Addiction to a substance, such as drugs or alcohol, can affect many other areas of life. Dependence on a substance can break down relationships, family ties and academic or employment achievement. As a result, those struggling with an addiction are often also struggling to maintain a stable home.

The focus of drug addiction treatment is to not only to reduce drug use, but also to improve social, vocational and educational relationships and success and help the individual to develop a better overall quality of life.

A recent study explored whether using a stable housing as an initiative might impact the results of addiction treatment. The researchers compared methodologies being employed in Birmingham, Alabama and Vancouver Canada.

In the Birmingham method, individuals who have an addiction and are homeless are required to enroll in intensive addiction treatment programs as a prerequisite to acquiring temporary housing.

The meta-analysis in Birmingham of four randomized controlled trials found that drug abstinence was better in the participants that were offered abstinent contingent housing options (58 percent versus 26 percent). However, at the twelve month follow-up period, 36 percent of the homeless group was housed.

In Vancouver, the focus is on treatment using methadone maintenance therapy, addiction counseling and self-help groups, all covered by universal health care.

The study in Vancouver recruited 992 participants with a median age of 42.2 years. Just over a third of the participants were female, and 42.8 percent reported having ever been diagnosed with a mental illness. The mental illnesses ranged from depression and anxiety disorder to hyperactivity and schizophrenia.

At baseline, many of the participants were using drugs at least daily. 43 percent used crack cocaine daily, 10.4 percent used injection cocaine daily and 27.1 percent used heroin daily.

At baseline, approximately 50 percent of the 992 participants had been homeless. 80 of those 495 homeless participants had obtained stable housing by the follow-up. At baseline, there were 497 participants living in SRO hotels. During the follow-up period, 366 remained in this type of housing, and 131 attained stable housing in an apartment or a house.

The authors of the study believe that the results may be partly influenced by the desperate state that individuals find themselves in when they seek treatment for addiction. A person who is at a critical point in a struggle with addiction may seek immediate needs like food and shelter over more permanent, stable housing situations.
 

Exercise may help adolescents and young adults avoid the temptations of cocaine, says a new study. The study, conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, showed that daily physical exercise during adolescence decreases a desire for cocaine in young adult rats.

The study, published in the journal Behavioral Brain Research, was directed by lead author Panayotis Thanos, a neuroscientist with Brookhaven Lab and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Laboratory of Neuroimaging. When the results were evaluated, not only were connections found between exercise and resistance to cocaine, but there was also a gender disparity.

The researchers found that male rats were more able to resist the temptation of cocaine than female rats. Both the control group and the rats who had exercised showed the same disparity between male and female rats. Females exhibited more cocaine preference than males.

Thanos called the study a first step in understanding connections between exercise and substance abuse. It showed that exercise during adolescent years had a significant impact on later cocaine use.

The study shows how exercise works to reduce a desire for cocaine by improving the way the brain processes dopamine, which is linked to experiencing pleasure and reward.

Before the rats were offered drugs, they were placed in a three-chamber dwelling, with two visually distinct compartments and a hallway connecting them. The researchers studied the rats’ preference in room choices.

After examining the rats’ preference in rooms, the researchers began injecting both exercise and sedentary rats with cocaine every other day. On off days, the rats received an injection of saline. After each cocaine injection, the rats were placed in their less-favored chamber of their dwelling. The rats were tested again for compartment preference.

The rats who were exercising on treadmills for five days a week over the course of six weeks were not significantly affected in their room preference by the cocaine injection. Although female rats were more affected by the conditioning, it was significantly less than that of the non-exercising female control group.

Despite the difference in genders, the importance of the study lies in its identification of exercise in adolescence as a deterrent for cocaine use in later life. The findings of the study may be instrumental in organizing strategic drug prevention programs based on physical exercise for adolescents, with an added benefit of reducing drug use not only during teen years but also into adulthood.

There has been an increased focus as of late on the importance of exercise for a healthy lifestyle, especially as first lady Michelle Obama has made obesity in children her mission. Doctors have known for years that a healthy level of activity in life is good for the brain, the heart and the body in general.

Now, new research has emerged suggesting that exercise can also prevent addiction to alcohol and drugs. This research focused on the changes that occur in the brain when a healthy level of physical activity is maintained on a regular basis.

The findings do not suggest that the average person should strive to achieve the “runner’s high” but instead can regularly elevate the heart rate so that the brain’s reward systems kick in and deliver the same benefits that are perceived in drug use.

The idea of exercise as a preventative measure first gained notice when the National Institute on Drug Abuse chief Dr. Nora Volkow learned of a study on tweens and teens and their likelihood to smoke or try marijuana. Study findings revealed that those teens or tweens who exercised daily were half as likely to smoke as their peers who were sedentary. The active youth were also 40 percent less likely to experiment with marijuana.

In her own research and personal activity, Volkow is well aware of the fact that the brain likes physical activity, even yearns for it. Regular activity appears to invigorate neurochemicals that have the ability to not only sense, but also reinforce pleasure. For children, this is second nature. As children get older, their likelihood to exercise or merely get active decreases and active time is replaced by screen time either in front of a television, computer or gaming device.

While additional research into the power of exercise is needed, value in activity is already understood. Many drug treatment programs include exercise as part of the daily regimen to act as a distraction from cravings, although a number of professionals report on additional benefits. One Brown University study captured powerful evidence.

In this study, regular smokers were taken to a gym three times a week as part of a cessation program. Results of this study found that adding exercise to the program doubled the participant’s chances in successfully eliminating their smoking habit. In addition, those individuals who exercised as part of their cessation gained only half the weight of those who quit without exercise.

A few other findings highlighted by the NIDA is the fact that rats with running wheels in their cages were less likely to ingest amphetamines; exercise in humans acts as a mild antidepressant and stress reliever, which can lead to alcoholism or drug abuse; and baby monkeys who do not get enough physical activity in childhood binge drink when they are offered alcohol.

The idea of consistent exercise acting as a preventative tool against drugs and alcohol is one that demands further research to determine just how to apply activity in everyday life. Until guidelines are clearly established, a regular exercise regimen will deliver only good things and should be actively pursued.
 

Within the context of violence against women, substance abuse turns out to be less about coping with current stresses and more about coercion and control from a partner, according to Patricia Bland at a recent training program for workers in the domestic violence field.

While a recent study in Illinois showed that 42 percent of domestic violence shelter visitors there have substance abuse problems, that statistic actually reflects a population without other options when they leave their homes because of domestic violence, as Bland’s research shows. Among the whole population of women suffering from domestic violence, substance abuse is at the same rate or below that of the general population. Substance abuse is not prevalent among domestic violence victims, but more among those with few other options besides the shelter service.

A dynamic speaker, Bland illustrates her points with skits, pulling volunteers from the group, and frequently challenging her audiences’ stereotypes by reversing the expected gender roles of the victims and abusers in her stories. Bland says that the substance abuse problems that some victims of domestic violence do have are tangled together with the domestic abuse issues in the following ways:

• The substance abuse may be encouraged or forced by a partner as a control mechanism
• Many studies have found a significant relationship between the amount of childhood trauma and adult substance abuse
• Women are more likely than men to report initiating substance use to alleviate trauma associated with abuse
• Three-quarters of women in drug or alcohol treatment were also those who had experienced trauma.

An abusive partner may:

• introduce a partner to drugs
• force or coerce a partner to use
• isolate the partner from recovery and other helping resources
• sabotage recovery efforts
• use a drug history as a threat (deportation, arrest, child protective services, custody)
• blame abuse on partner use
• benefit from the lack of services for chemically dependent battered women
• benefit from societal beliefs regarding women and addiction
• benefit from the social secrecy and refusal to talk openly about domestic violence

Adult survival skills that a victim may use in an abusive relationship are complicated by substance abuse in either or both partners and may involve a number of not-so-healthy coping mechanisms. These survival skills may preserve the peace in the short run, but are detrimental in the long run, and include lying, encouraging a partner to drink until he passes out, having sex to placate the abuser and to protect children from violence.

Bland defines domestic violence as “a pattern of coercive behaviors, marked by physical, emotional or sexual abuse used by one person in an adult or adolescent intimate relationship to gain power and control over the other.” She defines substance abuse as “a destructive pattern of drug use including alcohol which leads to clinically significant impairment or distress. Often substance abuse continues despite significant life problems.”

She demonstrates the complex ways these problems intertwine through her theatrical skits. One involves asking a male participant to play the role of the embarrassed female partner whose spouse drinks too much and uses the excuse of being drunk to claim forgetfulness about his responsibilities. The spouse (played by Patricia Bland as the abusive husband) also threatens violence, and uses coercive behavior, such as stranding the partner, and then claims innocence by reason of alcoholism. Bland successfully demonstrates, amid laughter from her audience, that intentionality both precedes and lasts through alcoholic cognitive impairment. One can be drunk without intentionally inflicting violence or threats of violence; conversely, a person can hold onto the intention of inflicting violence, just as he would hang onto his car keys, throughout the cognitive impairment. Slurred speech and staggering physical gait are not connected by alcohol to violent intentions. However, she also explains the link to the risk of greater violence through the loss of self-control and self-monitoring behavior that a fully functioning cerebral cortex provides. In other words, the intention for violence is independent of intoxication, but the will to carry it out or not may be impacted, and worsened, in a state of drunkenness.

Bland explains the stages of alcoholism, including the growing tolerance, and withdrawal symptoms present without alcohol which signal that the person has progressed from abuse to addiction. In the addiction stage alcoholics have a “busted odometer” she says, meaning that they can no longer gauge the amount of alcohol it will take to get a buzz or to black out –either situation is possible each time they have a drink.

At the end of her presentation, Bland brings out a bee puppet, and begins to talk about allergies to bee stings. A few in the audience of domestic violence staff see her metaphor immediately; others come to an understanding of what she is showing more gradually. Bland explains that while drinking alcohol is a cultural norm in many cultures around the world, susceptibility to alcoholism as a disease has much more to do with genetics, inheritance, and body chemistry, resembling an allergy with severe effects more than a moral failing. Those with a predisposition to alcoholism process alcohol differently from those without such a predisposition. About fifteen percent of the U.S. population may have addiction potential, but if one parent has demonstrated alcoholism, the risk factor shoots up to 50 percent for all the children in the family.

Like the bee she uses in her demonstration, she stings our consciences to remember to look at the actions of abuser and abused in any domestic violence situation with both justice and understanding. She skillfully helps her audience to de-link the intention for violence and the alcoholism, and support corrective actions against violence, while retaining compassion for those inflicted with the disease of alcohol and other addictions.
 

Each and every one of us has the potential to be a drug dealer. Many of us may already be one, or may have been one in the past. How can that possibly be, you ask? Well, you may very well be a fine, upstanding citizen with a nine-to-five five job who drives a Volvo, but if you’re not locking your medicine cabinet you are also a drug dealer in the making. Studies show that over eighty percent of abused prescriptions come from the medicine cabinets of loved ones who fail to properly safeguard or dispose of used medication that was validly prescribed to them. Some addicts, like Michael Loverde, even get pills from the medicine cabinets of perfect strangers.

Loverde, a recovering drug addict, recently went on the record and revealed just how easy it is for prescription drug addicts to find their next fix. Although we certainly hear much more about it recent days than in years past (thanks in large part to Corey Haim and Michael Jackson), prescription drug addiction, drug seeking, doctor shopping, and drug-related theft are not new phenomena.

The lifecycle of a prescription drug addiction runs a fairly typical course. In Loverde’s case, it began innocently enough in the late 1990s when a friend who was being treated for cancer offered him a Vicodin after Loverde complained about his shoulder pain. While he experienced positive results from that first pill, it did not turn Loverde into a pill seeker overnight; he also rarely drank and didn’t smoke pot. It wasn’t until he helped himself to a handful after finding a large bottle of the painkiller in a car that he was servicing that the real trouble started. It didn’t take long until tracking down Vicodin became his primary task each day. Although his addiction stopped temporarily during college, it returned full force after graduation.

Because prescription drugs are not as readily available as other types of illicit drugs, addicts must get creative in order to avoid withdrawal. In Loverde’s case, he would fake back pain at a doctor’s office or in the emergency room in order to get a prescription for OxyContin or Vicodin. In order to also qualify for a shot of Demerol, Loverde would lie when asked if he had driven himself to the appointment.

Having run through many of the area doctors, clinics, and emergency rooms, Loverde had to get creative in order to maintain his consumption of prescription drugs. Although drug seeking from doctors is, by no means, acceptable behavior, it was mild compared to Loverde’s next scheme. In essence, Loverde developed a routine in which he scoped out homes for sale in the suburbs around where he lived and stole pills from their medicine cabinets when he was being toured around by a real estate agent. During these showings, Loverde would excuse himself to use the bathroom and would have unfettered access to the homeowners’ smorgasbord of prescription medication. Loverde would also attend garage sales, where unwary homeowners would invite him in to use the loo. During his stint as the “medicine cabinet bandit”, Loverde failed to find a house that didn’t provide some type of medication to feed his prescription drug addiction.

Loverde still remembers the open house he was attending when he realized that he had hit rock bottom. As usual, he had snagged a showing appointment for this particular house by pretending to be a very interested potential buyer. Once inside, however, he stole a large amount of Vicodin from the bedroom, despite the fact that he also saw a pair of crutches and a wheelchair in the room. He was likely stealing from someone who really needed those painkillers. After leaving, he immediately drove to a pharmacy and used the refill on the prescription bottle to get more pills.

By this time, Loverde was taking what amounted to 120 pills every day. Reduced to stealing drugs from the disabled, as well as using up the only available way of quickly replacing the stolen pain medication, Loverde could not deny that he had a huge problem.

Like many prescription drug addicts who do not have ready access to valid prescriptions, Loverde’s Vicodin habit exposed him to problems with the law. He was arrested twice for prescription fraud and forgery and ended up in jail for violating his probation. When the availability of Vicodin dried up he, like many other prescription drug addicts, turned to heroin. Thankfully, Michael Loverde has been off prescription drugs for over five years. He currently runs Family First Intervention, an Illinois certified drug addiction counseling practice

As Loverde’s story shows, it’s not just celebrities who have prescription drug problems. Recent studies by the National Institute of Health (NIH) have shown that over 20 percent of people in the US have misused prescription drugs (i.e., have taken a prescription drug for nonmedical reasons). The most commonly abused prescription drugs include OxyContin and Vicodin (powerful painkillers), Valium and Xanax (anti-anxiety drugs), and Ritalin and Adderall (stimulants used to treat ADHD). More alarmingly, the Centers for Disease Control reports that over 20 percent of students in high school have admitted to taking one of these often-abused medications without a prescription. Local law enforcement encounter “regular folk” addicts every day in emergency rooms, at physician’s offices, and in drug stores.

What’s causing this increase in prescription drug abuse? Experts cite the dramatic increase in the number of prescriptions being written and filled these days. In 2000, Americans filled approximately one billion prescriptions; ten years later that number has quadrupled to nearly four billion. Prescriptions for the most commonly abused medications are written by doctors and psychiatrists alike, for things like sore backs and toothaches. For addicts, these lax medical offices are like candy stores. And that’s not all. Addicts are also able to get their hands on highly potent cancer painkillers, such as Fentora or Opana, even when they are cancer-free. How do they do it? They simply ask their doctor.

Many doctors, however, object to the negative light that the prescription drug problem has shown on the medical profession, insisting that the pills are generally prescribed for legitimate purposes. The problem is that doctors have no control over what patients do with the drugs once the prescription is filled at a local pharmacy. Many doctors and medical facilities take care to ensure that they are not prescribing addictive medication to a drug addict or pill seeker. In Illinois, for example, the new state-wide prescription monitoring program provides a database that medical personnel can use to research an individual patient’s past and current prescription drug history.

No matter how diligent doctors are at making sure that they aren’t prescribing to drug addicts, there is little they can do if their patients distribute the medication to others. People like Loverde’s friend exacerbate the prescription drug problem when they offer up their own medication in order to alleviate the suffering of a friend or family member.

That’s not to say, however, that all patients who are prescribed addictive substances distribute them like candy to others. Instead, addicts get the drugs from less straight-forward methods such as raiding the medicine cabinets of family, friends, or like Loverde, perfect strangers. Due to negligent safeguarding of unused medications in the home, even the most righteous prescription for Vicodin can turn ugly if a drug addict gets his hands on the unused bottle standing forgotten in the medicine cabinet.

Why do we hold on to these old, often expired, medicines? Most Americans see prescription drugs as any other product that they buy in the marketplace – if there is any left over after they have used it, they save it for a rainy day. This hoarding of dangerous medications is a result of a combination of consumer attitudes, including having products readily available in case of emergencies (like batteries or light bulbs), and getting your money’s worth (why throw the bottle of ketchup away if there is enough left for one more burger some day). However, unlike stockpiling batteries or saving ketchup, hanging on to unused medication can lead to tragedy ranging from innocent children getting into medicine cabinets and overdosing to fueling the addiction of family or friends.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=396310

There are a number of things that genetics can be used to determine, including eye color, hair color, health and even your sensitivity to the drinking habits of others. According to a recent Science Daily release, genetics can play a role in determining the extent to which an individual is influenced by social drinking cues.

Such signals can include advertisements, drinks placed on a bar and witnessing the surrounding people consuming alcoholic beverages. Research suggests that an individual’s genetic makeup determines their response to such cues.

For the individual who drinks, alcohol consumption is known to increase levels of dopamine. This brain chemical causes pleasure and makes the individual feel good. DRD4 (dopamine D4 receptor gene) is known to be involved in motivation to seek rewards. Carrying a specific form of DRD4 may be associated with craving caused by alcohol-related cues.

Researchers at the Radboud University in The Netherlands wanted to examine a specific variant of this gene – one that includes seven or more repeats of a certain gene section. The idea was to determine how much of a role this gene plays in alcohol-related cues.

In the process of studying the effects, findings from this study suggest that individuals who carry this specific form of DRD4 have the potential to be more sensitive to the drinking behaviors of others, than non-carriers.

The authors of the reported noted that the 7-repeat of the DRD4 has the potential to increase the risk of extensive alcohol use or abuse when time is spent with peers who also happen to be heavy drinkers.
 

Those dealing with mental health and addiction problems in Indiana may soon be receiving positive news. The state has decided to move these individuals to community-based care. This move is considered to be a significant step toward recovery and the opportunity to build a life within the community.

The Journal Gazette recently reported on this move, noting it is an initiative of the Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA), part of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA). Those involved in the move are expected to benefit from treatment that is considered more appropriate, as well as the opportunity to be closer to friends and family.

The transition of moving these patients is expected to happen at a gradual pace over the next several months and will include both mental health and addiction patients from six psychiatric hospitals. Those patients involved will only be those who can easily transition to the appropriate community settings.

Data from states throughout the nation show an average of 70 percent of mental health and addiction budgets are aimed at community-based services. The state of Indiana currently budgets 50 percent on community-based services.

Those who are able to move the community-based services will be able to live in much less restrictive settings and be closer to friends and family. This move is expected to greatly improve their quality of life. At the same time, such services are a much more effective and efficient way to allocate state funds.
 

Scientists often wonder why some people can recreationally use cocaine, while others easily develop an addiction to the substance. According to a recent Science Daily release, a particular genetic material could play a key role in determining an individual’s vulnerability to cocaine addiction.

Animal studies conducted by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute suggest this finding could offer a new direction for the development of therapies to treat addiction. The molecule, microRNA-212 was shown to control the amount of cocaine animals consumed when it was increased in the brains of test animals.

Paul Kenny, an associate professor in Department of Molecular Therapeutics at Scripps Florida and team leader in this research, noted that this finding could point to why one person may be vulnerable to the effects of cocaine, while another is not.

In this research, the Scripps team found that specific microRNA is shown to have significant control over the individual’s response to the drug. When this molecule is increased in the brain, is provides protection against addictive behavior. A reduction in the same molecule raises the individual’s vulnerability.

A small non-protein coding RNA, microRNA-212 is able to regulate the expression levels of hundreds – potentially thousands – of genes. As a result, this molecule is considered to be a master regulator of gene expression. It is also considered to potentially play a role in complex psychiatric disorders.

The findings of this study suggest that those with a serious addiction problem could possibly have damaged supplies of microRNA-212. It is also possible that this molecule does not function properly.
What the new findings suggest, Kenny said, is that individuals with serious addiction problems may have damaged supplies of this particular non-coding RNA, or the microRNA may not function properly. The development of a molecule that mimics or stimulates the production of microRNA-212 could offer treatment potential.
 

Did you know that whether or not you are likely to give into peer pressure has a lot to do with your genes? According to recent research featured in a Science Daily release, this is a complicated issue for young women.

Conducted by Washington University in St. Louis, this research suggests that a young woman with a predisposition to substance abuse is also predisposed to select friends who smoke, drink or use drugs. This selection actually alters her environment to one that encourages drug use.

In addition, this genetically susceptible young woman with an increased exposure to substance-using friends increases her genetic inclination to use drugs regularly. As a result, her already increased likelihood of substance use and abuse is increased.

In a study of more than 2,000 female twins, researchers sought a link between two types of data: woman who regularly used tobacco, alcohol and drugs; and the women who have friends involved in regular substance use. Identified links showed that genetic vulnerability to regularly use substances is enhanced by an exposure to friends who use substances.

Adolescents will often select peers who share their same interests and will engage in the same behaviors. This study suggests that this peer selection has a genetic basis as one person’s predisposition to regular substance use is directly correlated with the likelihood of selecting friends who use the same substances.

In addition, those genetic factors that influence the likelihood of using drugs will also modify the likelihood of associating with friends who choose to do the same.
 

While some adults feel there is no problem drinking in front of a child, the amount of alcohol consumed within a given period can impact the child in profound ways. In fact, a recent BBC News report notes that almost one third of children in the UK report feeling scared when they see adults drinking too much or when they are drunk.

This finding is based on a survey of 1,234 10 to 14-year olds. The survey was conducted by Childwise for BBC Newsround. Of those children participating in the survey, half had witnessed their own parents drunk.

Nearly half of these adolescents reported they were not bothered by adults drinking, although 16 percent noted alcohol tended to make adults angry and aggressive and 30 percent were scared in such situations.

Rosemary Duff, Childwise research director, noted that this 30 percent who reported feeling scared was what she referred to as a sizeable minority. And, as each generation will take cues from their parents, this population can grow with the next generation.

Duff was also bothered by the 50 percent who were not bothered by drunkenness. She believes this suggests the drunken culture has become ingrained for these children.

In fact, when girls over the age of 11 were asked why an adult would drink until control was lost and vomit resulted, the common response was that such activities were part of a good night out.
The survey also found that 3 percent of children witnessed their parents getting drunk several times a week. Duff views this figure as being quite high, equating to one child in every class of about 30. She believes it is time for significant change.