Last month, Dr. David Nutt, the UK’s former scientific advisor to the government on drugs, gave 25 British volunteers ecstasy (MDMA) on live TV.
Addiction
‘Cuddle Chemical’ Oxytocin Relieves Alcohol Withdrawal
Oxytocin is best known for its role in creating social bonds, but it may also forge the chains of addiction.
Should States Let Families Force Addicts Into Rehab?
Addiction is a heartbreaking condition for parents and spouses: they watch, often helplessly as their loved one self-destructs, hurting those who care about them most.
Naomi Wolf’s Vagina Aside, What Neuroscience Really Says About Female Desire
The controversy surrounding journalist Naomi Wolf’s new book, Vagina: A Cultural History — an exploration of the brain-vagina connection — has brought fresh attention to the nature and neuroscience of female sexuality. …
Making Choices: How Your Brain Decides
Two distinct brain networks guide our reasoning and the behaviors we ultimately undertake based on those judgments
Can Pro-Anorexia Websites Help Heal Some Eating Disorders?
They’re widely considered harmful and restricted online, but “pro-ana” blogs may provide the kind of social support that some anorexics need to recover
Could an Addiction-Proof Painkiller Finally Be on the Horizon?
New research on a drug that boosts the pain-relieving effect of opioids, while cutting their addictiveness, hints tantalizingly at non-addictive treatment options for pain patients
Preventing Overdose: Obama Administration Drug Czar Calls For Wider Access to Overdose Antidote
For the first time, the drug czar has supported broadening access to naloxone, the life-saving prescription drug that immediately reverses overdoses of heroin and prescription painkillers
Treating Addiction: A Top Doc Explains Why Kind Love Beats Tough Love
Using punishment to try to rehabilitate people who have already suffered years of punishment doesn’t work
How PTSD and Addiction Can Be Safely Treated Together
The vast majority of people with addiction have suffered significant previous trauma, and many people who struggle with addiction suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) simultaneously. But the treatment of these …
A Combo of Existing Drugs Could Treat Cocaine Addiction
Two drugs currently used to treat heroin and prescription painkiller addiction may work together to fight cocaine as well — without causing dependence themselves, according to a new study in rats.
Human Rights Watch: Hundreds of Thousands Still Tortured in Name of Drug Treatment
If we want to end human-rights abuses in drug-detention centers in Asia, we should start by addressing the abusive “treatment” practices being used in our own backyard
How Childhood Trauma May Make the Brain Vulnerable to Addiction, Depression
Childhood trauma has long been known to raise a child’s odds of developing depression and addiction later on. Now, a small but intriguing new study links these risks to specific changes in the brain, finding that disruptions in …
