Exposure to cigarette smoke in the womb may interfere with the brain‘s reward system, and make children more vulnerable to …
substance abuse
DSM-5 Could Categorize 40% of College Students as Alcoholics
Most college binge drinkers and drug users don’t develop lifelong problems. But new mental-health guidelines will label too many of them addicts and alcoholics.
DSM-5 Debate: Committee Backs Off Some Changes, Re-Opens Comments
The committee responsible for revising the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — psychiatry’s diagnostic “bible” commonly referred to as the DSM — has dropped the inclusion of two …
10% of the U.S. Population Has Overcome Drugs or Alcohol
A new poll finds that 1 in 10 adults — or 23.5 million Americans — has successfully overcome a problem with alcohol or illegal drugs.
Study: Whites More Likely to Abuse Drugs Than Blacks
Black youth are arrested for drug crimes at a rate ten times higher than that of whites. But new research shows that young African Americans are actually less likely to use drugs and less likely to develop substance use …
Viewpoint: Why Dr. Feelgood Isn’t Always Wrong
Dr. Conrad Murray, personal physician to Michael Jackson, is currently on trial in Los Angeles for involuntary manslaughter, two years after the death of the singer — of “acute propofol intoxication” — was officially ruled a …
Why Getting Paid Increases Your Risk of Death
Everyone looks forward to payday. Whether it’s a paycheck from your employer or benefits from the government, the influx of cash to your bank account is always a good thing, right? Not according to the latest research.
Heroin vs. Häagen-Dazs: What Food Addiction Looks Like in the Brain
Is Häagen-Dazs ice cream as addictive as heroin? Or, put another way, is heroin as addictive as Häagen-Dazs?
Psychiatric Mystery: Diagnosing Jared Loughner
It seems clear that Jared Loughner was developing a mental illness in the two years or so before the Tucson killings, but which one?
What Goes on Inside the Brain of a Misbehaving Boy?
When it comes to raising civilized kids there are no hard rules, but there are two things on which most parents agree: Boys are generally wilder than girls, and adolescents are wilder than kids of any other age.
Surge in hospitalizations for prescription drug abuse
New data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows that the number of hospital admissions for prescription drug-related substance abuse increased 400% between 1998 and 2008. The latest figures add weight to concerns about surging prescription drug abuse in the U.S., and were characterized by Gil
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Many doctors don’t feel obliged to report incompetence
More than one in three American physicians say that they do not always feel a responsibility to report colleagues who are impaired or incompetent, according to a new report from researchers at the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital. The findings, published in the July 14 issue of the Journal of the
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For teens, prescription drugs are easy to come by
More then one third of U.S. teens say they can get a hold of prescription drugs—to use for getting high—within just a day, according to a study from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. Among kids between the ages of 12 and 17, nearly one in five said they would be able to access
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