News tagged with addictions
Scientists reveal key mechanism governing nicotine addiction
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a pathway in the brain that regulates an individual's vulnerability to the addictive properties of nicotine. The findings suggest a new ...
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Jan 30, 2011 |
4.7 / 5 (17) |
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Compulsive eating shares addictive biochemical mechanism with cocaine, heroin abuse: study
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 ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Mar 28, 2010 |
4.5 / 5 (10) |
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Dopamine enhances expectation of pleasure in humans
(PhysOrg.com) -- Enhancing the effects of the brain chemical dopamine influences how people make life choices by affecting expectations of pleasure, according to new research from the UCL Institute of Neurology.
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Nov 12, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (10) |
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How heroin works: Imaging opioid receptors in the brain
(Phys.org) -- Researchers and doctors have gleaned new clues to the molecular mechanisms behind some of the most addictive substances in the world, thanks to two new studies that uncovered the structures of ...
Apr 25, 2012 |
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Scientists create vaccine against heroin high
Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a highly successful vaccine against a heroin high and have proven its therapeutic potential in animal models.
Jul 20, 2011 |
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Scientists crack molecular code regulating neuronal excitability
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 ...
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Mar 22, 2011 |
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Miniature 'wearable' PET scanner ready for use (w/ Video)
(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 ...
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Mar 13, 2011 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
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Genetic makeup and duration of abuse reduce the brain's neurons in drug addiction
A study conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory demonstrated that drug addicted individuals who have a certain genetic makeup have lower gray matter density – ...
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Mar 07, 2011 |
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Binge eaters' dopamine levels spike at sight, smell of food
(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, ...
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Feb 28, 2011 |
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Vaccine blocks cocaine high in mice
Researchers have produced a lasting anti-cocaine immunity in mice by giving them a safe vaccine that combines bits of the common cold virus with a particle that mimics cocaine.
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Jan 04, 2011 |
3.5 / 5 (2) |
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Unlocking the secrets of our compulsions
Researchers have shed new light on dopamine's role in the brain's reward system, which could provide insight into impulse control problems associated with addiction and a number of psychiatric disorders.
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Dec 08, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
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A thirst for excitement is hidden in your genes
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 Psycho ...
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Oct 05, 2010 |
4 / 5 (3) |
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Specific brain areas for sex, money
A team of French researchers headed by Jean-Claude Dreher of the Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive in Lyon, France, has provided the first evidence that the orbitofrontal cortex (located in the anterior ventral ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 01, 2010 |
5 / 5 (8) |
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Milkshake like cocaine for overeaters: Imaging shows the powerful impact food has on the brain
Millions of overweight Americans consider food the enemy. And according to new research, this enemy plays devious mind games.
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Sep 30, 2010 |
5 / 5 (5) |
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Ritalin improves brain function, task performance in cocaine abusers
(PhysOrg.com) -- Brain-scanning study shows Ritalin improves impaired brain function in people addicted to cocaine, implying it could play a role in facilitating recovery from addiction.
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Sep 07, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (5) |
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Addiction
Historically, addiction has been defined as physical and psychological dependence on psychoactive substances (for example alcohol, tobacco, heroin, caffeine and other drugs) which cross the blood-brain barrier once ingested, temporarily altering the chemical milieu of the brain.
Addiction can also be viewed as a continued involvement with a substance or activity despite the negative consequences associated with it. Pleasure, enjoyment or relief from actual or perceived ailments would have originally been sought; however, over a period of time involvement with the substance or activity is needed to feel normal. Some psychology professionals and many laypeople now mean 'addiction' to include abnormal psychological dependency on such things as gambling, food, sex, pornography, computers, internet, work, exercise, idolizing, watching TV or certain types of non-pornographic videos, spiritual obsession, self-injury and shopping.
The American Society of Addiction Medicine begins their definition of addiction by describing it as "a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry."
For more information about Addiction, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
