Addiction InboxAddiction InboxA review of news about addiction, alcoholism, drugs of abuse, and new scientific and medical treatment options. Website is based on the book, Addiction, The Search for a Cure, by Dirk Hanson. 
Articles
100 Million Killed By Tobacco
2008-02-19 19:27:00 WHO estimates 1 billion more deaths in 21st century. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 100 million smokers died of tobacco-related causes in the 20th century, making cigarettes the leading preventable cause of death worldwide.The agency estimates that as many as a billion people will die from tobacco in the 21st century, if present trends continue.According to the WHO report, ?Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008,? almost two-thirds of all smokers live in only ten countries, with China accounting for as much as 30 per cent of the total. Nearly 60 per cent of Chinese men smoke cigarettes, the report claims. The other leading countries, in order of consumption, are India, Indonesia, Russia, the U.S., Japan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Germany, and Turkey.?The shift of the tobacco epidemic to the developing world will lead to unprecedented levels of disease and early death in countries where population growth and the potential for increased tobacco use are highest and where health ca... More About: Million , Killed
Soros Funds Addiction Initiative
2008-02-15 07:24:00 Urges insurance companies to close ?treatment gap.? In a move designed to jump-start a reluctant insurance industry, philanthropist George Soros is pushing an addiction initiative aimed at the estimated 20 million Americans who cannot afford treatment for substance abuse.Through his New York-based Open Society Institute (OSI), Soros will award $10 million in grants to study ?obstacles associated with addiction treatment.? Victor Capoccia, who previously ran community-based drug and alcohol treatment programs for the Boston Department of Health and Hospitals, will serve as director of OSI?s Initiative to Close the Addiction Treatment Gap. Capoccia also directed the addiction prevention effort at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.Any future system of universal health care should provide coverage of addiction as a medical condition, the group believes. ?We?re going to look at the role of the public sector, and ask government to pay for people who lack insurance, not as a replacement ... More About: Funds
Fighting Fire with Fire
2008-02-14 17:25:00 An introduction to anti-craving drugs The early neurobehavioral research on addiction has been vindicated by the development of anti-craving drugs and new drugs for depression.On the other hand, the psychopharmacology of addiction is not much studied in med school, and all but unknown among the general populace. Even the treatments now in existence are woefully underutilized. Moreover, there are good reasons to question whether these drugs are being prescribed with sufficient care and forethought in cases where they are being used. Legitimate, unanswered questions exist about pharmacotherapy for addictive disorders.The most important effect--the reregulation of brain receptor arrays with time--is little understood. And we cannot say with certainty whether messing with Mother Nature?s receptors, in some cases, might disrupt other finely tuned immunological or neurological systems in the body. Finally, there is the possibility of side effects years down the road, which obviously canno... More About: Fighting , Fire
LSD and Serotonin
2008-02-10 21:50:00 Early psychedelic research on alcoholism.What did LSD do to the brain, exactly, in order to set off the fireworks that so fascinated brain scientists, hippies, and government spies? And why, after years of massive, unauthorized field-testing, so to speak, was there so little evidence implicating LSD as an addictive drug? Powerful as it was, LSD did not show any of the classic attributes of addiction, such as withdrawal or craving, although it was possible to build up a tolerance to its effects with repeated dosings.Another novel brain chemical, discovered less than a year after Albert Hofmann's discovery of LSD, proved to be a crucial piece of the puzzle.According to an early theory, the aberrant mental functioning produced by the tiniest dose of LSD was due to interference with normal levels of serotonin in the brain. In 1954, chemists D.W. Woolley and E. Shaw had published an article in Science strongly arguing that serotonin was the likely biochemical basis for major mental diso... More About: Serotonin
Marijuana Withdrawal Part 2
2008-02-05 21:21:00 Is cannabis addictive? Marijuana is not a life-threatening drug.Furthermore, there is little evidence in animal models for tolerance and withdrawal, the classic determinants of addiction. For at least four decades, million of Americans have used marijuana without clear evidence of a withdrawal syndrome. Most recreational marijuana users find that too much pot in one day makes them lethargic and uncomfortable. Self-proclaimed marijuana addicts, on the other hand, report that pot energizes them, calms them down when they are nervous, or otherwise allows them to function normally. They feel lethargic and uncomfortable without it. Heavy marijuana users claim that tolerance does build. And when they withdraw from use, they report strong cravings.While the scientific evidence weighed in against the contention that marijuana is addictive, there were a few researchers who were willing to concede the possibility. ?Probably not, for most people,? a researcher at the University of Minnesota?s ... More About: Part , Withdrawal
Chantix and Suicide
2008-02-03 23:59:00 Anti-smoking pill joins the list?but is the risk real? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration fired both barrels last week, announcing that a variety of anti-seizure medications?as well as the anti-smoking pill, Chantix?may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts in patients who take them. The FDA will require new label warnings for a total of 11 drugs used for epilepsy.New label warnings are also in the works for Chantix, the nicotine cessation aid being widely used by people attempting to quit smoking cigarettes. In a public health advisory issued last Friday, the FDA declared it ?increasing likely? that Chantix may be associated with psychiatric problems. A month earlier, the FDA had advised that Chantix users should be monitored for the onset of suicidal urges, but backed off from making a strict cause-and-effect connection.The FDA reviewed clinical data on anti-epileptic medications, including Pfizer?s Neurontin and Ortho-MacNeil?s Topamax, and concluded that ?patients who are c... More About: Suicide
Ibogaine and Addiction
2008-02-01 20:41:00 Can a psychedelic shrub diminish drug cravings? In 1957, two scientists in the research department of CIBA Pharmaceutical Products in New Jersey reported on ?an indole alkaloid with central-stimulant properties? used by native peoples in the Congo: ?The crude extracts of Tabernanthe iboga caused a feeling of excitement, drunkenness, mental confusion, and, possibly, hallucinations.? The CIBA researchers were working from early reports by French and Belgian explorers in the 1800s, which had noted the use of this remarkable shrub in the Congo and surrounding regions.Years later, a few researchers had begun to wonder whether ibogaine might not harbor properties that could be used in psychiatry and the treatment of addiction. It was the beginning of an unlikely renaissance in the study of psychedelic drugs.A little-noticed article in the journal Brain Research in 1994 detailed the results of work with ibogaine and harmala at Albany Medical College in New York. These mysterious alkaloids... More About: Addiction , Addict
Anandamide: The Brain?s Own Marijuana
2008-01-29 22:41:00 Anxiety and the THC receptorSeveral years ago, molecular biologists identified the elusive brain receptor where THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, did its work. Shortly after that discovery, researchers at Hebrew University in Jerusalem identified the body?s own form of THC, which sticks to the same receptors, in pulverized pig brains. They christened the internally manufactured substance ?anandamide,? after the Sanskrit ananda, or bliss.Anandamide has a streamlined three-dimensional structure that THC mimics, and both molecules slipped easily across the blood-brain barrier. Anandamide is a short-lived, fragile molecule, and does not produce a dramatic natural high, unlike a surge of endorphins, or dopamine?or the THC in a joint. In 2001, researchers at the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California-San Francisco found evidence that THC may perform a signaling function in neurons containing GABA and glutamate. It appears that marijuana increases d... More About: Brain , Marijuana , The Brain
Medical Marijuana Can Get You Fired
2008-01-25 02:54:00 California Supreme Court sides with Feds The California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that employers have the right to fire workers who test positive for marijuana?even if the pot is being used in line with California?s medical marijuana statutes.In a 5-2 decision, the Court said that a Sacramento company had the right to fire an employee who tested positive for marijuana on a routine drug test, even though the employee had a letter from his physician recommending the use of marijuana for chronic pain due to a back injury suffered in the Air Force.Justice Kathryn Werdegar, writing for the majority, made clear the legal tangle created when California voters passed an initiative in 1996 allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes: ?No state law could completely legalize marijuana for medical purposes because the drug remains illegal under federal law, even for medical users.?Last year, a San Francisco federal court ruled that a woman with a brain tumor did not have a fundamen... More About: Medical , Fired , Marijuana
FDA Puts Coke/Meth Treatment on Fast Track
2008-01-23 04:21:00 Sabril may block cravings for stimulantsThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given Fast Track designation to vigabatrin, an anticonvulsant marketed as Sabril, for evaluation as an anti-craving drug for cocaine and methamphetamine addiction. If approved, it would be the first medication ever approved for the treatment of addiction to stimulants.The Fast Track designation at the FDA is intended to speed up the evaluation of drug treatments aimed at life-threatening disorders for which no current treatments exist. A 2006 study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimated that there were more than one million cocaine and methamphetamine addicts in the U.S.First synthesized as a drug treatment for epilepsy in 1974, Sabril increases brain levels of the neurotransmitter GABA, an inhibitory compound also implicated in alcoholism. According to a press release from Ovation Pharmaceuticals, a marketer of the drug, ?Sabril may block the euphoria associat... More About: Treatment , Coke
U.K Considers Tougher Pot Law
2008-01-20 19:43:00 Health officials claim 500 hospitalizations per weekIn a reversal of previous policy, Prime Minister Gordon Brown signaled his likely approval of a move to stiffen marijuana enforcement by upgrading cannabis to so-called Class B drug status. If approved by Brown?s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the reclassification would mean a prison term of up to five years for possession of marijuana.Meanwhile, the London Daily Telegraph, citing high-level health authorities, claimed that official figures showed a 50 per cent increase in the number of people requiring medical attention after cannabis use. ?Almost 500 adults and children are treated in hospitals and clinics every week for the effects of cannabis,? the article claimed.The Telegraph went on to assert that the figures ?proved Labour?s decision to reclassify cannabis in January 2004, which made the penalties for its possession less severe, was badly mistaken and had sent out the wrong signals about it being a ?soft? drug.?Pr...
Cocaine is Cocaine: New Sentencing Guidelines
2008-01-17 21:09:00 U.S. Supreme Court relaxes jail time for crack crimes In a little-noted ruling last month, the U.S. Supreme Court bowed to reality and restored a measure of sanity to cocaine sentencing guidelines. The Court ruled, on a 7-2 vote in the case of Kimbrough v. U.S., that federal judges had the discretion to reduce prison terms for crack-cocaine offenses.The move was an effort by the Supreme Court to bring crack cocaine sentences more in line with sentencing guidelines for powdered cocaine. Many drug experts expressed relief, noting that the changes were long overdue. ?There?s no scientific justification to support the current laws,? said National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) director Dr. Nora Volkow.Writing for the majority, Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that the two substances in question ?have the same physiological and psychotropic effects.? A number of federal judges have long advocated the change, the importance of which was demonstrated when the U.S. Sentencing Commission anno... More About: Cocaine , Guidelines
Vote of No Confidence For Prometa
2008-01-13 01:13:00 Addiction drug loses major fundingIt is composed of three common and inexpensive drugs used for other purposes. It has never been subjected to clinical double blind testing. It costs thousands of dollars for the full treatment package, and the company that markets it says it cures about 80 percent of the drug addicts who use it.If that description sounds familiar?if it seems to give off a faint whiff of blue-green algae and multi-level marketing?such concerns have not stunted the promotion and acceptance of the anti-addiction drug Prometa. But MSNBC reported last week that Prometa, the drug ?cocktail? designed to combat addiction to cocaine and methamphetamine, was dealt a severe blow when accountants in Pierce County, Washington froze the funding for an $800,000 pilot program, citing irregularities in testing.The treatment involves intravenous infusions of Flumazinil, a reversal agent for benzodiazepines like Valium and Klonopin. The second drug, hydroxyzine, is an antihistamine, a... More About: Vote , Confidence
Where Can I Smoke?
2008-01-08 19:17:00 An international survey of the cigarette scene.It was a tough year for smokers. 2007 marked the onset of new restrictions on public smoking in dozens of nations around the world.Contrary to popular belief, smoking bans are nothing new under the sun. Troubled by the rising tide of nicotine dependence among the common folk, Bavaria, Saxony, Zurich, and other European states outlawed tobacco at various times during the 17th Century. The Sultan Murad IV decreed the death penalty for smoking tobacco in Constantinople, and the first of the Romanoff czars decreed that the punishment for smoking was the slitting of the offender?s nostrils. Still, there is no evidence to suggest that any culture that has ever taken up the smoking of tobacco has ever wholly relinquished the practice voluntarily.In order to sort things out, the BBC News Website, among others, recently compiled a chart of global changes in the climate for smokers. Herewith, a representative sampling:In FRANCE, January 1, 2008, ... More About: Smoke
Cocaine Prices Climb, U.S. Drug Czar Declares A Win
2008-01-05 18:25:00 NPR Investigation Suggests OtherwiseIt?s hard to win a war on drugs. Success stories are few, so it is not surprising that a temporary hike in recent cocaine prices in selected American cities was seized upon by U.S. Drug Czar John Walters as the lynchpin of a promotional campaign touting a victory in the war on drugs. After the U.S Coast Guard?s seized a record 160 metric tons of cocaine in early December, Walters declared: ?These seizures are having a profound effect on availability of drugs in the U.S.?But are they? In late December, National Public Radio (NPR) undertook an investigation of this claim by contacting the police departments in the 37 cities?including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Milwaukee--in which Drug Czar Walters claimed that interdictions had seriously disrupted cocaine supplies. Police officials in ten of the cities, including New York and Atlanta, confirmed that a cocaine scarcity existed. Some cities declined to respond. Five cities reported ... More About: Cocaine , Climb , Prices , Ares
Pan-Addiction
2007-12-20 17:38:00 Why addicts can switch drugsThe newer views of addiction as an organic brain disorder cast strong doubt on the longstanding assumption that different kinds of people become addicted to different kinds of drugs. The behaviors known as pan-addiction and substitute addiction seemed to demonstrate that some addicts were vulnerable in an overall way to other addictive drugs as well.If it was one addiction at a time, that was known as substitute addiction. If it was many addictions simultaneously, researchers called it pan-addiction. The fact that a striking number of alcoholics also had cigarette addictions, and were heavy coffee drinkers, or had been addicted sequentially or simultaneously to various illegal addictive drugs?this was no great secret in the addiction therapy community.Addict s showed a remarkable ability to shift addictions, or to multiply them. Many addicts seemed to be able to use whatever was readily at hand--alcoholics turning to cough syrup or doctor-prescribed morphi... More About: Addiction
What is Drug Craving?
2007-12-19 16:29:00 Exploring the engine of drug relapse?In terms of treatment, you can?t just attack the rewarding features of the drug. In the case of alcohol, we already have a perfect drug to make alcohol aversive--and that?s Antabuse. But people don?t take it. Why don?t they take it? Because they still crave. And so they stop taking it. You have to attack the other side, and hit the craving.?--Dr. Ting-Kai Li, 1990 interviewIt causes relapses and treatment failure. It leads good people to break good promises and do harm to themselves and others. What is this thing called craving? Isn?t it just another word for lack of will power?Scientists have gained a much deeper understanding of how and why addicts crave. For years, craving was represented by the tortured tremors and sweaty nightmares of extreme heroin and alcohol withdrawal. Significantly, however, the symptom common to all forms of withdrawal and craving is anxiety. This prominent manifestation of craving plays out along a common set of axes:... More About: Drug , Ravin
Harm Reduction: The Dutch Experience
2007-12-16 19:18:00 Does marijuana decriminalization work?Decriminalization of certain drug offenses is one of the goals of a loosely organized movement called harm reduction. While it neither ignores the dangers of addictive drugs, nor advocates their use, harm reduction, as practiced by organizations like the Harm Reduction Coalition, is a limited step that calls for making distinctions between major and minor classes of drug crimes. Above all, it is a practical approach.According to the International Harm Reduction Association: ?In many countries with zero tolerance drug policies, funding for drug law enforcement is five to six times greater than funding for prevention and treatment.? In place of that scenario, harm reduction strategies aim for the creation of non-coercive, community-based recovery programs and resources for drug users. The association defines harm reduction as follows: ?Policies and programs which attempt primarily to reduce the adverse health, social, and economic consequences of... More About: Experience , Dutch , The Dutch
Heroin Overdose Kits: The Debate Goes On
2007-12-13 17:22:00 More states back naloxone programs, but Feds aren?t convincedSince the first trial run in Chicago several years ago, efforts to provide heroin addicts with naloxone overdose kits has gained ground in Baltimore, New York, Boston, and several other cities and states. As reported here at Addiction Inbox last month, Dr. Peter Moyer, medical director of Boston?s fire, police and emergency services, applauded the recent Massachusetts decision to expand the Boston program to the entire state and offer Massachusetts heroin addicts the overdose reversal kit. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 35 years ago, Naloxone, or Narcan, is the standard emergency room treatment for heroin overdose. Naloxone instantly reverses life-threatening overdoses by crowding out heroin molecules at the brain receptor sites where they bind.Predictably, the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the White House does not support the Massachusetts program. Drug Policy officials do not like the idea... More About: Kits , Debate , Heroin , Overdose
?Drug Foods? and Addiction
2007-12-07 12:40:00 Amino acid restoration therapyAddict s frequently resort to sugar foods and other high-carbohydrates snacks as a substitute drug addiction, therapists frequently report. Since diet has a direct effect on neurotransmission in the brain, food of this type may play a role in keeping drug cravings alive.Dr. Candace Pert, one of the founders of modern neuroscience, believes that the pain of drug withdrawal and the stress of associated cravings could be drastically lessened through attention to nutritional needs. ?Recovery programs,? she writes in her book Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel, ?need to take into account this multi-system reality by emphasizing nutritional support and exercise. Eating fresh, unprocessed foods, preferably organic vegetables, and engaging in mild exercise like walking to increase blood flow through the liver can speed the process up.?Other alternative researchers speak of the body?s ?natural stimulant capacity,? and suggest that proteins and ra... More About: Addiction , Foods , Drug
Pulmonary Deaths Triple For Women
2007-12-04 22:37:00 Female smokers achieve grisly parityThanks to several decades of smoking by women, many of whom began back in the ?Virginia Slims? era, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, is now a major killer of women as well as men.According to figures compiled for a New York Times article by Denise Grady (registration required), ?The death rate in women nearly tripled from 1980 to 2000, and since 2000, more women than men have died or been hospitalized because of the disease.?COPD is an overall term for inflammation and congestion of the airways, usually manifested as chronic bronchitis and emphysema. It is, doctors say, like trying to breath through a progressively narrower straw. It is progressive if not treated, and it is not presently curable. 85 per cent of cases are caused by smoking, and it rarely occurs before age 40. Traditionally a disease of older men, women are discovering that it is ?now just catching up to them,? according to Dr. Barry J. Make of the National Jewish Med... More About: Women , For Women , Deaths , Triple , Mona
Naloxone and ?Receptorology?
2007-11-29 15:21:00 The power of the opiates revealedThe breakthrough that laid the groundwork for the first truly scientific understanding of addictive drugs took place in 1972, when researchers discovered the existence of specific receptor sites in the brain for the opium molecule.At roughly the same time, emergency room doctors were baffled to discover that timely injections of a drug called naloxone completely reversed the effects of heroin intoxication. Minutes after an injection of naloxone, heroin addicts were awake, fully recovered, and instantly into the rigors of heroin withdrawal. Naloxone, and a similar drug called naltrexone, rescued O.D. victims from respiratory failure. Like a magic bullet, naloxone--trade name Narcan-- blocked the effects of heroin.At Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Dr. Solomon Snyder and a young doctoral candidate named Candace Pert devised a method for testing this theory. By making molecules of naloxone radioactive, and following the cours... More About: Rolo
Czech Meth Epidemic Widens
2007-11-26 16:37:00 Methamphetamine gains ground in EuropeCrystal methedrine: It?s not just for Kansas and Oklahoma anymore. A continuing proliferation of meth labs in the Czech Republic , coupled with the flow of Eastern European workers into Western Europe, has ripened the Euro market for speed, say drug enforcement experts.The high cost of cocaine in Europe is also working in meth?s favor. According to the International Herald Tribune, Czech police busted 416 meth labs last year, compared to just 19 such labs in 2000. But just as U.S. authorities discovered, cooking facilities are not easy to eradicate??If one of them is seized, three mushroom up somewhere else,? said a member of the Czech police?s National Drug Headquarters.In the article, Nicholas Kulish notes that, of the 30,000 ?problem drug users? known to the Czech police, 20,000 of them are abusers of methamphetamine, which is still known locally as ?Pervitin,? the trade name used by the Nazis when the drug was issued to soldiers and pilots in... More About: Epidemic
Smokers Underestimate Health Risk
2007-11-22 13:05:00 Most believe nicotine is the culprit; ?will power? the answerTwo-thirds of adult smokers in a recent national survey incorrectly believed that nicotine causes cancer and heart disease, a finding which may help explain the reluctance of many smokers to try nicotine replacement therapy in the form of nicotine gum and nicotine patches. Nicotine is the addictive element in cigarettes, but it does not cause cancer.The national study of 900 American smokers, undertaken by Richard Day Research on behalf of the American Legacy Foundation and GlaxoSmithKline, also found that two out of three smokers underestimated their chances of developing lung cancer. Up to a third of the smokers believed that vitamins and exercise could ?undo? the unhealthy effects of smoking.The American Legacy Foundation is a national public health foundation funded through payments from the 1999 Master Settlement Agreement between 46 states and the tobacco industry. GlaxoSmithKline is a consumer health care company wh... More About: Health , Risk , Smokers , Heal , Eres
The CYP2D6 Factor
2007-11-15 20:32:00 Enzymes And Drug AbuseDifferent drugs effect different people differently.Drugs are broken down into their constituent waste products by specific sets of enzymes. A subset of the human population, variously estimated at 3% to 7%, are categorized as ?poor metabolizers.? For them, a drug?s recommended dosage is often far too high. The culprit is a gene variant that codes for a liver enzyme called cytochrome P450 isoenzyme 2D6, known in shorthand as CYP2D6. Poor metabolizers produce less of this crucial enzyme, which means that drugs are broken down and excreted at a much slower pace. In these people, the recommended dose results in higher drug concentrations. This obviously can make a crucial difference in how a person reacts to the drugs.About one out of 20 people has a mutation in the 2D6 gene that causes a lack of the enzyme, according to UC-San Francisco biochemist Ira Herskowitz. ?Those people are really getting a whopping dose?(New York Times, registration required). In addition... More About: Factor
Afghanistan: Opium Supplier To The World
2007-11-11 18:58:00 Will defoliants be used (again) on Afghan farmers?Afghanistan appears poised to break all opium harvest records in 2007. Experts estimate this year?s crop at more than 8,000 tons of opium, a 34 per cent surge over 2006. This amount represents roughly 93 per cent of the world market for heroin and other opium products, according to information provided by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). The amount of land under cultivation for poppies exceeds the amount of land used for coca cultivation in all of Latin America combined. For all practical purposes, Afghanistan has cornered the market, and is the undisputed leader.And, according to U.S. defense officials, serving as a primary source of ready cash for the Taliban insurgents in the south. According to Reuters, the Taliban have ?deepened ties with farmers and traffickers.? Seth Jones of the RAND Corp. said that ?It?s hard to overstate how much disinformation there is among Afghan farmers. It would be fai... More About: World , The World , Supplier
Nicotine Vaccine Doubles Quit Rate in Human Trials
2007-11-08 20:54:00 NicVax still showing promise against cigarette addictionNabi Biopharmaceutical announced this week that an experimental vaccine it has been testing against nicotine addiction had shown itself to be effective in human trials. Volunteers were more than twice as likely to quit, compared to a control group whose members were injected with a placebo.The company-funded study gave volunteers five injections of NicVax, Nabi?s proprietary drug, or else a placebo. In regulatory filings, the company claims that the vaccine triggers an antibody response, which prevents nicotine molecules from reaching the brain. The antibodies bind with the nicotine molecules, making nicotine too large to cross the exceedingly fine blood-brain barrier of the brain. Roughly 15 per cent of smokers who received injections of NicVax were nicotine-free after one year. For comparison, early studies of Chantix as an anti-smoking medication show a quit response rate in the range of 20 per cent for heavy smokers. Studie... More About: Vaccine , Human , Trials , Quit , Rate
Overdose Kits for Heroin Addicts
2007-11-06 20:28:00 Massachusetts to offer Narcan nasal sprayNoting that heroin overdoses kill more people in Massachusetts each year than firearms, Dr. Peter Moyer, medical director of Boston?s fire, police and emergency services, applauded the state?s decision to offer addicts an overdose reversal kit. The package contains two nasal doses of naloxone, known as Narcan, a drug that reverses heroin overdose and saves uncounted lives (many victims of heroin overdose never see a hospital) when administered quickly enough. ?It?s a remarkably safe drug,? said Dr. Moyer. ?I?ve used gallons of it in my life to treat patients.?Predictably, other health authorities aren?t so sure. ?You give them the Narcan, where is their motivation to change?? said Michael Gimbel, director of substance abuse for Baltimore County, Maryland. ?Giving Narcan might give them that false sense that ?I can live forever,? which is not what we want,? he told the Associated Press. Although similar programs have met with success in Chicag... More About: Kits , Heroin , Dose , Overdose , Addict
Can Obama Quit Smoking?
2007-11-03 19:45:00 Does nicotine addiction matter in a president?Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Ford, and Clinton all enjoyed their occasional cigarettes and cigars. Laura Bush as been accused of bumming a cigarette or two since entering the Oval Office.Presidential candidate Barack Obama smokes, too, but I could not find a picture of him actually doing it--and neither can anybody else, it seems. By all accounts, Barack Obama continues to struggle mightily in his current quitting attempt, which began in the form of a campaign promise to his wife. Sources say he?s getting by?barely--with the ?strenuous? use of nicotine chewing gum.Is there any way for Obama to connect with FDR and his rakish cigarette holder? Or is a president who smokes simply out of step with a nation seemingly bent on emptying all workspaces and gathering places of tobacco smoke? In a smoke-free nation, will the next president be forced to huddle on the rear portico of the White House, with the serving staff, and fieldstri... More About: Quit Smoking , Smoking , Quit
Food Addiction (2)
More articles from this author:2007-11-02 00:14:00 The neurology of carbohydrate cravingEighteen years ago, Richard and Judith Wurtman, a husband and wife research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) reported in Scientific American:"We wondered whether the consumption of excessive amounts of snack carbohydrates leading to severe obesity might not represent a kind of substance abuse, in which the decision to consume carbohydrates for their calming and anti-depressant effects is carried to an extreme--at substantial cost to the abuser?s health and appearance."In the case of certain carbohydrate cravers, the Wurtmans discovered, dietary tryptophan was being converted into serotonin, like always?but this concentrated serotonin surge acted like a powerful mood-booster. It acted like medicine.The Wurtmans had hit on something important. People who tended to binge late in the day on carbohydrate foods, particularly simple sugars, got a drug-like ?buzz? that was highly reinforcing. In the experiments, these people quite... More About: Food , Addiction , Addict 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
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