Addiction News and Research

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Novel tool for assessing children's overall addiction to digital devices

A new study developed and validated a tool for assessing children's overall addiction to digital devices. The study, which found that more than 12% of children ages 9-12 years were at risk of addiction to digital devices for uses including video gaming, social media, and texting, is published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

9 Dec 2019

Computer betting game can help predict the likelihood of opioid reuse

A computer betting game can help predict the likelihood that someone recovering from opioid addiction will reuse the pain-relieving drugs, a new study shows.

8 Dec 2019

A patient's tolerance for risky decisions can predict chances of opioid relapse

People in treatment for opioid addiction are more likely to relapse when they become more tolerant of risks, according to a study by Rutgers and other institutions. The findings can help clinicians better predict which patients are most vulnerable.

8 Dec 2019

Methamphetamine undermines success in treatment for opioid-use disorder

Judith Tsui, a UW Medicine clinician specializing in addiction treatment, was seeing more and more patients she was treating for opioid-use disorder also using methamphetamines, a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system.

8 Dec 2019

Insights from virtual reality experiments could help break the cycle of addiction

The number of drug overdose deaths in the US has never been higher. Most of those deaths--68 percent in 2017--have involved opioids. An estimated 10 million Americans aged 12 and older misused opioids in 2018.

8 Dec 2019

Chronic disease prevention could help curb the opioid epidemic

Preventing chronic disease could help curb the opioid epidemic, according to research from the University of Georgia.

5 Dec 2019

Discovery of protein function opens door to potential therapies for addiction, behavioral disorders

The human brain consists of several intricate networks or "circuits." One such complex circuit, called the "reward circuit," is involved in reward-associated learning, a process in which nerve cell activity changes in response to a "reward" stimulus (something that the brain perceives as a reward).

5 Dec 2019

A woman has developed rare form of lung metal-scarring from vaping

A woman who had been vaping cannabis oil has been diagnosed with rare type of lung scarring usually only seen in metalworkers.

5 Dec 2019

CDC cautions people to avoid e-cigarette products

Although e-cigarettes have been on the market for years, recent reports of vaping-linked illnesses have brought serious attention to these products.

5 Dec 2019

Brits betting online, eating unhealthily and drinking too much alcohol

The National Health Service (NHS) England has released its latest survey and reveals that millions of people in England are eating unhealthy foods, drinking too much alcohol, are overweight, and turned to online gambling.

4 Dec 2019

Findings could lead to new approach to treating alcohol use disorder

A single infusion of ketamine, combined with outpatient behavioral therapy, helped alcohol-dependent individuals abstain from drinking for a few weeks after the treatment, researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and New York State Psychiatric Institute have found.

4 Dec 2019

Built for counterterrorism, this high-tech machine is now used to detect fentanyl

Sarah Mackin runs a cotton swab around the inside of a tiny plastic baggie that appears empty. She spreads whatever residue the swab picked up onto a test strip that resembles a Band-Aid, then slides the strip into a buzzing machine about the size of a boxed, take-home pie.

4 Dec 2019

Researchers create new technology to help understand how the body battles diseases

Much remains unknown about diseases and the way our bodies respond to them, in part because the human genome is the complete DNA assembly that makes each person unique. A Virginia Tech professor and his team of researchers have created new technology to help in understanding how the human body battles diseases.

3 Dec 2019

New PA program in Massachusetts to provide knowledge, skills to prescribe opiates safely

Morbidity and mortality from prescription and synthetic opioid use and abuse continues to be a U.S. public health issue. In an effort to help curtail this crisis, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine describe an approach to ensure Physician Assistant (PA) students graduating from any PA program in Massachusetts will have the knowledge and skills to prescribe opiates safely.

3 Dec 2019

Study reveals clue to preventing addiction relapse

With any addiction in which a user has successfully resisted a chemical, activity or substance, relapse is vexing. And with opioids, it's often deadly. Fatal overdoses following relapse from an opioid addiction is reaching epidemic proportions.

2 Dec 2019

New $300,000 grant-funded program to address opioid prescribing for cancer patients

The University of Illinois at Chicago has received a grant from the Coleman Foundation to develop a screening process for prescribing opioids and managing opioid use disorders in cancer patients who receive care at UI Health, UIC's clinical health enterprise.

2 Dec 2019

Risk of opioid overdose rises after de-addiction treatment completion

A study from Columbia University reveals that patients, who have been successfully treated with buprenorphine for opioid addiction, are at a greater risk of overdose after completion of the treatment. The study was titled, “Acute care, prescription opioid use, and overdose following discontinuation of long-term buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder”, and was published in the latest issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry. This study was funded and supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

2 Dec 2019

Consortium launches ambitious project to transform the treatment of pain

In an effort to address the critical public health need for new, safer and more effective medicines to treat pain, a consortium based at the Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School has launched an ambitious project titled STOP PAIN (Safe Therapeutic Options for Pain and Inflammation).

2 Dec 2019

Number of children requiring treatment for cannabis misuse failed to improve in the last 3 years

Public Health England has today revealed that a staggering 12,702 young people entered treatment last year because of problems with cannabis.

29 Nov 2019

Discrimination hampers successful addiction recovery

Even after resolving a problem with alcohol and other drugs, adults in recovery report experiencing both minor or "micro" forms of discrimination such as personal slights, and major or "macro" discrimination such as violation of their personal rights.

26 Nov 2019