health 56

"We also made another interesting finding -- that those originally diagnosed with bipolar disorder who continued to have symptoms five years later were at an even higher risk for cigarette smoking and substance use disorder than those whose symptoms were reduced either because of remission from bipolar disorder or from treatment," says Timothy Wilens, MD, chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Mass. General Hospital for Children and co-director of the MGH Center for Addiction Medicine, who led both studies. "Both those with active symptoms and those whose symptoms had improved were at greater risk than our control group. The original study, published in the June 2008 issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, analyzed extensive data -- including family histories, information from primary care physicians and the results of structured psychiatric interviews -- on 105 early adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder and a control group of 98 with no mood disorders. A...

"It takes them from drinking the equivalent of three to four units of alcohol in one to two hours, down to one to two," said David Rossi, a WSU assistant professor of neuroscience. Writing in the latest  Journal of Neuroscience , Rossi and colleagues at the Oregon Health and Science University and the U.S. Veterans Administration Portland Health Care System said the mechanism offers a new target for drug therapies that can curb excessive drinking. It may be particularly effective among problem drinkers, half of whom are believed to have a genetically determined tendency to abuse alcohol. The mechanism is found in the cerebellum, a part of the brain at the back of vertebrate skulls, in small neurons called granule cells. Sitting on the cells are proteins called GABAA receptors (pronounced "GABA A") that act like traffic cops for electrical signals in the nervous system. When activated, the GABAA receptor suppresses the firing of neurons, or brain circuits....

People with Crohn's disease are more likely to experience a recurrence after surgery if they continue to smoke, the study found. Doctors recommend people with the condition stop smoking to avoid their illness worsening. The researchers also assessed whether a drug treatment that is commonly used in treating the disease is effective at preventing it from coming back after surgery. They found that the therapy had limited beneficial effects for non-smokers in preventing relapse after surgery. It did, however, offer protection for smokers. The team says people who are unable to quit smoking may be offered the therapy immediately after surgery but the evidence does not justify the use of the drug in non-smokers Crohn's disease occurs when the immune system attacks the lining of the gut and bowel to cause severe inflammation. It results in abdominal pain, urgent diarrhea, sickness and profound lethargy. Patients are initially treated with one of a class of drugs calle...

The findings are published in the current issue of  American Journal of Psychiatry . "Underage alcohol consumption is a significant problem in this country," said senior author Susan F. Tapert, PhD, professor of psychiatry. "Being able to identify at-risk children before they begin drinking heavily has immense clinical and public health implications. Our findings provide evidence that it's possible to predict which adolescents are most likely to begin drinking heavily by age 18." Underage drinking is common in the United States, with approximately two-thirds of 18-year-olds reporting alcohol use. Though illegal, the Centers for Disease Control says drinkers between the ages of 12 and 21 account for 11 percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States. The adverse consequences of adolescent drinking are well-documented: higher rates of violence, missing school, drunk driving, driving with a drunk driver, suicide and risky sexual behavior. Alcohol consu...

In the study, published August 30 in the international journal  Drug and Alcohol Dependence , Dr. Russ Callaghan and his research team looked at national Canadian police-reported crime statistics between 2009-2013. They found that release from drinking-age restrictions was associated with increases in perpetration of any crime in Canada by 7.6% among males and by 10.4% among females. In addition, the perpetration of violent crimes (a category including physical or sexual assault, as well as robbery) increased by 7.4% for males and 14.9% for females. Increases were also observed in nuisance crimes, such as disorderly conduct and property crimes, among both males and females. "As soon as youth are given legal access to alcohol, there are immediate effects on their involvement in police-reported criminal behaviours," says Dr. Callaghan, the study`s lead author and an associate professor in the Northern Medical Program . "The number of police-reported criminal incide...

The experimental therapy, which involves administering a drug currently used in cancer therapy trials, treats cocaine addiction by inhibiting memories responsible for cravings. Professor Riccardo Brambilla from Cardiff University's School of Biosciences said: "We have demonstrated that a single administration of a trial drug from the pharmacompany Pfizer can completely obliterate cocaine associated memories and significantly accelerate the end of drug seeking behaviour in animals. With this drug currently being used in cancer trials , it could be easily repositioned for treatment of cocaine addiction and other drugs of abuse." Cocaine produces its addictive effects partially by acting on the brain's limbic system -- a set of interconnected regions that regulate pleasure and motivation. When a person uses cocaine, memories of the intense pleasure felt and the things associated with it are newly created. It is these long lasting memories and drug-associated cues,...

Ray Quock -- a pharmacologist and Washington State University psychology professor -- gave morphine-addicted mice pure pressurized oxygen before they bega n withdrawal from the drug. The mice had far less severe withdrawal symptoms than addicted mice that did not receive the treatment. Outwardly, said Quock, the treated mice appeared "much calmer. You can tell the difference." Writing this month in the journal  Brain Research , Quock and his colleagues say implications of the discovery are of "profound importance." While current therapies for treating heroin addiction can provide relief from withdrawal, they themselves can be addictive. Moreover, the finding comes amid a national heroin epidemic in which use of the drug has doubled among young adults over the past decade, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Meanwhile, withdrawal symptoms can be so severe that some addicts will continue taking the drug to avoid the process, said Quock. But wh...

Valproate, one of the most commonly prescribed antiepileptic medications, has been associated in the past with birth defects and developmental problems. However, two newer drugs -- levetiracetam and topirimate -- have had little or no investigations into their developmental impact until this latest research, published published in the August 31, 2016, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Lead researcher and author of the paper Dr Rebecca Bromley, of The University of Manchester's School of Biological Sciences, said expectant mothers had to know the possible impacts their drug regimes may have on unborn children. "Over the past few years, doctors have been moving away from prescribing valproate to pregnant women, shifting them to the two newer antiepileptic drugs. But, until now, there hasn't been any definitive research to understand what implications for IQ and development these two drugs may have. "Working with fund...

Low to moderate intake of alcohol, defined as one to seven servings a week, seemed to have no effect on women's fertility, nor did the type of alcohol beverage consumed. But the authors still recommend for couples to abstain from alcohol during their fertile window until a pregnancy is ruled out, because the fetus may be particularly vulnerable to alcohol during the first few weeks after conception. In developed countries, up to 24% of couples experience infertility, defined as time to pregnancy of 12 months or more. Official guidelines in several countries, including the UK, USA and Denmark, recommend that women trying to become pregnant should abstain from alcohol consumption. But the extent to which alcohol intake affects female fertility is unclear. So a group of Danish researchers carried out a large prospective cohort study to examine the association between pre-conception alcohol consumption and time to pregnancy. In total, 6,120 female Danish residents, aged 21-...

While the study did not find an increase in the overall prevalence of marijuana use disorders (marijuana abuse or dependence) among US adults, it was not able to fully assess the impact of recent changes to state-level cannabis laws on widening use, and the authors say that continued monitoring of marijuana use and disorders at national and state-level is needed. The authors note that the study did not look at use among children or teenagers, or the link between marijuana use and other more severe psychiatric disorders. The study analysed data from 596500 adults aged 18 or older who took part in the annual US National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) from 2002 to 2014. Marijuana use (defined as having used marijuana in the previous year) increased from 10.4% in 2002 to 13.3% in 2014. The proportion of adults who first started using marijuana in the previous year increased from 0.7% in 2002 to 1.1% in 2014. The prevalence of daily or near daily use (defined as people who repo...