Adderall Dangers, Binge Drinking, Oreo addiction, Mollys and Krokodils
Adderall has been called America’s favorite amphetamine, especially among college students …. Its abuse is widespread among young adults, with the capacity to markedly change one’s personality. Binge drinking is also rampant among the college- aged, and has its own set of dangers… Oreo cookies activate the same reward centers in the brain as cocaine. More news about mollys, which can actually be any number of drugs, and the heroin substitute known as krokodil … now making landfall in the US, with harrowing effects. PODCAST.
Brain Immune System and Addiction, VA Prescription Cocktails, Food Addiction
New research is finding that the brain’s immune system may be involved in the addiction process. The VA and the Army are contributing to the pill addiction problem prescribing a variety of drugs The VA often gives “drug cocktails,” a combination of sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medication, an anti-depressant, and an anti-psychotic. And more on food addiction with news that many boys have bulimia. PODCAST.
Gambling, More on Cocaine Research, More on Mollies
A look at gambling … some further comments on Dr Carl Harts research on cocaine addicts and … and more on mollies … whether it refers to MDMA aka as Ecstasy, or some other new psychoactive substances – designer drugs. … proving to have serious health effects and be potentially life-threatening.
Social Environmental Factors in Addiction and new Synthetic Psychoactive Substances
Dr Carl Hart, professor of psychology and psychiatry at Columbia University, has been the focus lately on his controversial research into the social, environmental factors of addiction. Also, a new study from SAMSHA and the UN highlights the increasingly obvious risks of new highly powerful designer drugs including so-called bath salts and K2 or spice. PODCAST
Affordable Care Act and Treatment, Internet Addiction program, Opioid Control Switch
The Affordable Care Act is projected to make addiction treatment to millions more – but do we have the people and facilities to provide it? A new in-patient treatment program for internet addiction opened recently in Pennsylvania, and a new study in the The Journal of Neuroscience on the functioning of the opioid control switch, providing new insights on the molecular process by which opiate addiction develops in the brain and is controlled by the formation of reward memories that link the pleasurable effects of opiates to environmental triggers that induce craving. PODCAST.
E-cigarettes use doubles among students
Use of e-cigarettes by students doubled in 2012, to 1 to 10 in ten, with 1.8 million middle and high school students saying they had tried e-cigarettes in 2012. Health official fear that this might lead to the use of regular cigarettes, as well as concern about the nicotine itself and its addictive qualities. PODCAST