http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. The impact of efforts by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to notify the general public and health care providers about unanticipated risks from approved medications has been "varied and unpredictable," according to a systematic review of published studies about FDA warnings and alerts over the last 20 years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-health-risky-task-fda.html Health Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:50:01 EST news246190912 Nursing home residents with dementia who use average doses of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are three times more likely to have an injurious fall than similar people who don't use these drugs. The association can be seen in people who use low doses of SSRIs and the risk increases as people take higher doses. The results are published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-nursing-home-residents-dementia-antidepressants.html Health Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:40:03 EST news246168702 Harvard scientists have developed the fullest picture yet of how neurons in the brain interact to reinforce behaviors ranging from learning to drug use, a finding that might open the door to possible breakthroughs in the treatment of addiction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-neurons-interact-treatment-addiction.html Neuroscience Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:00:04 EST news246104934 (Medical Xpress) -- A new Australian drug study published today in The Lancet has found that cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug globally, while opioid use is a major cause of death. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-latest-global-snapshot-drug-related.html Health Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:08:59 EST news245059730 About 200 million people around the world use illicit drugs, according to a study published on Friday in The Lancet. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-million-illegal-drugs-lancet.html Health Fri, 06 Jan 2012 05:50:02 EST news245050850 The dire physical and mental health effects of injecting methamphetamine are well known, but there's been little research about suicidal behavior and injecting meth. In a recent study, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the University of British Columbia found that drug users who inject methamphetamine had an 80% greater risk of attempting suicide than drug users who inject other substances. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-drugs-meth-suicide.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:41:04 EST news243794456 Almost two-thirds of women in British Columbia filled at least one prescription at some point in their pregnancy, including drugs with potential risks, according to a new study by University of British Columbia researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-majority-bc-women-prescription-drugs.html Health Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:19:39 EST news243177571 (AP) -- More teens are turning to pot and see it as less of a risk at the same time alcohol use among the same age group has dipped to historic lows, according to an annual national survey of drug use released Wednesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-survey-teen-pot-alcohol-declines.html Health Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:08:00 EST news243079669 (Medical Xpress) -- For the first time, scientists have proven that cannabis harms the brain. But the same study challenges previously-held assumptions about use of the drug, showing that some brain irregularities predate drug use.  http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-cannabis-brain-full-story.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:16:53 EST news242900203 An attentive, nurturing mother may be able to help her children better resist the temptations of drug use later in life, according to a study in rats conducted by Duke University and the University of Adelaide in Australia. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-mother-drug-cravings.html Neuroscience Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:29:11 EST news242414937 Fewer Ontario teens are smoking cigarettes than ever before -- good news that is tempered by continuing concerns around binge drinking, and driving while under the influence of cannabis, according to the 2011 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey released today by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The survey, which included 9,288 students across Ontario in grades 7 to 12, is the longest running student survey in Canada. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-ontario-canada-youth-all-time-teen.html Health Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:43:08 EST news241792968 (Medical Xpress) -- An accumulation of childhood adversities increases the likelihood that one becomes a bully, a new study found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-childhood-adversities-contribute-bullying-behaviors.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 29 Nov 2011 04:25:57 EST news241763105 "Would legal regulation and control of drugs better protect children?" is a question posed by former President of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso in an editorial to be published in the January issue of Elsevier's International Journal of Drug Policy (IJDP). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-drug-laws-children.html Medications Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:53:10 EST news241181576 A high childhood IQ may be linked to subsequent illegal drug use, particularly among women, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-high-childhood-iq-linked-subsequent.html Health Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:44:52 EST news240551074 A new analysis of teenage drug abuse finds widespread problems among whites, Native Americans, Hispanics and youngsters of multiple races, with less severe abuse among Asian and African-American teens. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-white-hispanic-teens-abuse-drugs.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:00:09 EST news239897353 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 (Medical Xpress) -- The Snomed CT medical terminology system provides more comprehensive and reliable data on diseases, diagnoses and treatments for primary care than is currently available with the classification models currently in use, according to a new thesis from Karolinska Institute. The data provided is important for being able to monitor more effectively the health status of patients and the population, to make comparisons and conduct research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-snomed-ct-richer-reliable-source.html Cancer Tue, 01 Nov 2011 08:00:44 EST news239353230 A clinical trial to test better treatment options for chronic heroin addiction is expected to begin in Vancouver at the end of this year. Led by researchers from Providence Health Care and the University of British Columbia, it's the only clinical trial of its kind in North America. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-ubc-providence-health-treatments-heroin-addiction.html Medical research Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:50:49 EST news237631842 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 Alcohol use by Indiana sixth- through 12th-graders has declined, but findings from the 21st Annual Survey of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Use also revealed a continuing increase in marijuana and smokeless tobacco use. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-indiana-upward-trend-marijuana-smokeless.html Health Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:13:14 EST news234087181 When a research team asked cocaine addicts to choose, hypothetically, between money now or cocaine of greater value later, "preference was almost exclusively for the money now," said Warren K., Bickel, professor in the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, director of the Advanced Recovery Research Center, and professor of psychology in the College of Science at Virginia Tech. This result is significantly different from previous studies where a subject chooses between some money now or more money later. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-coke-addicts-money-snowy-future.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:30:01 EST news232282949 Obese teenage girls are more than twice as likely as other girls to develop high-level nicotine addiction as young adults, according to a new study. Nearly 20 percent of American adolescents currently are obese, the authors note. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-obese-girls-addicted.html Health Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:41:15 EST news227886054 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 A University of Sussex psychologist is one of the key authors of a major new report that reveals that death rates of men aged 16-64 is twice that of women in the same age range in the European Union. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-men-lifestyles-early-death.html Health Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:45:33 EST news227547854 (Medical Xpress) -- A new study by Yale School of Medicine reveals that nearly one third of those who use opioids for non-medical reasons obtain these drugs directly from physicians, but the majority get them from friends or family members. The study, which used data from the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, appears online in the Archives of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-friends-family-enable-opioid-abusers.html Health Wed, 15 Jun 2011 05:50:48 EST news227335745 A new study indicates high rates of injection drug use in urban Canadian Aboriginal youth, particularly in women, and points to the need for culturally specific prevention programs, states an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-high-drug-urban-aboriginal-youth.html Health Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:13:17 EST news227189567 Despite significant clinical advances in HIV care, an estimated 25 per cent of new HIV infections in Ontario from 2006 to 2008 were among women, according to a health study by researchers from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and St. Michael's Hospital. The researchers say 93 per cent of new infections among women are acquired through sexual transmission and seven per cent through injection drug use. About 60 per cent of newly infected women are immigrants. The findings, the latest from the POWER (Project for an Ontario Women's Health Evidence-Based Report) study, suggest targeted prevention and intervention efforts are necessary to eliminate gaps and inequities in care for HIV patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-hiv-infections-ontario-women.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:19:54 EST news226120719 Researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified unhealthy substance use as a risk factor for not receiving all appropriate preventive health services. The findings, which currently appear in BMJ Open, identify unhealthy substance use as a barrier to completion of mammography screening and influenza vaccination. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-unhealthy-substance-factor-health.html Cancer Fri, 13 May 2011 13:31:24 EST news224512266 (PhysOrg.com) -- New University of Otago, Christchurch, research has identified common factors in the far-reaching childhood behavioural conditions, Conduct Disorder (CD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), including maternal smoking during pregnancy and exposure to family violence. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-pregnancy-factor-childhood-behavioural-disorders.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 27 Apr 2011 09:57:33 EST news223117021 Researchers at Queen's University have found a strong association between computer and Internet use in adolescents and engagement in multiple-risk behaviours (MRB), including illicit drug use, drunkenness and unprotected sex. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-adolescents.html Health Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:02:35 EST news222966114