Addiction
Is There Really a “Cure” for Addiction?
Medicine.net defines cure this way:
Cure: 1. to heal, to make well, to restore to good health. Cures are easy to claim and, all too often, difficult to confirm. (emphasis added)
Merriam-Webster’s defines it thus:
n. recovery or relief from a disease; something (as a drug or treatment) that cures a disease; a period or course of treatment
Although the word “cure” has a more subtle meaning than many recognize, it is clear that in the case of addiction, the word can be terribly misused. People believe a cure means they are no longer an addict or alcoholic. The truth is, alcoholism and other addictions are more like a chronic disease that can be held in remission indefinitely if the right steps are taken, but it cannot be cured in that you must remain aware of your vulnerabilities as well as environment cues that could set you up for relapse.
The risk of suggesting a cure for addiction is that it misleads people into believing someone has the magic bullet. Although someone might manage their diabetes through diet, exercise, and medication, you don’t really cure diabetes. You have to maintain a certain lifestyle or you risk your health and life.
Cocaine Found in up to 90 Percent of US Paper Money
Up to 90 percent of US paper money contains traces of cocaine, according to researchers in what is described as the largest, most comprehensive analysis to date of cocaine contamination in banknotes. The scientists found the most cocaine in large cities such as Baltimore, Boston, and Detroit. In fact, they found traces of cocaine in 95 percent of the banknotes analyzed from Washington DC alone.
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Nicotine Addiction Can Cause Darker Skin
A new study determined that African Americans may be more predisposed to developing nicotine addiction than those with paler skin. The research also reveals that obtained darker skin (that obtained from prolonged sun exposure, not through genetics) is especially linked with tobacco addiction. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University also said they identified a statistical correlation between the frequency of smoking and skin color.
Study Examines Environmental Impact on Addiction Relapse
Addiction can control a life, making it difficult to kick a habit completely. Even those who have been able to remain abstinent for long periods of time are still at risk of being vulnerable to their own memories of prior drug or substance abuse.
A recent Science Daily release focused on a recent study that found exposure to the same environment in which the addict commonly used a substance can increase the craving for that substance dramatically, often leading to relapse. This study examined the novel compound that may ease the power of such memories.
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Using Nicotine Patch before Quitting Smoking Doubles Success Rate
Duke University Medical Center researchers recently found that using a nicotine patch before quitting smoking can double success rates. They say their findings should be printed on nicotine patch labeling.
Currently, the nicotine patch is only recommended for use after the quit date, explained Jed Rose, director of the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Research and lead author of the study. This resulted from concerns that using a patch while smoking could lead to nicotine overdose. However, the new study found that concurrent use of a nicotine patch and cigarettes appears to be safe.
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Drug Treatment Demand on the Rise
The fact that drug treatments are available is a positive move in the direction of progress toward a healthier community. When the demand increases among adults for these treatments, one has to ask the question: does this mean that drug use is up or those seeking to stop is increasing?
A recent news piece out of Frederick County reported that the demand for drug addiction services among adults increased by more than 25 percent in the past year. Katherine A. Shriver, Frederick County Health Department Substance Abuse Division director noted that the reason for the increase is likely tied to the economy.
Graphic Ads Help Prevent Meth Use
By Colin Gilbert
Methamphetamine abuse has become a serious problem among teenagers and young adults in Idaho. In 2007, the state ranked fourth in the country for meth use among individuals aged 12-25, and more than half of Idaho’s prison inmates acknowledged the drug as being directly involved with their initial imprisonment. It’s an alarming trend, but a recent advertising campaign from the Idaho Meth Project is working to stop users before they start.
In 2005, the Meth Project was formed to address what is still considered the number-one problem in Idaho—methamphetamine abuse. The powerful, highly addictive drug, which is often made in home “meth labs,” has become a widespread menace among the state’s youth, and the private, non-profit organization is founded on a passion for prevention. Their motto is simple—“Not even once.”
Beginning in January of 2008, the group released a series of graphic television commercials, billboards, radio spots, and print ads that were specifically designed to deter potential users through shocking factual evidence. In January of 2009, another wave of advertisements was released, and the Meth Project estimated that they would reach 70-90 percent of Idaho’s teens 3-5 times a week throughout the year.
More Women Using Cocaine in the UK
The Telegraph UK reported that one in 15 women ages 10-25 in England admitted they have tried cocaine, raising concerns that young women will soon overtake men for cocaine use. Unfortunately, cocaine is being considered more glamorous and socially acceptable, with high-profile celebrities like Kate Moss and Amy Winehouse being associated with the drug.
The increase in female cocaine users parallels the recent increase in female binge drinkers. The co-author of the study, Jim McVeigh, says that the findings shouldn’t be surprising because “we have seen the same thing happening with alcohol, which is intrinsically linked with cocaine.”
Gender Differences Play a Role in Addiction
Drug abuse and addiction affect women and men differently, according to new studies presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. Some of the speakers asserted that this knowledge of gender-based differences should be used in pharmacological and behavioral treatments for addiction.
Women begin using drugs at lower doses then men, their drug use escalates more rapidly into addiction, and they face a greater risk of relapse after abstinence, according to Jill Becker, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In addition to the direct evidence from humans, laboratory animals show the same kind of gender differences in addiction. Studies by Christine E. Grella, PhD, research psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles also show that women tend to enter treatment sooner after becoming dependent on substances than men, but they usually have more psychological distress, particularly with mood and anxiety disorders.
Addiction is widely considered a disorder of the memory processes, and over the past several years, studies have shown strong hemispheric gender differences in how the brain responds to memory processing after seeing emotionally arousing material. For example, men show stronger responses in the right amygdala, and women have stronger responses in the left amygdala. This research may help to explain previous evidence for effects of the menstrual cycle on craving in addition to gender differences in the effectiveness of addiction treatments such as the nicotine patch.
Karen Faith Berman, MD, and colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, had found that fluctuations in steroid hormone levels during the menstruation cycle affect neurological responses to rewards. When anticipating an uncertain reward, men showed more activity in the ventral putamen than women; when receiving a reward, women showed more activity in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex than men.
Becker’s team has also found significant gender differences in the concentration and location of receptors for the neurotransmitter dopamine, which controls anticipation and reward. The female hormone estradiol enhances dopamine release among women, for example. “Since the effect of estradiol is seen only in females,” Becker said, “this mechanism may offer unique pharmacological opportunities for the treatment of drug abuse in women.”
Cocaine also seems to dampen normal gender differences in response to stress, craving, and relaxation, said Marc N. Potenza MD, PhD, associate professor in the department of psychiatry at Yale University.
Larry Cahill, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology and behavior at the School of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, said, “It is dangerous at best, and completely wrong at worst, to assume that any neurological disorder has the same underlying causes in men and women, and thus to assume that treatments for the disorder will be essentially the same…Yet that is precisely the assumption that continues to pervade much of both the clinically applied and basic science worlds.”
Source: Psychiatric Times, May 2009
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Cocaine Use Among U.S. Workers Down, Amphetamines Up
Statistics from Quest Diagnostics, the world’s largest provider of diagnostic tests, show that fewer U.S. workers used cocaine or methamphetamines in 2008 than in 2007, but that more took amphetamines. Based on 5.7 million urine tests analyzed by Quest, the findings said cocaine use fell to 0.47% from 0.58%, but that amphetamine use rose from 5.3% to 12.5%.
“While many substances are showing declines in use, a significant trend upward that will be important to watch is the rise in amphetamine positives,” said Robert Willette, a former research chief at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Maryland.
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