Why are DRUGS so hard to Quiet ?

It is an awesome video everyone should watch .It is produced by NIH National Institute Of Drug Abuse. It explains in a simple way, what is addiction? Why it is hard to quiet addiction to drugs like Alcohol, Nicotine, Internet as well s sex etc. Addiction is not a curse or something that is caused by some Demons or Evil Spirits.It is in fact, a disease.A disease That affects the brain. A disease that affects the reward centre of the brain. Many people fail to overcome addiction by failing to keep up their decision to stop alcohol.It is not because they are weak-hearted nor they are under the hilarious slavery of so called diabolic spirits. But because they have acquired neuropsychiatric disorder that affects the neurotransmitter system of the reward centre of brain located in the Limbic cortex. More specifically speaking, drugs develop addiction by flooding the circuits of the reward centre with a neurotransmitter called Dopamine. It is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain responsible for mediating emotion, cognition, feeling of pleasure and motivation. The overstimulation of this system, which rewards our natural behaviours, produces the euphoric effects sought by people who abuse drugs and teaches them to repeat the behaviour.

Is Cannabis Really That Bad?

Though some studies point to negative consequences of pot use in adolescents, data on marijuana’s dangers are mixed.

By Sabrina Richards 

Flickr, PabloEvans

Marijuana is a tricky drug, alternately demonized as a gateway drug and lionized for its medical promise. And while the juries remain out on both sides of the coin, one thing is clear: its use is on the rise. According to the US Department of Human Health and Services, the number of people in the United States who admit to smoking pot in the last month climbed from 14.4 million in 2007 to over 18 million in 2011.

This increase may in part be due to the lack of strong evidence supporting the suspected risks of cannabis use. Indeed, though marijuana smoke carries carcinogens and tar just as tobacco smoke does, definitive data linking marijuana to lung damage is lacking. And a recent long-term study that seemed to conclusively link chronic marijuana initiated in adolescence to a lowered IQ in New Zealanders was quickly challenged by a counter-analysis that pointed to socioeconomic status as a confounding factor. According to survey data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cannabis use increases in teenagers as marijuana’s perceived risks decline, and researchers—and undoubtedly some parents—are anxious to get to the bottom of the matter.

Take a deep breath

In 2012, a study at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) calculated that even smoking a single joint every day for 20 years might be benign, though most participants only smoked two or three joints each month. “I was surprised we didn’t see effects [of marijuana use],” said UCSF epidemiologist Mark Pletcher, who led the study.

One assessment of various epidemiological studies points to small sample size and poor study design as reasons for scientists’ inability to nail down a link between cannabis and cancer risk. But some suspect that such a link doesn’t exist, and that marijuana may even have cancer-preventive effects. A 2008 study, for example, suggested that smoking marijuana may reduce the risk of tobacco-associated lung cancer, calculating that people who smoke both marijuana and tobacco have a lower risk of cancer than those who smoke only tobacco (though still a higher risk than non-smokers).

But even Pletcher isn’t sanguine about marijuana’s effects on the lungs, and suspects that there may still be long-term lung damage that can be hard to detect. “We really can’t reassure ourselves about heavy use,” he explained.

Your brain on drugs

There is some evidence to suggest that stoned subjects exhibit increased risk-taking and impaired decision-making, and score worse on memory tasks—and residual impairments have been detected days or even weeks after use. Some studies also link years of regular marijuana use to deficits in memory, learning, and concentration. A recent and widely discussed report on the IQs of New Zealanders followed since birth found that cannabis users who’d started their habit in adolescence had lower IQs than non-users.

In this study, led by researchers at Duke University, “you could clearly see as a consequence of cannabis use, IQ goes down,” said Derik Hermann, a clinical neuroscientist at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Germany who was not involved in the research.

But not 4 months later, a re-analysis and computer simulation at the Ragnar Frisch Center for Economic Research in Oslo countered the Duke findings. Ole Rogeberg contended that socioeconomic factors, not marijuana use, contributed to the lower IQs seen in cannabis users.

Rogeberg’s conclusion counters a sizeable literature, however, which supports a link between pot use and neurophysiological decline. Studies in both humans and animals suggest that people who acquiring a marijuana habit in adolescence face long-term negative impacts on brain function, with some users finding it difficult to concentrate and learn new tasks.

Notably, most studies on the subject suggest that while there may be negative consequences of smoking as a teen, users who begin in adulthood are generally unaffected. This may be due to endocannabinoid-directed reorganization of the brain during puberty, Hermann explained. The intake of cannabinoids that comes with pot use may cause irreversible “misleading of the neural growth,” he said.

In addition to the consequences for intelligence, many studies suggest that smoking marijuana raises the risk of schizophrenia, and may have similar effects on the brain. Hermann’s group used MRI to detect cannabis-associated neuron damage in the pre-frontal cortex and found that it was similar to brain changes seen in schizophrenia patients. Other studies further suggest that weed-smoking schizophrenics have greater disease-associated brain changes and perform worse on cognitive tests than their non-smoking counterparts.

But much of this research can’t distinguish between brain changes resulting from marijuana use and symptoms associated with the disease. It’s possible that cannabis-smoking schizophrenics “might have unpleasant symptoms [that precede full-blown schizophrenia] and are self-medicating” with the psychotropic drug, said Roland Lamarine, a professor of community health at California State University, Chico. “We haven’t seen an increase in schizophrenics, even with a lot more marijuana use.”

In fact, other research suggests that cannabis-using schizophrenics score better on cognitive tests than non-using schizophrenics. Such conflicting reports may be due to the varying concentrations—and varying effects—of cannabinoids in marijuana. In addition to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a neurotoxic cannabinoid that is responsible for marijuana’s mind-altering properties, the drug also contains a variety of non-psychoactive cannabinoids, including cannabidiol (CBD), which can protect against neuron damage. Hermann found that the volume of the hippocampus—a brain area important for memory processing—is slightly smaller in cannabis users than in non-users, but more CBD-rich marijuana countered this effect.

A deadly cocktail?

While data supporting the harmful effects of marijuana on its own are weak, some researchers are more worried about the drug in conjunction with other substances, such as tobacco, alcohol, or cocaine. Some studies suggest, for example, that marijuana may increase cravings for other drugs, leading to its infamous tag as a “gateway drug.” A study published earlier this month supported this theory when it found that, at least in rats, THC exposure increases tobacco’s addictive effects. Furthermore, marijuana may not mix well with prescription drugs, as cannabis causes the liver to metabolize drugs more slowly, raising the risk of drug toxicity.  

Despite these concerns, however, Lamarine thinks it’s unlikely that the consequences of cannabis use are dire, given the amount of research that has focused on the subject. “We’re not going to wake up tomorrow to the big discovery that marijuana causes major brain damage,” he said. “We would have seen that by now.”

Source: TheScientist
http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/34110/title/Is-Cannabis-Really-That-Bad-/

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Teens who smoke and drink may be more likely to abuse prescription opioids later

Illustration by Michael Helfenbein

(Medical Xpress) -- Adolescents who smoke cigarettes or use alcohol or marijuana may be at greater risk for subsequent abuse of prescription opioids as young adults, according to a new study by Yale School of Medicine.

The researchers believe their findings are the first to demonstrate that early alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use are all associated, to varying degrees, with a two- to-three times greater likelihood of subsequent abuse of prescription opioids. The study appears online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The researchers set out to determine whether certain tenets of the so-called “gateway hypothesis” applied to subsequent abuse of prescription opioids — specifically, whether substance use in the adolescent years was associated with later abuse of harder drugs. They studied demographic and clinic data collected from 18- to 25-year-olds from the 2006-2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health to determine the likelihood, based on their prior usage.

Their findings included: 

• 12% of the survey population of 18- to 25-year-olds reported current abuse of prescription opioids.
• For this population, prevalence of previous substance use was 57% for alcohol, 56% for cigarettes, and 34% for marijuana.
• In young men, previous abuse of all three substances was associated with an increased likelihood of subsequent opioid abuse during young adulthood, but only previous marijuana use carried this association among young women.

The Yale study could lead to much more targeted efforts at prevention. “Given that there are now an estimated three and a half million young adults who abuse prescription opioids and this number is growing, our study of the data shows that efforts to target early substance use may help to curb this increasing abuse of prescription opioids,” said lead author Dr. Lynn Fiellin, associate professor of medicine at Yale.

Provided by Yale University

"Teens who smoke and drink may be more likely to abuse prescription opioids later." August 21st, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-teens-abuse-prescription-opioids.html

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Unconscious emotional memory remains intact during alcohol intoxication, may impact prevention and intervention

(Medical Xpress) -- Although certain memory processes are impaired during alcohol intoxication, the brain does appear to retain emotionally charged images, particularly in unconscious memory processes, a new study in the September issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs suggests. This finding may have implications for improving alcohol education and treatment programs.

The study looked at two types of memory: explicit (or conscious memory, such as answering a question about yesterday’s weather) and implicit (or unconscious memory, such as performing the steps involved in driving a car or having a conditioned emotional response to a frightening situation).

Acute alcohol intoxication often disrupts explicit memory for emotionally neutral cues, while leaving implicit memory intact.

Further, explicit memory has consistently shown to be improved by emotional content, but emotion’s effect on implicit memory has been less thoroughly examined, says Suchismita Ray, an assistant research professor at the Center of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University and one of the lead study authors.

The study was designed to examine whether acute alcohol intoxication disrupts memory for emotionally valenced and neutral picture cues using an explicit recall and an implicit repetition priming task. This study is the first to examine how implicit memory priming for emotional cues is affected by acute alcohol intoxication.

The study involved 36 men and women, ages 21–24. All participants consumed a placebo, a nonalcoholic beverage, or an alcoholic beverage designed to create a blood alcohol level of .08 (near the national limit for legal driving). They then viewed emotionally negative, emotionally positive, and emotionally neutral images. During the explicit memory test, participants were asked to recall as many images as they could in detail. For the implicit memory test, participants were shown 360 images (images they had already seen and new images) and had to determine whether each was a real picture or a “non-real” picture (an electronically distorted image). The participants’ speed in making this decision is a measure of implicit memory.

Alcohol intoxication impaired explicit recall of all three types of images, although participants were still able to recall more emotionally charged images (positive or negative) than neutral ones even when intoxicated. In contrast, implicit memory priming was not affected by alcohol intoxication. Whether intoxicated or not, participants made faster decisions about all images they had previously seen compared with new images. This was especially true for previously seen negative images.

“Alcohol dampens overall emotional reactivity, but the brain still allocates more neural resources for emotional cues compared to neutral ones,” says Ray. “And with good reason - emotional memories are important for survival.”

It’s this emotion–memory connection that Ray says can help improve alcohol treatment programs.

“If explicit memory processes for emotional cues are affected by alcohol intoxication and implicit processes are not, it’s very important to develop ways for future treatment and prevention programs to exploit these intact implicit memory processes,” she says. “If alcohol cues are linked to relaxation or fun, we can’t totally delete these links, but perhaps increasing the strength of implicit links between alcohol cues and negative emotional consequences of use could be used to help people in the future. Those implicit memory links would still be available to individuals during intoxication and, thus, may help to reduce drinking when explicit memory for negative consequences is impaired by alcohol.”

Interventions that involve some forms of implicit memory may be especially useful for alcohol treatment because they do not rely primarily on the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning new information. In addition to acute alcohol intoxication effects, long-term alcohol and drug use damages certain parts of the brain including the hippocampus, so people may not be able to remember new facts that they learn during the treatment process.

More information: www.jsad.com/jsad/… _A/4728.html

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"Unconscious emotional memory remains intact during alcohol intoxication, may impact prevention and intervention." August 21st, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-emotional-memory-intact-alcohol-intoxication.html

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Robert Karl Stonjek

New way to block drug addiction

THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

Share on print The studies show that addiction can be blocked via the immune system of the brain, without targeting the brain's wiring. Image: Sigarru/iStockphoto In a major breakthrough, an international team of scientists has proven that addiction to morphine and heroin can be blocked, while at the same time increasing pain relief. The team from the University of Adelaide and University of Colorado has discovered the key mechanism in the body's immune system that amplifies addiction to opioid drugs. Laboratory studies have shown that the drug (+)-naloxone will selectively block the immune-addiction response. The results - which could eventually lead to new co-formulated drugs that assist patients with severe pain, as well as helping heroin users to kick the habit - will be published in the Journal of Neuroscience. "Our studies have shown conclusively that we can block addiction via the immune system of the brain, without targeting the brain's wiring," says the lead author of the study, Dr Mark Hutchinson, ARC Research Fellow in the University of Adelaide's School of Medical Sciences. "Both the central nervous system and the immune system play important roles in creating addiction, but our studies have shown we only need to block the immune response in the brain to prevent cravings for opioid drugs." The team has focused its research efforts on the immune receptor known as Toll-Like receptor 4 (TLR4). "Opioid drugs such as morphine and heroin bind to TLR4 in a similar way to the normal immune response to bacteria. The problem is that TLR4 then acts as an amplifier for addiction," Dr Hutchinson says. "The drug (+)-naloxone automatically shuts down the addiction. It shuts down the need to take opioids, it cuts out behaviours associated with addiction, and the neurochemistry in the brain changes - dopamine, which is the chemical important for providing that sense of 'reward' from the drug, is no longer produced." Senior author Professor Linda Watkins, from the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder, says: "This work fundamentally changes what we understand about opioids, reward and addiction. We've suspected for some years that TLR4 may be the key to blocking opioid addiction, but now we have the proof. "The drug that we've used to block addiction, (+)-naloxone, is a non-opioid mirror image drug that was created by Dr Kenner Rice in the 1970s. We believe this will prove extremely useful as a co-formulated drug with morphine, so that patients who require relief for severe pain will not become addicted but still receive pain relief . This has the potential to lead to major advances in patient and palliative care," Professor Watkins says. The researchers say clinical trials may be possible within the next 18 months. This study has been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in the United States and the Australian Research Council (ARC). Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Researchers uncover gender differences in the effects of long-term alcoholism

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System have demonstrated that the effects on white matter brain volume from long-term alcohol abuse are different for men and women. The study, which is published online in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, also suggests that with abstinence, women recover their white matter brain volume more quickly than men.

The study was led by Susan Mosher Ruiz, PhD, postdoctoral research scientist in the Laboratory for Neuropsychology at BUSM and research scientist at the VA Boston Healthcare System, and Marlene Oscar Berman, PhD, professor of psychiatry, neurology and anatomy and neurobiology at BUSM and research career scientist at the VA Boston Healthcare System.

In previous research, alcoholism has been associated with white matter pathology. White matter forms the connections between neurons, allowing communication between different areas of the brain. While previous neuroimaging studies have shown an association between alcoholism and white matter reduction, this study furthered the understanding of this effect by examining gender differences and utilizing a novel region-of-interest approach.

The research team employed structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine the effects of drinking history and gender on white matter volume. They examined brain images from 42 abstinent alcoholic men and women who drank heavily for more than five years and 42 nonalcoholic control men and women. Looking at the correlation between years of alcohol abuse and white matter volume, the researchers found that a greater number of years of alcohol abuse was associated with smaller white matter volumes in the abstinent alcoholic men and women. In the men, the decrease was observed in the corpus callosum while in women, this effect was observed in cortical white matter regions.

"We believe that many of the cognitive and emotional deficits observed in people with chronic alcoholism, including memory problems and flat affect, are related to disconnections that result from a loss of white matter," said Mosher Ruiz.

The researchers also examined if the average number of drinks consumed per day was associated with reduced white matter volume. They found that the number of daily drinks did have a strong impact on alcoholic women, and the volume loss was one and a half to two percent for each additional daily drink. Additionally, there was an eight to 10 percent increase in the size of the brain ventricles, which are areas filled with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that play a protective role in the brain. When white matter dies, CSF produced in the ventricles fills the ventricular space.

Recovery of white matter brain volume also was examined. They found that, in men, the corpus callosum recovered at a rate of one percent per year for each additional year of abstinence. For people who abstained less than a year, the researchers found evidence of increased white matter volume and decreased ventricular volume in women, but not at all in men. However, for people in recovery for more than a year, those signs of recovery disappeared in women and became apparent in men.

"These findings preliminarily suggest that restoration and recovery of the brain's white matter among alcoholics occurs later in abstinence for men than for women," said Mosher Ruiz. "We hope that additional research in this area can help lead to improved treatment methods that include educating both alcoholic men and women about the harmful effects of excessive drinking and the potential for recovery with sustained abstinence."

Provided by Boston University Medical Center

"Researchers uncover gender differences in the effects of long-term alcoholism." August 9th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-uncover-gender-differences-effects-long-term.html

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Drug addiction study offers new insight on compulsive behavior

The same neurological mechanism involved in the transition from habitual to compulsive drug use could underlie less severe, but still harmful, compulsive behaviours.

"We're trying to understand individuality in addictive behaviour. Many people can be exposed to drugs with addictive potential, for instance, but not everyone will become addicted," explains Eric Dumont, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences. "We believe we've identified a mechanism that makes certain people predisposed to developing addictions, and it's possible that the same mechanism underlies many - perhaps most - compulsive behaviours."

The mechanism occurs in a reward pathway of the brain. In this pathway, the brain maintains a delicate balance between pleasure and aversion, ensuring that moment-to-moment desires and dislikes remain in sync with the biological needs of the body.

Dr. Dumont and his team found unusual activity in this pathway when modeling drug addiction in rats, which exhibit a genetic predisposition to addiction comparable to humans. They believe that the pathway's balance is prone to becoming unbalanced in a certain percentage of the population. The signal to stop an activity reverses to a green light.

The team hopes that by identifying this mechanism, and possibly others like it, they will allow researchers to better understand and monitor a range of compulsive behaviours. Accordingly, Dr. Dumont's team collaborates with Dr. Cella Olmstead, associate professor of Psychology at Queen's, who recently developed an animal model of compulsive sucrose intake.

Dr. Dumont and this team were recently awarded a $520,000 operating grant from Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to support their work for the next five years in understanding the neurological processes behind addiction behaviour.

Provided by Queen's University

"Drug addiction study offers new insight on compulsive behavior." June 25th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-drug-addiction-insight-compulsive-behavior.html

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Study finds herbal extract may curb binge drinking

An extract of the Chinese herb kudzu dramatically reduces drinking and may be useful in the treatment of alcoholism and curbing binge drinking, according to a new study by McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School researchers.

"Our study is further evidence that components found in kudzu root can reduce alcohol consumption and do so without adverse side effects," said David Penetar, PhD, of the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital, and the lead author of the study. "Further research is needed, but this botanical medication may lead to additional methods to treat alcohol abuse and dependence."

In the study, published in the current issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, researchers in the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital looked at one of the major components of the kudzu root—the isoflavone puerarin—to determine whether it would reduce alcohol consumption in a laboratory simulation of an afternoon drinking session.

According to Penetar, puerarin was selected over other kudzu root components because its safety and efficacy have already been established in humans, particularly in China where it is approved for intravenous injection to treat coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction and angina. Puerarin is also less potent than other parts of the kudzu plant, so it has few side effects and has none of the estrogenic activity found in other components, making it safe for women.

In the study, Penetar and his colleagues looked at 10 men and women, all in their 20s and all reporting regularly consuming alcohol weekly. A laboratory at McLean Hospital was set up as an apartment, with TV, DVD player, reclining chair and other amenities. The unit was also stocked with a refrigerator full of each subject's favorite beer and other non-alcoholic beverages.

In an initial 90-minute session in the "apartment," each subject was allowed to consume as many beers as he or she wanted—up to a maximum of six. After the session, each was given either puerarin or a placebo and told to take it daily for a week. Then, each returned to do the experiment again. Two weeks later, the subjects returned for a third session to see if they had returned to their baseline drinking levels. After that, each subject was given the pill he or she didn't get the first time and told to take it for a week. Each then returned for a fourth and final drinking session.

The study showed that subjects taking puerarin drank significantly fewer beers—dropping from 3.5 beers on average to 2.4.

"This was a simulation of a binge drinking opportunity and not only did we see the subjects drinking less, we noted that their rate of consumption decreased, meaning they drank slower and took more sips to finish a beer," explained Penetar. "While we do not suggest that puerarin will stop drinking all together, it is promising that it appears to slow the pace and the overall amount consumed."

The Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital has been involved in a series of research projects for more than 10 years, looking at the ability of extracts of the kudzu root and its components to reduce excessive drinking with very encouraging results.

Provided by McLean Hospital

"Study finds herbal extract may curb binge drinking." May 17th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-herbal-curb-binge.html

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Gambling not an addiction say University of Sydney researchers

(L-R) Dr Alex Blaszczynski and Dr Fadi Anjoul from the Gambling Treatment Clinic.

Many people talk of problem gambling as an 'addiction' but work coming out of the University of Sydney's Gambling Treatment Clinic suggests that this may not be the case.

"The idea of gambling addiction is widespread, but inaccurate," says the clinic's Education and Training Officer, Dr Fadi Anjoul, who has treated problem gamblers for the past 15 years.

As Responsible Gambling Awareness Week (14 to 20 May, 2012) begins, thoughts turn to the best ways of helping problem gamblers.

Dr Anjoul notes that problem gambling has been consistently grouped with drug and alcohol addiction, but notes symptoms such as tolerance or withdrawal, which are central features of addiction, are rarely seen in gamblers.

"Problem gambling is better thought of as a misguided obsession," Dr Anjoul states, "which means we are dealing with habitual and poorly informed choices rather than biological processes that are beyond individual control."

The difference has important implications for treatment. Poorly informed choices and behaviours can be treated with what is known as cognitive therapy, which helps people understand the story of their gambling, of how they ended up where they are, and to change how they think about their involvement with gambling.

Dr Anjoul has developed an innovative brand of cognitive therapy that generally results in much better outcomes than traditional therapies based on the disease or addiction model of gambling.

"Traditional therapies tend to focus on ways to help people deal with their urges when they occur," notes Dr Anjoul, "and show high rates of relapse after therapy ends. However, with the model we are working with, we often find that by the end of treatment, people are experiencing very few urges."

"The results we are getting so far at the Gambling Treatment Clinic with the new cognitive therapy are extremely exciting," states Professor Alex Blaszczynski, Head of the University's School of Psychology and a world-renowned expert on problem gambling, who hopes to assist Dr Anjoul with promoting training based on this new treatment.

"It is early days but at this point it appears we are seeing better treatment outcomes and much lower relapse rates than have been found elsewhere."

The Gambling Treatment Clinic, which is funded through the NSW Government Responsible Gambling Fund, has locations at Parramatta, Lidcombe, Campbelltown, as well as at the University of Sydney's Camperdown Campus.

Provided by University of Sydney

"Gambling not an addiction say University of Sydney researchers." May 14th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-gambling-addiction-university-sydney.html

Comment:Gambling, and other focal obsessive compulsive disorders, are similar to addictions in that addiction only occurs if there is a focal obsessive compulsive element.  Alcohol addiction, for instance, if left to only the physical symptoms will gradually abate as the amount of alcohol required to satisfy the physical addiction gradually diminishes.  It is only when a focal obsessive compulsive element (with the drug/habit being the focus) is added do we get addiction.

If a heroin addict (for instance) only ever took the amount of heroin required to stave off withdrawal then the amount required would gradually diminish as the body returns to its natural equilibriums state.

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Study exposes secret world of porn addiction

(Medical Xpress) -- A major study from the University of Sydney has shed light on the secret world of excessive porn viewing and the devastating effect it has on users and their families.

Dr Gomathi Sitharthan of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor Raj Sitharthan from the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Sydney conducted an online study of 800 people who watch porn to gain an unprecedented insight into who suffers from porn addiction and how their addiction affects them.

Preliminary results from the study have revealed that 43 percent of those surveyed started to view porn between the ages of 11 and 13, 47 percent spend between 30 minutes and three hours a day watching porn. More than half of porn users surveyed were married or in de-facto relationships and 85 percent were male.

The researchers found excessive users had severe social and relationship problems and had often lost their jobs or been in trouble with the law as a result of their addiction. Some users escalated their viewing to more extreme and often illegal material.

"We all know what porn is, but until now we haven't known much about its impact," says Dr Gomathi Sitharthan.

"Gone are the days when you had to go to a shop, pay for the merchandise, and come out with a magazine in a brown paper bag. You can now download anything, anytime, anywhere - at home, in your bedroom, in your office, in the car, in the park, on the way to work."

The survey also shed light on extreme cases. For example, about 20 percent of participants said that they preferred the excitement of watching porn to being sexually intimate with their partner. About 14 percent had formed a relationship with other online users, 30 percent acknowledged that their work performance suffered due to excessive viewing, and about 18 percent were preoccupied with fantasising when they were not online.

"The reality is that porn is here to stay. What we need is a balanced view of the potential dangers of porn addiction, supported by good evidence," says Professor Raj Sitharthan. In the last five years, he has seen an increase in people presenting with problems associated with excessive porn viewing in his clinical practice.

Tellingly, 88 percent of those surveyed reported they were willing to seek professional help, but would prefer to seek it online. Dr Gomathi Sitharthan and Professor Raj Sitharthan are currently preparing a treatment program that can be offered online.

"Watching porn is a learned behaviour and we believe it can be unlearned. We are finding that people do understand that their excessive porn viewing is impacting on their lives and they want to change," Dr Sitharthan says.

Provided by University of Sydney

"Study exposes secret world of porn addiction." May 10th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-exposes-secret-world-porn-addiction.html

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Alcohol use in Bollywood movies impacting alcohol use among Indian adolescents

Alcohol use in Bollywood movies is directly influencing the drinking habits of India's adolescents, according to a new study presented at the World Congress of Cardiology in Dubai.

Overall 10 per cent of the students (aged between 12-16 years) surveyed in the study had already tried alcohol. But students that had been most exposed to alcohol use in Bollywood movies were found to be 2.78 times more likely to have tried alcohol as compared with those who were least exposed. Even when adjustments were made for demographic variables, social influences and characteristics of child and parenting, students were found to be 1.49 times more likely to have tried alcohol if they had been highly exposed to alcohol use in Bollywood films as compared to those who were least exposed.

"These results show that exposure to alcohol use depictions in Bollywood films is directly associated with alcohol use among young people in India," said Dr. G.P. Nazar, Health Related Information Dissemination Against Youth (HIRDAY). "While alcohol advertising is banned in all Indian media and scenes that justify or glorify drinking are not allowed in Bollywood films, there is no dedicated health legislation that prohibits the depiction of alcohol in these films and there is a clear need for an immediate alcohol control policy".

Study design

The study set out to determine two things – firstly if India's adolescents were exposed to alcohol use in Bollywood films and secondly if this exposure was associated with their own alcohol use.

Fifty-nine popular Bollywood movies were coded to record the number of alcohol use occurrences and 3,956 adolescents were then asked if they had seen these movies. Students were grouped according to their exposure to alcohol use occurrences in these movies. They were then asked about their alcohol consumption status. Students in the fourth quartile – i.e. the quarter than had seen the greatest number of alcohol use occurrences in these movies – were found to be 2.78 times more likely to have tried alcohol compared with those students in the first quartile of exposure.

Alcohol and cardiovascular disease

Drinking too much alcohol increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). It can raise blood pressure, increase the presence of some fats in the blood stream, and increase calorie intake, which in turn leads to overweight and obesity. One of the key characteristics of the hazardous pattern of drinking is the presence of heavy drinking occasions, defined as consumption of 60 or more grams of pure alcohol per day. Hazardous and harmful drinking results in 2.5 million deaths, each year, globally, of these 14 per cent are due to CVD and diabetes. High levels of alcohol consumption and binge drinking are associated with increased risk of CVD and harmful use of alcohol damages the heart muscle, increases the risk of stroke and promotes cardiac arrhythmia.

Provided by World Heart Federation

"Alcohol use in Bollywood movies impacting alcohol use among Indian adolescents." April 20th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-alcohol-bollywood-movies-impacting-indian.html

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Tattoos, piercings, and drinking linked

Tattoos and body piercings have become so popular in western societies that many consider them fashion trends. While people acquire tattoos and piercings for different reasons, prior research has shown that individuals who do so are also more likely to engage in risky behaviors that include substance and alcohol use. This study was the first in France to find more alcohol per liter of exhaled breath in association with tattooing and body piercing.

Results will be published in the July 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

"A host of previous studies have routinely shown that individuals with body piercings or tattoos are more likely to engage in risky behavior than non-pierced or non tattooed people," said Nicolas Guéguen, professor of social behavior at the Université de Bretagne-Sud and corresponding author for the study. He listed sex without protection, fighting, theft, and alcohol consumption as several examples of risky behavior.

Myrna Armstrong, Professor Emerita at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and author of some of the studies cited by Guéguen, concurred. "However," she added, "you need to look at the ages of the groups being examined. While France may not have the same issues as North America, the two groups here that tend to favor tattooing and piercing – 13 to 18, and 18 to 25 years of age – are already considered high-risk people in terms of their drinking and other behaviors simply because of their ages and their age-related desires to experiment.

Guéguen conducted his first-of-its-kind survey on four different Saturday nights, when most French youth frequent bars and clubs before dancing, collectively approaching a total of 2,970 individuals (1,710 males, 1,260 females) as they were exiting drinking establishments. The young men and women were asked if they wore tattoos and piercings or not, and were then requested to breathe into a breathalyzer in order to evaluate their alcohol consumption.

"We found that pierced and/or tattooed individuals had consumed more alcohol in bars on a Saturday night than patrons in the same bars who were non pierced and non tattooed," said Guéguen. "This is the first time that we found a relation among tattoos, piercings, and alcohol consumption in France." He suggested that educators, parents and physicians consider tattoos and piercings as potential "markers" of drinking, using them to begin a conversation about alcohol consumption as well as other risky behaviors.

"I thought the approach to studying this topic was fascinating," said Armstrong. "However, I am concerned with the tendency to see a tattoo or piercing and automatically profile or stereotype that individual as a 'high-risk person' as this may or may not be conducive for helping them. A clinician, for example, can spend some time not judging individuals about their present tattoos, but talking to them about safe tattooing, etc. and alcohol in general … not because they have tattoos or piercings but because they are in a high-risk age group."

She added that people have tattoos or piercings for different reasons, such as religious beliefs. In addition, there is a difference between those who have few tattoos or piercings and those who have many.

"In 2009, we conducted a study of those with one to two, three to four, and five or more tattoos," she said. "We found that those with only one tattoo were very similar to those without any tattoos in terms of high-risk behaviors, including alcohol. We also graded body piercings and found that individuals with seven or more were the really high-risk group. In other words, be very careful about generalizing among those with many tattoos or piercings and those with only one."

Provided by Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research

"Tattoos, piercings, and drinking linked." April 16th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-tattoos-piercings-linked.html

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Opium use linked to almost double the risk of death from any cause

Long term opium use, even in relatively low doses, is associated with almost double the risk of death from many causes, particularly circulatory diseases, respiratory conditions and cancer, concludes a study published in the British Medical Journaltoday.

The findings remind us not only that opium is harmful, but raise questions about the risks of long term prescription opioids for treatment of chronic pain.

The research was carried out in northern Iran, where opium consumption is exceptionally common, and is the first study to measure the risks of death in opium users compared with non-users.

Around 20 million people worldwide use opium or its derivatives. Studies suggest a possible role of opium in throat cancer, bladder cancer, coronary heart disease and a few other conditions, but little is known about its effect on overall mortality, particularly for low-dose opium used over a long period

So an international research team set out to investigate the association between opium use and subsequent risk of death.

They studied opium use among 50,045 men and women aged 40 to 75 years living in Golestan Province in northern Iran for an average of five years.

A total of 17% (8,487) participants reported opium use, with an average duration of 12.7 years. 2,145 deaths were reported during the study period.

After adjusting for several factors including poverty and cigarette smoking, opium use was associated with an 86% increased risk of deaths from several major causes including circulatory diseases, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), tuberculosis and cancer.

Even after excluding those who self-prescribed opium after the onset of a chronic illness, the associations remained strong and a dose-response relationship was seen.

Increased mortality was seen for different types of opium. Both opium ingestion and opium smoking were associated with a higher risk of death.

Assuming this represents a direct (causal) association, the authors estimate that 15% of all deaths in this population are attributable to opium. They call for more studies on opium use and mortality and of patients taking long term opioid analgesics for treatment of pain to help shed further light on this issue.

"In a linked editorial, Assistant Professor Irfan Dhalla from St Michael's Hospital in Toronto says that in high income countries doctors rarely, if ever, encounter someone who uses opium. However he warns that millions of patients with chronic pain are prescribed opioids such as morphine and codeine that may carry "risks that are incompletely understood."

More information: http://www.bmj.com … 36/bmj.e2502

Provided by British Medical Journal

"Opium use linked to almost double the risk of death from any cause." April 17th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-opium-linked-death.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Curbing college binge drinking: What role do 'alcohol expectancies' play?

Researchers at The Miriam Hospital say interventions targeting what college students often see as the pleasurable effects of alcohol – including loosened inhibitions and feeling more bold and outgoing – may be one way to stem the tide of dangerous and widespread binge drinking on college campuses.

According to a new report, "alcohol expectancy challenges," or social experiments aimed at challenging students' beliefs about the rewards of drinking, can successfully reduce both the quantity of alcohol consumed and the frequency of heavy or binge drinking among college students.

The findings are published online by the Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.

"We know drinking habits can be influenced by what people expect will happen when they consume alcohol, so if you believe alcohol gives you 'liquid courage' or that drinking helps you 'fit in' or be more social, you're likely to drink more," said the study's lead author, Lori A.J. Scott-Sheldon, Ph.D., of The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine

"If we can prove to students that many of the perceived positive side effects of alcohol are actually due to their expectations, rather than the alcohol itself, then we could potentially reduce frequent binge drinking and its negative consequences," she added.

Drinking is pervasive on most college campuses in the United States. Data from several national surveys indicate that about four in five college students drink and that about half of college student drinkers engage in heavy episodic consumption. Excessive alcohol use is associated with a number of short- and long-term consequences, including academic problems, sexual assault, unsafe sex, injuries and violence, arrests, college attrition, alcohol abuse and dependence, and accidental death. As a result, reducing alcohol consumption by college students has been declared a public health priority by the Surgeon General.

Alcohol expectancy challenges have been designated by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as one of only three effective alcohol-prevention treatments for college students. During a typical expectancy challenge intervention, alcohol is provided to a group in a bar-like setting; some drinks contain alcohol while others are non-alcoholic, but the participants do not know which type of beverage they have. Students then engage in activities that promote social interaction, such as party games, and after some time, they are asked to evaluate whether other participants were drinking alcohol versus a placebo. In the majority of cases, groups had difficulty determining who actually received alcohol and who did not.

The challenge also offers an opportunity to educate college drinkers about alcohol expectancies, myths about the effects of alcohol, the pharmacology of alcohol and drinking responsibly.

Scott-Sheldon and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 19 separate alcohol expectancy challenges among more than 1,400 college students across the country. Overall, participants reported lower positive alcohol expectancies and reduced both their alcohol use and their frequency of heavy drinking for as long as one month post-intervention.

In most cases, expectancy challenge interventions were delivered in three or fewer group sessions. Because it may not require as many resources as the more individualized strategies that are commonly used for college drinkers, Scott-Sheldon says colleges may find this approach a more attractive alternative.

"This relatively brief, group-based intervention is something that could be easily implemented within the context of campus group activities, such as the residence life program, student orientation or student organization events," she said.

Because the effects of alcohol expectancy challenges are brief, researchers say providers might consider implementing these interventions before periods when students are more likely to engage in at-risk drinking behavior, such as spring break or "rush week" for fraternities or sororities.

Provided by Lifespan

"Curbing college binge drinking: What role do 'alcohol expectancies' play?." April 18th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-curbing-college-binge-role-alcohol.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek