Opiate Addiction & Substance Abuse Articles
Rapid Detox - Rapid Opiate Detox - What is it?
Also referred to as "ultra rapid opiate detox," rapid detox is generally conducted in a hospital setting and under general anesthesia for treating opiate based substances and addictions such as heroin, vicodin, methadone, or any prescribed narcotic pain killers.
New Research Report on Comorbidity of Addiction and Other Mental Illnesses
New research report, Comorbidity: Addiction and Other Mental Illnesses, summarizes the state of the science regarding the complex relationship between substance abuse and other mental disorders. The release of this report is timely given the increasing prevalence and link between post traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse.
Troubled Teens in the Wilderness Learn to Love Learning
By: Hugh C. McBride
There aren’t a lot of textbooks in the Idaho desert, but Sean Tomkinson, a therapist with SUWS Adolescent and Youth Programs, believes that the students who spend weeks in that wilderness environment emerge more motivated and better prepared to pursue academic success when they return to the classroom.
Harsh Truths About Cocaine
The word "cocaine" refers to the drug in both a powder (cocaine) and crystal (crack) form. It is made from the coca plant and causes a short-lived high that is immediately followed by opposite, intense feelings of depression, edginess, and a craving for more of the drug. Using cocaine has dangerous emotional and physical effects that can prove to destructive to all aspects of a person's life--and can even be fatal.
Binge Drinking: Too Often a Deadly "Game"
In recent national surveys about a third of high school seniors and 42 percent of college students reported at least one occasion of binge drinking within the previous 2 weeks. Alcohol poisoning – a severe and potentially fatal physical reaction to an alcohol overdose – is the most serious consequence of binge drinking.
Dealing with Acute and Chronic Pain While on Methadone
In addition to providing methadone to help people break their substance abuse addictions, methadone maintenance clinics serve a great many people who live with chronic or acute pain. Methadone, however, will not provide pain relief to those who take it for addiction treatment — these people need additional forms of analgesia.
Marijuana, Memory, and the Hippocampus
As people age, they normally lose neurons in the hippocampus, which decreases their ability to remember events. Chronic THC exposure can significantly hasten the age-related loss of hippocampal neurons.
Drugs and Memory
Researchers say that drugs may create "extreme" memories by overstimulating the brain's dopamine system. When drugs cause an overabundance of dopamine it may cause the brain to "overlearn," creating a memory of drugs as "good."
Neuroimaging Identifies Brain Regions Possibly Involved in Alcohol Craving
Viewing pictures of alcoholic beverages activates the prefrontal cortex and the anterior thalamus in alcoholics but not in moderate drinkers, report Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) researchers in the April Archives of General Psychiatry. The research team is the first to use fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to examine whether alcohol cues stimulate specific brain regions.
Substance Abuse Among Troops, Veterans, and Their Families
In one study, one in four veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan reported symptoms of a mental or cognitive disorder; one in six reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These disorders are strongly associated with substance abuse and dependence, as are other problems experienced by returning military personnel, including sleep disturbances, traumatic brain injury, and violence in relationships.
