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Drug shows promise for treating alcoholism

Their study is the first to evaluate the drug, ibudilast, as a treatment for alcoholism. Study participants were given either the drug (20 milligrams for two days and 50 milligrams for the next four) or a placebo for six consecutive days. After about a two-week break, those who took th e drug were switched to a placebo for six days, and those who were taking the placebo were given ibudilast. The researchers found that the subjects' craving for alcohol was significantly lower when they were taking the medication. In addition, the participants' reactions were measured after they were asked to hold and smell a glass of their preferred alcoholic beverage but not allowed to drink it. The subjects reported being in a better mood while they were taking ibudilast than when they were on the placebo. The research evaluated 17 men and seven women who, prior to the study, reported drinking alcohol an average of 21 days per month and drinking seven alcoholic beverages per day when t...
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Electronic cigarettes are not harmless, study shows

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Digital cigarettes (e-cigarettes) should not innocent, say researchers. Credit score: © gangster9686 / Fotolia A research revealed in  JAMA Cardiology  has added to rising proof that digital cigarettes (e-cigarettes) should not innocent. "Research like this give additional affirmation that e-cigarettes should not innocent," stated European Society of Cardiology cardiovascular prevention spokesperson Professor Joep Perk. "If I used to be a minister of well being I might put my efforts into public anti-smoking campaigns particularly directed in the direction of the youthful era, and never promote e-cigarettes as a substitute for smoking," he continued. "There are research additionally displaying that folks that begin with e-cigarettes generally tend to change into persistent tobacco cigarette people who smoke as effectively." The 2016 European tips on heart problems prevention flagged up the necessity for additional a...
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Scientists show deep brain stimulation blocks heroin relapse in rats

Rats that were used to taking heroin, and normally would have self-administered more and more of the drug, did not escalate their intake when treated with DBS. The treatment involves the weak electrical stimulation, via implanted electrodes, of a brain region called the subthalamic nucleus. "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," said the study's principal investigator Olivier George, an associate professor in TSRI's Committee on the Neurobiology of Addictive Disorders. "This is the type of preclinical evidence that one needs, in order to start testing this strategy in humans." "These results also suggest new insights into the neurocircuitry of heroin addiction," said co-author George F. Koob, who headed the Committee during the study and is currently on leave from TSRI to direct the National Institute on Alcoho...
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Immune system suppression may be related to problem drinking

Researchers studied 26 (21 male, 5 female) problem drinkers and 38 (26 male, 12 female) social drinkers. During three consecutive days, all participant s were exposed to three personalized five-minute imaging sessions that represented stressful (S), relaxing (R), and alcohol cues (C), followed by an "alcohol taste test" (ATT) to measure alcohol motivation and intake. Additional measures were obtained at baseline, post-imagery, and at alcohol-cue presentation during ATT. The study showed that problem drinkers who are at risk for AD had a dampened biological response at baseline -- specifically, suppressed pro- and anti-inflammatory markers -- compared to social drinkers. The immunologic changes seen in problem drinkers were associated with elevated levels of stress and cue-induced alcohol craving and anxiety. The changes also predicted alcohol craving, the motivation to drink, alcohol intake and the severity of problem drinking. Based on these findings, the authors conc...
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Nicotine creates a chronic drug memory in the brain

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ulia Morud Lekholm. Credit score: Elin Lindström Claessen The primary interval of nicotine abstinence proceeded as anticipated. The shock got here after three months when the lab rats abruptly grew to become fearless and sought out well-lighted areas that prey animals usually keep away from. On the identical time, signaling within the mind's reward system modified, as proven by a examine at Sahlgrenska Academy. "This means very long-lasting modifications attributable to nicotine that had been beforehand unknown. The nicotine seems to create a cascade of results that solely worsen and worse over time," says Julia Morud Lekholm, researcher in habit biology on the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology. The experiment was achieved one other two instances. The researchers wished to be sure that the sudden outcomes weren't an remoted case. In whole, 108 animals had been examined, of which half acquired nicotine and half a salt res...
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Addicted individuals less responsive to reward-anticipation

People with an addiction process rewards in their brain differently from people who are not addicted. However, whether this is associated with "too much" or "too little" brain activity is an open question. Indeed, past research has produced conflicting findings. In order to get a reliable answer, researchers Arnt Schellekens (Radboud university medical center), Guillaume Sescousse an d Maartje Luijten (Radboud University) have combined 25 studies investigating brain reward sensitivity in more than 1200 individuals with and without addiction to various substances such as alcohol, nicotine, cocaine but also gambling. By analyzing the brain images from these studies, they have discovered an important difference in brain activity between expecting a reward and receiving a reward. Reward Compared with non-addicted individuals, individuals with substance or gambling addiction showed a weaker brain response to anticipating monetary rewards. "There was less brain...
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Study affirms that cocaine makes users more likely to risk unsafe sex

Now, in a government-funded study for which Johns Hopkins investigators recruited a small number of otherwise healthy regular cocaine users through advertisements and word of mouth, results point to "impatience" as a clear barrier to condom use in those who are sexually aroused because of the drug. The research team knew that people who regularly use cocaine are more likely to have HIV or other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and the study authors say their findings, published Jan. 18 in  Psychopharmacology , suggest "sexual impatience" as a likely explanation for the increased risk. "Our study affirms and may help explain why people who regularly use cocaine are more willing to partake in risky sex when under the influence of cocaine, and underscores why public health officials and physicians should be ensuring that cocaine users are supplied with condoms to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted disease," says Matthew Johnson, Ph.D.,...
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