http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have successfully tested their novel anti-cocaine vaccine in primates, bringing them closer to launching human clinical trials. Their study, published online by the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, used a radiological technique to demonstrate that the anti-cocaine vaccine prevented the drug from reaching the brain and producing a dopamine-induced high. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-cocaine-vaccine-key-hurdle.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 10 May 2013 14:08:40 EST news287413696 (Medical Xpress)—The number of heroin and crack cocaine users in England has fallen below 300,000 for the first time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-fall-heroin-drugs-appeal-young.html Addiction Thu, 07 Mar 2013 07:56:01 EST news281865343 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 Researchers at the University of Granada, Spain, and Santo Tomas University in Colombia have found that drug abuse negatively affects sexual performance in men even after years of abstinence. This finding contradicts other studies reporting that men spontaneously recovered their normal sexual performance at three weeks after quitting substance abuse. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-drug-abuse-impairs-sexual-men.html Health Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:04:01 EST news277650216 (Medical Xpress)—Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have revealed a new connection between drug addiction and a distinct part of the brain that may govern motivation. The research, published October 23, 2012, in Translational Psychiatry as an Advance Online Publication, shows that individuals addicted to cocaine have abnormal functioning of the midbrain, a brain region responsible for releasing dopamine in the presence of important stimuli, such as food, to make individuals repeat the behaviors that would result in obtaining these stimuli again. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-mental-fatigue-impairs-midbrain-function.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 09 Nov 2012 07:19:03 EST news271667933 Addiction researchers have known for many years that smokers are less likely than non-smokers to look to the future in planning their lives. New research has now shown that among smokers, those who have more of a future orientation are more likely to stop smoking. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-smokers-future.html Addiction Tue, 04 Sep 2012 19:00:02 EST news265973110 New research by scientists at the University of Cambridge suggests that chronic cocaine abuse accelerates the process of brain ageing. The study, published today 25 April in Molecular Psychiatry, found that age-related loss of grey matter in the brain is greater in people who are dependent on cocaine than in the healthy population. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-chronic-cocaine-aging-brain.html Addiction Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:32:49 EST news254471547 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 A study of the 5.3 million men and women seen in Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinics in a one-year period found that use of cocaine is predictive of open-angle glaucoma, the most common type of glaucoma. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-cocaine-users-percent-glaucoma.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:26:25 EST news236517975 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