Addiction

A meta-analysis of the effects of current attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder drugs has led researchers to conclude black market doses are unsafe for adolescent consumers.

Patients with mental health disorders are significantly more likely to have used or currently use electronic cigarettes.

A study published in BMJ explains the long-term risks of opioid treatment in the postoperative setting.

What do you crave: food, material possessions, love, attention, sex, sugar, chocolate, drugs, alcohol, praise, or power? For hundreds of thousands of people around the world, the answer is dirt.

Some experts are concerned that efforts to legalize medical marijuana may lead to an increase in the incidence of low testosterone and related conditions such as gynecomastia.

When encouraging and supporting patients to quit smoking, varenicline is unlikely to increase the risk of neuropsychiatric adverse events such as suicide, depression, and aggression, even in patients with pre-existing psychiatric illness.

There has been much speculation about whether the implementation of complex mental health parity rules will actually yield equal coverage of care.

Primary care physicians should be aware of the signs and symptoms of common liver conditions, and incorporate the latest laboratory tests and diagnostic procedures into practice.

When alcohol consumption is a concern, it's better to prescribe antiretroviral therapy in HIV patients than to withhold it, according to a group of researchers at University Hospital of Berne in Switzerland.

In a clinical review published in Clinical and Experimental Gastroenterology, researchers from Iwate Medical University in Japan evaluated the long-term safety and efficacy of the novel serotonin-receptor agonist ramosetron in patients suffering from diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D).

Recognizing that melatonin secretion from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract improves abdominal pain in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) but decreases with age, Polish researchers from the Medical University of Lodz aimed to define the effect of administering melatonin in postmenopausal women with different predominating IBS symptoms.

Achieving safe, effective pain control for inpatients can challenge even experienced clinicians. Components of successful pain control include avoiding pain crises while still steering clear of respiratory depression, being confident with equianalgesic calculations, and transitioning to the outpatient setting.

Researchers claim that restricting dietary intake of fermentable short-chain carbohydrates improves GI symptoms in patients with IBS.

Declaring that the benefits of the original formulation of OxyContin no longer outweigh the risks of misuse and abuse, the FDA announced it would not approve any applications for non-tamper resistant formulations of the drug, a decision that could have far-reaching implications for all makers of opioid medications.

The push to provide better pain care and ensure adequate analgesia for patients living with chronic pain led to liberalized opioid prescription practices that have been accompanied by a massive increase in the abuse, misuse, and diversion of prescription opioids. Efforts to combat this include technological remedies such as "abuse-deterrent" formulations of opioids and educational approaches such as the REMS program approved by the FDA in 2012.

Linzess (linaclotide capsules) was approved in August 2012 by the FDA as a once-daily treatment for adult men and women suffering from irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) or chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC).

"Urine drug testing (UDT) has become a widely utilized tool across many specialties. Although it was traditionally used more by pain specialists due to concerns over prescription drug abuse, diversion, and misuse, it has become something that family physicians and non-pain specialists rely on more than ever..." A Q&A with Joshua Gunn, PhD

A substance used in China as a hangover remedy has demonstrated an ability to prevent alcohol from affecting the brains of rats and may lead to the development of a drug to treat alcoholism.

The most successful opioid treatment programs and the most successful patients in those programs use evidence-based dosing of methadone. Many studies over the last 40 years show patients do better on adequate doses of methadone. They have better outcomes when they're on enough methadone to block physical withdrawal signs and symptoms than when they're on insufficient doses.

Urine drug testing is a commonly accepted component of treating patients with chronic noncancer pain with opioids. But do non-specialists truly understand the tools they are using?

Although a recent study found naltrexone compared favorably to placebo in treating patients for opioid dependence, critics have questioned the results.

Heavy users of marijuana saw a significant decrease in their cravings and daily use after just a few sessions of running on a treadmill.

A drug used to treat alcohol dependence becomes available for opioid addiction.

A new study published in the September 10 issue of Neuropsychopharmacology suggests that teens are more susceptible to becoming addicted to the pain killer OxyContin than adults.

If the results of a Tufts University rat study hold true for humans, the chances are good that obesity will be treated as an addictive behavior in the future.