Links for Keyword: Drug Abuse

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, or subscribe to our mailing list, to receive news updates. Learn more.

Links 21 - 40 of 1138

By DOUGLAS QUENQUA Why are some people able to use cocaine without becoming addicted? A new study suggests the answer may lie in the shape of their brains. Sporadic cocaine users tend to have a larger frontal lobe, a region associated with self-control, while cocaine addicts are more likely to have small frontal lobes, according to the study, which was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry. The scientists, at the University of Cambridge, collected brain scans and personality tests from people who had used cocaine over several years — some addicted, some not. While the nonaddicts shared a penchant for risk-taking behavior, the increased gray matter seemed to help them resist addiction by exerting more self-control and making more advantageous decisions. “They could take it or leave it,” said Karen Ersche, the lead author. The researchers believe the differences in brain shape predated the drug use rather than occurring as a result of it. Dr. Ersche said the findings reinforced the idea, now popular among addiction experts, that addiction depends less on character and more on biological makeup. “It’s not the Nancy Reagan approach, just say no or one day or another you will get addicted,” she said. “How the drugs work and how much you are at risk depends on what type of person you are and what type of brain you have.” © 2013 The New York Times Company

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 4: The Chemical Bases of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: The Chemistry of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology
Link ID: 17765 - Posted: 02.05.2013

Brain Circuitry Behind Cigarette Cravings Revealed

By Tanya Lewis and LiveScience Drug cravings can be brought on by many factors, such as the sight of drugs, drug availability and lack of self-control. Now, researchers have uncovered some of the neural mechanisms involved in cigarette craving. Two brain areas, the orbitofrontal cortex and the prefrontal cortex, interact to turn cravings on or off depending on whether drugs are available, the study reports today (Jan. 28) in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers scanned the brains of 10 moderate-to-heavy smokers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity by changes in blood flow. Researchers measured activity while the participants watched video clips of people smoking as well as neutral videos. Before viewing, some subjects were told cigarettes would be available immediately after the experiment, while others were told they would have to wait 4 hours before lighting up. When participants watched the smoking videos, their brains showed increased activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, a brain area that assigns value to a behavior. When the cigarettes were available immediately as opposed to hours later, smokers reported greater cravings and their brains showed more activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The researchers hypothesize that this area modulates value. In other words, it can turns up or down the "value level" of cigarettes (or other rewards) in the first area, the medial orbitofrontal cortex. The results show that addiction involves a brain circuit important for self-control and decision-making. © 2013 Scientific American,

Does smoking pot lower your IQ?

By Ashutosh Jogalekar As marijuana is being legalized in Washington and Colorado states, its proliferation and use raise legitimate issues regarding its dose-dependent and long-term effects. One key question is whether pot leads to cognitive decline and a lowering of IQ, especially if its consumption is started at an early age. Answering this question is important for users, families and policy makers to have a realistic idea of personal and legal policies regarding widespread cannabis use. Last year, Madeline Meier and her group from Duke University reported results from the so-called Dunedin study which tracked a group of 1037 people from their birth to age 38. These volunteers’ pot smoking histories were monitored at periodic intervals from age 18 onwards. The study found a troubling decline of IQ and cognitive abilities among regular pot smokers, especially those whose habit kicked in during their teens. No explicit causal relationship was assigned between the two facts, but the correlation was positive and significant. The study naturally raised a lot of questions regarding the wisdom of early pot use, especially in light of its current legalization in two states. Now a study by Ole Rogeberg from the Ragnar Frisch Center for Research in Norway has called this study into question, both for its methodology and its conclusions. The first thing to realize about any such study, even if you don’t know the details, is that there are going to be several confounding socioeconomic factors in assessing any relationship between cannabis use and IQ. Medicine and psychology are not exact sciences, and following a large sample of people for 38 years and assessing correlation – let alone causation – between any two factors is going to be confounded by a large number of other correlated and uncorrelated variables in an inherently uncontrolled experiment. © 2013 Scientific American,

Opioid painkillers may increase car accident risk

People taking opioid painkillers face higher risks of car accidents even at low doses, say Ontario researchers who want patients to be warned that the drugs can decrease alertness. Knowing that use of opioids like oxycodone, codeine and morphine has increased in North America and that driver simulation studies suggest that the drugs hinder alertness and act as a sedative, researchers at Toronto's Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences looked at emergency department visits among adults treated with opoids. They defined road trauma as motor vehicle crashes that required a visit to emergency. The increased risk for drivers taking opioids started with the lowest doses equivalent to 20 milligrams of morphine. The increased risk for drivers taking opioids started with the lowest doses equivalent to 20 milligrams of morphine. (iStock) Compared with very low doses of opioids, drivers prescribed low doses such as 20 milligrams of morphine showed 21 per cent increased odds of car accidents which rose to 42 per cent for those prescribed high doses, Tara Gomes and her co-authors reported in Monday's issue of the JAMA Internal Medicine, formerly Archives of Internal Medicine. "What was surprising to us was this increased risk started even at what many people consider to be fairly low doses of opioids," Gomes said in an interview. © CBC 2013

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 4: The Chemical Bases of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology; Chapter 18: Attention and Higher Cognition
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: The Chemistry of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology; Chapter 14: Attention and Consciousness
Link ID: 17683 - Posted: 01.15.2013

Pot smokers might not turn into dopes after all

Arran Frood Cannabis rots your brain — or does it? Last year, a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)1 suggested that people who used cannabis heavily as teenagers saw their IQs fall by middle age. But a study published today2 — also in PNAS — says that factors unrelated to cannabis use are to blame for the effect. Nature explores the competing claims. What other factors might cause the decline in IQ? Ole Røgeberg, a labour economist at the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research in Oslo and the author of the latest paper, ran simulations which showed that confounding factors associated with socioeconomic status could explain the earlier result. For example, poorer people have reduced access to schooling, irrespective of cannabis use. Possibly. The data used in the original paper came from the Dunedin Study, a research project in which a group of slightly more than 1,000 people born in New Zealand in 1972–73 have been tracked from birth to age 38 and beyond. As with all such birth-cohort epidemiological studies (also called longitudinal studies), there is a risk of inferring causal links from observed associations between one factor and another. Past research on the Dunedin cohort shows3 that individuals from backgrounds with low socioeconomic status are more likely than others to begin smoking cannabis during adolescence, and are more likely to progress from use to dependence. Røgeberg says that these effects, combined with reduced access to schooling, can generate a correlation between cannabis use and IQ change. © 2013 Nature Publishing Group

Plan to End Methadone Use at Albuquerque Jail Prompts Alarm

By DAN FROSCH ALBUQUERQUE — It has been almost four decades since Betty Jo Lopez started using heroin. Her face gray and wizened well beyond her 59 years, Ms. Lopez would almost certainly still be addicted, if not for the fact that she is locked away in jail, not to mention the cup of pinkish liquid she downs every morning. “It’s the only thing that allows me to live a normal life,” Ms. Lopez said of the concoction, which contains methadone, a drug used to treat opiate dependence. “These nurses that give it to me, they’re like my guardian angels.” For the last six years, the Metropolitan Detention Center, New Mexico’s largest jail, has been administering methadone to inmates with drug addictions, one of a small number of jails and prisons around the country that do so. At this vast complex, sprawled out among the mesas west of downtown Albuquerque, any inmate who was enrolled at a methadone clinic just before being arrested can get the drug behind bars. Pregnant inmates addicted to heroin are also eligible. Here in New Mexico, which has long been plagued by one of the nation’s worst heroin scourges, there is no shortage of participants — hundreds each year — who have gone through the program. © 2013 The New York Times Company

Smoking Smothers Your Genes

by Karl Gruber Cigarettes leave you with more than a smoky scent on your clothes and fingernails. A new study has found strong evidence that tobacco use can chemically modify and affect the activity of genes known to increase the risk of developing cancer. The finding may give researchers a new tool to assess cancer risk among people who smoke. DNA isn't destiny. Chemical compounds that affect the functioning of genes can bind to our genetic material, turning certain genes on or off. These so-called epigenetic modifications can influence a variety of traits, such as obesity and sexual preference. Scientists have even identified specific epigenetic patterns on the genes of people who smoke. None of the modified genes has a direct link to cancer, however, making it unclear whether these chemical alterations increase the risk of developing the disease. In the new study, published in Human Molecular Genetics, researchers analyzed epigenetic signatures in blood cells from 374 individuals enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. EPIC, as it's known, is a massive study aimed at linking diet, lifestyle, and environmental factors to the incidence of cancer and other chronic diseases. Half of the group consisted of people who went on to develop colon or breast cancer 5 to 7 years after first joining the study, whereas the other half remained healthy. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Marijuana, Not Yet Legal for Californians, Might as Well Be

By ADAM NAGOURNEY LOS ANGELES — Let Colorado and Washington be the marijuana trailblazers. Let them struggle with the messy details of what it means to actually legalize the drug. Marijuana is, as a practical matter, already legal in much of California. A man panhandled for pot recently on the boardwalk in Venice Beach, Calif., where a variety of marijuana-themed items are for sale. No matter that its recreational use remains technically against the law. Marijuana has, in many parts of this state, become the equivalent of a beer in a paper bag on the streets of Greenwich Village. It is losing whatever stigma it ever had and still has in many parts of the country, including New York City, where the kind of open marijuana use that is common here would attract the attention of any passing law officer. “It’s shocking, from my perspective, the number of people that we all know who are recreational marijuana users,” said Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor. “These are incredibly upstanding citizens: Leaders in our community, and exceptional people. Increasingly, people are willing to share how they use it and not be ashamed of it.” Marijuana can be smelled in suburban backyards in neighborhoods from Hollywood to Topanga Canyon as dusk falls — what in other places is known as the cocktail hour — often wafting in from three sides. In some homes in Beverly Hills and San Francisco, it is offered at the start of a dinner party with the customary ease of a host offering a chilled Bombay Sapphire martini. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Smoking may worsen a hangover, US study finds

By Anna-Marie Lever Health reporter, BBC News Smoking may worsen a hangover after drinking heavily, a US study reports, although the reason why is unclear. Researchers asked 113 US students to keep a diary for eight weeks, recording their drinking and smoking habits and any hangover symptoms. When they drank heavily - around six cans of beer an hour - those who also smoked suffered a worse hangover. Addiction charities hope this study may motivate smokers to cut down over the festive season. The study's findings are reported in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. One of the paper's authors, Dr Damaris Rohsenow, from the Centre for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University said: "At the same number of drinks, people who smoke more that day are more likely to have a hangover and have more intense hangovers. "And smoking itself was linked to an increased risk of hangover compared with not smoking at all. That raises the likelihood that there is some direct effect of tobacco smoking on hangovers." A spokesperson from the charity Action on Addiction called for further research, saying the interaction between alcohol and smoking "is complex". "We welcome evidence-based research in any areas which can be used assist with developing preventative campaigns, particularly for young people who are often experimenting in their teenage years with alcohol, drugs and cigarettes. BBC © 2012

You may be boozing your brain cells away

Naomi Piercey, Women's Health A throbbing headache isn't the only side effect of overloading on alcohol. Chug too many cocktails and you may be putting your actual gray matter at risk. According to a new study from Rutgers University, consumption of alcohol, from moderate-level drinking to binge drinking (drinking less during the week and more on the weekends), can decrease the creation of adult brain cells by as much as 40 percent. In this study researchers examined the brain cell development of rodents after consuming alcohol. When the blood alcohol level of the rats reached 0.08 percent--the legal driving limit--researchers found the number of nerve cells in the hippocampus of the brain were reduced by nearly 40 percent compared to those in the sober group. The hippocampus--where new neurons are made--is a section of the brain associated with long-term memory and some new types of learning. This stage of intoxication is equivalent to approximately 3-4 drinks for women and five drinks for men. "The purpose of the study was to underscore the long term effects of alcohol exposure," says Tracey J. Shors, PhD, professor of behavioral and systems neuroscience in the department of psychology at Rutgers University, who helped conduct the study. "It may not be detrimental to have one or two days of alcohol exposure, but week after week, you will have many fewer neurons in your brain," she said. © 2012 NBCNews.com

'Binge-drinking gene' discovered

Scientists believe some people have a gene that hard-wires them for binge drinking by boosting levels of a happy brain chemical triggered by alcohol. The gene - RASGRF-2 - is one of many already suggested to be linked with problem drinking, PNAS journal reports. The King's College London team found animals lacking the gene had far less desire for alcohol than those with it. Brain scans of 663 teenage boys showed those with a version of the gene had heightened dopamine responses in tests. During a task designed to make them anticipate a reward, these 14-year-old boys had more activity in a part of the brain called the ventral striatum which is known to be involved in dopamine release. When the researchers later contacted the same boys at the age of 16 and asked them about their drinking habits, they found the boys with the 'culprit' variation on the RASGRF-2 gene drank more frequently. The NHS definition of binge drinking is drinking heavily in a short space of time to get drunk or feel the effects of alcohol. Lead researcher Prof Gunter Schumann explained that while this is not proof that the gene causes binge drinking, and it is likely that many environment factors and other genes are also involved, the findings help shed light on why some people appear to be vulnerable to the allure of alcohol. BBC © 2012

Nervine settled everybody's nerves by sedating everyone

Published by drrubidium Out-of-control libido or drug habit? Take Nervine. Nervous, excitable, wakeful, or restless? Take Nervine. Over-the-counter Nervine wasn't a wonder drug, just a cocktail of the oldest class of sedatives - inorganic bromides. Nervine contained the most commonly used bromides - sodium bromide (NaBr), potassium bromide (KBr), and ammonium bromide (NH4Br). These particular bromides were once so popular that only aspirin sold better. The use of bromides to treat "nerves" was so prevalent that 'bromide' entered the lexicon of common speech. Instead of "calm down", people were instructed to "take a bromide". Instead of calling someone a 'bore', the term 'bromide' was a used to denote "a commonplace or tiresome person". Bromides may owe their sedative effect to a family connection. The element bromine is in the same chemical family as the element chlorine – the halogens. Being a chemical family, chlorine and bromine have similar properties. Both form single, negatively charged ions (monovalent anions) via oxidation-reduction reactions - chloride (Cl-) and bromide (Br-). Chloride is found in nearly all of our cells, having its own set cell membrane-crossing highways (chlorine channel). The regulated flow of chloride (as hydrated chloride) across neuron membranes is key to communication between neurons. Being family and all, bromide (as hydrated bromide) can travel along chloride's highways. But hydrated bromide is a teeny bit smaller than hydrated chloride, allowing hydrated bromide to get into cells faster than hydrated chloride. A flood of anions, such as bromide or chloride, into a neuron makes it more negative than it would be at rest, a state called 'hyperpolarization'. It's hard for other neutrons to stimulate - talk to - hyperpolarized neurons. Less neuron stimulation can translate to a feeling of calm. Thirty-Seven Copyright © 2012

Smoking 'rots' brain, says King's College study

Smoking "rots" the brain by damaging memory, learning and reasoning, according to researchers at King's College London. A study of 8,800 people over 50 showed high blood pressure and being overweight also seemed to affect the brain, but to a lesser extent. Scientists involved said people needed to be aware that lifestyles could damage the mind as well as the body. Their study was published in the journal Age and Ageing. Researchers at King's were investigating links between the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke and the state of the brain. Data about the health and lifestyle of a group of over-50s was collected and brain tests, such as making participants learn new words or name as many animals as they could in a minute, were also performed. They were all tested again after four and then eight years. Decline The results showed that the overall risk of a heart attack or stroke was "significantly associated with cognitive decline" with those at the highest risk showing the greatest decline. It also said there was a "consistent association" between smoking and lower scores in the tests. BBC © 2012

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 4: The Chemical Bases of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology; Chapter 17: Learning and Memory
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: The Chemistry of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology; Chapter 13: Memory, Learning, and Development
Link ID: 17534 - Posted: 11.26.2012

Cannabis legalisation launches living laboratory

by Sara Reardon , Debora MacKenzie and Jessica Griggs TWO states in the US are now more cannabis-friendly than many parts of Europe. Thanks to ballot initiatives passed by Colorado and Washington last week, people there now have legal access to as much recreational marijuana as they can grow, sell or smoke. This is still illegal under US federal law, but if the states are left alone, the legalisation could launch a living experiment into how people behave when drug laws are relaxed, and into the public-health implications and the effect on the drug cartels. "The Feds now have to decide whether to make that experiment impossible," says Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. The Obama administration has yet to give its response to the votes, but a statement from the US Drug Enforcement Agency, which treats marijuana as an illegal drug, said: "The department's enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged." Robert Mikos of Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, Tennessee, says that federal agencies have the authority to arrest anyone possessing marijuana, but they cannot stop the states from passing the laws, or make the states enforce federal law. Still, the federal government could make life very difficult for the new industry, Mikos says, by seizing growers' assets or prohibiting banks from opening accounts for people committing federal crimes. But even if the US government does crack down, Mikos says, it is not going to make much of a difference. "It will put a dent in the industry, but it will also affect the shape of it." Small businesses will learn how to fly under the radar, he says, and state regulators will have to craft their new laws around federal law. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

FDA report describing deaths sheds light on high-caffeine beverages

By Hannah Krakauer, Last week, the Food and Drug Administration released incident reports describing several deaths that have occurred following the consumption of Monster Energy drinks. Much of the concern over energy-drink consumption centers on the high caffeine content of such beverages. How did these deaths come to light? Anais Fournier, 14, of Hagerstown, Md., died suddenly last December from a heart arrhythmia that led to cardiac arrest. She had apparently drunk two Monster Energy drinks over two days. In mid-October, Fournier’s mother, Wendy Crossland, filed a lawsuit against Monster Beverage, based in Corona, Calif., claiming that the company did not make clear the risks that come with drinking the beverage. As part of a Freedom of Information request by Crossland, the FDA released details of the other four cases, plus one nonfatal heart attack, all of which are alleged to be associated with drinking Monster Energy. The company maintains that its drinks are safe. How much caffeine is in energy drinks such as Monster Energy? Actually, not a huge amount. A 24-ounce can of Monster Energy contains 240 milligrams of caffeine. A typical eight-ounce cup of brewed coffee contains 90 to 200 milligrams of caffeine. © 1996-2012 The Washington Post

Painkillers not as addictive as feared, study finds

Kerry Grens Fewer than five percent of patients prescribed narcotics to treat chronic pain become addicted to the drugs, according to a new analysis of past research. The finding suggests that concerns about the risk of becoming addicted to prescription painkillers might be "overblown," said addiction specialist Dr. Michael Fleming at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "If you're a person that doesn't have a history of addiction and doesn't have any major psychiatric problems, narcotics are relatively safe as long as your doctor doesn't give you too much and uses the right medication," Fleming, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health. Some recent research has concluded the same thing, but another expert remained skeptical about the new report because many of the studies it included were not considered the best quality research, and they varied widely in their results. Advertise | AdChoices "I think the jury's still out" on how worrisome prescription opioid addiction is, said Joseph Boscarino of the Geisinger Clinic in Danville, Pennsylvania, who studies pain and addiction. Opioid painkillers, which include oxycodone, fentanyl and morphine, have only recently become available for patients with chronic pain, said Boscarino, who was not part of the new study. © 2012 NBCNews.com

Alcoholism and Social Exclusion

By Scicurious Treating alcoholism is incredibly difficult on many levels. One of the most difficult areas to deal with is social interaction, how people with alcoholism can interact with others. Alcoholics can have many problems with social exclusion. This is partially due to the severe stigma that accompanies alcoholism, but it’s also due to the difficulties that being an alcoholic can produce on social interaction. Regardless, being an alcoholic can result in ostracism and a breaking down of social support networks, and that can make recovery, especially in times of stress, that much more difficult. But of course, it’s not just the act of being socially ostracized or excluded, it also matters how the person being excluded responds. And there are some indications that alcoholics have a larger response to social exclusion than controls. But do they? And if so, why? So the authors of this study wanted to look at how people with alcoholism respond to things like social rejection compared to controls. They took 22 recovering alcoholics (abstinent, all male, all inpatient treatment and in the 3rd week of detox), and 22 controls, and put them in an fMRI scanner to look at changes in blood oxygenation in the brian. By determining where more or less oxygenated blood is going, fMRI gives an idea of where more or less activity may be taking place. © 2012 Scientific American

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 4: The Chemical Bases of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology; Chapter 15: Emotions, Aggression, and Stress
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: The Chemistry of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and Neuropharmacology; Chapter 11: Emotions, Aggression, and Stress
Link ID: 17437 - Posted: 10.30.2012

Quitting smoking 'works extraordinarily well' for saving lives

Smoking cigarettes throughout adulthood reduces life expectancy by about 11 years in women but quitting avoids much of the extra risk, a new large study shows. The Million Women Study in the UK recruited 1.3 million British women who were born in the early 1940s to look at the hazards of smoking and the benefits of stopping at various ages. Women in North America took up smoking decades later than men. Women in North America took up smoking decades later than men. (Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters) In most of Europe, Canada and the U.S., the popularity of smoking among young women reached its peak in the 1960s, decades later than for men. Among women in the study who smoked cigarettes through their adult lives, the mortality rate was three times that of women who never smoked or who stopped well before middle age, Sir Richard Peto of the University of Oxford and his co-authors said in Saturday's issue of the journal Lancet. "Stopping before 40 years of age, and preferably well before, avoids more than 90 per cent of this excess mortality; stopping before 30 years of age avoids more than 97 per cent of it," the study's authors concluded. "This does not, however, mean that it is safe to smoke until 40 years and then stop, for women who do so have throughout the next few decades a mortality rate 1.2 times that of never-smokers." Study participants were recruited from 1996 to 2001. They filled in questionnaires about the lifestyle, medical and social factors and were resurveyed by mail three and eight years later. © CBC 2012

When caffeine kills: energy drinks under the spotlight

By Maggie Fox and Linda Carroll Does this sound like you? Two cups of coffee in the morning, a coffee break at 11 or so, another cup in the afternoon and a cup after dinner? That might be enough to interfere with sleep or even give some people the jitters, but it’s nowhere near an overdose. It may also be nothing compared to what some teenagers are consuming to deal with schoolwork or job pressures. James Stone, a 19-year-old from Wallingford, Conn., died in 2006 after he took nearly two dozen NoDoz tablets. Each tablet has about 200 mg of caffeine – about twice that found in a cup of coffee. But while it would be near impossible to down 48 cups of coffee in a few hours, it’s relatively easy to pop a handful of small tablets. Now the question is whether guzzling energy drinks might be as dangerous as popping No-Doz. The Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports that five people died and one survived a heart attack after consuming energy drinks. It is not yet clear whether the drinks actually caused – or even contributed to - those adverse events, said FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess. “So far there’s been no causal link,” Burgess said. “There could have been other products involved. We don’t know that yet and that’s why we’re taking this seriously and looking into it.” © 2012 NBCNews.com

Recovering heroin addicts may lose their inner voice

by Sara Reardon We talk to ourselves all day, whether it's convincing ourselves to get out of bed, or avoid that second piece of cake. But this internal voice uses a lot of brainpower. People who have to concentrate on resisting an addiction appear to sacrifice this ability in order to conserve brainpower for other tasks. The average person can juggle about four mental tasks at any time, says Monica Faulkner of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. How much you can multitask is related to working memory. With the assumption that recovering addicts must think constantly about their addiction, Faulkner and her colleagues wondered whether this comes at the cost of using up one of those four "slots", possibly impairing their overall working memory. Faulkner and Cherie Marvel, also of Johns Hopkins, recruited six people who had never used drugs and six recovering from a heroin addiction who were taking methadone to help. They showed the volunteers an image, either of a word, a Chinese character, or a pattern. They then waited six seconds, and showed the volunteers a second image. During those six seconds, the researchers recorded the volunteers' brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The volunteers' task was to press a button if the second image matched the first. The people recovering from addiction took a few hundred milliseconds longer than the controls to determine whether they had seen the images previously. But the more interesting result came from the pattern of activity in their brains throughout the 6 second window. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Previous Page | Next Page

Links By Chapter:

Links for Keyword: Drug Abuse