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Tag: methamphetamine

  • More addiction cures: Early promise for Risperidone in crystal meth addiction

    A recent open label study found some support for the effectiveness of a Risperidone injection, given once every 2 weeks, in reducing crystal meth (speed) use. The 22 patients who participated reduced their weekly crystal meth use from an average of 4 times per week to only 1 time per week. The difference between those…

  • U.S. Drug overdose deaths are increasing

    The second leading cause of accidental death in the US is drug overdose (JAMA 2007). Prescription painkiller overdose deaths (opioid analgesics like OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone) account for nearly half of the 36,450 total fatal overdoses with 15,000 deaths that have claimed a number of celebrity lives including famous actor Heath Ledger (CDC 2011). With…

  • Alcoholism , Sniffing Bath Salts, and Prescription Medication Abuse

    If you care about addiction you’re going to want to read our weekly update from across the globe. It’ll make you smarter – promise (at least when it comes to alcohol and drug abuse issues)! Drug Abuse – Vaccines to treat addictions, and Sniffing Bath Salts Medical News Today-A biochemical breakthrough by researchers at Cornell …

  • Addiction Treatment Admissions in the United States: Everyone, meet TEDS

    Dirk Hanson What a difference a decade makes. Between 1998 and 2008, addiction treatment admissions in the U.S. increased markedly for methamphetamine (crystal meth), prescription opiates, and marijuana. Treatment admissions for alcohol and cocaine declined over the same period, while heroin admissions remained roughly the same. The Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), which the Substance…

  • Helping Addicts with medications for cravings

    If we could make it so drug addicts could stop craving the substances that have brought them to their knees, would relapse rates drop and addiction-treatment success rates soar? I sure hope so! Medications that stop cravings? I’ve already written about a study by the renowned addiction researcher Barry Everitt showing that medications could be…

  • Meth + Viagra = HIV and STDs?? Sex marathons and their danger

    Co-authored by: Jamie Felzer Sex marathons…what does that sound like to you?  Lots of sex, with multiple partners, for an extended period of time? Bingo! Come on down and collect a prize!!! Why sex marathons can be dangerous Sex marathons are where people have sex for a prolonged period of time, and often do so…

  • Clubs, drugs, and dancing – Crystal meth, and club drug use

    Anyone involved with the dance/rave/club culture knows that drugs often go hand in hand with music and dancing. Club drugs, as well as alcohol and drug abuse, are often rampant in the social groups full of excited club goers. Previous academic studies supported this notion but could not distinguish if the drug use took place…

  • The brain addiction connection : Crystal meth, and our friend dopamine

    We’ve talked about the general way in which neurons in the brain communicate with one another and then reviewed the ways in which cocaine messes some of the basic processes that the brain depends on. It’s time to move on to another drug, and since the brain-addiction connection is similar for meth and cocaine, it…

  • Student Dealing – College campuses and the drug supply

    If you haven’t heard about the San Diego State drug-dealing arrests, check out the story. Aside from the obvious impact on the San Diego community in general, and on the school in particular, I can’t help but draw parallels to my own story. In the future, I’m going to try to follow up on this…