MedWorm: Addiction Top 20

After a Diet, Your Body Remains Addicted to Food

Psychology Today Addiction Center — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:11:37 +0100

A recent news article about dieting was a revelation for me as to why I sometimes feel like I'm addicted to food. The article emphasizes what many of us chronic dieters already know-- after you have lost weight on a diet, your body actively fights you, through both hormones and brain activity, to put that weight back on. Is there a way out? read more (Source: Psychology Today Addiction Center)

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A Comparison of Attitudes Toward Opioid Agonist Treatment among Short-Term Buprenorphine Patients.

The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Conclusions: Participants had a clear preference for a particular medication. Offering a choice of medications to OT individuals might enhance their likelihood of entering treatment. Treatment programs should offer a choice of medications when possible to new patients, and future comparative effectiveness research should incorporate patient preferences into clinical trials. Scientific Significance: These data contribute to our understanding of why people seek or do not seek effective pharmacotherapy for opioid addiction. PMID: 22242643 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse)

The impact of borderline personality disorder on residential substance abuse treatment dropout among men

Drug and Alcohol Dependence — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:46:52 +0100

Conclusions: These findings add to the literature on BPD–SUD co-occurrence, suggesting that the presence of co-occurring BPD among male SUD patients may increase the risk for dropout from residential substance abuse treatment, necessitating targeted interventions focused on decreasing dropout within this patient subgroup. (Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence)

How to Know If You Have a Drinking Problem

Psychology Today Addiction Center — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:56:29 +0100

Here are 5 signposts that might mean you’re headed for rock bottom.read more (Source: Psychology Today Addiction Center)

Prevalence and patterns of commonly abused psychoactive prescription drugs in a sample of university students from Lebanon: An opportunity for cross-cultural comparisons

Drug and Alcohol Dependence — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:46:52 +0100

Conclusions: In Lebanon, as in Western cultures, a considerable proportion of youth may be self-medicating. The absence of medical supervision coupled with motivations such as “to get high” renders this issue a high priority on the national youth agenda. Besides larger more comprehensive surveys, the findings signal the immediate need to reinforce relevant policies, and raise awareness among youth, parents, health professionals and other stakeholders. (Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence)

Compulsive use of dopamine replacement therapy among parkinson's disease patients: if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck . . .

Addiction — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:42:41 +0100

(Source: Addiction)

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Diversion and abuse of buprenorphine: Findings from national surveys of treatment patients and physicians

Drug and Alcohol Dependence — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:11:24 +0100

Conclusions: The increases in diversion and abuse measures indicate the need to take active attempts to curb diversion and abuse as well as continuous monitoring and surveillance of all buprenorphine products. However, these increases parallel the increased number of tablets sold. Finding a balance of risk/benefit (i.e. diversion and abuse versus expanded treatment) remains a challenge. (Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence)

Psychosocial therapeutic interventions for volatile substance use: a systematic review

Addiction — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:42:52 +0100

Conclusions Even when a range of study types are included, clear conclusions for volatile substance use psychological treatment are not supported, but three intervention types merit further examination: family therapy, activity‐based programmes and Indigenous‐led residential approaches. Future volatile substance use research could be enhanced by developing and validating outcome measurement tools. Robust multi‐site studies are also required. (Source: Addiction)

Compliance with buprenorphine medication-assisted treatment and relapse to opioid use.

American Journal on Addictions — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Authors: Tkacz J, Severt J, Cacciola J, Ruetsch C Abstract Opioid dependence (OD), often characterized as a chronic relapsing disorder, affects millions of people worldwide. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of compliance with buprenorphine on reducing relapse among a sample of patients in treatment for OD. Patients new to buprenorphine (N = 703) completed the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) at baseline, and at 1, 2, and 3 months postbaseline. The ASI is a semistructured interview designed to measure problem severity in seven functional areas known to be affected by alcohol and drug dependence. Compliance was defined as taking buprenorphine medication on at least 22 of the past 28 days (80%), while relapse classification was based on resumed use of opioids during...

Differences in happiness between smokers, ex-smokers and never smokers: cross-sectional findings from a national household survey

Drug and Alcohol Dependence — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:46:52 +0100

Abstract: Background: Happiness has become established as an important psychological dimension and not merely the obverse of depression and anxiety. Ex-smokers report that they are happier than when they were smoking but this could reflect biased recall. To date, no studies have examined happiness as a function of smoking status in ex-smokers of varying length of abstinence compared with current and never smokers.Methods: A cross-sectional household study of a nationally representative sample of adults examined the association between smoking status (never smoker, smoker, ex-smoker (Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence)

Addressing Tobacco Through Organizational Change (ATTOC) in residential addiction treatment settings

Drug and Alcohol Dependence — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:46:52 +0100

This study assessed the effectiveness of a six month organizational change intervention, Addressing Tobacco Through Organizational Change (ATTOC), to improve how programs address tobacco dependence.Methods: The ATTOC intervention, implemented in three residential treatment programs, included consultation, staff training, policy development, leadership support and access to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) medication. Program staff and clients were surveyed at pre- and post-intervention, and at 6 month follow-up. The staff survey measured knowledge of the hazards of smoking, attitudes about and barriers to treating smoking, counselor self-efficacy in providing such services, and practices used to address tobacco. The client survey measured knowledge, attitudes, and tobacco-related service...

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Internal reliability of measures of substance-related cognitive bias

Drug and Alcohol Dependence — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:46:52 +0100

Conclusions: The modified Stroop task is preferable to the visual probe task as a measure of substance-related cognitive bias, on the basis of its psychometric properties. Studies using cognitive bias tasks should not assume they are reliable, and should routinely report reliability estimates where possible. (Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence)

Nora Volkow Explains (Not Really) Why People Don't Become Addicted

Psychology Today Addiction Center — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:14:54 +0100

The latest study purporting to identify the inbred biological factors in addiction calls to mind age-old questions about the nature of science. We in America prefer neat-sounding—but useless—laboratory findings over identifying the factors that actually account for behavior.read more (Source: Psychology Today Addiction Center)

The Control Society

Psychology Today Addiction Center — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:55:08 +0100

Why is Big Brother promoting a campaign of fear against pleasure?read more (Source: Psychology Today Addiction Center)

Why Stress Makes It Difficult to Change a Habit -- And What You Can Do About It

Psychology Today Addiction Center — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:40:00 +0100

Have you ever noticed that when you're under stress, it's so much harder to resist temptation? Or make any kind of change in your daily routine, like starting an exercise program or kicking a late-night TV habit?read more (Source: Psychology Today Addiction Center)

Similar hyporesponsiveness of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex in problem gamblers and heavy smokers during an inhibitory control task

Drug and Alcohol Dependence — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:46:52 +0100

Conclusions: These findings suggest that hypoactivation of the inhibition circuit is a shared neural mechanism in substance use disorders and behavioral addictions. As such, they support the reclassification of pathological gambling as a behavioral addiction in DSM-V. (Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence)

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HIV Sex-Risk Behaviors among In- versus Out-of-Treatment Heroin-Addicted Adults.

The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Conclusions: Nontreatment seekers are at higher HIV risk than those entering MTPs and should be a focus of sex-risk reduction interventions, even if they are not interested in treatment at that time. PMID: 22243486 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse)

Editorial Board

Drug and Alcohol Dependence — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:46:52 +0100

(Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence)

Are You an Addict?

Psychology Today Addiction Center — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:56:08 +0100

Addictive behaviors are appealing because they offer immediate relief from psychological pain and anxiety. However the relief is only temporary, never provideing a lasting solution to our problems. When we "sober up" we find that our emotional pain is still there.read more (Source: Psychology Today Addiction Center)

Benzodiazepines revisited – will we ever learn?

Addiction — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:01:17 +0100

Conclusions The practical problems with the benzodiazepines (BZDs) have persisted for 50 years, but have been ignored by many practitioners and almost all official bodies. The risk/benefit ratio of the BZDs remains positive in most patients in the short‐term (2‐4 weeks) but is unestablished beyond that time, mainly due to the difficulty in preventing short‐term use from extending indefinitely with the risk of dependence. Other research issues include the possibility of long‐term brain changes, and evaluating the role of the BZD antagonist, flumazenil, in aiding withdrawal. (Source: Addiction)