News tagged with drug addicts

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

created Mar 28, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (10) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

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

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (10) | comments 0

Flipping the brain's addiction switch without drugs

When someone becomes dependent on drugs or alcohol, the brain's pleasure center gets hijacked, disrupting the normal functioning of its reward circuitry.

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created May 28, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Research shows temptation more powerful than individuals realize

Whether it's highlighted in major news headlines about Argentinean affairs and Ponzi schemes, or in personal battles with obesity and drug addiction, individuals regularly succumb to greed, lust and self-destructive behaviors. ...

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Aug 03, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (7) | comments 8

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

created Mar 13, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

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

created Mar 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

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

created Sep 30, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

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

created Feb 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Smoking is dumb: Researcher finds link between cigarette smoking and IQ

"Only dopes use dope," goes the memorable warning about drugs. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher cautions that the same goes for cigarettes.

Medicine & Health / Health

created Apr 01, 2010 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (23) | comments 29 | with audio podcast

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

created Oct 05, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Learning addiction: Dopamine reinforces drug-associated memories

New research with mice has provided some fascinating insight into how addictive drugs hijack reward signals and influence neural processes associated with learning and memory. The research, published by Cell Press in the ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Sep 09, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Problem gamblers provoked by 'near misses' to gamble more

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 re ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created May 04, 2010 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (4) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Birds and mammals share a common brain circuit for learning

(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 ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 18, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists seek to manage dopamine's good and bad sides

The good, the bad and the ugly: That's a quick summary of the effects of dopamine, a natural brain chemical that's linked to pleasure, addiction and disease.

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Oct 07, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Cocaine Vaccine Shows Promise for Treating Addiction

(PhysOrg.com) -- Immunization with an experimental anti-cocaine vaccine resulted in a substantial reduction in cocaine use in 38 percent of vaccinated patients in a clinical trial supported by the National Institute on Drug ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Oct 05, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 5