All posts containing "addiction"
- August 19, 2010
- 07:19 PM
- 49 views
FDA Reports Critical Drug Shortages
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Delays put EMTs on alert for dextrose, naloxone, epinephrine.
It’s the kind of thing most people take for granted: You’re suddenly taken seriously ill—a heart attack, dehydration, asthma, shock, perhaps even a heroin overdose—and in the ambulance or the emergency room, medical professionals immediately go to work, using the right drugs and medications for the job.
Imagine lying in the back of an ambulance, in cardiac arrest, or experiencing an episode of acute schizophrenia, or turning........ Read more »
Jensen, V., & Rappaport, B. (2010) The Reality of Drug Shortages -- The Case of the Injectable Agent Propofol. New England Journal of Medicine. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1005849
- August 16, 2010
- 10:01 PM
- 50 views
Chasing the Genes for Cocaine Addiction
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Brain protein MeCP2 in the spotlight.
Dr. Edward Sellers, former director of the psychopharmacological research program at the University of Toronto’s Addiction Research Foundation once said to me: “Every cell, every hormone, every membrane in the body has got genetic underpinnings, and while many of the genetic underpinnings are similar in people, in fact there are also huge differences. So on one level, the fact that there is a genetic component to addiction is not very surprising. What i........ Read more »
Im, H., Hollander, J., Bali, P., & Kenny, P. (2010) MeCP2 controls BDNF expression and cocaine intake through homeostatic interactions with microRNA-212. Nature Neuroscience. DOI: 10.1038/nn.2615
- August 12, 2010
- 06:09 PM
- 73 views
Drugs for Starcraft Addiction
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Are you addicted to Starcraft? Do you want to get off Battle.net and on a psychoactive drug?Well, South Korean psychiatrists Han et al report that Bupropion sustained release treatment decreases craving for video games and cue-induced brain activity in patients with Internet video game addiction.They took 11 people with "Internet Game Addiction" - the game being Starcraft, this being South Korea - and gave them the drug bupropion (Wellbutrin), an antidepressant that's also used in drug addiction........ Read more »
Han DH, Hwang JW, & Renshaw PF. (2010) Bupropion sustained release treatment decreases craving for video games and cue-induced brain activity in patients with Internet video game addiction. Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology, 18(4), 297-304. PMID: 20695685
- August 3, 2010
- 08:28 PM
- 68 views
Your Love is My Drug
by Allison in Dormivigilia
Review of a paper showing that the physiology of love addiction is comparable to drug addiction. Perhaps some of the same treatments used to treat drug abuse can be effective in curbing pathological love. ... Read more »
Reynaud, M., Karila, L., Blecha, L., & Benyamina, A. (2010) Is Love Passion an Addictive Disorder?. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 2147483647. DOI: 10.3109/00952990.2010.495183
- August 3, 2010
- 04:52 PM
- 57 views
Study: Dining Hall In the Dorm Means More Flab on the Freshmen
by David Berreby in Mind Matters
How do you persuade people to eat less and exercise more? We love to think it's a matter of getting them to see facts and make good decisions, because that implies that people are thoughtful and that their choices matter. But this paper, published online yesterday by the Journal of Adolescent Health, points to a more humble solution: Ignore people's thoughts and feelings, and just move the food further away.
Why don't we have more policies like that? I think it's because we........ Read more »
Kapinos, K., & Yakusheva, O. (2010) Environmental Influences on Young Adult Weight Gain: Evidence From a Natural Experiment. Journal of Adolescent Health. DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2010.05.021
- July 8, 2010
- 11:31 PM
- 115 views
Consider the CB(2) Receptor
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
A different destination for cannabinoids.
THC and its organic cousin, anandamide, do what they do by locking into both the CB1 receptor, discovered in 1988, and the CB2 receptor (as it is commonly written in shorthand), discovered 5 years later. THC and anandamide are CB receptor agonists, meaning they activate the receptors in question. (An antagonist blocks the receptor’s action.)
CB1 is a very common receptor in the central nervous system, and, when stimulated by an agonist, is responsible........ Read more »
Atwood, B., & Mackie, K. (2010) CB2: a cannabinoid receptor with an identity crisis. British Journal of Pharmacology, 160(3), 467-479. DOI: 10.1111/j.1476-5381.2010.00729.x
- July 5, 2010
- 12:52 AM
- 106 views
Prozac, Ritalin, Cognitive Enhancement, and the power of a snappy title
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
Let it be known that Sci, like many a young, bright-eyed little scientist, tries to keep up on her reading. TRIES is the operative word, but every week Sci gets the Tables of Contents for all the major journals in her field (and all the major ones in her subdisciple) emailed straight to her for her perusal. She scans the title lists, searching for things that are cool in her field, cool to blog, or that might indicate a scoopage of her work (hey, it happens).
And it was in one of these peru........ Read more »
Steiner, H., Van Waes, V., & Marinelli, M. (2010) Fluoxetine Potentiates Methylphenidate-Induced Gene Regulation in Addiction-Related Brain Regions: Concerns for Use of Cognitive Enhancers?. Biological Psychiatry, 67(6), 592-594. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.10.004
- June 28, 2010
- 12:27 AM
- 146 views
Creativity and mental illness
by Charles Daney in Science and Reason
The association between creativity and mental illness is sort of a cliché – but that doesn't mean there's nothing to it. Standard examples given include Vincent van Gogh, Robert Lowell, and John Nash.There has been a rather large amount of research into the connection, and a large number of biographical accounts of famous creative people who also suffered from mental illness. But the neurobiological details are emerging only slowly. After all, our understanding of the biological roo........ Read more »
de Manzano, �., Cervenka, S., Karabanov, A., Farde, L., & Ullén, F. (2010) Thinking Outside a Less Intact Box: Thalamic Dopamine D2 Receptor Densities Are Negatively Related to Psychometric Creativity in Healthy Individuals. PLoS ONE, 5(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010670
- June 23, 2010
- 08:03 PM
- 119 views
Coming This Fall: Exercise as a Healthy Substitute for Alcohol
by Allison in Dormivigilia
Our lab has recently found that active hamsters consume less alcohol suggesting that exercise is a healthy, effective, dopamine-rewarding substitute for alcohol and to treat alcohol addiction.... Read more »
Oslin, D., Berrettini, W., & O'Brien, C. (2006) Targeting treatments for alcohol dependence: the pharmacogenetics of naltrexone. Addiction Biology, 11(3-4), 397-403. DOI: 10.1111/j.1369-1600.2006.00036.x
Hammer, S., Ruby, C., Brager, A., Prosser, R., & Glass, J. (2010) Environmental Modulation of Alcohol Intake in Hamsters: Effects of Wheel Running and Constant Light Exposure. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2010.01251.x
- June 20, 2010
- 02:00 PM
- 152 views
Vitamin B6 May Lower Risk of Lung Cancer
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Large European study confirms earlier findings.
It doesn’t mean you should start popping handfuls of B vitamins if you are a smoker or a former smoker (those who never smoked rarely get the disease). What it appears to mean is that people with the highest levels of vitamin B6 in their bodies may have as little as half the risk of developing lung cancer as people with very low levels of B6--also known as pyridoxine.
In a June 16 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (........ Read more »
Mattias Johansson, et. al. (2010) Serum B Vitamin Levels and Risk of Lung Cancer. Journal of the American Medical Association, 303(23), 2377-2385. info:/
- June 10, 2010
- 08:21 PM
- 133 views
Choline for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders?
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Common supplement may reduce cell death in pregnancies.
A common dietary supplement markedly decreases defects in the skull and brain formation of lab mice born to mothers exposed to alcohol, say researchers at the Medical College of Georgia.
Among the grisly list of potential effects caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy, one involves a relatively obscure lipid called ceramide. Ceramide can markedly increase the rate of programmed cell death—a process known as apoptosis—and........ Read more »
Wang, G., & Bieberich, E. (2010) Prenatal alcohol exposure triggers ceramide-induced apoptosis in neural crest-derived tissues concurrent with defective cranial development. Cell Death and Disease, 1(5). DOI: 10.1038/cddis.2010.22
- June 6, 2010
- 09:26 PM
- 146 views
Best Drugs for Alcohol Withdrawal
by Bill Yates in Brain Posts
Alcohol withdrawal is a physically and psychologically painful experience. Some patients with alcohol dependence have physiological tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. Alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous. Some will experience withdrawal seizures and death during withdrawal can occur.Treatment of alcohol withdrawal typically involves medication to reduce the effects of detoxification. Benzodiazepines such as Valium (diazepam) or Ativan (lorazepam) typically are effective and routinely used. H........ Read more »
Martinotti G, di Nicola M, Frustaci A, Romanelli R, Tedeschi D, Guglielmo R, Guerriero L, Bruschi A, De Filippis R, Pozzi G.... (2010) Pregabalin, tiapride and lorazepam in alcohol withdrawal syndrome: a multi-centre, randomized, single-blind comparison trial. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 105(2), 288-99. PMID: 20078487
- June 6, 2010
- 08:38 PM
- 121 views
Sustainable de-growth: a new paradigm for meeting environmental goals
by Paul Spraycar in Beyond Climate Change
For those who have run out of patience for the promised benefits of ‘sustainable development,’ there is a new alternative paradigm: sustainable de-growth.The objective of sustainable de-growth is characterized by “an equitable and democratic transition to a smaller economy with less production and consumption,” with the goal of creating a “society built on quality rather than on quantity, on cooperation rather than on competition.”The authors of a new paper in Ecological Economics la........ Read more »
Martínez-Alier, J., Pascual, U., Vivien, F., & Zaccai, E. (2010) Sustainable de-growth: Mapping the context, criticisms and future prospects of an emergent paradigm. Ecological Economics. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.04.017
- May 24, 2010
- 06:11 PM
- 171 views
X-ed Out.
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Another look at MDMA and serotonin.
A study by Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has confirmed earlier findings that chronic users of ecstasy (MDMA) have abnormally low levels of serotonin transporter molecules in the cerebral cortex.
While a decade of research on the effects of ecstasy on brain serotonin has been controversial and largely inconclusive, the latest study used drug hair analysis to confirm levels of MDMA in 49 users and 50 controls. An additional division ........ Read more »
Kish, S., Lerch, J., Furukawa, Y., Tong, J., McCluskey, T., Wilkins, D., Houle, S., Meyer, J., Mundo, E., Wilson, A.... (2010) Decreased cerebral cortical serotonin transporter binding in ecstasy users: a positron emission tomography/[11C]DASB and structural brain imaging study. Brain. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awq103
- May 20, 2010
- 10:10 PM
- 135 views
Neury Thursday: Theta Waves, Memory, Reward, and REM Sleep
by Allison in Dormivigilia
Dutch neuroscientists have elucidated theta activity in the orbitofrontal cortex that precedes and proceeds the presentation of rewarding stimuli, indicating that theta waves, which are expressed during REM sleep and memory and learning tasks, may influence the modulation of brain reward and reward pathologies such as substance abuse, binge eating, and other addictions... Read more »
van Wingerden, M., Vinck, M., Lankelma, J., & Pennartz, C. (2010) Theta-Band Phase Locking of Orbitofrontal Neurons during Reward Expectancy. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(20), 7078-7087. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3860-09.2010
- May 14, 2010
- 09:40 AM
- 190 views
Near misses fuel gambling addiction
by Mo in Neurophilosophy
GAMBLING is extremely popular, with lottery tickets, casinos, slot machines, bingo halls and other forms of the activity generating revenues of more than £80 billion each year in the UK alone. For most people, gambling is nothing more than an entertaining way to pass the time. But for some, it becomes a compulsive and pathological habit - they spend increasing amounts of time gambling, because tolerance builds up quickly, and experience withdrawal symptoms when they aren't gambling.
The terms ........ Read more »
Chase, H., & Clark, L. (2010) Gambling Severity Predicts Midbrain Response to Near-Miss Outcomes. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(18), 6180-6187. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5758-09.2010
- May 13, 2010
- 09:30 PM
- 183 views
Cocaine Treatment and the Stroop Test
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Treatment dropouts do poorly on color/word match.
It’s commonly used to demonstrate behavioral inhibition, but it’s also a nifty parlor game. It is called the Stroop Test, and it plays off the fact that people are far better at reading words than they are at intentionally ignoring them. To prove it, John Ridley Stroop’s 1935 Ph.D. thesis showed how difficult it is to interfere with the automatic processing of words. In the basic Stroop test, a list of color names is presented. However, th........ Read more »
Streeter, C., Terhune, D., Whitfield, T., Gruber, S., Sarid-Segal, O., Silveri, M., Tzilos, G., Afshar, M., Rouse, E., Tian, H.... (2007) Performance on the Stroop Predicts Treatment Compliance in Cocaine-Dependent Individuals. Neuropsychopharmacology, 33(4), 827-836. DOI: 10.1038/sj.npp.1301465
- May 10, 2010
- 07:01 AM
- 64 views
Food addiction, not obesity
A look at a commentary that criticizes the concept of "food addiction"... Read more »
Epstein DH, & Shaham Y. (2010) Cheesecake-eating rats and the question of food addiction. Nature neuroscience, 13(5), 529-31. PMID: 20421898
- May 9, 2010
- 12:20 PM
- 161 views
Circadian Influences on Mood Disorders
by Allison in Dormivigilia
A novel area of circadian research is the influence of clock genes and circadian rhythms on the etiology of mood disorders. This area of research suggests a need for alternative therapeutic interventions, such as chronotherapy (using melatonin, bright light therapy, and adjusted sleep/wake schedules),that do not risk addiction by pharmacological treatments. ... Read more »
MCCLUNG, C. (2007) Circadian genes, rhythms and the biology of mood disorders. Pharmacology , 114(2), 222-232. DOI: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2007.02.003
- May 5, 2010
- 05:36 AM
- 210 views
Mindscape explains life, mind, consciousness and happiness
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Conflict of interest: ABN, NJS and DRS are scientific co-founders of Mindscape Diagnostics, Inc.Special review article!AbstractWhat are mind, consciousness and happiness, in the fundamental context of life? We propose a convergent perspective (coupling evolutionary biology, genomics, neurobiology and clinical medicine) that could help us better understand what life, mind, consciousness and happiness are, as well as provides empirically testable practical implications.Well. So a speculative,........ Read more »
Niculescu III, A., Schork, N., & Salomon, D. (2010) Mindscape: A convergent perspective on life, mind, consciousness and happiness. Journal of Affective Disorders, 123(1-3), 1-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2009.06.022
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