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.
CTN Update: Teamwork Develops Treatment Concept Into Study Protocol
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In NIDA's Clinical Trials Network (CTN), researchers and practitioners collaborate in the design as well as the execution of drug abuse treatment studies. Continuous collaboration with treatment providers, a distinguishing...
Drug-Related Damage That Begins Before Birth
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NIDA has long been concerned about the damaging effects of maternal drug abuse on unborn children. Our investigations began more than three decades ago, and the continued research commitment is...
Men and Women May Process Cocaine Cues Differently
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Some aspects of cocaine addiction and recovery are different for men and women—including the reasons for seeking drug rehabilitation, response to treatment, and vulnerability to relapse. Women are more likely...
"No Wrong Door" for People with Co-Occurring Disorders
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More than 450 behavioral health professionals have committed to creating a system in which people with coexisting mental health and substance abuse problems as well as physical disorders find "no...
Adults With Co-Occurring Depression and Substance Abuse Benefit from Treatment of Depression
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New evidence is overturning the long-held view that patients with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders must achieve abstinence from drugs before treatment for depression can begin. There were...
Stimulant Drugs Limit Rats' Brain Response to Experience
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Fresh experience grows our brains—literally. As we navigate novel situations, our brain cells sprout new fibers and form new synapses, weaving new communication networks that enrich our repertoire of responses...
Once-A-Month Medication for Heroin Addiction?
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A single injection of a new sustained-release formulation of buprenorphine substantially blocked heroin's effects and relieved heroin craving and withdrawal symptoms for up to 6 weeks, report researchers at the...
Web-Based Program Trains Practitioners to Add Prevention Messages to Wellness Programs
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In the last 20 years, drug abuse prevention strategies have increased dramatically in number and in scientific sophistication. Prevention training programs have not kept pace, especially in the area of...
Behavioral Modification Changes the Brain's Biochemical Response to Cocaine, Curbs Relapse Caused by Stress
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The scientific view of drug addiction as a chronic brain disease rests on many studies showing that addictive drugs change the brain in ways that cause compulsive drug seeking and...
Exploring the Why's of Adolescent Drug Abuse
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Adolescence and early adulthood are periods of growth, exploration, and—for some teens and young adults—the development of drug abuse and addiction. Each day roughly 3,000 teens smoke their first cigarette...
Successful Trial Caps 25-Year Buprenorphine Development Effort
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Twenty-five years ago it would have been almost impossible to imagine a treatment for opiate addiction that could be prescribed in a physician's office, picked up at a pharmacy, and...
Bulletin Board
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NIDA Brings "The Science of Addiction" to Times Square Starting September 14, 2004, visitors can add the cerebral cortex and limbic system to the list of theaters, shops, and famous...
Brain Glutamate Concentrations Affect Cocaine Seeking
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NIDA-supported research has produced evidence that a medication that supplements recovering cocaine addicts' brain concentrations of the neurotransmitter glutamate may reduce their vulnerability to relapse. Although the research was done...
Experts Support CTN Dissemination Strategies
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NIDA's National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) has as its overriding mission improving the quality of drug abuse treatment. Results from the earliest CTN trials, examining such treatment...
Conference Provides Overview of Consequences of Prenatal Drug Exposure
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On March 23 and 24, NIDA-supported investigators met in Bethesda, Maryland, to discuss long-term consequences of prenatal exposure to drugs. The conference, "Long Term Follow-up of Prenatal Drug Exposure: Advances...
Early Nicotine Initiation Increases Severity of Addiction, Vulnerability to Some Effects of Cocaine
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Most tobacco use begins during adolescence, and people who start in their teens are more likely to become life-long smokers than are those who first light up as adults. Adolescent...
Learning the Science of Drugs Helps Teens Master Biology, Chemistry
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Learning the science behind cocaine, drug testing, and nerve gas can help high school students understand basic biology and chemistry concepts, a NIDA-funded study has found. Test scores of students...
Animal Study Finds Effects on Behavior, Brain Chemistry of Prenatal MDMA Exposure
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Because women of childbearing age are among the population most involved with MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine, ecstasy), the consequences of prenatal exposure to the drug are an important concern. Studies have demonstrated...
Bulletin Board
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Comorbidity is Common Among Youths in Juvenile Detention On a typical day in the United States, roughly 109,000 youths under age 18 are in jail. These teens have problems beyond...
NIDA's Brain, Behavior, Health Initiative: Multidisciplinary Exploration of the Brain
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NIDA's mandate in drug abuse science is guided by a fundamental principle: our recognition that addiction is a brain disease. We know that to develop more effective prevention and treatment...
New Index Measures Self-Control, Predicts Drug Abuse Vulnerability in Adolescent Boys
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Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Education and Drug Abuse Research have identified a set of characteristics that appears to predict a boy's vulnerability to substance use disorder...
NIDA's New Web Site for Teens Promotes Understanding of Drug Abuse
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Knowledge is power, and a new NIDA educational product empowers teens to make healthful decisions about drugs. " NIDA for Teens: The Science Behind Drug Abuse" is an interactive Web...
Novel Cannabinoid Appears Promising for Treatment of Chronic Pain
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Trauma, infection, and diseases such as diabetes can damage nerves, causing pain that persists long after the acute condition has been resolved. Such chronic pain, called neuropathic to signify that...
Smoking Decreases Key Enzyme Throughout Body
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Nicotine addiction and tobacco use wreak enormous worldwide health consequences, including more than 400,000 deaths in the United States each year from tobacco-related diseases. Most of this health toll involves...
A Record of Achievement (Special Supplement Section)
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Assessing the Nation's Drug Abuse Problems Annual student surveys track use of drugs like ecstasy, a popular dance party drug. Discovering and disseminating useful information on the nature and extent...
Special Supplement: Advancing the Frontiers of Drug Abuse Research: NIDA Celebrates 30 Years of Achievement
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These pages celebrate 30 years of progress in drug abuse research sponsored by--and often accomplished at--the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA. In commemorating the tremendous scientific accomplishments highlighted...
NIDA at 30: Committed to Scientific Solutions for Drug Addiction Problems
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This year, NIDA celebrates 30 years of scientific inquiry marked by tremendous strides in advancing the frontiers of drug abuse research and reducing the suffering, community disruption, and public health...
Key NIDA Accomplishments
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The Addicted Brain and Behavior Developed animal models that scientists use to explore a variety of human drug abuse and addictive behaviors and conduct initial screening of potential treatment compounds...
Instrument Wizard Works Magic With Web-Based Drug Abuse Research Tools
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Shazam! A modern-day wizard stands ready to help anyone who needs information on instruments to measure substance abuse and related factors. The Instrument Wizard (IW), developed by ISA Associates, Inc...
Researchers Adapt HIV Risk Prevention Program for African-American Women
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The HIV/AIDS epidemic has taken a disproportionate toll on racial and ethnic minority populations, especially women. In its surveillance report on the number of Americans living with HIV/AIDS in 2002...
Developing Effective Addiction Treatments (Special Supplement Section)
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Pursuing New Medications In recent years, people from all walks of life have sought treatment for addiction to powerful narcotic pain-relieving medications, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, that they have...
In Chronic Drug Abuse, Acute Dopamine Surge May Erode Resolve to Abstain
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In the past few decades, scientists have firmly established that the desire to take drugs has a biological basis in fluctuations in levels of the brain chemical dopamine. Now, a...
Cocaine Abusers' Cognitive Deficits Compromise Treatment Outcomes
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Cognitive impairment may be an important factor in explaining treatment failure among cocaine abusers, according to results from a new NIDA-funded study by Dr. Efrat Aharonovich and colleagues at New...
Bulletin Board
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NIDA, CADCA Team for Public Education NIDA is partnering with the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) to raise public awareness about the effects of drug abuse on children and...
Keeping Up With Drug Abuse Research is Now Even Easier
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You can now receive NIDA NOTES by e-mail. If you choose this delivery option, we will send you an e-mail listing the full table of contents and providing links to...
Teens' Drug Use Declines Dramatically, According to MTF Survey Results
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Falling to levels not seen in nearly a decade, past-month illicit drug use among the Nation's youth declined by 11 percent--from 19.4 to 17.3 percent--between 2001 and 2003, according to...
Blending Research and Practice: CTN Update
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What is the best way to ensure that new drug abuse treatments--the fruits of long-term basic and applied research--are adopted quickly for the benefit of patients in community-based treatment settings...
Research and Practice Partnerships (Special Supplement Section)
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Testing New Treatments in the Nation's Clinics In NIDA's first 30 years, its research programs produced many promising new medications and behavioral treatments. Yet, as in other areas of medicine...
Bulletin Board
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NIH Roadmap to Medical Research Funding NIDA wants drug abuse researchers to help lead a journey of scientific inquiry that promises to transform biomedical research in the United States. The...
Cocaine May Compromise Immune System, Increase Risk of Infection
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Cocaine abusers are more likely than nonusers to suffer from HIV, hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, and other infections. Most of this increased incidence is the result of conditions and behaviors--for...
Beyond the Brain: The Medical Consequences of Abuse and Addiction
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Through 30 years of scientific inquiry, NIDA research has demonstrated that drug addiction is essentially a brain disease, but of course drugs' destructive health effects extend beyond the intricate chemical...
MDMA Use May Increase Risk for Cardiac Valve Disease
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Users of the club drug ecstasy (or MDMA) may be putting themselves at risk for the same type of valvular heart disease (VHD) that developed in some users of the...
Window on America: Drug Use Among Racial/Ethnic Minorities
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This fall, NIDA released a revised edition of Drug Use Among Racial/Ethnic Minorities, a resource for policymakers, program leaders, health administrators, researchers, and others seeking information on illegal drug use...
The Neurobehavioral Legacy of Prenatal Tobacco Exposure
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More than 17 percent of pregnant women between the ages of 15 and 44 smoke, according to the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Much is known about...
School-Based Program Promotes Positive Behavior, Reduces Risk Factors for Drug Use, Other Problems
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Addressing a young student's classroom antics may do more than allow his teacher to get through a lesson. Comprehensive, school-based programs can reduce young children's antisocial behavior while boosting their...
The Long Road to Medication Development: Cocaine Treatment Moves to Clinical Trials
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At the culmination of a research journey that began more than 20 years ago, GVG (vigabatrin)--a medication widely used to treat epilepsy outside the United States--is about to be tested...
Early Use of Drugs May Lead to Later Psychiatric Disorders
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One of the challenges of research into comorbidity--the co-occurrence of substance abuse and mental disorders--is determining the order in which these disorders occur and the factors that they share. Recent...
School Prevention Program Effective With Youths at High Risk for Substance Use
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Science-based drug abuse prevention programs designed for all students in the same middle school grade have significantly reduced early use of alcohol, tobacco, and other substances. The benefits of these...
Cognitive Deficits in Marijuana Smokers Persist After Use Stops
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NIDA-funded scientists have found that cognitive impairments resulting from smoking marijuana can last up to at least 28 days after an individual last smoked the drug. The more a person...
Addictive Drugs and Stress Trigger Similar Change in Brain Cells, Animal Study Finds
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Preventing relapse is the most formidable challenge to successful treatment of drug addiction. After months or even years of abstinence, former users may experience powerful cravings that lead to resumption...
The Dual Challenge of Substance Abuse and Mental Disorders
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As many as 6 in 10 people who abuse drugs and alcohol also suffer from mental illnesses, according to epidemiological studies. Conversely, some 25 to 60 percent of individuals with...
Hard-to-Treat Smokers May Benefit from Medication that Acts on Dopamine
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Nearly 23 percent of Americans 18 and older smoke cigarettes. Although this figure represents a substantial decrease since smoking rates were at their highest in 1965, most current smokers say...
Researchers, Practitioners "Blend" Knowledge to Enhance Drug Abuse Treatment
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September's 2-day NIDA conference, "Blending Clinical Practice and Research: Forging Partnerships in the Rocky Mountain States to Enhance Drug Abuse Treatment," drew an overflow crowd of 680 drug abuse researchers...
Researcher-Practitioner Dialogue Continues in NIDA Journal
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The second issue of Science & Practice Perspectives, published in August, exemplifies how the vital dialogue between scientific investigators and clinical practitioners is improving drug abuse treatment and research. NIDA...
New Avenues of Research Explore Addiction's Disrupted and Destructive Decision Making
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One of the hallmarks of addiction is the compulsive seeking and use of drugs, even in the face of mounting harmful consequences. Addicted individuals repeatedly make self-destructive decisions--for example, choosing...
The Addicted Brain: Why Such Poor Decisions?
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One central puzzle haunts any consideration of drug addiction, for research scientists as well as for the rest of the population: Why do men and women who have developed addiction...
Animal Studies Suggest D3 Receptors Offer New Target for Treatment Medications
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Collaboration between a NIDA scientist and a researcher from St. John's University in Jamaica, New York, has identified a chemical compound that prevents animal responses to cocaine that correspond to...
Twins Study Links Early Marijuana Use to Increased Risk of Abuse or Dependence
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Many genetic, biological, and environmental factors can influence whether and when an individual initiates drug abuse or develops drug dependence or addiction. One tool that helps scientists isolate and evaluate...
Bulletin Board
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Buprenorphine Work Group Receives HHS Award for Distinguished Service The Buprenorphine Work Group, comprising representatives from NIDA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health...
Study Suggests Ketamine Injection Poses New Disease Risk for Street Youths
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Ketamine, a fast-acting, potentially lethal, general anesthetic, is abused for its dreamlike or hallucinatory effects. In recent years, drug abuse surveys have indicated that abuse of ketamine, typically by teens...
NIDA-Funded Research Drives Revision of Guide to Prevention Programming
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NIDA has released the second edition of its highly regarded Preventing Drug Use Among Children and Adolescents: A Research-Based Guide for Parents, Educators, and Community Leaders in the fall of...
NIDA National Prevention Research Initiative Begins Broad Range of Studies
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NIDA's National Prevention Research Initiative (NPRI) has embarked on the next generation of prevention research. NIDA launched the comprehensive initiative last year with three requests for research that could accelerate...
Bulletin Board
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Spotlight on Reality of Drug Abuse and Addiction: Seventh Annual PRISM Awards Los Angeles was host to the 7th annual PRISM Awards, held on May 8 and presented by the...
Multiculturalism at Least as Effective as Cultural Specificity in Test of Prevention Program
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A multicultural version of a substance use prevention program tested in middle schools in Phoenix, Arizona, proved at least as effective as culturally targeted versions, according to recent research by...
Education in Action: NIDA Goes Back to School
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In addition to conducting and supporting the lion's share of the world's research on drug abuse and addiction, NIDA works hard to ensure that the results of this research reach...
Discovering, Developing, and Delivering Smoking Cessation Medications is Focus of NIDA Symposium
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NIDA, joined by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), sponsored a symposium on drug discovery, development, and delivery as part of...
Bringing Research and Practice Together to Improve Drug Abuse Prevention
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Each year, substance abuse and addiction contribute to the death of more than 120,000 Americans and cost taxpayers nearly $300 billion in preventable health care, law enforcement, crime, and other...
Genetic Variation May Increase Nicotine Craving and Smoking Relapse
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Smokers who want to quit can get help with a variety of treatments, including counseling, nicotine replacement therapy (patches, gum, lozenges, or inhalers), and medications. Some smokers use these treatments...
NIDA Neuroscience Symposium Honors the Late Dr. Roger M. Brown
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Dr. Roger M. Brown Sometimes, advice that offers just the right encouragement or urges a shift in direction can launch a whole career of scientific research. For more than two...
Gender and Ethnic Patterns in Drug Use Among High School Seniors
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Although rates of marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco use by 12th-grade boys and girls declined over the 25-year period ending in 2000, the "gender gap" in use of these drugs remained...
Bulletin Board
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New Technology Expands the Scope of NIDA's Intramural Brain Imaging Program In February, Dr. Elliot Stein, chief of the Neuroimaging Research Branch at NIDA's Intramural Research Program (IRP), and other...
Alternative Cigarettes and Young Smokers
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Clove cigarettes, bidis, and additive-free cigarettes deliver at least as much nicotine as conventional cigarettes, suggests recent research conducted by NIDA Intramural Research Program (IRP) investigators in Baltimore. Smokers who...
Brain Imaging: Bringing Drug Abuse Into Focus
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The brain images produced by positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have broadened our understanding of drug addiction as a brain disease. Imaging techniques are providing new...
Network Therapy Expands Treatment Capabilities of Small Practice Providers
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NIDA-supported researchers have found that clinicians without access to the resources of a comprehensive substance abuse program can treat cocaine abuse with "network therapy," a treatment approach that combines individual...
Relationships Matter: Impact of Parental, Peer Factors on Teen, Young Adult Substance Abuse
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The influence of family and peers on adolescent substance abuse has been well documented in the scientific literature. Generally, positive family influences, such as family bonding and consistent rules, appear...
New Imaging Technology Confirms Earlier PET Scan Evidence: Methamphetamine Abuse Linked To Human Brain Damage
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A new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology that measures blood flow in the brain corroborates earlier positron emission tomography (PET) scan studies that showed evidence of brain abnormalities caused by...
Studies Link Stimulant Treatment of ADHD in Childhood to Lower Risk of Later Substance Abuse
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Children treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with stimulant medications are less likely to develop substance abuse disorders later in life than are children with ADHD who are not given stimulants...
Joint Treatment of PTSD and Cocaine Abuse May Reduce Severity of Both Disorders
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Many individuals who abuse cocaine, alcohol, and other substances also suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to life-threatening or other traumatic events they have experienced or witnessed. Individuals with...
New Animal Model Simulates Human Exposure, Confirms Harm from Prenatal Cocaine
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Research has shown that some children exposed in the womb to cocaine may have memory and attention deficits that hinder their ability to learn. These children also may have difficulties...
A Double Dose of Research for Patients Addicted to Both Drugs and Alcohol
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Addiction researchers and treatment professionals have long known that drug addiction and alcoholism are strongly linked. In the last decade, research has broadened our understanding of many shared neurobiological and...
Manipulating Dopamine Levels Changes Smoking Behavior
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Smokers who received haloperidol, a dopamine antagonist, smoked more cigarettes during a 5-hour period and took more puffs per cigarette than did smokers who received bromocriptine, which enhances dopamine's effects...
Treating Adolescent Substance Abuse by Addressing Family Interactions
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Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) is described in the latest addition to the Therapy Manuals for Drug Addiction series. The short-term intervention is used to treat adolescent drug use that...
Researchers Probe for Clues to ADHD Medications' Protective Effects
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More than 2 million American children--an estimated 5 to 10 percent of preteens--have been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). For many of these children, treatment with psychostimulant medications such as...
Substance-Abusing Adolescents Show Ethnic and Gender Differences in Psychiatric Disorders
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NIDA researchers have found that the patterns of co-occurring psychiatric disorders in adolescent substance abusers differ between ethnic groups and between boys and girls. This information may help clinicians be...
Dr. Nora D. Volkow Named NIDA Director
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Dr. Nora D. Volkow will become the fifth director of NIDA in May 2003. Dr. Nora D. Volkow, a prominent drug abuse researcher who pioneered the use of new imaging...
Teen Smoking Dropped Dramatically in 2002
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Cigarette smoking by 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students decreased sharply in 2002, reaching the lowest levels ever reported by the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey. The survey, which is...
Nicotine's Multiple Effects on the Brain's Reward System Drive Addiction
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NIDA researchers have added another piece to the puzzle of what makes nicotine so addictive. Dr. Daniel McGehee and colleagues at the University of Chicago have shown that along with...
New Approaches Seek to Expand Naltrexone Use in Heroin Treatment
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Naltrexone, an opiate treatment medication, is used to help patients make the transition from illicit opiate use to a drug-free life. Patients in naltrexone treatment are first detoxified from their...
Few Middle Schools Use Proven Prevention Programs
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Since 1994, U.S. schools have been able to use Federal funds to provide education programs designed to prevent drug abuse. Under amendments to the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities...
NIDA's Continued Commitment to Nicotine Research
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Tobacco use is the Nation's most profound public health problem. Each year, tobacco use accounts for an estimated $50 billion in health care costs, and the human cost is even...
Animal Studies Show Sex Differences in Impact of Efforts to Reduce Drug Seeking
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In recent studies, Dr. Marilyn Carroll and her colleagues at the University of Minnesota looked at the impact of two interventions on self-administration of heroin and cocaine by rats and...
Cocaine's Effect on Blood Components May Be Linked to Heart Attack and Stroke
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Cocaine use increases the risk of sudden heart attack and may also trigger stroke, even in users who otherwise are not at high risk for these sometimes fatal cardiovascular events...
NIDA Welcomes New Advisory Council Members
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The National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse meets three times yearly to evaluate grant applications, review recent research findings, and provide guidance for NIDA programs and policy. Pictured here with...
Long-Lasting Formulation Also May Increase Naltrexone Compliance
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NIDA-supported researchers have been testing a long-lasting "depot" formulation of naltrexone that is aimed at reducing the three-times-a-week frequency with which patients must now take the medication to prevent them...
Bulletin Board
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Five NIDA Prevention Programs Cited by CSAP The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), an agency of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Department of Health and Human...
Opening the Door to Mainstream Medical Treatment of Drug Addiction
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The October approval of buprenorphine by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of opiate dependence marks a historic milestone for drug abuse research and treatment. Buprenorphine crowns more...
Study Finds Significant Mental Deficits in Toddlers Exposed to Cocaine Before Birth
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Since the mid-1980s, up to 1 million children born in the United States are estimated to have been exposed to cocaine in the womb. Determining cocaine's impact on these children's...
Grouping High-Risk Youths for Prevention May Harm More Than Help
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Grouping high-risk youths in early adolescence may inadvertently reinforce problem behavior, according to a NIDA-funded study by researchers Dr. Thomas Dishion and his colleagues at the University of Oregon Child...
Youths' Opportunities to Experiment Influence Later Use of Illegal Drugs
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NIDA-supported researchers have reported new epidemiological evidence about the associations linking earlier alcohol or tobacco use with later use of marijuana, and the link from earlier marijuana use to later...
Teen Drug Use Declined in 2002, Report Shows
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Drug use by American teenagers declined in a broad range of categories during 2002, according to the latest Monitoring the Future survey. Use of MDMA (ecstasy) dropped for the first...