Posts

Some drug addicts more likely to relapse than others: Study

But, the older the person with drug abuse issues, the more likely they will not relapse from treatment. "We can improve our tailoring of treatment to each patient if we know who among patients taking methadone treatment is at high risk for opioid relapse," said Dr. Zena Samaan, principal author of the study and an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences of McMaster's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. "As well, health care providers can target more aggressive therapies to those at high risk." Canada and the U.S. are the world's highest consumers of prescription opioids which are common drugs for pain management. At least one study says one in six Canadians using prescription opioids . But these medications are also highly addicting and liable for abuse. Methadone maintenance treatment is the most common intervention for those with drug addiction, but relapse is common, with 46% of patients continuing to use illicit opioid

World-first new treatment for alcohol addictions

Neuroscientist Professor Selena Bartlett from QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation said the drug, pindolol, is an inexpensive approach for treating alcohol dependence once the human clinical trials are conducted. "Drugs currently used for AUDs (alcohol use disorders) -- acamprosate, naltrexone and disulfiram -- have limited success -- so this is a ground-breaking development with enormous potential," said Professor Bartlett who is based at the Translational Research Institute. "In an internationally-significant breakthrough, our study showed pindolol was able to reduce ethanol/alcohol consumption, particularly in relation to binge drinking, a key behaviour observed in human alcohol dependence." The study has been published in  Addiction Biology , the Journal of the Society for the Study of Addiction. Researcher Omkar Patkar said the preclinical study is the first step towards fast tracking pindolol into human clinical studies as a treatm

San Francisco's homeless youth at 10 times higher risk of death

"This population is highly stigmatized. That stigma leads to neglect and, in turn, to increased mortality. All the deaths in this cohort were preventable," said the study's main author, Colette Auerswald, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist who is an associate professor of public health at UC Berkeley. "Stigma kills." The study will appear online April 14 in the open-access journal  PeerJ . Auerswald, co-founder of I4Y, the UC Berkeley School of Public Health's center for adolescent population health, co-authored the study with Jessica Lin of UC Berkeley's School of Public Health and Andrea Parriott of UCSF's Phillip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. "These sobering data provide evidence of what homeless youth face when their only option is life on the streets," added Sherilyn Adams, executive director of Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco. "We must not ignore or underestimate the gravity of hom

Heavy cannabis use associated with reduced dopamine release in brain

Image
Marijuana plant (inventory picture). Proof of a compromised dopamine system has been present in heavy customers of marijuana. Credit score: © Vasily Merkushev / Fotolia In a current examine, researchers discovered proof of a compromised dopamine system in heavy customers of marijuana. Decrease dopamine launch was discovered within the striatum -- a area of the mind that's concerned in working reminiscence, impulsive habits, and a focus. Earlier research have proven that habit to different medicine of abuse, similar to cocaine and heroin, have comparable results on dopamine launch, however such proof for hashish was lacking till now. "In mild of the extra widespread acceptance and use of marijuana, particularly by younger individuals, we consider you will need to look extra carefully on the doubtlessly addictive results of hashish on key areas of the mind," mentioned Anissa Abi-Dargham, MD, professor of psychiatry (in radio

Self-understanding helps criminal substance abusers

A total of 175 substance abusers with antisocial personality disorders took part in the project. 80 of these were offered a standard treatment programme, and out of these, 54 per cent dropped out. For the remaining 95 participants, the standard treatment was supplemented by the Impulsive Lifestyle Counselling programme. Among these participants, the drop-out rate was 42 per cent, and three months later, they were also taking fewer drugs than participants on the standard programme. "The participants on the Impulsive Lifestyle Counselling programme had a lower drop-out rate than both other people with antisocial personality disorders and substance abusers in treatment in general. This shows us that we can increase the help for people who are impulsive and who, as a result, live a life of instability," says Associate Professor Morten Hesse, who is responsible for the research project together with Associate Professor Birgitte Thylstrup , both from Aarhus BSS. The researche

In the face of chronic pain, clinicians seek best practices for management while evading opioid abuse

On April 2, 2016, Judith Paice, PhD, RN, FAAN, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, presented safe and effective opioid prescribing, discussing safety concerns, as well as best practices in oncology, during the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) 21st Annual Conference: Advancing the Standard of Cancer Care™. Dr. Paice is a member of the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) Panel for Adult Cancer Pain. The goal of pain control is balance -- balance of pain relief, enhanced function, and safety of the patient, prescriber, and community, explained Dr. Paice. Proper assessment of the patient is the ideal way to ensure safety for all three parties, she said. Safe Patients Patient assessment not only includes the physical aspects of the pain, but also the effect of the pain on the patient's quality of life; other medications that the patient takes on a regular basis; previous treatments and outcomes; co-mo

Going tobacco-free, tall order for health-care facilities

Image
Digital well being file methods immediate the nurse to ask every affected person about tobacco use. Credit score: Emily Weber Well being-care amenities being tobacco-free looks like a pure match, nevertheless it's way more sophisticated than it might sound. "To be tobacco-free, a facility should prohibit tobacco and smoking in buildings and on campus grounds it owns and leases. It should be enforced 24-7 and prohibit smoking or tobacco for all individuals," defined assistant nursing professor Heidi Mennenga from South Dakota State College. That is a tall order, notably with regards to enforcement, she admitted. "From a hospital perspective, I can see that being tough. Is it my job as a workers nurse or is that safety's duty? And what are the implications?" By a one-year, roughly $50,000 grant from the South Dakota Division of Well being, Mennenga and a analysis staff surveyed South Dakota health-care amenitie