For 30 years, NIDA Notes provided in-depth coverage of research findings on drug misuse and addiction. NIDA Notes was discontinued in 2021.
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 information, please visit nida.nih.gov.
Menthol May Strengthen Nicotine Addiction
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In a recent NIDA-supported study, Latino and African-American smokers of menthol cigarettes benefited less from a 1-month smoking cessation program than did smokers of nonmenthol cigarettes. During the month following...
Three Scientists Join Advisory Council
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New Council Members (From left): Drs. Caryn E. Lerman, Jon-Kar Zubieta, and (far right) Steven M. Wolinsky with NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. Three scientists have joined NIDA's National...
NIDA Grantee Wins Prize for Genetics Web Sites
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Dr. Louisa Stark, a NIDA science education grantee, has won the Science Prize for Online Resources in Education for developing two interactive Web sites on genetics, one of which includes...
Program Enhances Physician Knowledge on Substance Abuse
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Although substance abuse can have significant health consequences, most medical schools do not provide future primary care physicians with adequate training on addiction. To address this situation, NIDA funded the...
Addiction Science Award Winners Announced
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NIDA presented Addiction Science Awards to three high school students during the 2010 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), held last May in San Jose, California. Addiction Science Award...
Modafinil Normalizes Sleep During Early Cocaine Abstinence
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Modafinil, a medication used to treat narcolepsy and related disorders, dramatically improves sleep among recently abstinent cocaine abusers. Better sleep may boost patients' attention, memory, and mood—helping them benefit from...
Detoxification Services and Pharmacotherapies Lacking in Nation's Jails and Prisons
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Although many people in jails and prisons have a history of substance abuse, the majority of correctional facilities offer neither detoxification services to help inmates through drug withdrawal nor pharmacotherapies...
Substance Abuse Evaluated Among Women With Children
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In two nationally representative surveys, about 2 percent of mothers with at-home children under the age of 18 reported symptoms meeting the clinical criteria for abuse of or dependence on...
Drug Abuse at Highest Level in Nearly a Decade
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Illicit drug use in the United States has risen to its highest level in 8 years, according to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Last year...
Parental Supervision and Genetics Interact To Influence Nicotine Addiction
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Gene Variant and Low Parental Monitoring Combine to Elevate Smoking Risk: Increased risk of nicotine addiction conferred by one genotype of CHRNA5 dramatically increases among people who experienced low parental...
NIDA Appoints New Director of the Intramural Research Program
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Antonello Bonci, M.D., one of the world's leading researchers in neuropsychopharmacology, has joined NIDA as scientific director of the Intramural Research Program (IRP) in Baltimore. Dr. Bonci is known for...
Workgroup Keeps NIDA on the Cutting Edge of Brain Science
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The past 4 decades have witnessed explosive growth in knowledge about the brain's inner workings. For example, neuroscientists have identified an expanding list of neurochemicals and receptor proteins that form...
Intervention Improves Abstinence, Employment Among Welfare Recipients
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Intensive case management (ICM) can help substance-abusing women who receive welfare benefits stay off drugs and make strides in employment, report Dr. Jon Morgenstern and colleagues at Columbia University. In...
Deep Brain Stimulation Reduces Rats' Cocaine Seeking
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A stream of electrical pulses delivered to the brain's reward center curbs the power of a cocaine injection to spur rats to drug seeking. Dr. R. Christopher Pierce of Boston...
Incentives Promote Abstinence
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Staying the course and achieving abstinence in substance abuse treatment are two strong indicators that a patient is on the way to stable recovery. Patients who attend more therapy sessions...
Multidimensional Family Therapy for Adolescent Drug Abuse Offers Broad, Lasting Benefits
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A therapy that engages substance abusing teens and their parents individually while building the relationship between them has lasting benefits that extend beyond reduced drug use, according to two NIDA-sponsored...
Study Supports Methadone Maintenance in Therapeutic Communities
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Methadone maintenance and therapeutic communities are two effective treatment approaches that are seldom combined. Few methadone patients apply to therapeutic communities, and few therapeutic communities will accept them. Methadone patients...
Cocaine Vaccine Helps Some Reduce Drug Abuse
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A vaccine to prevent cocaine abuse proved mildly effective in its first placebo-controlled test. Although their individual responses varied, vaccine recipients reduced their cocaine use more quickly than placebo recipients...
Marijuana Linked With Testicular Cancer
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Men who use marijuana may increase their risk for developing testicular cancer. A recent study of several hundred Washington State men with testicular cancer showed an association between current marijuana...
New Tools and Strategies to Bolster Behavioral Therapy
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Through skillfully administered behavioral therapy, recovering drug abusers can learn to resist cravings and avoid situations that trigger relapse. Many long-term abusers, however, experience memory and cognition impairments that impede...
Treatment Patterns Vary Among People With Co-Occurring Disorders Based on Type of Treatment System Entered
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A study followed individuals who entered mental health crisis or substance abuse detoxification residential centers in San Francisco. The groups entering each type of facility had similar, and similarly severe...
French Government Honors Dr. Volkow
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The French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) awarded its 2009 International Prize to NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. The biomedical research organization recognized Dr. Volkow for her...
NIDA Curriculum Piques Students' Interest in Addiction Careers
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To fuel the future success of substance abuse research, young clinicians from diverse backgrounds need to be attracted to the field. As part of the national effort to draw health...
Four Scientists Receive Avant-Garde Awards
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NIDA has selected four scientists for its 2009 Avant-Garde Award for HIV/AIDS research. The annual competition, now in its second year, is intended to stimulate groundbreaking research for the prevention...
Dr. Kathleen T. Brady Recognized
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The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Board of Trustees bestowed the title of Distinguished University Professor upon Dr. Kathleen T. Brady on February 12, 2010. A leader in addiction...
Brain Adaptation May Dampen Effects of Cocaine
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NIDA-funded researchers recently were surprised to find evidence that a cocaine-induced change in the structure of brain cells represents an adaptive response that may limit the drug's impact. Previously, scientists...
Crack Cocaine Promotes Progression of HIV Infection to AIDS
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Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) inflicts disproportionate suffering on drug abusers. They have an extremely high prevalence of infection because the virus transmits easily via shared drug-injection equipment and through drug-influenced...
Medications That Normalize Brain Glutamate Reduce Drug-Seeking in Rats
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Two recent NIDA-funded studies demonstrate the promise of treating addiction with medications that alleviate drug-induced alterations in signaling by the neurotransmitter glutamate. In the studies, rats treated with acetylcysteine or...
Neuroimaging Challenges Common Assumption of Public Service Messaging
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Televised public service announcements (PSAs) with frequent cuts, bright colors, loud music, and surprising visual images may grab the eye and ear, but are they more likely than other ads...
High, Persistent Rates of Risky Sexual Behaviors in Delinquent Youth
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Young people who have gotten into trouble with the criminal justice system report high rates of sexual behaviors that increase risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Dr...
Brain Opioid Receptor Levels Predict Time to Cocaine Relapse
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Cocaine abusers who maintain high levels of the μ-opioid receptor in their brain during early abstinence relapse sooner than abusers whose levels drop. Dr. J. James Frost of the Johns...
Lower Levels of Dopamine-Regulating Receptors Among Novelty Seekers
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New experiences trigger a spurt of dopamine from the midbrain, but some individuals react more strongly than others do. Researchers at Vanderbilt University have identified a cellular mechanism that might...
School-Wide Program Reduces Problem Behaviors and Improves Academic Outcomes
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Positive Action, a school-centered program for social and emotional development for grades 1 to 12, was credited with a sharp reduction in rates of substance abuse, violent behavior, and voluntary...
Adolescent Cigarette Smoking Holds at Lowest Recorded Levels
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Cigarette smoking among adolescents in the 8th, 10th, and 12th grades has remained at the lowest levels recorded by the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey since its inception 35 years...
Dr. Geoffrey Schoenbaum Receives the Waletzky Memorial Award
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Dr. Geoffrey Schoenbaum, a professor in the department of anatomy and neurobiology and the department of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, is the recipient of the...
Young Opioid Abusers Benefit From Extended Buprenorphine-Naloxone Treatment
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Opioid-addicted youths benefit from extended opioid maintenance therapy, reports NIDA's Clinical Trials Network (CTN). In a study by Dr. George Woody of the Delaware Valley Node of the CTN, the...
Stroop Test Identifies Patients at Risk for Treatment Dropout
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The Stroop test, a widely available, easily administered assessment of a person's ability to screen out distractions and inhibit inappropriate responses, may predict which cocaine abusers are likely to drop...
Dr. Phil Skolnick Now Leads NIDA's Medications Development Efforts
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Dr. Phil Skolnick has joined NIDA as director of the Division of Pharmacotherapies and Medical Consequences of Drug Abuse. Dr. Skolnick, who has extensive experience in corporate and academic drug...
Vouchers Boost Smoking Abstinence During Pregnancy
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When obstetricians' advice was reinforced with voucher payments for not smoking, pregnant women attained much higher abstinence rates, a recent NIDA-funded clinical study found. In addition, the women who earned...
Reality Videos Bring NIDA Scientists to Web Site for Teens
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In fast-moving, 2-minute video clips on NIDA's Web site for teens, NIDA staff scientists pause in the midst of various recreational activities to speak about the dangers of drug abuse...
Genetic Overlap Between Substance Abuse and Bipolar Disorder
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According to a recent literature analysis by Dr. Ranga Krishnan of Duke University Medical Center, more than half of people with bipolar disorder also have a substance use disorder. New...
Peer Interaction Enhances Adolescent Rats' Drug Reward
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For adolescent rats, drugs are better with company, and vice versa. Given the opportunity to spend time in two cage compartments, young rats preferred the one in which they'd twice...
Some Teens Reporting Nonmedical Use of Prescriptions Develop Disorders
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Dr. Li-Tzy Wu and colleagues at Duke University and the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation found that 1 percent of the 36,992 respondents age 12 to 17 to the...
Injection Drug Users Acquire Hepatitis C Infection Later in Developed Countries
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The typical time from onset of injection drug use to infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) in developed countries has lengthened, according to a recent analysis. In the decade 1985...
Workgroup Directs Search for Genes That Influence Addiction
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About half of a person's risk for drug dependence resides in his or her genes, with the rest attributable to circumstantial and environmental factors. Genes influence vulnerability to drug abuse...
Helping Doctors Become First Responders to Substance Abuse
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The NMASSIST tool was discontinued in 2022 in favor of TAPS screening tool Every day, the Nation's primary care and family physicians see patients whose use of addictive substances causes...
Behavior Game Played in Primary Grades Reduces Later Drug-Related Problems
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Awarding smiley-face stickers to teams of first-graders in Baltimore for the good behavior of the individual team members greatly increased the likelihood that the students would experience an adolescence free...
James A. Inciardi (1939-2009)
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Dr. James A. Inciardi, founder and co-director of the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies and professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, died on November...
How-To Guides Provide Tips for Publishing Addiction-Related Articles
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Students and practitioners of addiction science who are interested in publishing their studies in scholarly journals can find tips for doing so in a book and online tutorial developed by...
Attention to Bipolar Disorder Strengthens Substance Abuse Treatment
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Substance abuse compounds the problems of people with bipolar disorder. Individuals with this comorbidity get less benefit from their mood disorder treatment, recover more slowly from mood swings, spend more...
Studies Link Family of Genes to Nicotine Addiction
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One person reaches for a cigarette soon after waking, smokes a pack a day, and cannot seem to quit. Another smokes a few cigarettes now and then but never feels...
Anticipation of Methadone Enhances Brain Reactivity to Heroin Cues
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Images of heroin preparation and injection can incite craving and excite brain areas associated with reward-seeking even in stabilized, long-term, methadone-maintained patients, according to Drs. Daniel Langleben, Anna Rose Childress...
Report Discusses Co-Occurrence of Drug Abuse and Other Mental Disorders
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Many individuals who abuse drugs also have other mental disorders. NIDA's latest Research Report describes the co-occurrence, or comorbidity, of substance use disorders and other psychiatric disorders such as attention-deficit...
Study Gives Green Light to Antiretroviral Medications for HIV-Infected Injection Drug Users
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Limited access, financial constraints, and stigma—rather than lifestyle—may be the main obstacles keeping HIV-infected injection drug users from obtaining the benefit of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). In a prospective...
Test Substance Attenuates Signs of Cocaine Withdrawal in Rats
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An experimental compound that selectively stimulates delta opioid receptors reduces anxiety- and depression-like behaviors that follow cessation of chronic cocaine exposure in rats. Dr. Ellen Unterwald of Temple University School...
Recovery May Be Harder for Adolescents, Animal Study Suggests
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Adolescents' heightened sensitivity to drug reward puts them at enhanced risk for progressing from drug experimentation to addiction and may also increase their challenges in recovery. In a recent experiment...
Program Aims to Expand Physician Training to Treat Drug Addiction
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Physicians in all areas of medical practice—not just those already specializing in addiction—can receive certification to treat drug addiction under a new program the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM)...
Recognition for NIDA Notes Science Writing
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NIDA Notes received first place in Science Writing in the 2009 Blue Pencil & Gold Screen Awards Competition of the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC). The award, which recognized...
NIDA's 35th Anniversary: Science Focused on Solutions
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Congress created the National Institute on Drug Abuse in 1974 to bring the power of science to bear against a burgeoning epidemic of drug abuse and addiction. The wisdom of...
Teens With Unhealthy Weight-Control Behavior Are More Likely to Abuse Drugs
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High school students who attempt to control weight by engaging in unhealthy behaviors - fasting, purging, or using diet aids without a doctor's advice - are also more likely to...
Rare Glutamate Receptor Proliferates After Cocaine Withdrawal
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Proliferation of a rare neuroreceptor may underlie the intensification of craving that cocaine abusers experience during their first weeks of abstinence. NIDA-funded researchers found that, in rats, the quantity of...
Recovery Checkup System Helps Substance Abusers Who Have Mental Disorders
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A posttreatment intervention to support recovery may be especially beneficial for substance abusers with co-occurring mental disorders. In a recent subgroup analysis of data from previous trials, Dr. Michael Dennis...
Rats Reared Alone Show ADHD Signs
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Laboratory animals raised in isolation may provide useful subjects for studies of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other conditions characterized by impulsive choice. Dr. Jennifer Perry of the Minneapolis Medical...
Substance Abuse and Sexual Risk Show Town-Gown Divide
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Two recent studies found differences in behavior between young adults attending college and their peers. Dr. Carlos Blanco of Columbia University in New York and colleagues report that in 2001-2002...
Smokers Who Quit May Have Genetic Advantage
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Just about every smoker has trouble kicking the habit, but some have more trouble than others. Why? Part of the answer may lie in their genes, NIDA researchers say. Dr...
United States Ranks First in Lifetime Use of Three Drugs
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The proportion of people in the United States who have used cocaine at some time during their lives is higher—by a factor of four—than in 16 other nations surveyed by...
Methadone Therapy in Prison Benefits Men a Year Out
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Providing methadone maintenance to men in prison can pay off in better retention in community treatment and reduced drug abuse following their release. In a recent clinical trial, men who...
Patch Delivers Buprenorphine for Heroin Detox
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A patch that delivers buprenorphine across the skin for 7 days can alleviate newly abstinent heroin abusers' opioid withdrawal symptoms, report Dr. George Bigelow and colleagues at The Johns Hopkins...
Methamphetamine Turns Helper Cells Into Destroyers
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Microglial cells support brain health by attacking infectious agents and clearing away damaged neurons, but too much microglial activity can initiate a biochemical cascade that assaults healthy neurons. Chronic methamphetamine...
Nicotine Boosts Mood, Brain Dopamine Levels
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Just handling, lighting, and drawing on a cigarette can alleviate craving and anxiety in a person addicted to nicotine, NIDA researchers have found. Chronic smokers in a study led by...
Most People Entering Drug Treatment Have Additional Mental Health Problems
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In 77 studies that included 4,930 adolescents and 1,956 adults, two-thirds of patients entering substance abuse treatment programs reported at least one co-occurring mental health problem during the previous year...
DESPR Identifies Drug Abuse Trends and Seeks Solutions
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How many Americans abuse drugs and what are the costs to society? What strategies work best to prevent young people from becoming addicted to drugs? Are there ways to change...
Extended Cocaine Exposure Impairs Cognitive Function in Rats
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Do chronic cocaine abusers score lower than their peers on tests of concentration, short-term memory, and decisionmaking because the drug has impaired them? Or might they have done just as...
Substance Abuse Among Troops, Veterans, and Their Families
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Military experts are concerned that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may be precipitating a rise in problems related to substance use and abuse among the military personnel who have...
Computer-Based Interventions Promote Drug Abstinence
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Ever since Sigmund Freud first invited a patient to lie on a couch to talk things out, therapy has involved person-to-person communication. Recently, researchers have begun to harness the potential...
NIDA Awards Prizes at International Science Fair
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NIDA and Friends of NIDA, a nonprofit group that supports the Institute's mission, honored four high school students with Addiction Science Awards at this year's Intel International Science and Engineering...
New Advisory Council Members
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NIDA announced the addition of three new members to its National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse at its February meeting: NIDA Advisors: (Left to right) Dr. R. Dale Walker, Dr...
Annual Event Teaches Students Brain Science
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Some 750 students from Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas learned about brain anatomy and function, as well as dysfunction, from a series of hands-on activities during Brain Awareness Week, March...
R. Christopher Pierce Receives the Waletzky Memorial Award
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Dr. R. Christopher Pierce, associate professor of neuroscience in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, is the recipient of the 2008 Jacob P. Waletzky Memorial Award for...
Naltrexone via Skin Patch Proves Effectiveness of New Technology
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Dime-size arrays of tiny needles enabled volunteers to receive naltrexone via skin patch in a recent proof-of-concept clinical trial. If further work bears out the trial's success, the opiate antagonist...
Antibody Fragment Removes Methamphetamine From the Brain
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NIDA-sponsored researchers have produced an antibody fragment that rapidly removes the drug methamphetamine from the brain. This work in rats represents a major advance toward development of an effective therapy...
Three Scientists Receive Grants for Innovative AIDS Research
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NIDA announced the first three recipients of its new Avant-Garde Award, which supports groundbreaking research to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in drug abusers. The awardees will each receive $500,000 per...
Smoking and Drinking Continue to Decline, But Marijuana Stalls in Latest MTF Survey
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In the latest Monitoring the Future survey of teenage substance abuse, cigarette smoking and alcohol use have declined to the lowest levels in 2 decades, but marijuana abuse—which had dropped...
Conferees Discuss Ways to Eliminate Disparities in Care
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Many African-American and Latino drug abusers with HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) avoid screening and treatment for their infection because they distrust the health care system and fear discrimination on...
Combined Treatments Improve Dual Abstinence
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Two anti-addiction medications are better than one for people who abuse both cocaine and alcohol, according to a new NIDA-funded study. Researchers randomly assigned 208 men and women to one...
Drug Cues Outside Awareness Rapidly Trigger Brain's Emotion Centers
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Even when a cocaine abuser is not aware of briefly seeing a drug-related image, such a picture can instantaneously activate the emotion and reward circuits in the brain. Quick views...
Sensory Aspects of Smoking May Counter Bad Mood, Craving
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The act of smoking—apart from actual or expected nicotine delivery—may soothe a smoker's negative mood. Dr. Kenneth A. Perkins and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh showed 200 smokers combinations...
Methamphetamine Abuse Alters Response to Facial Cues
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Methamphetamine abusers may have more difficulty than nonabusers in responding with empathy and self-control to people who are experiencing intense emotions, according to Dr. Edythe London and colleagues at the...
Lower Rates of Cigarette and Marijuana Smoking Among Exercising Teens
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Teens who exercise regularly are less likely than less active peers to have smoked cigarettes daily or to have abused marijuana in the past month. This pattern has persisted over...
NIDA Reprises Online Chat Day
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NIDA staffers responded to 1,300 questions about drug abuse and addiction during the Institute's second annual Chat Day. Students and teachers from 100 schools in 23 states sent 11,000 queries...
Receptor Complexes Link Dopamine to Long-Term Neuronal Effects
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Drugs of abuse trigger abrupt, massive increases in levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine that give rise to intense feelings of reward and reinforcement—the drug high—by temporarily altering the activity levels...
Program Reduces Girls' Delinquent Behavior
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Adolescent girls can be treated for delinquent behaviors more effectively in a well-supervised family setting than in residential treatment programs. That is the conclusion of NIDA-funded researchers studying Multidimensional Treatment...
Manic Mice Show Heightened Sensitivity to Rewards
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During episodes of mania, people with bipolar disorder become avid seekers of new experiences, and some binge on psychostimulants such as cocaine and amphetamine. A NIDA-funded animal study suggests that...
Intervention for Disruptive Children Shows Long-Term Benefits
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An intervention that teaches children to think before they act out can help them avoid substance abuse in adolescence. In a recent clinical trial, the Utrecht Coping Power Program (UCPP)...
Ethnic Groups Have Contrasting Genetic Risks for Nicotine Addiction
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African-American smokers, on average, consume fewer cigarettes daily, inhale more deeply, and break down nicotine more slowly than European-American smokers. Such contrasts suggest that some of the biochemical processes underlying...
Suiting Treatment to the Nature of the Disease
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Addiction is a chronic disease. Epidemiological evidence clearly shows that while science-based treatments are effective, many patients achieve long-lasting recovery only after years of therapy, often including multiple treatment episodes...
Abstinent Smokers' Nicotinic Receptors Take More Than a Month to Normalize
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For up to 6 weeks after smokers quit, their brain cells have more nicotine-binding receptors than nonsmokers' cells do, according to a recent NIDA-funded study. Scientists speculate that the brain...
Prenatal Nicotine Exposure May Damage Receptors That Influence Auditory Processing
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Some children of women who smoked during pregnancy experience subtle difficulties processing auditory information; for example, they may have more than average problems recognizing slightly garbled words or understanding speech...
Methamphetamine Abusers Show Increased Distractibility
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Long-term methamphetamine abuse appears to induce lasting impairment to brain cells whose activity underpins a person's ability to attend to significant stimuli and screen out distractions. In a recent NIDA-funded...
Research Addresses Needs of Criminal Justice Staff and Offenders
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NIDA established the Criminal Justice-Drug Abuse Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS) project in 2002 to reduce substance abuse and recidivism among offenders following their release from jail or prison. CJ-DATS investigators in...