http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. People who take cocaine over many years without becoming addicted have a brain structure which is significantly different from those individuals who developed cocaine-dependence, researchers have discovered. New research from the University of Cambridge has found that recreational drug users who have not developed a dependence have an abnormally large frontal lobe, the section of the brain implicated in self-control. Their research was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-people-cocaine-differently-brain-addiction.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:14:16 EST news277650845 Medication development efforts for cocaine dependence have yet to result in an FDA approved treatment. The powerful rewarding effects of cocaine, the profound disruptive impact of cocaine dependence on one's lifestyle, and the tendency of cocaine to attract people who make poor life choices and then exacerbate impulsive behavior all make cocaine a vexing clinical condition. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-cocaine-pharmacotherapy.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 28 Nov 2012 10:23:19 EST news273320322 Previous research has shown that personality traits such as impulsivity or compulsiveness are indicators of an increased risk of addiction. Now, new research from the University of Cambridge suggests that these impulsive and compulsive personality traits are also associated with a traumatic upbringing during childhood. The study was published today, 31 August, in the journal American Journal Psychiatry. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-traumatic-childhood-drug-addiction.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 31 Aug 2012 02:39:17 EST news265599537 When it comes to addiction, sex matters. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-addicts-cravings-roots-men-women.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:36:06 EST news247163753 A landmark study in mice identifies a biological mechanism that could help explain how tobacco products could act as gateway drugs, increasing a person's future likelihood of abusing cocaine and perhaps other drugs as well, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study is the first to show that nicotine might prime the brain to enhance the behavioral effects of cocaine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-nicotine-gateway-drug.html Medical research Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:44:28 EST news239467457 Researchers at the University of Cambridge have identified abnormal brain structures in the frontal lobe of cocaine users' brains which are linked to their compulsive cocaine-using behaviour. Their findings were published today, 21 June, in the journal Brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-abnormal-brain-linked-chronic-cocaine.html Neuroscience Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:50:20 EST news227846999