You want to know more about addiction and we want to tell you, so here is this week’s wrap up of exciting news (well, some of it. ) A lot of news about addiction comes up every week and we want you to be informed!
The End of Opioid Addiction?– According to a joint international study by the University of Adelaide and the University of Colorado, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the scientists have discovered an essential receptor in the brain that can cause opioid addiction, and there is a drug that can block this receptor without interfering with pain relief! The drug is called (+)-naloxone and it works by binding to the specific receptors in the immune system that ordinarily trigger the drug’s addictive properties and preventing the opioids from interacting with them, thus reducing the body’s addictive response to the opioid drug. This new drug is a variant of the drug naloxone, which has been used for many years to treat overdoses. However, this study is the first clear link to its effect on preventing addiction. According to the leaders of the study, clinical trials may even begin within the next 18 months!
Scientists discover internet-addiction gene?– Internet addiction is defined as someone who obsessively thinks about the internet and whose sense of well-being is negatively impacted if they can not get access to the internet. According to the findings of German scientists, published in the September issue of Journal of Addiction Medicine, problematic users more often carried a variation of the CHRNA4 gene, which is typically linked to nicotine addiction. While this receptor in the brain has been known to be essential in nicotine addiction, this is the first neurological link to internet addiction that has been discovered. The study’s lead author, Christian Montag, acknowledged that more large-scale studies need to be done to further examine this connection between internet addiction and the CHRNA4 gene, however he insists that there is enough clear evidence to support a genetic predisposition to internet addiction.
Your childhood’s effect on your adult life– It has long been accepted that traumatic experiences in one’s childhood can have long-lasting effects on a person well into their adult life. According to new research at Cambridge University, suffering a traumatic experience in childhood may increase one’s risk of drug addiction. The compulsivity and impulsiveness linked to addicts are also found in people as a result of a traumatic childhood. While having a traumatic experience in one’s childhood does not mean they will automatically become an addict, just as not having a traumatic experience does not make one immune to addiction, coming from this kind of background does make one more at-risk of becoming an addict.
Is Marijuana Addictive?– There has long been a debate on whether or not marijuana is an addictive drug. Recently, it has been ranked number one on a list of the top five most commonly abused prescription drugs used by post-50 year olds. According to a 2011 report from The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 3 million adults older than 50 have illegally used the drug and “out of 4.8 million older adults who used illicit drugs, marijuana use was more common than non-medical use of prescription medicines among the 50-to-59 age range.” All of this evidence leads to a need to differentiate between addiction and dependency. In this article, Robert DuPont, M.D. and Laurel Dewey debate the addictiveness of marijuana by arguing their point of view. As evidence of its addictiveness, DuPont points out that, since 2000, admission for treatment of marijuana abuse ranks higher than that of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and prescription painkillers. Of 7.1 million people with dependence or abuse of drugs other than alcohol or tobacco in 2010, 4.5 million had marijuana dependence. That’s 63 percent of everyone with illicit drug dependence or abuse! Contrarily, Dewey uses many personal experiences to show her side of the argument. She points to a 1974 study, conducted at Virginia Commonwealth University, that proved that the cannabinoids in the marijuana plant shrunk cancerous tumors and killed cancer cells, leaving healthy cells alone. She adds that, in the thousand years of its use, no one has ever died of marijuana use. Both authors use much more evidence for their side, which you can read about by clicking the link above. Read both views and form your own opinion!
Alcohol and Drug Use in Schools– With kids going back to school across the country, there have been many different studies on alcohol and drug use amongst the youth. In a survey led by SAFE Inc. (Substance Abuse Free Environment), there were mixed results. While the number of students who have tried alcohol has actually decreased, marijuana and amphetamine use have both increased. The survey targeted eight-, tenth-, and twelfth-graders, and showed that those tenth-graders who reported using alcohol in the last month dropped from 31 percent in 2010 to just 22.7 percent this year. It also decreased slightly in the eight- and twelfth-graders. Of the troubling findings, the most troubling may have been the increase in prescription stimulant abuse, such as Adderall and Ritalin. The most dramatic increase was among twelfth-graders, more than doubling from 3.8 to 8.5 percent. Marijuana use also showed increase both in the last month and in lifetime use amongst eighth- and twelfth-graders, although there was a slight drop by tenth-graders.