 Apr 2004

New evidence that brain circuits involved in drug addiction are also activated by the desire for food

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have produced new evidence that brain circuits involved in drug addiction are also activated by the desire for food.

19 Apr 2004

Weak UK government alcohol report pulls its punches

A recent report on reducing harm from alcohol by the Government's strategy unit has been 'neutered' in comparison with the same study's interim findings, according to an editorial in this week's BMJ.

16 Apr 2004

Sound sleep in infants lessens likelihood of drug abuse in later years

A long-term study has found a significant connection between sleep problems in children’s toddler years and the chance that they’ll use alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs early in their teen years. Young teens whose preschool sleep habits were poor were more than twice as likely to use drugs, tobacco, or alcohol.

16 Apr 2004

Teenager smoking on the rise

A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that only six months after Minnesota legislators eliminated the state's aggressive, successful "Target Market" youth anti-tobacco campaign, kids in Minnesota were at substantially greater risk of falling victim to tobacco addiction.

16 Apr 2004

Researchers examine community-based drinkers rather than abstinent alcoholics

Almost all knowledge about brain damage due to chronic alcohol consumption has been gathered from alcoholics, who have generally been studied toward the end of their institutionalized treatment program (several weeks after their last drink) or many months into abstinence.

13 Apr 2004

Strongest evidence yet for the role of genetic factors in smoking addiction

In the first study to analyze the impact of genetic factors on multiple stages of tobacco use in both men and women, a team of researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University has found some of the strongest evidence yet for the role of genetic factors in smoking.

13 Apr 2004

Alcohol screening can spot addiction

Have you ever felt like you needed a drink? If an occasional cocktail changes into a need, it could mean an alcohol problem. National Alcohol Screening Day is April 8. In cities and towns throughout the United States, screening programs will be offered to help people determine whether they exhibit drinking behaviors that could be signs of alcohol addiction.

7 Apr 2004

How rat's genetic blueprint stacks up against those of mice and humans

An international research team, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced it has completed a high-quality, draft sequence of the genome of the laboratory rat, and has used that data to explore how the rat's genetic blueprint stacks up against those of mice and humans.

31 Mar 2004

Alcohol boosts the pleasurable effects of nicotine

In tests on human volunteers, Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that even small amounts of alcohol boost the pleasurable effects of nicotine, inducing people to smoke more when drinking alcoholic beverages. The findings provide a physiological explanation for the common observation that people smoke more in bars. The findings also explain statistics showing that alcoholics tend to smoke more than non-alcoholics, and that smokers are more likely to be alcoholics.

24 Mar 2004