http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A new Yale study looks at the scope and consequences of a burgeoning health problem in the cities of the U.S. Northeast: concurrent infection with both HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV). The study appears online in the May 14 issue of the Public Library of Science (PLoS One). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-twin-epidemics-hiv-hepatitis-urban.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 17 May 2013 08:40:03 EST news287997234 Scientists have discovered a molecular process in the brain triggered by cocaine use that could provide a target for treatments to prevent or reverse addiction to the drug. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-discovery-yield-treatment-cocaine-addicts.html Neuroscience Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:49:19 EST news282566950 All too often, stress turns addiction recovery into relapse, but years of basic brain research have provided scientists with insight that might allow them develop a medicine to help. A new study in the journal Neuron pinpoints the neural basis for stress-related relapse in rat models to an unprecedented degree. The advance could accelerate progress toward a medicine that prevents stress from undermining addiction recovery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-stress-induced-drug-relapse-rats.html Neuroscience Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:00:13 EST news281792676 Cocaine is one of the most addictive drugs of abuse. Few effective treatments are available to help control cravings and withdrawal symptoms among individuals undergoing therapy to overcome cocaine abuse. Promising results from a study of qigong therapy are published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-qigong-cocaine-cravings-early-addiction.html Addiction Mon, 25 Feb 2013 10:55:13 EST news281012107 Disulfiram was the first medication approved for the treatment of alcoholism over 50 years ago. It works, at least in part, by preventing the metabolism of an alcohol by-product, acetaldehyde. High levels of acetaldehyde in the body quickly cause unpleasant symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, headache, and accelerated heart rate. Thus, disulfiram provides a very strong incentive to avoid drinking. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-disulfiram-addiction-drug.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:39:49 EST news278851182 People who regularly use cocaine socially have stiffer arteries, higher blood pressure and thicker heart wall muscle than non-users, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-recreational-cocaine-linked-conditions-heart.html Cardiology Mon, 05 Nov 2012 12:30:01 EST news271335722 Reconstructing the spread of killer diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) from person to person using DNA sequencing quickly identifies the origin and movement of pathogens. This approach is directly informing public health strategies to control infectious disease outbreaks, says a scientist speaking at the Society for General Microbiology's Autumn Conference at the University of Warwick. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-tb-outbreaks-dna-tracking.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 03 Sep 2012 19:00:04 EST news265893140 (HealthDay)—For patients undergoing rhinoplasty, the use of porous high-density polyethylene (pHDPE) and expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) implants is associated with increased risk of infection, according to a study published online Aug. 27 in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-phdpe-implant-tied-infection-post-rhinoplasty.html Surgery Tue, 28 Aug 2012 12:25:08 EST news265375496 Cocaine use in several Swiss cities is among the highest in Europe, researchers said on Monday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-cocaine-swiss-cities-highest-europe.html Addiction Mon, 06 Aug 2012 16:36:11 EST news263489766 Surveys of drug use form an important basis for the development of effective drug policies, and also for measuring the effectiveness of existing policies. For the first time in history, scientists have now made direct comparisons of illicit drug use in 19 European cities by a cooperative analysis of raw sewage samples. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-unique-scientific-collaboration-reveals-hard.html Addiction Thu, 26 Jul 2012 10:09:17 EST news262516142 New research from Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York reveals that repeated exposure to cocaine decreases the activity of a protein necessary for normal functioning of the brain's reward system, thus enhancing the reward for cocaine use, which leads to addiction. Investigators were also able to block the ability of repeated cocaine exposure, to induce addiction. The findings, published online April 22 in the journal Nature Neuroscience, provide the first evidence of how cocaine changes the shape and size of neuron rewards in a mouse model. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-cocaine-decreases-protein-functioning-brain.html Neuroscience Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:00:04 EST news254301633 When first exposed to cocaine, the adolescent brain launches a strong defensive reaction designed to minimize the drug's effects, Yale and other scientists have found. Now two new studies by a Yale team identify key genes that regulate this response and show that interfering with this reaction dramatically increases a mouse's sensitivity to cocaine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-cocaine-teen-brain-insights-addiction.html Neuroscience Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:00:09 EST news249047144 The rapid emergence of synthetic new drugs, often sold online as "legal highs," represents a significant challenge for policy makers in the coming decade, a European Union drugs agency said Tuesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-eu-drugs-watchdog-legal-highs.html Health Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:09:25 EST news240574157 It is well established that a mood disorder can increase an individual's risk for substance abuse, but there is also evidence that the converse is true; substance abuse can increase a person's vulnerability to stress-related illnesses. Now, a new study finds that repeated cocaine use increases the severity of depressive-like responses in a mouse model of depression and identifies a mechanism that underlies this cocaine-induced vulnerability. The research, published by Cell Press in the August 25 issue of the journal Neuron, may guide development of new treatments for mood disorders associated with substance abuse. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-mechanism-links-substance-abuse-vulnerability.html Neuroscience Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:10:21 EST news233410194 While some pain killers need to be injected into the damaged tissue in order to work, topical anaesthetics only need to be spread on the surface. The earliest examples of "topical" anaesthetics contained cocaine, but now a new systematic review has shown that newer agents that don't contain cocaine can effectively treat pain caused by torn skin. This makes these pain killers an attractive choice for doctors who need to sew-up a patient's skin wound. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-non-cocaine-topical-anaesthetics-pain-skin.html Medical research Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:20:01 EST news230982087 New discoveries by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) offer potential for development of a first-ever pharmacological treatment for cocaine addiction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-treatment-cocaine-addiction.html Medical research Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:00:37 EST news229953617 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 Doctors warned of a potential public health epidemic in a recent report on patients in Los Angeles and New York who developed serious skin reactions after smoking or snorting cocaine believed to be contaminated with a veterinary medication drug dealers are using to dilute, or "cut," up to 70% of the cocaine in the U.S. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-adulterated-cocaine-skin-reactions.html Medical research Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:45:27 EST news227781905