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Weakening or strengthening a synapse can have major implications both good and bad. Strengthening can sometimes be beneficial in treating Alzheimer's while at the same time causing drug addiction and contributing to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in other cases. For years, scientists believed that a special calcium permeable subtype of AMPA-type glutamate receptor only strengthened synapses, which send signals between brain cells. But Professor Mark Dell'Acqua, vice-chair of the Dept. of Pharmacology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and his team of researchers found that it also weakened synapses. "It is a major and unexpected finding," Dell'Acqua said. "If these receptors go to synapses for a short time they can promote weakening of those synapses. But if they stick around longer they can strengthen those synapses. In both cases, that strengthening or weakening can be undesirable if it goes too far in either direction such as in...

Conducted by researchers in Queen's School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, in conjunction with Forensic Science Northern Ireland, the project was funded by the Department of Justice's Asset Recovery Community Scheme which uses assets seized from criminals. Published in the Royal Society of Chemistry's journal, Analyst, the new approach will now enable statutory agencies to identify the actual substances contained within the legal highs more quickly, thereby enabling more prompt public health messages to be issued out to communities. In addition, as well as allowing agencies to build a comprehensive and 'live' picture of which drugs are currently in circulation , it is envisaged that the new rapid identification approach will also help speed up related criminal prosecutions. Background 'Legal highs' are substances used like illegal drugs , and have been responsible for a growing number of deaths in the UK over the last decade. Known as ...

"In the last 10 years a number of new stimulant medications have been approved for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, treatment, and the expansion of this market, coupled with the increasing rates of ADHD diagnosis, provides greater availability of these drugs," said lead author Yanning Wang, M.S., who conducted the study as part of her thesis work for a master's degree in the department of epidemiology at the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions and the College of Medicine. "This raises concerns about the possible non-medical use or abuse of these medications." The findings appeared in the December issue of the journal  Drug and Alcohol Dependence . Drugs such as Adderall, Concerta and Ritalin are typically prescribed to help patients with ADHD stay focused and to control behavior problems. When taken incorrectly or without a prescription, the stimulants can increase blood pressure , heart rate and body temperature and decre...

The study, by researchers from University College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science, is the first to examine drinking behaviors in very early adolescence in relation to a wide range of factors that are associated with alcohol consumption in children, such as family, friends and the young person's views about alcohol. The researchers found that nearly 14% of 11 year olds had drunk more than a few sips of alcohol at least once. It is not possible to make statements regarding cause and effect with this sort of study, but the numbers do show a strong association between 11 year olds drinking and their friends' and mothers' behavior. Children whose mothers drank heavily were 80% more likely to drink than children whose mothers did not drink and boys were more likely to report drinking than girls. Children whose friends drank were five times more likely to drink than those whose friends did not drink. It was also found that friends' drinking ...

The research team, led by Psychology PhD student Kirsty Miller, surveyed more than 1000 high school pupils aged 13-17 from the Fife area. The results showed that group identification protects against adverse health behaviour, with levels of identification with family, school and friendship groups predicting the likelihood of teenagers having smoked cigarettes, drank to excess or smoked cannabis in the past month. The paper, published in the  British Journal of Developmental Psychology , looks at adolescent substance use from the perspective of social identity. The researchers asked participants to rate the ties they felt to the three groups. The more groups they strongly identified with, the less likely they were to use tobacco, alcohol or cannabis. The survey found that 14 per cent of respondents had smoked cigarettes, 31 per cent had binged on alcohol and 7.5 per cent had smoked cannabis in the previous month. The figures decreased from 24.1 per cent (for those who had zer...

More than one million people participate in medical marijuana programs in the United States. The study analyzed the extent to which medical marijuana laws and program regulations incorporate accepted medical practice, good pharmaceutical manufacturing practices as established by the FDA, and restrictions on controlled substances. The authors evaluated the strength of the association between the medicalization of each marijuana program and its enrollment rate, and assessed state-specific characteristics such as the number of physicians per capita, the burden of terminal disease, medical marijuana costs, and rates of recreational marijuana use. The study found that laws initiated before 2009, primarily those in western states passed by voter initiative, depart the most from the medical model. The more recent programs in the midwest and northeast typically required years of work at the state level to move from the initial passage of a law to full implementation of a state-licensed m...

"Non-homeostatic eating can be thought of as eating dessert after you've eaten an entire meal," said Kyle Parker, a former grad student and investigator in the MU Bond Life Sciences Center. "I may know that I'm not hungry, but this dessert is delicious so I'm going to eat it anyway. We're looking at what neural circuitry is involved in driving that behavior." Matthew J. Will, an associate professor of psychological sciences in the MU College of Arts and Science, a research investigator in the Bond Life Sciences Center and Parker's adviser, says for behavior scientists, eating is described as a two-step process called the appetitive and consummatory phases. "I think of the neon sign for a donut shop -- the logo and the aroma of warm glazed donuts are the environmental cues that kick start the craving, or appetitive, phase," Will said. "The consummatory phase is after you have that donut in hand and eat it." Parker stud...

Scientists are rather unequivocal on the issue, as it turns out. "Alcohol is probably the worst of all of the drugs in terms of effects on the fetus," said Rajesh C. Miranda, Ph.D., professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. "The data from human studies and from animal models is clear; alcohol consumption during pregnancy causes FAS/FASD, and there is no safe level of consumption and no safe time." That said, binge drinking -- which surveys show to be a common behavior for both men and women -- may be especially risky. It increases the blood alcohol level quickly, which animal models have shown to be likely to cause FAS. "Binge drinking plus the large number of unplanned pregnancies (about half, by some estimates) in this country is a recipe for disaster," Miranda said, "since many women may consume alcohol without being aware of their pregnancy." Fetal alcohol syndrome can certainly be a devastating conditi...

It is known that rodents with high waiting impulsivity, which is the tendency to respond prematurely, are more likely to develop addiction-like behaviors. Researchers at the University of Cambridge, led by Dr. Valerie Voon, mapped the neural correlates of behavioral control using a translational task and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging in order to examine the same type of impulsivity in humans . They found that waiting impulsivity in healthy volunteers is associated with lower connectivity of the subthalamic nucleus with ventral striatum and subgenual cingulate , brain regions similarly implicated in rodent studies. In a second set of studies, they show that binge drinkers display elevated impulsivity and that both binge drinkers and individuals with alcohol use disorders have reduced subthalamic nucleus connectivity. "The same connections are impaired in alcohol misuse across social drinkers, binge drinkers and alcohol dependent subjects," explaine...

The research by three criminologists in UT Dallas' School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences (EPPS) discovered that students who were bullied in third grade did not have a greater risk of using drugs or alcohol by ninth grade. But the researchers found that children who had experienced the highest level of victimization smoked cigarettes or used alcohol at higher rates than high school peers. The study noted that experimentation with drugs and alcohol is common among adolescents regardless of whether they had been bullied. "The findings speak to the necessity of continuing to encourage meaningful substance use prevention programs during adolescence and making sure students have the resilience skills necessary to stay away from substances," said Dr. Nadine Connell, assistant professor of criminologyand lead author of the study. "Early in-school victimization may, however, have other consequences that should be explored." The study, published in th...