This is Archived content. This content is available for historical purposes only. It may not reflect the current state of science or language from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). For current NIDA Notes, please visit nida.nih.gov.
Por qué las mujeres son más sensibles a la cocaína
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New research demonstrates that the hormone estradiol is responsible for females’ increased sensitivity to stimulant drugs.
Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids May Damage the Heart and Arteries
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Use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) is associated with compromised heart pumping and atherosclerotic plaque. Clinicians should inquire about AAS use when young or middle-aged men present with left ventricular dysfunction...
Substance Use Disorders Are Associated With Major Medical Illnesses and Mortality Risk in a Large Integrated Health Care System
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Strong associations exist between substance use disorder diagnoses and 19 major medical illnesses among patients in a large, integrated health care system. The study indicates that these associations may persist...
Deep Brain Stimulation Attenuates Rats’ Responses to Heroin
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High-frequency electrical stimulation of neurons deep in the brain can reduce rats’ relapse-like behavior and motivation to take heroin. The finding strengthens hope that deep brain stimulation might offer a...
EEG Indicates That Cocaine Relapse Vulnerability Peaks 1 to 6 Months Into Abstinence
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Electroencephalography (EEG) may provide an objective measure of cocaine-addicted participants’ vulnerability to cue-induced relapse. The assessment of cue-induced responsiveness may be useful in the clinical setting for assessing relapse risk...
After Showing Promise for Cannabis-Using Adolescents, N-Acetylcysteine Falters in Adult Study
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In a clinical trial, N-acetylcysteine did not help adults reduce their cannabis use, despite having been effective for adolescents in a previous trial. The results indicated that if adults are...
Blocking Protein Complex May Lock Down HIV Reservoirs
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Inhibiting mTOR, a regulatory protein complex, can prevent reactivation of latent HIV. Medications to inhibit mTOR might help people with HIV achieve and maintain undetectable HIV viral loads.
Efectos de las drogas sobre la neurotransmisión
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Las drogas pueden alterar la manera de pensar, sentir y comportarse de las personas al afectar la neurotransmisión, que es el proceso que usan las neuronas (células nerviosas) en el...
Variation in the Gene for the μ-Opioid Receptor May Influence Responses to Methadone
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A single nucleotide polymorphism in the messenger RNA of the µ-opioid receptor gene was associated with patients’ responses to methadone treatment for opioid dependence.
Opioid Agonist Treatment Reduces Societal Costs of Crime
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Patients who initiate time-unlimited opioid-agonist therapy will generate lower average total crime-related costs over the next 6 months than patients who initiate a 21-day detoxification regimen.
Why Females Are More Sensitive to Cocaine
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New research demonstrates that the hormone estradiol is responsible for females’ increased sensitivity to stimulant drugs.
Researchers Speak: The ABCD Study
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In this video, Dr. Terry Jernigan describes the purpose and goals of the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.
Nonmedical Opioid and Heroin Use Among High School Seniors
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This study analyzed the use of use of nonmedical opioids and heroin use among 68,000 high-school seniors participating in the NIDA-funded Monitoring the Future Study between 2009 and 2013.
Narrative of Discovery: Can Magnets Treat Cocaine Addiction? Part 3
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In the final installment of this series, Dr. Diana Martinez navigates the process for receiving NIH funding to test the efficacy of using transcranial magnetic stimulation as treatment for cocaine...
Buprenorphine Benefits Waitlisted Seekers of Opioid Treatment
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In two pilot clinical trials, buprenorphine helped participants reduce their illicit opioid use and injection drug use while awaiting admission to a methadone or buprenorphine treatment program. Researchers minimized the...
Endocannabinoid Regulates Cocaine Reward
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Investigators have shown that 2-AG, an endocannabinoid (i.e., a cannabinoid manufactured within the body, as opposed to plant-derived), augments the cocaine-induced dopamine surge in the brain’s reward system. The discovery...
Impacts of Drugs on Neurotransmission
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Drugs can alter the way people think, feel, and behave by disrupting neurotransmission, the process of communication between brain cells. This article discusses the central importance of studying drugs’ effects...
Why Are Our Brains So Big and Powerful?
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Why is the human brain so much bigger and more powerful than that of other animals? Researchers have investigated the hypothesis that changes not only in our genes themselves, but...
Promising Advances in the Search for Safer Opioids
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New studies show that two novel compounds powerfully suppressed animals’ pain responses, while producing little or none of the respiratory depression and liability for misuse and abuse associated with morphine...
Prevention Program Reduces Substance Use By Participants' Friends
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The Strengthening Families Program for Youth 10-14 (SFP10-14), an evidence-based intervention that reduces teen substance use, also reduced participants’ friends’ substance use. Two factors that accounted for the nonparticipants’ reductions...
Nonmedical Treatment for Cocaine Addiction Shows Promise in Pilot Trial
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Patients who received transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) were more likely to abstain from cocaine than patients who received medications for symptoms associated with abstinence. Researchers concluded that TMS appears to...
Messages Shore Up Support for Making Life-Saving Anti-Overdose Medication Widely Available
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Public health messages can increase public approval for making naloxone legally available to friends and relatives of opioid users to administer if an overdose occurs.
Why Do People Lose Control Over Their Cocaine Use?
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Researchers monitored the activity of two types of neurons in mice: “urge” neurons, which promote feelings of reward and repeating behaviors that have produced rewards, and “control” neurons, which dampen...
¿Por qué las personas pierden el control sobre su consumo de cocaína?
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Los investigadores observaron la actividad de dos tipos de neuronas en ratones: las neuronas de "impulso", que promueven los sentimientos de recompensa y la repetición de los comportamientos dirigidos a...
Quinine as a Tracer for Medication Adherence
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Patients who don’t take their medications as prescribed often put themselves at risk for problems including misdiagnoses, complications, and death. A study suggests that adding low doses of quinine to...
A Case for Studying Brain Asymmetry in Drug Use
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A new study proposes that research into the discrete roles played by the brain’s two hemispheres could yield important and actionable insights into drug use and addiction. Evidence indicates that...
Regular Marijuana Use Is Associated With Differences in Brain Gray Matter and Connectivity
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A brain imaging study strongly suggests that regular users of marijuana have smaller orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) volumes. Such a deficit could make it more difficult to change counterproductive behaviors, including...
Slow-Release Amphetamine Medication Benefits Patients With Comorbid Cocaine Addiction and ADHD
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Treatment with an extended-release stimulant medication plus cognitive behavioral therapy was associated with reductions in cocaine use and in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms in patients with both disorders.
Study Questions Role for Marijuana in Teen Users’ IQ Decline
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In a recent study, teens who used marijuana lost IQ points relative to their nonusing peers. However, the drug appeared not to be the culprit.
Narrative of Discovery: Can Magnets Treat Cocaine Addiction? Part 2
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During investigations into using transcranial brain stimulation (TMS) to treat cocaine abuse, two projects take diverging paths. One researcher moves to the next stage, while another is forced to cut...
Study Links Medical Marijuana Dispensaries to Reduced Mortality From Opioid Overdose
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Legally protected marijuana dispensaries (LMDs) were associated with lower rates of dependence on prescription opioids, and deaths due to opioid overdose, than would have been expected based on prior trends...
Sensation Seeking Promotes Initiation, Impulsivity Promotes Escalation of Substance Use
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Teens who avidly seek new and intense sensations are more likely to start using substances, but are not more likely to use them regularly within the next 3 years unless...
Dual Regimen Aims to Shorten Medication-Assisted Therapy
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Treatment that combines use of Bp/Nx and memantine may enable young adults addicted to opioids establish lasting abstinence after a relatively brief course of medication-assisted therapy, a pilot trial suggests.
Narrative of Discovery: In Search of a Medication To Treat Methamphetamine Addiction, Part 2
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When lobeline turned out not to be the answer, it became a starting point. Dr. Linda Dwoskin and her team set out to transform the molecule into something more effective...
Testing a Prospective Medication To Help People Avoid Relapse
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This NIDA Notes animation depicts a basic experiment that researchers use to test whether a prospective new medication can prevent relapse to drug addiction.
Gene Variant Is Associated With Reduced HIV Transmission
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A gene variant appears to partially shield people whose behaviors entail high risk for exposure to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from becoming infected.
Protein Diminishes Cocaine Reward and Cocaine-Related Learning in Animals
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The protein acid-sensing ion channel 1A (ASIC1A) is naturally present in the brain and reduces laboratory animals' attraction to environments in which they have experienced cocaine's effects.
ED-Initiated Buprenorphine Outperforms Referral or SBIRT for ED Patients With Opioid Addiction
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Emergency department visits present prime opportunities to identify people with opioid addiction and provide them with onsite initiation of treatment with buprenorphine/naloxone.
Gene Transfer Therapy for Cocaine Addiction Passes Tests in Animals
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Giving mice a modified version of a naturally occurring gene blocks cocaine’s stimulant effects without affecting the animals’ physiological or metabolic health. The new evidence advances the proposed therapy a...
Life Skills Training Shields Teens From Prescription Opioid Misuse
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Communities that implemented Life Skills Training in a trial more than recouped its cost in reduced health, social, and other expenditures related to teen prescription opioid misuse.
Long-Term Follow-Up of Medication-Assisted Treatment for Addiction to Pain Relievers Yields “Cause for Optimism”
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In the first long-term follow-up of patients treated with buprenorphine/naloxone for addiction to opioid pain relievers, half reported that they were abstinent from the drugs 18 months after starting the...
Digital Addiction Therapies Affirm Promise in Replication and Large Trial
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Two computerized programs improved outcomes when they were used to supplement or partially replace in-person behavioral therapy for drug addiction in recent NIDA-sponsored trials.
Childhood Maltreatment Changes Cortical Network Architecture and May Raise Risk for Substance Use
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Young adults who had been maltreated as children differed from others who had not been maltreated in the connectivity of nine cortical regions. The differences could compromise the maltreated group’s...
Narrative of Discovery: Can Magnets Treat Cocaine Addiction?
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Two researchers share their reasons for researching transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for treating cocaine addiction, and describe challenges to moving forward this potentially promising therapy.
Why Take a Drug That No Longer Gives Pleasure?
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In mice, a cocaine-induced imbalance in the activity of two key populations of neurons in the reward system persists for a longer period after repeated exposure to the drug. For...
Teen Foster Care Program Reduces Drug Use in Early Adulthood
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New findings from a follow-up to a NIDA-supported trial indicate that the benefits of Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care extend to a reduction in illegal drug use in young adulthood.
THC Hampers Spatial Memory Development in Young Monkeys
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Adolescent monkeys that were exposed to THC fell progressively further behind THC-free monkeys in their ability to recall the location of an object after a brief delay.
Brain Imaging Predicts Relapse to Cocaine
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A NIDA-supported study has found that a cocaine-addicted person’s chance of managing 1 whole year of abstinence correlates with activity levels in these impaired motivational and decision-making brain areas.
A Rapid Teen Substance Use Screening Tool for Clinicians
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Answers to three simple questions can help a busy health care provider flag a teen’s problematic use of alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana.
Electronic Questionnaire Quickly Rates Teens’ Substance Use
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With a few simple questions, a new screening tool detects whether a teen is likely to have a mild-to-moderate or a severe substance use disorder.
Study Ranks Recovery Assets in Cocaine Addiction
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A can-do attitude, ability to cope with potential triggers for drug use, readiness to change, and participation in self-help programs are major assets for people trying to recover from cocaine...
Text Messaging Aftercare Intervention Cuts Youths’ Risk for Relapse
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An interactive mobile texting aftercare program has shown promise as a means to help teens and young adults engage with post-treatment recovery activities and avoid relapse. The program reduced young...
Dr. Thomas Kosten Q & A: Vaccines To Treat Addiction
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In this article and accompanying podcast, Dr. Thomas Kosten discusses the idea and current status of antidrug vaccines to treat substance use and addiction.
Stress Hormone Sets the Stage for Relapse to Cocaine Use
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A stressed rat will seek a dose of cocaine that is too weak to motivate an unstressed rat. Researchers traced the physiological pathway that links stress and the stress hormone...
Distinct Challenges Affect Women’s HIV Treatment Outcomes After Jail
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Women who are infected with HIV and are transitioning back to communities after serving jail time are less likely than their male counterparts to have a regular HIV care provider...
Intervention Yields Sustained Health Benefits for American Indian Teen Mothers and Their Children
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Family Spirit, a program that teaches parenting skills to American Indian teen mothers, improved participants’ children’s emotional and behavioral development throughout their first 36 months of life.
Study Points to Individualized Therapy for Opioid Addiction
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Trial participants who were addicted to opioid painkillers and did not inject drugs stayed in treatment longer and achieved better outcomes than those who were addicted to heroin or injected...
Patients Addicted to Opioid Painkillers Achieve Good Results With Outpatient Detoxification
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A significant portion of individuals who are addicted to opioid painkillers may initiate and maintain abstinence with a brief but intensive outpatient detoxification treatment followed by opioid antagonist therapy using...
Animal Study Suggests Marijuana May Affect Future Offspring’s Susceptibility to Heroin
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Can marijuana use put offspring at heightened risk for opiate addiction, even if the use stops before the offspring are conceived? Results from a recent NIDA-funded study are consistent with...
Waletzky Memorial Award Winners’ Lectures at NIDA Illuminate Cocaine’s Many Effects on Brain Structure, Circuitry
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Dr. Paul E. M. Phillips spoke on “Phasic Dopamine Transmission During Substance Abuse,” describing investigations that he has led into the role of brief, seconds-long bursts of dopamine signaling in...
Narrative of Discovery: In Search of a Medication To Treat Methamphetamine Addiction
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This is the first in a series of NIDA Notes articles that will follow a team of researchers seeking a medication for methamphetamine addiction. This installment describes the early promise...
Communities That Care System Helps Prevent Problem Behaviors in Youth Through 12th Grade
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The latest evaluation of a 24-town trial of Communities That Care (CTC) found that CTC-associated reductions in current substance use and delinquency, which had been observed when the children were...
Varenicline Helps People With Mental Illness Maintain Abstinence From Smoking
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Varenicline (Chantix) helped outpatients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder remain abstinent from smoking in an 18-month-long NIDA-supported clinical trial. The finding strengthens hope that pharmacotherapy can break nicotine’s especially tenacious...
Study Assesses Functional Deficits Due to HIV and Methamphetamine Use
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NIDA-supported researchers have tallied the burden that methamphetamine use and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) impose on daily functioning. Their findings yielded clinically relevant insights and clues to potentially helpful interventions...
Animation: The Rise and Fall of the Cocaine High
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View the animation Research indicates that the speed with which a drug of abuse enters and leaves the brain affects how “high” it makes users feel. “Highs” tend to be...
Smoking Cessation Does Not Interfere With Recovery From Substance Use
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Smoking cessation appears unlikely to hinder and may even help recovery from substance use disorders and from mood and anxiety disorders (M/AD). These recent findings should ease concerns that encouraging...
Dr. Kevin M. Gray Q & A: A Potential Medication for Marijuana Dependence
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Dr. Kevin M. Gray, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina, discusses the promise of N-acetylcysteine as a potential treatment for marijuana...
A Genetic Nexus of Obesity and Smoking
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The hypothesis that obesity and nicotine addiction have common genetic and biological roots is buttressed by a recent NIDA-supported study. Researchers showed that some gene variants that influence body mass...
New Approach Uses Immune Cells To Deliver Anti-HIV Medications
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A new pharmacological approach being developed by NIDA-supported scientists has the potential to make treatment for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease easier and more effective. Called nano-antiretroviral therapy (nano-ART), the...
Student-Scientists Present Award-Winning Research at NIDA
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The award winners and NIDA staff (from left to right): Carol Krause, NIDA Public Information and Liaison Branch Chief; Dr. William Dewey, Chair, Friends of NIDA; Aakash Jain, Second-Place Winner...
Training Workshops Boost Approval of Contingency Management
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“It doesn’t address the underlying cause of addiction.” “It will undermine the patient’s internal motivation for abstinence.” “Its effect will last only as long as rewards continue to be given.”...
Self-Control Protects Urban Minority Youths From Drug Use and Depressive Mood
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In a cohort of urban African Americans and Puerto Ricans, high levels of self-control at age 14 were associated with low levels of both marijuana use and depressive mood up...
Among High School Seniors, Driving After Marijuana Use Surpasses Drunk Driving
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Nearly 1 in 6 high school seniors who responded to a 2011 survey reported that, within the past 2 weeks, they had driven a motor vehicle after using an illicit...
Dr. Antonello Bonci Q & A: Lighting Up the Brain To Shut Down Cocaine Seeking
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Dr. Antonello Bonci, Scientific Director of NIDA’s Intramural Research Program (IRP), talks about switching off animals’ compulsive cocaine seeking by optogenetically activating the prefrontal cortex, and the implications of this...
Gene Variants Reduce Opioid Risks
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Two recent studies represent early steps toward the goal of personalized therapy for pain and addiction based on patients’ genetic makeup. One study associated a rare variant of the gene...
New Insight Into How Cues Cause Relapse to Cocaine
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Recent observations in animals may help explain why reminders of past cocaine use exert uniquely powerful influence over the behavior of people with addiction. NIDA-supported researchers identified a brain response...
Device Detects Marijuana in Breath Hours After Smoking
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Figure 1. A Simple Breath-Collection Device Can Be Used To Screen for Marijuana Use A subject breathes into a SensAbues collection device, which contains a polymeric filter pad to capture...
Although Relatively Few, “Doctor Shoppers” Skew Opioid Prescribing
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One out of every 143 U.S. patients who received a prescription for an opioid painkiller in 2008 obtained prescriptions from multiple physicians in a pattern that suggests misuse or abuse...
Dr. Joni Rutter Q&A: How Basic Science Is Tackling Addiction
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Dr. Joni Rutter, director of the Division of Basic Neuroscience and Behavioral Research at NIDA, discusses the division’s strategy, tools, and progress toward understanding and combatting addiction. NIDA Notes: What...
Marijuana Use May Promote Nicotine Consumption
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Marijuana use makes tobacco use more pleasurable and may increase the user’s risk for becoming addicted to nicotine. These are the implications of recent experiments in which exposing rats to...
In Nationwide Survey, More Students Use Marijuana, Fewer Use Other Drugs
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For the 16th year in a row, NIDA’s annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey has documented a decline in the percentage of American students in grades 8, 10, and 12...
Expanded HIV Screening Projected To Decrease Spread of the Virus
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Intensified screening for HIV among injection drug users receiving opioid agonist therapy could prevent more than twice as many new infections as current screening practice, NIDA-supported researchers estimate. The findings...
Study: Treat Jail Detainees’ Drug Abuse To Lower HIV Transmission
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A study strongly suggests that offering jail detainees effective evidence-based treatment for substance use disorders can reduce the Nation’s burden of HIV. Researchers found that, among a large cohort of...
Methamphetamine Alters Brain Structures, Impairs Mental Flexibility
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A new study adds to the copious existing evidence that chronic exposure to addictive drugs alters the brain in ways that make quitting difficult. NIDA-supported researchers showed that, in monkeys...
Microneedle Milestone: One Week of Transdermal Drug Delivery
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Microneedles have notched a significant advance on the way to clinical usefulness: A single treatment using the transdermal technique delivered therapeutic doses of the opioid antagonist naltrexone continuously for 7...
California Reaped Large Savings by Diverting Drug-Using Offenders Into Treatment
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A California law that allows qualified drug offenders to enter substance use treatment rather than go to jail or prison saved the state close to $100 million in its first...
Intervention Strengthens American Indian Teen Mothers’ Parenting
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Teen mothers on three American Indian reservations improved on several measures of parenting capability after participating in Family Spirit, a home-visiting intervention developed with NIDA support. At 12 months postpartum...
Stress-Induced Enzyme Compounds Methamphetamine Neurotoxicity
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Ketoprofen, an anti-inflammatory agent commonly prescribed to treat arthritis, reduces neuronal damage in rats that have been exposed to chronic stress and methamphetamine. If this finding of a recent NIDA-supported...
HIV Infection Accelerates Hepatitis C–Related Liver Fibrosis
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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes liver fibrosis that worsens as patients age, potentially progressing to cirrhosis and culminating in liver failure. A NIDA-funded study shows that concurrent infection with...
Prefrontal Cortex Stimulation Stops Compulsive Drug Seeking in Rats
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Researchers have shut down laboratory rats’ compulsive cocaine seeking by stimulating an area of the animals’ prefrontal cortex (PFC). The finding raises the possibility that stimulating neurons in this brain...
American Researcher Dr. Charles O’Brien Knighted by French Government
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Dr. Charles O’Brien receives the Medal of Chevalier of the French National Order of the Legion of Honor from Alain Lamassoure, a member of the French government and chair of...
Dr. Evan D. Kharasch Joins the Institute of Medicine
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Evan D. Kharasch, M.D., Ph.D. Photo credit: Robert Boston In October, officials at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies named NIDA-supported researcher Dr. Evan D. Kharasch among...
Medications That Treat Opioid Addiction Do Not Impair Liver Health
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A trial that compared buprenorphine/naloxone (Bup/Nx) to methadone produced no evidence that either medication damages the liver. Researchers concluded that Bup/Nx and methadone are equally safe for the liver, and...
Study Finds Genetic Influence on African Americans’ Smoking
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The largest study to date of genetic contributions to African Americans’ smoking behaviors confirms the importance of the region 15q25.1, on chromosome 15. The meta-analysis of data from 13 genome-wide...
Naltrexone Implant Outperforms Daily Pill in Russian Trial
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More than half of heroin-addicted patients treated with naltrexone via an implanted delivery device maintained abstinence throughout a 6-month clinical trial in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The implant device, which releases...
Women Benefit From Policies to Prevent Teens From Buying Tobacco
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State laws to keep tobacco products out of the hands of minors have prevented many people, particularly women, from becoming smokers well into adulthood, NIDA-supported researchers have found. Dr. Richard...
NIDA Seeks Applications for Women and Sex/Gender Differences Junior Investigator Travel Awards for CPDD
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NIDA plans to provide $750 travel awards to 27 junior investigators to present their research on women or sex/gender differences in any area of drug abuse at the annual meeting...
Study Parses Comorbidity of Cannabis Use and Social Anxiety
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A recent large-scale epidemiological study sheds light on the relationship between cannabis use disorder (CUD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD). The findings affirmed that a significant portion of individuals with...
Dr. Marilyn Huestis Q & A: Matching Drug Effects to Drug Concentrations
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In this video, Dr. Marilyn Huestis talks about her work in NIDA’s Intramural Research Program. Dr. Marilyn Huestis, Chief of the Chemistry and Drug Metabolism Section of NIDA’s Intramural Research...
Stimulants in “Bath Salts” Produce Effects Similar to MDMA
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Mephedrone and methylone, two stimulants commonly found in designer drugs such as “bath salts,” act on the brain much like methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, Ecstasy). According to recent studies, the two may...