Posted by azdrugrehabctr on March 4, 2017 under Addiction Trends, AZ Drug Rehab News | 
A new screening test is being developed to help alert parents and healthcare workers of a potential for abuse among teenagers. Prior research has proven that young people who score high on novelty seeking tests are more likely to develop drug or alcohol addictions in the future. However, scientists believe they may have found a better way to determine the potential for addiction in teenagers. By using a brain scanning test called Monetary Incentive Delay Task (MID), researchers believe they get more accurate results and therefore they can potentially help more patients avoid a life of drug and alcohol dependence.
In order to test their theory, scientists gathered 144 children who had taken and scored high on the novelty seeking tests. Novelty seeking is a personality trait associated with impulsiveness, extravagance, and disorderliness. In the past, teenagers who have scored high on these tests had slightly higher chances of becoming addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.
The researchers specifically chose the 144 young adolescents who had taken these tests because they scored high, but had not developed drug addictions. They then gave them a video game where the child could play for points that could eventually be converted into money. While the child was playing the game, they were also hooked up to an MRI. This is important because scientists are interested in measuring the brain as the child begins to plan for future rewards, like the amount of money they can earn while playing the game.
Traditionally, children show less brain activity than adults when they plan for future rewards. However, drug use diminishes this brain activity even further. So, the scientists are essentially getting a baseline and will monitor these children as they move through their teenage years. If any of the children develop an addiction towards drugs, the scientists will be able to compare their baseline brain activity to their present-day brain activity. They are looking to determine if drug use in teenagers is because of low brain activity (which can be caught and monitored) or if drug activity suppresses further brain activity.
The ultimate goal for these scientists however is to be able to one day diagnose people with future drug abuse, so the problem could be addressed before the individual started taking drugs in the first place.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on February 7, 2017 under Addiction Trends, Opiate Abuse |
Despite being one of the most abused drugs in the United States, there is very little doctors can do when it comes to a heroin addiction. The most common methods of helping an addict is by prescribing them methadone or suboxone and encouraging them to enroll in a treatment program. And while these options are oftentimes beneficial and have helped many addicts overcome their addiction, many in the medical community wonder if more can be done to help these addicts. Recently, researchers have made progress examining and locating different parts of the brain that are responsible for encouraging addiction and making it more difficult for the addict to stop once they have become addicted. In order to capitalize on these new developments, one research group decided to investigate how this could help heroin addicts.
Focusing on the subthalamic nucleus, a part of the brain that is little is known about, researchers at The Scripps Research Institute treated heroin addicted rats with deep brain stimulation. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is the method of using small electrodes implanted on the brain to electrically stimulate certain areas of the brain. Researchers decided to use DBS and find out if they could help reduce the amount of heroin the rats self-administered. And, in fact they did find that DBS was helpful in reducing heroin intake and cravings among the rats. The research was actually so compelling that many believe that they are now able to transition into studying how DBS effects humans that are addicted to heroin.
“It has been very difficult to reduce heroin-seeking and taking in an animal model because heroin is such an addictive drug, but the results here are very impressive. This is the type of preclinical evidence that one needs, in order to start testing this strategy in humans,” explained Olivier George, associate professor at The Scripps Research Institute.
The more that is discovered about the brain and how different parts of it respond to drugs like heroin, the more the medical community can help come up with tailored treatment programs that help addicts. More research in the area of addiction is what will help reduce the heroin epidemic.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on October 9, 2016 under Addiction Trends |
Going away to college for the first time is an exciting time for most teenagers. For many, this is the first time they are living away from home, without the constant supervision of their parents. This newfound freedom, combined with the stressors of college and the influence of hundreds of new classmates, can join together to become catalysts for drug use and excessive alcohol consumption. However, these are mainly assumptions and observations, until now.
A new study being conducted among first-year college students seeks to track the actual influences regarding alcohol and drug use. The researchers at Brown University are also looking at the effects of media and social media on these behaviors as well.
“We know that (peers) become more important than parents as a source of information and a source for modeling. Peers are the most influential when it comes to health-related topics. Social networks allow us to study those connections,” explained Nancy Barnett, professor of behavior and social sciences at the School of Public Health at Brown University.
The project will be called Squad2020 and is being conducted by Barnett and a group of students, who came up with the name. The group specifically wanted to target freshman students because they are still at an age where they are developing their friendships, meeting new people and all share the common experience of drastically changing their social environment.
The researchers hope to be able to publish the results of the study in the spring of 2018. The hope is that the study will highlight how social media impacts new college students and their inclination to use drugs and drink. If researchers can better understand the pressures presented to students, they will be more able to develop new methods of prevention and help students in need.
Colleges students throughout the country are faced with much of the same temptations and anxieties. These feelings, paired with the immediate flood of pictures and posts of other students drinking and using drugs can only exasperate the issue.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on April 13, 2016 under Addiction Trends, Opiate Abuse |
Cocaine addiction is very common among heroin users in the United States. Often times the same people who sell heroin also sell powdered and crack cocaine. The euphoric low of heroin and the euphoric high of cocaine are sometimes mixed and used alternately with addicts. Both addictions are common problems that rehabilitation facilities treat, however, sometimes there is difficulty in the treatment.
Currently there are medications on the market that are designed to block heroin cravings and help the addict get through the painful withdrawal symptoms, but there isn’t anything specifically designed like that for treating cocaine addiction. Scientists in the Europe recently tested the use of another stimulant to treat people dealing with addictions to both drugs. The study, which appears in the Lancet medical journal, included trials with sustained-release dexamfetamine (dextroamphetamine).
The idea is that the drug, which is otherwise commonly used as a treatment for ADHD, works in the brain to help with cocaine cravings. A trial was recently conducted with 111 heroin and cocaine addicted patients in the Netherlands. Some patients received the dexamfetamine while undergoing talk therapy and other patients were administered a placebo while they were taking their prescribed doses of methadone. Those that received the dexamfetamine were able to abstain from cocaine for longer than those that only received the placebo. On average, addicts who received the trial drug were able to stay clean from cocaine for 60 days, while those that did not receive the medication stayed clean from cocaine for 45 days.
“We found SR dexamfetamine to be superior to placebo on all cocaine use – related outcomes, with effect sizes that were at least comparable to those found in studies on other chronic disorders, including alcohol dependence and many other psychiatric and general medical conditions,” explained Mascha Nuijten, a doctoral candidate at the Parnassia Addiction Research Center.
Understanding that addicts who are reliant on both heroin and cocaine need specialized help is vital in improving treatment. Because cocaine and heroin use often go hand in hand, these types of trials are extremely important. The major difficulty with these forms of treatment, however, is that they are still leaving the addicts dependent on drugs that are similar to the ones they were already taking, such as a stimulant for a stimulant or an opiate for an opiate. Although any form of improvement is welcomed in most treatment arenas, caution should be applied to see if there are other non-drug methods that can work first.
