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Showing posts from September, 2017

Nicotine normalizes brain activity deficits that are key to schizophrenia

Ultimately the authors of the study, released online today in the journal  Nature Medicine , envision their work could lead to new non-addictive , nicotine-based treatments for some of the 51 million people worldwide who suffer from the disease. "Our study provides compelling biological evidence that a specific genetic variant contributes to risk for schizophrenia, defines the mechanism responsible for the effect and validates that nicotine improves that deficit," said Jerry Stitzel, a researcher at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics (IBG) and one of four CU Boulder researchers on the study. Led by Uwe Maskos -- a researcher at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France -- the study found that when mice with schizophrenic characteristics were given nicotine daily, their sluggish brain activity increased within two days. Within one week it had normalized. "Basically the nicotine is compensating for a genetically determined impairment," says Stitzel. "No on...

Potential way to reduce drug cravings: Vagus nerve stimulation therapy

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Dr. Sven Kroener of the College of Texas at Dallas is researching vagus nerve stimulation as a method to scale back drug cravings. Credit score: College of Texas at Dallas A brand new preclinical examine led by a College of Texas at Dallas researcher reveals that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) remedy might need the potential to assist individuals overcome drug habit by serving to them be taught new behaviors to interchange these related to looking for medicine. The brand new analysis, revealed within the January challenge of the journal  Studying and Reminiscence , discovered that drug cravings in addicted rats have been decreased once they have been handled with VNS. It is potential that the analysis might be utilized to individuals who have been hooked on medicine, mentioned senior creator Dr. Sven Kroener, assistant professor within the College of Behavioral and Mind Sciences. "We're learning extinction studying and the way vagus ne...

Age limits on e-cigarettes cause uptick in cigarette smoking among pregnant teens

But the uptick in cigarette smoking did not produce negative birth outcomes, according to research by Princeton University and Cornell University, who analyzed more than 500,000 births among teenagers in the United States. Published as a working paper in the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the research shows a 19.2 percent increase in cigarette smoking among pregnant teenagers -- both of age and underage -- and a 13.8 percent increase among underage pregnant teens following the enactment of minimum legal sale ages for electronic nicotine delivery systems. Every state already has age limits on traditional cigarette sales, and if these limits were perfectly enforced, there would be no possibility for substitution between e-cigarettes and the traditional variety. Therefore, the findings suggest that limits on e-cigarettes are more binding on minors and that teens often substitute one source of nicotine for the other. "Traditional cigarette use typically declines ...

Delaying marijuana smoking to age 17 cuts risks to teens' brains, new study suggests

Adolescents who smoke pot as early as 14 do worse by 20 on some cognitive tests and drop out of school at a higher rate than non-smokers, confirms the study, published Dec. 29 in  Development and Psychopathology , a Cambridge University Press journal. "Overall, these results suggest that, in addition to academic failure , fundamental life skills necessary for problem-solving and daily adaptation [...] may be affected by early cannabis exposure," the study says. However, the cognitive declines associated with cannabis do not seem to be global or widespread, cautioned the study's lead author, Natalie Castellanos-Ryan, an assistant professor at UdeM's School of Psychoeducation. Her study found links between cannabis use and brain impairment only in the areas of verbal IQ and specific cognitive abilities related to frontal parts of the brain, particularly those that require learning by trial-and-error. In addition, if teenagers hold off until age 17 before smoki...

Posttraumatic stress and alcohol use disorders hit American-Indian, Alaskan-Native men the hardest

Researchers analyzed data from the 2012-2013 U.S. National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions III, the fourth national survey conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The researchers estimated the odds of AUD among adults with and without PTSD by race. Of the 19,705 participants, 511 (301 women, 210 men) were AI/AN and 19,194 (10,639 women, 8,555 men) were NHW. The investigators found that both PTSD and AUD were more common among AI/ANs than NHWs. Although PTSD was significantly associated with AUD in both populations, the association was significantly more prevalent among AI/ANs. Thus, among men the rate of both PTSD and AUD in AI/ANs was more than three times that of NHW men (9.5% vs. 3.1%). The authors suggested that screening and interventions for PTSD in tribal-government programs and in AI/AN health services could help to reduce the greater risk for AUD in AI/ANs. They also called for studies that measure trauma resulting f...

Combined use of alcohol, cocaine may play a unique role in suicide risk

The researchers analyzed data on 346 individuals (265 men, 81 women) living in New Mexico , ages 18 to 54, who died in 2012 by suicide (n=185) or MVC (n=161). Toxicology results were used to code the presence of alcohol and/or other drugs such as cocaine, opiates (oxycodone, heroin, etc.), amphetamines, or methamphetamine. Results showed that the co-presence of alcohol and one or more drugs of abuse -- particularly cocaine -- appeared to be more likely in suicide deaths than MVC deaths. The authors suggest that individuals vulnerable to suicide may use alcohol to cope with depressive symptoms associated with recurring use of cocaine and/or to temper discomfort following cocaine use . They further suggest that these results can inform the design of prevention efforts to target specific kinds of substance use and types of injury. for more information visit our product website:    Buy Fildena 150 mg Online

Prior DUIs predict future criminal activity among firearm owners

Many prior studies of the general population have established strong associations between acute alcohol intoxication or a history of alcohol abuse and an increased risk for suicide, homicide and other forms of violence using firearms. They also have shown that DUI offenders have a high prevalence of excessive alcohol consumption and alcohol-use disorders and are more likely to engage in criminal activity, including violence and weapon-related crimes. The UC Davis study, however, is the first to associate the misuse of alcohol with future criminal activity among legal firearm owners, a group that is also more likely than others to report excessive alcohol consumption. The research, along with similar studies now under way that are larger and rely on more current data, may help inform the development of violence prevention measures focused on access to firearms by high-risk individuals. "We found prior DUI and other alcohol-related convictions among legal handgun owners in C...

Researchers identify drug that alleviates opioid withdrawal

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Neuroscientist Tuan Trang, PhD, and PhD scholar Nicole Burma together with a group of researchers found that an present anti-gout medicine is efficient in lowering the severity of withdrawal signs in opioid-dependent rodents. Credit score: Adrian Shellard, for the College of Calgary Opioid use and abuse is a big social, well being and financial problem in Canada. Researchers on the College of Calgary's School of Veterinary Drugs (UCVM) and Hotchkiss Mind Institute (HBI) have found that an present anti-gout medicine is efficient in lowering the severity of withdrawal signs in opioid-dependent rodents. Their work is resulting in the event of a medical trial on the Calgary Ache Clinic. Neuroscientist Tuan Trang, PhD and his group, together with PhD scholar Nicole Burma, explored the underlying causes of opioid withdrawal and recognized an necessary goal within the spinal wire that's accountable for producing withdrawal signs in rats and mice....

Brain potassium channels may unlock future precision medicine approaches for alcoholism

Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), through collaborative e fforts with the NIH-funded INIAstress Consortium, have identified novel potassium (K+) channel genes within addiction brain circuitry that are altered by alcohol dependence and correlate with drinking levels in a mouse model of alcohol drinking. Significant reduction of heavy alcohol drinking after administration of a KV7 channel-positive modulator validated Kcnq, one of the identified genes that encodes KV7 type K+ channels, as a potential pharmacogenetic target. These preclinical findings, published in the February 2017 special issue of  Alcohol  on mouse genetic models of alcohol-stress interactions, suggest that K+ channels could be promising therapeutic targets that may advance personalized medicine approaches for treating heavy drinking in alcoholics. Alcohol is known to change how neurons fire, and K+ channels play a crucial role in modulating a neuron's excitability by return...

Intimate partner violence among youth linked to suicide, weapons and drug use

The study, published recently in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, followed a randomly selected cohort of 588 Georgia students for seven consecutive years as they progressed through middle and high school. During that period, students self-reported instances of slapping, kicking, punching, scratching or shoving a romantic partner; slamming a partner against a wall; throwing something at a partner that could cause injury; or using an object to injure a partner. "Intimate partner violence is a serious public health problem," said Pamela Orpinas, lead author of the study and professor of health promotion and behavior in UGA's College of Public Health. "It affects people in the moment because of the aggression, but it also has long-term consequences." In a previous study, the researchers identified two groups from their cohort: students who were not involved in dating violence during the seven years of the study and students with an increasing probabilit...