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Daily cannabis use lowers odds of using illicit opioids among people who have chronic pain

Addiction news

Health

Daily cannabis use lowers odds of using illicit opioids among people who have chronic pain

For those using illicit opioids to manage their chronic pain, cannabis may be a beneficial—and a less dangerous—alternative, according to new research from the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU).

1 hour ago

Psychology & Psychiatry

A key to the opioid crisis may be knowing why some brains are more easily addicted

Today, more Americans die from overdoses than car accidents. Understanding how to treat individuals with opioid addiction will be crucial to stemming the unprecedented number of drug-related deaths.

6 hours ago

Addiction

Cannabis found not to be a substitute for opioids

There has been interest in cannabis being used as a replacement drug for people with opioid use disorder, but research at McMaster University has found it doesn't work.

12 hours ago

Psychology & Psychiatry

Mechanism connects early binge drinking to adult behaviors

University of Illinois at Chicago researchers report that intermittent exposure to high levels of alcohol in adolescent animals leads to increased levels of microRNA-137—a molecule that regulates gene expression in cells—in ...

Nov 18, 2019

Health

Money spent on beer ads linked to underage drinking

Advertising budgets and strategies used by beer companies appear to influence underage drinking, according to new research from Iowa State University.

Nov 18, 2019

Medications

Opioid prescription doses are increasingly being tapered, often more rapidly than recommended

Stigma and safety fears have made daily dose tapering of opioid prescriptions more common. New research from UC Davis Health physicians, however, shows tapering can occur at rates as much as six times higher than recommended, ...

Nov 18, 2019

Psychology & Psychiatry

Relevant social stimuli may reduce interest in drugs

Researchers of the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Malaga (UMA) specializing in addictive disorders, have demonstrated in an animal model that the presence of a relevant social stimulus reduces interest in cocaine.

Nov 15, 2019

Medications

Is opioid treatment available to those who need it most?

The U.S. opioid epidemic is still raging—it's particularly pronounced in low-income areas and in those where people lack access to health care services, which includes cities in Michigan and across the Rust Belt. But the ...

Nov 14, 2019

Medications

Study reveals urban hotspots of high-schoolers' opioid abuse

A new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that in several cities and counties the proportion of high-schoolers who have ever used heroin or misused prescription opioids is much ...

Nov 14, 2019

Psychology & Psychiatry

Diverging trends: Binge drinking and depression

Binge drinking among U.S. adolescents precipitously declined from 1991 to 2018, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Depressive symptoms among U.S. adolescents have sharply increased ...

Nov 14, 2019

Surgery

Injecting illegal drugs ups risk for death after heart surgery

(HealthDay)—People who inject drugs (PWID) have shorter survival following cardiac surgery than non-PWID, according to a review published online Nov. 8 in BMC Infectious Diseases.

Nov 13, 2019

Psychology & Psychiatry

Gamblers under the influence of alcohol place higher bets after losses

Gamblers don't always make rational decisions. Their approach to any given bet is often influenced by the bets, wins and losses that have come before it—even when those things have no bearing whatsoever on the outcome.

Nov 13, 2019

Addiction

Opioid-based plant might not be best solution to curb habitual alcohol use

Lawmakers across the United States continue to debate the safety of kratom, an opioid-containing plant that has been listed as a "drug of concern" by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Kratom is sold over the counter ...

Nov 13, 2019

Psychology & Psychiatry

Study: Links between teenage anxiety and later harmful drinking

Researchers at the University of Bristol have found evidence of an association between generalized anxiety disorder at age 18 and harmful drinking three years later, thanks to the long-term health study Children of the 90s.

Nov 11, 2019

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Arthritis & Rheumatism

Opioid use hospitalization rates increased for patients with common rheumatic diseases

New research findings presented this week at the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting show an increase in opioid-use disorder (OUD) hospitalizations among patients with five musculoskeletal conditions, trends that healthcare providers, ...

Nov 10, 2019

Medications

High numbers of youth report using prescription opioids in the past year

A new analysis of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health finds a surprisingly high prevalence of prescription opioid use among youth. As recently as 2015-2016, 21 percent of adolescents and 32 percent of young ...

Nov 08, 2019

Inflammatory disorders

Study: Chronic inflammatory effect in the oral cavity from alcohol, tobacco and caffeine

Researchers of the CEU UCH university have published the first pilot study on the alterations to the levels of cytokines in the saliva of frequent consumers of these three stimulating substances

Nov 08, 2019

Medications

VA investigates impact of opioids, sedatives on veterans

Veterans who simultaneously take opioids for chronic pain and benzodiazepines for anxiety and insomnia are at an increased risk of unintentional overdose and death as well as suicide.

Nov 06, 2019

Health

Time in host country—a risk factor for substance abuse in migrants

Refugees and other migrants who move to Sweden are initially less likely to be diagnosed with alcohol or drug addiction than the native population but over time their rates of substance abuse begin to mirror that of the Swedish ...

Nov 06, 2019

Medications

Substance use, misuse and dependence: A PLOS Medicine special issue

This week sees publication of the first research papers that will form part of PLOS Medicine's latest Special Issue, which is devoted to understanding the substantial challenges caused by substance use and misuse and seeking ...

Nov 05, 2019