http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have reported successful preclinical tests of a new vaccine against heroin. The vaccine targets heroin and its psychoactive breakdown products in the bloodstream, preventing them from reaching the brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-heroin-vaccine-blocks-relapse-preclinical.html Medical research Mon, 06 May 2013 15:00:22 EST news287057497 A UCLA-led study of adolescents receiving treatment for methamphetamine dependence has found that girls are more likely to continue using the drug during treatment than boys, suggesting that new approaches are needed for treating meth abuse among teen girls. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-teen-girls-successful-boys-meth.html Addiction Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:35:36 EST news286562129 Some 2-year-olds whose moms used methamphetamine during pregnancy may have an abnormal response to stressful situations, according to a study in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-abnormal-stress-response-toddlers-exposed.html Addiction Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:10:04 EST news282938731 University of Florida researchers have found changes in the behavior and in the brains of mice in withdrawal from methamphetamine addiction. These findings may affect the way physicians treat recovering methamphetamine addicts, the researchers write in the current issue of the journal Synapse. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-methamphetamine-brain-related-recovering-addicts.html Medical research Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:30:05 EST news280057065 Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have more bleeding strokes at an earlier age than other people independent of methamphetamine abuse, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2013. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-native-hawaiians-earlier-age-independent.html Cardiology Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:16:37 EST news279378976 It doesn't take a rocket scientist to quickly grasp what a University of Mississippi professor's research could mean to the millions of people addicted to hardcore narcotics such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and morphine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-addicts.html Addiction Mon, 28 Jan 2013 06:35:06 EST news278577297 Youth with a deployed military parent or sibling use drugs and alcohol at a higher rate than their peers, finds a new study in American Journal of Preventive Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-children-siblings-deployed-military-drugs.html Health Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:00:01 EST news277721309 (Medical Xpress)—InterveXion Therapeutics LLC and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) have successfully completed dosing in the first human safety study of a medication to help methamphetamine users fight their addictions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-human-meth-medication.html Medications Thu, 20 Dec 2012 08:14:42 EST news275213651 Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have performed successful tests of an experimental methamphetamine vaccine on rats. Vaccinated animals that received the drug were largely protected from typical signs of meth intoxication. If the vaccine proves effective in humans too, it could become the first specific treatment for meth addiction, which is estimated to affect 25 million people worldwide. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-meth-vaccine-results-early.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 01 Nov 2012 09:25:34 EST news270980723 (Medical Xpress)—Methamphetamine users' use of synthetic cannabis products (such as Kronic) increased from ten per cent in 2010 to 41 per cent in 2011 an annual report on illegal drug use shows. Many of these synthetic cannabis products have subsequently been banned; they have contributed to an increase in new synthetic drug use, often in the form of 'legal highs', over the past three years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-illegal-drug-users-synthetic-drugs.html Addiction Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:23:38 EST news269767409 (Medical Xpress)—The party drug mephedrone can cause lasting damage to the brain, according to new research led by the University of Sydney. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-mephedronea-popular-party-drugcan-permanent.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 19 Sep 2012 07:23:15 EST news267258188 A new study finds that fruit flies exposed to methamphetamine drastically reduce their food intake and increase their physical activity, just as humans do. The study, which tracked metabolic and behavioral changes in fruit flies on meth, indicates that starvation is a primary driver of methamphetamine-related death in the insects. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-fruit-flies-methamphetamine-die-largely.html Addiction Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:48:24 EST news263033281 (Medical Xpress) -- A drug shown to help break alcohol addiction can also help recovering methamphetamine addicts stay clean, a study led by University of Virginia School of Medicine researcher Dr. Bankole A. Johnson has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-meds-recovering-meth-addicts-sober.html Addiction Thu, 14 Jun 2012 06:29:13 EST news258874146 People with an opioid addiction had the highest risk of death when compared with rates for alcohol and other drugs, according to a new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-opioids-highest-death.html Addiction Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:14:48 EST news253876483 The first study to look at methamphetamine's potential lasting effects on children whose mothers used it in pregnancy finds these kids at higher risk for behavior problems than other children. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-meth-babies-behavior-problems.html Addiction Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:18:29 EST news251353091 A single injection of cocaine or methamphetamine in mice caused their brains to put the brakes on neurons that generate sensations of pleasure, and these cellular changes lasted for at least a week, according to research by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-discovery-brain-natural-resistance-drugs.html Neuroscience Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:10:01 EST news250425664 The street drug commonly referred to as "bath salts" is one of a growing list of synthetic and unevenly regulated narcotics that are found across the United States and on the Internet. New research on this potent drug paints an alarming picture, revealing that bath salts pack a powerful double punch, producing combined effects similar to both methamphetamine (METH) and cocaine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-street-drug-salts-mimics-effects.html Medical research Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:59:40 EST news249220763 Scientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have identified a potential target for the development of anti-craving medications for people with addictions to stimulants such as methamphetamine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-camh-discovery-potential-anti-craving-medications.html Neuroscience Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:33:34 EST news246706383 (AP) -- A crude new method of making methamphetamine poses a risk even to Americans who never get anywhere near the drug: It is filling hospitals with thousands of uninsured burn patients requiring millions of dollars in advanced treatment - a burden so costly that it's contributing to the closure of some burn units. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-meth-hospitals-patients.html Health Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:30:57 EST news246547852 (Medical Xpress) -- Better help with battling drug addiction could be at hand as a result of research underway at Victoria University of Wellington. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-combat-drug-addiction.html Medical research Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:20:01 EST news245642706 (Medical Xpress) -- A review of recent research on methamphetamine use suggests that claims the drug causes significant cognitive problems are exaggerated. The study by Carl Hart, PhD, and colleagues at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) was released in this month’s Neuropsychopharmacology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-link-methamphetamine-cognitive-impairment.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:57:48 EST news245404660 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 A recent study has found that PROMETAT, a popular but controversial treatment for methamphetamine addiction, is no more effective than placebo in reducing methamphetamine use, keeping users in treatment, or reducing cravings for methamphetamine. The study was funded by Hythiam, the company that owns the PROMETAT protocol, and is published online today in the scientific journal Addiction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-prometat-controversial-methamphetamine-treatment-ineffective.html Medications Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:00:01 EST news240551200 In the first worldwide study of its kind, scientists from Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) found evidence that heavy methamphetamine users might have a higher risk of developing schizophrenia. This finding was based on a large study comparing the risk among methamphetamine users not only to a group that did not use drugs, but also to heavy users of other drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-schizophrenia-heavy-methamphetamine-users.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:59:10 EST news239947119 (Medical Xpress) -- A researcher at the University of Sydney has discovered how the increasingly common street drug mephedrone affects the brain, helping to explain why it is potentially such an addictive substance. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-party-drug-brain.html Medical research Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:05:25 EST news239281517 A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and elsewhere shows that methamphetamine use can fuel HIV infection risk among teenage boys and young men who have sex with men (MSM), a group that includes openly gay and bisexual men, as well as those who have sex with men but do not identify themselves as gay or bisexual. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-meth-fuels-higher-unsafe-sex.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:00:02 EST news231496227 People who abused methamphetamine or other amphetamine-like stimulants were more likely to develop Parkinson's disease than those who did not, in a new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-parkinson-disease-methamphetamine-users.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:34:46 EST news230891666 A scale used to assess the behavior of newborns exposed to methamphetamine before birth might be able to identify those children who will develop problems later on, according to a study that will be presented Sunday, May 1, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Denver. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-hard-arouse-calm.html Health Sun, 01 May 2011 05:27:28 EST news223446433