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Monthly Archives: April 2010

Drinking game behaviors among college students: how often and how much?

CONCLUSIONS/SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTION: The present results challenge the assumption that all drinking-gaming practices pose equivalent health risks for gamers. Considering only participation in or level of consumption during DG may not tell the complete story with respect to the health hazards involved with gaming behaviors among college students. PMID: 20465376 [PubMed - in process] (Source: The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse)

Alcohol-related injury and driving while intoxicated: a risk function analysis of two alcohol-related events in the 2000 and 2005 National Alcohol…

CONCLUSIONS: Overall risk appears to increase with increasing volume, but at a given volume level, risk also increases with frequency of high maximum occasions. These data lend relatively weak support for previous findings suggesting that less frequent drinkers who only occasionally consume larger quantities may be at greater risk, and any alcohol consumption appears to carry some risk of these harms

Hippocampal volumes in adolescents with and without a family history of alcoholism.

CONCLUSION AND SIGNIFICANCE: Alcoholism risk factors, such as family history of alcoholism, may differentially influence adolescent hippocampal development for boys as compared to girls. Results suggest that FH does not account for prior findings of reduced left hippocampal volumes in heavy drinking youth. Findings are preliminary, but suggest that future studies examining the effects of alcohol use on the adolescent brain should consider the influence of FH, especially among boys.

Predictors of attrition from a national sample of methadone maintenance patients.

CONCLUSION: Given that extended methadone treatment is associated with improved outcomes while patients remain in treatment, more longitudinal studies using primary data collection are needed to fully explore factors related to retention. For the VA population specifically, further research is necessary to fully understand the relationship between race/ethnicity and treatment retention. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first retention study the authors are aware of that utilizes data from a nationwide, multisite, population of participants in methadone treatment.

The role of patient satisfaction in methadone treatment.

CONCLUSIONS: Treatment programs should consider administering the CEF to their patients at 3 months post-admission to identify patients with low satisfaction scores who may be at risk for prematurely leaving treatment. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: Measuring patient satisfaction during treatment may help programs meet patients’ needs and improve retention. PMID: 20465372 [PubMed - in process] (Source: The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse)

Time to Relapse Questionnaire (TRQ): a measure of Sudden Relapse in substance dependence.

CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: The TRQ may provide a useful self-report measure to discriminate between addicted patients who relapse without forewarning compared to those with a period of delay. Clinical interventions may be targeted towards different relapse styles. PMID: 20465371 [PubMed - in process] (Source: The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse)

Opium and heroin alter biochemical parameters of human’s serum.

CONCLUSION: Chronic use of opium and heroin can change serum FBS, K(+), Ca(2+), UA, and cholesterol. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: This study, one of few on the effects of opium on serum biochemical parameters in human subjects, has the potential to contribute to the investigation of new approaches for further basic studies. PMID: 20465370 [PubMed - in process] (Source: The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse)

Mental Health America Submits Comments On Interim Final Rules For Mental Health Parity And Addiction Equity Act

Mental Health America submitted comments in support of the strong consumer protections included by the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury in the interim final rules they released for the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act…

Study Finds High Rates Of At-Risk Drinking Among Elderly Adults

A new study by researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA has found that more than a third of drinkers 60 years old and older consume amounts of alcohol that are excessive or that are potentially harmful in combination with certain diseases they may have or medications they may be taking…

NTA release national alcohol statistics report

From the National Treatment Agency ( NTA ) alcohol page: 'From 1st April 2008, the Department of Health commissioned the NTA to collect and analyse alcohol treatment data on its behalf using the NDTMS.