http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. New drugs are flooding the European market at an "unprecedented pace", the European drug monitoring centre and Europol warned in a joint report released in Portugal on Wednesday. http://phys.org/news224324527.html Medicine & Health Wed, 11 May 2011 09:22:43 EST news224324527 The substance ghrelin plays an important role in various addictions, such as alcoholism and binge-eating. It also impacts on sugar consumption, which is due, in part, to genetic factors, reveals new research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. http://phys.org/news221150727.html Medicine & Health Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:45:44 EST news221150727 A key question in protein biochemistry is how proteins recognize "correct" interaction partners in a sea of cellular factors. Nowhere is that more critical to know than in the brain, where interactions governing channel protein activity can alter an organism's behavior. A team of biologists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has recently deciphered a molecular code that regulates availability of a brain channel that modulates neuronal excitability, a discovery that might aid efforts to treat drug addiction and mental disorders. http://phys.org/news220007378.html Medicine & Health Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:10:47 EST news220007378 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, and collaborators have demonstrated the efficacy of a "wearable," portable PET scanner they've developed for rats. The device will give neuroscientists a new tool for simultaneously studying brain function and behavior in fully awake, moving animals. http://phys.org/news219243918.html Medicine & Health Sun, 13 Mar 2011 14:05:35 EST news219243918 It seems that women become addicted to cocaine more easily than men and find it harder to give up. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Biology of Sex Differences reinforces this position by showing that the motivation of female rats to work for cocaine is much higher than males. http://phys.org/news219038325.html Biology Fri, 11 Mar 2011 03:59:05 EST news219038325 (PhysOrg.com) -- A brain imaging study at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory reveals a subtle difference between ordinary obese subjects and those who compulsively overeat, or binge: In binge eaters but not ordinary obese subjects, the mere sight or smell of favorite foods triggers a spike in dopamine - a brain chemical linked to reward and motivation. The findings - published online on February 24, 2011, in the journal Obesity - suggest that this dopamine spike may play a role in triggering compulsive overeating. http://phys.org/news218110071.html Medicine & Health Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:08:06 EST news218110071 (AP) -- Lighting up a cigarette at home could bring a visit from Honduran police if a family member or even a visitor complains about secondhand smoke. http://phys.org/news217572624.html Medicine & Health Tue, 22 Feb 2011 05:00:07 EST news217572624 UT Southwestern Medical Center psychiatry researchers are leading the Texas arm of a national network that conducts clinical trials aimed at finding effective treatments for drug addiction. http://phys.org/news215885247.html Medicine & Health Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:07:40 EST news215885247 The growing numbers of new cases of substance abuse disorders are perplexing. After all, the course of drug addiction so often ends badly. The negative consequences of drug abuse appear regularly on TV, from stories of celebrities behaving in socially inappropriate and self-destructive ways while intoxicated to dramatization of the rigors of drug withdrawal on "Intervention" and other reality shows. http://phys.org/news215346265.html Medicine & Health Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:50:01 EST news215346265 Many brain imaging studies have reported that tobacco smoking is associated with large-scale and wide-spread structural brain abnormalities. http://phys.org/news210506611.html Medicine & Health Thu, 02 Dec 2010 10:03:48 EST news210506611 (PhysOrg.com) -- Two separate discoveries by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) offer potential for development of a first-ever pharmacological treatment for cocaine addiction. http://phys.org/news209206613.html Medicine & Health Wed, 17 Nov 2010 09:10:02 EST news209206613 New research is providing a deeper understanding of how individual actions -- such as exercising, sensory stimulation, or drinking -- influence brain health and outcomes. This new knowledge could ultimately lead to interventions in age-related cognitive declines, drug abuse, stroke, and brain injury, separate from or in combination with traditional pharmacological approaches. http://phys.org/news209135326.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:09:04 EST news209135326 Giving people opiate substitution treatment to help with their drug addiction can lead to a 85% plus chance of reducing mortality, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal today. http://phys.org/news207376251.html Medicine & Health Wed, 27 Oct 2010 05:50:02 EST news207376251 Sensation seeking -- the urge to do exciting things -- has been linked to dopamine, a chemical that carries messages in your brain. For a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, scientists analyzed genes in the dopamine system and found a group of mutations that help predict whether someone is inclined toward sensation seeking. http://phys.org/news205515032.html Medicine & Health Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:30:45 EST news205515032 A concerted effort to boost research on women's health over the last two decades has lessened the burden of disease and reduced deaths among women due to cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and cervical cancer, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. The effort has yielded less but still significant progress in reducing the effects of depression, HIV/AIDS, and osteoporosis on women, added the committee that wrote the report. http://phys.org/news204462952.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:18:06 EST news204462952 People who have used cocaine run a great risk of becoming addicted, even after long drug-free periods. Now researchers at Linköping University and their colleagues can point to a specific molecule in the brain as a possible target for treatment to prevent relapses. http://phys.org/news203847934.html Medicine & Health Thu, 16 Sep 2010 09:40:01 EST news203847934 Health and social services are facing a new challenge, as many illicit drug users get older and face chronic health problems and a reduced quality of life. That is one of the key findings of research published in the September issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. http://phys.org/news203246641.html Medicine & Health Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:50:03 EST news203246641 The authors of a new study in Biological Psychiatry explore pharmacological strategies for reducing cocaine self-administration in animals that may have implications for treating cocaine dependence in humans. http://phys.org/news200657600.html Medicine & Health Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:00:01 EST news200657600 MicroRNAs, already linked to cancer, heart disease and mental disorders such as schizophrenia, may also be involved in addiction. A team of Rockefeller University neuroscientists has shown that a protein that plays a crucial role in the regulation of microRNAs, short stretches of RNA that silence genes, is also involved in regulating the motivation to consume cocaine. The findings, published online July 19 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, have already led to the identification of several microRNAs in mice that likely play a role in drug addiction and the scientists say the work could ultimately lead to new ways of combating addictive diseases in humans. http://phys.org/news199468583.html Medicine & Health Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:20:02 EST news199468583 (PhysOrg.com) -- Controlling powerful emotional reactions is often difficult because the brain's computer has a separate "keyboard" that controls feelings within extreme emotions like desire and dread, according to University of Michigan psychologists. http://phys.org/news197134589.html Medicine & Health Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:10:01 EST news197134589 Why is it that only some drug users become addicts? This is the question that has been addressed by the teams of Pier Vincenzo Piazza and Olivier Manzoni, in Bordeaux (Inserm unit 862). These researchers have just discovered that the transition to addiction could result from a persistent impairment of synaptic plasticity in a key structure of the brain. This research is published in the journal Science on June 25, 2010. http://phys.org/news196607304.html Medicine & Health Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:08:56 EST news196607304 (PhysOrg.com) -- While eating disorders are unusual among men, the consequences can be just as devastating as for women says Dr. Jean Wilkins, a professor at the University of Montreal Faculty of Medicine and pediatrician at Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center. http://phys.org/news195325246.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:20:01 EST news195325246 (PhysOrg.com) -- Bird song learning is a model system for studying the general principles of learning, but attempts to draw parallels between learning in birds and mammals have been difficult because of anatomical brain differences between the two species. http://phys.org/news193422257.html Biology Tue, 18 May 2010 17:25:37 EST news193422257 The brains of problem gamblers react more intensely to "near misses" than casual gamblers, possibly spurring them on to play more, according to new research in the May 5 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The researchers found the brain region that responds to rewards by delivering a dose of the chemical dopamine was especially active in these individuals. http://phys.org/news192214997.html Medicine & Health Tue, 04 May 2010 18:03:39 EST news192214997 Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed an imaging protocol that allows them to visualize the activity of the brain's reward circuitry in both normal individuals and those addicted to drugs. The technique could lead to better insight into why people take recreational drugs as well as help determine which treatment strategies might be most effective. http://phys.org/news191530993.html Medicine & Health Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:03:27 EST news191530993 "Only dopes use dope," goes the memorable warning about drugs. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher cautions that the same goes for cigarettes. http://phys.org/news189351441.html Medicine & Health Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:10:01 EST news189351441 In a newly published study, scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have shown for the first time that the same molecular mechanisms that drive people into drug addiction are behind the compulsion to overeat, pushing people into obesity. http://phys.org/news188995945.html Medicine & Health Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:00:05 EST news188995945 Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center hope they have begun paving a new pathway in the fight against drug dependence. Their hypothesis - that increasing the normally occurring process of making nerve cells might prevent addiction - is based on a rodent study demonstrating that blocking new growth of specific brain nerve cells increases vulnerability for cocaine addiction and relapse. http://phys.org/news186408992.html Medicine & Health Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:17:14 EST news186408992 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Georgia counseling psychology professor Ezemenari M. Obasi believes that the interaction of the environment and one’s genetic makeup can increase drug use vulnerability in rural African Americans. http://phys.org/news182627618.html Medicine & Health Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:30:02 EST news182627618 (PhysOrg.com) -- Developing neurons don’t just need the right genes to guide them as they grow, they need access to the right genes at the right times. The improper functioning of one specific protein complex that normally suppresses gene activation is responsible for a mental retardation-like syndrome in mice, reports a team of scientists at The Rockefeller University. New findings, published in recent issues of Neuron and Science, indicate that malfunction of this protein complex causes mental retardation in mice and humans and may even play a role in promoting susceptibility to drug addiction. The research also establishes the complex as a key regulator of neuronal transcriptional identity. http://phys.org/news182433788.html Medicine & Health Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:03:27 EST news182433788