FYI: From the Field

Rising depression rates at Canadian universities and around the developed world may point to problems with our modern way of life according to experts and a growing list of studies.

Recent reports describe a sharp rise in the number of students seeking counseling services at universities across the country for help with depression.

Queen's University alone has seen patient numbers triple in the past ten years. Vancouver's Simon Fraser University has added a psychiatrist to its health and counseling services to deal with the problem.

Data for Canada is incomplete, but in the United States the National College Health Assessment of almost 24,000 students found that in 2006, nearly half of the female students surveyed and 36 per cent of the male felt so depressed it was difficult to function at least once in the past 12 months.

In that same time period more than half the students said they had experienced hopelessness. About 10 per cent had seriously considered suicide.

But even with such high numbers seeking counseling, there is some debate among mental health experts about the actual prevalence of depression.

Some experts say there is little past research to compare to so it is impossible to know if the number of people with the illness is actually growing. Others say more people are aware of depression now resulting in more people seeking medical help.

Some also think that people are seeking help for less severe forms of depression than they did in the past.

Overall, however, there is widespread belief that depression is on the rise. The World Health Organization predicts depression will be the second most common disease by 2010.

As for the cause of the increase, research into factors that contribute to depression could offer some explanation.

There is a growing list of studies that establish a link between depression and materialism — a strong attachment to material goods to the exclusion of spiritual or intellectual values.

Recent findings by John Abela, associate professor of psychology at McGill University and director of the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Clinic at the Montreal Children's Hospital, found that children as young as six can be affected.

Abela and his team of student researchers are conducting a study of approximately 1,000 adolescents in Montreal and Shanghai. He found that the rapid change in China's culture and its embrace of materialism has increased depression rates.

"Materialists have a fragile sense of self because their worth depends on attaining external things. The quality of their interpersonal relationships suffers and they feel more stress while pursuing extrinsic goals," Abela said in a McGill magazine.

Psychologist Tim Kasser of Knox College found materialistic children have less self-esteem, less happiness and describe experiencing more signs of anxiety than their peers.

Studies of adults link materialism to poor relationships and unhappiness and researchers at the University of Newcastle, Australia, found materialistic people were more likely to experience anger and depression.

Researchers have also been aware of a connection between depression and increased alcoholism and illicit drug use, but the connection can be complicated.

Depression has been found to lead to drug abuse and alcoholism, but drug abuse and alcoholism can also lead to depression. An unknown host of other factors, materialism among them, may contribute to both.

Basia Pakula, a research associate at Centre for Addictions Research at the University of Victoria, said some people turn to drugs as a way to self medicate, even though attempts may do more harm than good.

Pakula said researchers "frequently see people who have depression or other mental health problems develop substance-use dependency."

Some drug users find the substance helps with problems like depression and that this "function" can lead to addiction, said Pakula.

Does that mean depression is behind the 11 per cent jump in alcohol consumption in B.C. over the last decade? No-one is saying that, but the two issues could be related.

Joseph Rochford, a researcher the Douglas Institute and associate psychiatry professor at McGill, says some people being treated for alcoholism recover after being treated for their depression.

He also said that stress is one of the main contributors to depression.

Rochford speculated that the rise in depression may be partially attributed to changing lifestyles that have eroded people's traditional support networks.

He described families of yesteryear living closer together and neighbors being more familiar and friendly with each other, calling on each other in times of need.

People today are more isolated, he said, leaving them to face the world on their own, which can cause more stress and more depression.

"Neighborhoods aren't as strong as they used to be."

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Reprinted from The Epoch Times

Smokers hitting the road in search of bars that allow them to light up could be responsible for a reported increase in drunk-driving crashes in communities that have implemented indoor-smoking bans.

AFP reported April 2 that researchers from the University of Wisconsin found that drunk-driving crashes increased 12 percent in communities that banned smoking in bars and restaurants.

"Banning smoking in bars increases the fatal accident risk posed by drunk drivers," according to study authors Scott Adams and Chat Cotti. "Our evidence is consistent with two mechanisms -- smokers searching for alternative locations to drink within a locality and smokers driving to nearby jurisdictions that allow smoking in bars."

The authors added, however, that even if the increase in drunk driving is related to the bans it would still have to be weighed against the public-health benefits of prohibiting smoking indoors.

The study appeared in the June 2008 issue of the Journal of Public Economics.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

Researchers say that showing subliminal images of cocaine to addicts triggers activity in the limbic system, a part of the brain involved in emotional response.

In a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), researchers flashed images before addicts for just 33 milliseconds, then used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor their brain activity.

"This is the first evidence that cues outside one’s awareness can trigger rapid activation of the circuits driving drug-seeking behavior," said NIDA director Nora Volkow. "Patients often can’t pinpoint when or why they start craving drugs. Understanding how the brain initiates that overwhelming desire for drugs is essential to treating addiction."

"We have a brain hard-wired to appreciate rewards, and cocaine and other drugs of abuse latch onto this system," noted researcher Anna Rose Childress of the University of Pennsylvania. "We are looking at the potential for new medications that reduce the brain’s sensitivity to these conditioned drug cues and would give patients a fighting chance to manage their urges."

The study was published in the Jan. 30, 2008 issue of the journal PLoS One. 

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

About one-third of pop songs contain explicit alcohol or other drug references, including 77 percent of rap songs and 36 percent of country songs, the New York Times reported Feb. 5. Researchers said the findings are disturbing because teenagers listen to about 2.5 hours of music daily, and the vast majority have MP3 or CD players in their rooms. For every hour of music teens listen to, they are hearing an estimated 35 alcohol or other drug references, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine said.

“Music is well-known to connect deeply with adolescents and to influence identity development, perhaps more than any other entertainment medium," the researchers noted.


Study authors reviewed the 279 most popular songs of 2005. They found that 24 percent mentioned alcohol use, 14 percent referenced marijuana use, 12 percent spoke of other drug use, and 3 percent included mentions of cigarette use. Only about 4 percent contained anti-drug messages.

The study was published in the February 2008 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

Hoping to reduce drug dealing, panhandling, public urination, and other problems, some London stores have stopped selling high-alcohol brews like Tennants Extra, Diamond White, and Carlsberg Special Brew, the BBC reported Feb. 25.

The decision by 25 supermarkets and shops to stop selling the drinks was made in cooperation with the Westminster City Council. "Cheap, super-strength alcohol is aimed at alcoholics, drug users and some of the most vulnerable and needy members of society," said council member Audrey Lewis. "Westminster is not alone in having to deal with the effects of the indiscriminate sale of alcohol, which blights towns and cities around the country."

Council leader Sir Simon Milton called on the U.K. government to develop a national policy to deal with the problem and for the alcohol industry to accept responsibility for its role in the nation's drinking crisis.

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Reprinted with permission from Jo

Unintentional poisoning deaths rose from 12,186 in 1999 to 20,950 in 2004, and the increase is largely being attributed to overdoses on prescription drugs, the Los Angeles Times reported Jan. 26.

Ninety-five percent of unintentional poisoning deaths are drug overdoses; in recent years, prescription-drug overdoses have overtaken cocaine and heroin overdoses as the leading cause of poisoning deaths, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. In fact, a recent spike in prescription-drug overdoses is the cause of the first increase in the nation's injury death rate in 25 years, according to CDC injury-prevention expert Len Paulozzi.

Most overdose deaths are due to opioid painkillers like oxycodone, fentanyl, and methadone. But other prescription drugs also can cause fatal overdoses, such as sleeping pills, antidepressants, and tranquilizers. Overdoses from the latter group of drugs increased 84 percent between 1999 and 2004, the CDC said.

Overall, sales of prescription drugs have increased almost 500 percent since 1990.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

A province in China has recently been cracking down on workers who drink alcohol on lunch breaks, raising protests from bars and the local alcohol industry, the BBC reported Feb. 21.

Henan province in central China has banned government employees from drinking during the work day, and more than 100 workers have been reprimanded for drinking on the job. But that has prompted a legal challenge from the Henan Alcohol Association and lawyer Kang Yinzhong, who says that drinking should be considered a private matter as long as it does not interfere with productivity.

The association plans to petition the provincial legislature to get the year-old ban reversed.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

A province in China has recently been cracking down on workers who drink alcohol on lunch breaks, raising protests from bars and the local alcohol industry, the BBC reported Feb. 21.

Henan province in central China has banned government employees from drinking during the work day, and more than 100 workers have been reprimanded for drinking on the job. But that has prompted a legal challenge from the Henan Alcohol Association and lawyer Kang Yinzhong, who says that drinking should be considered a private matter as long as it does not interfere with productivity.

The association plans to petition the provincial legislature to get the year-old ban reversed.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

Recovering addicts in Glasgow have turned their nightmare experiences of living with drug and alcohol abuse into songs.

Flashback is the first songbook to be produced by the music-therapy group at Gorbals-based South East Alternatives. Francis McGrillen, Kirsty Souter, David Meechan, Alex Kerr, Alex Henderson and Gordon Wilson have spent six months developing ideas, writing lyrics and mastering guitars and keyboards.

Kirsty, 23, has recorded a demo of her song, Broken Mirror Soul, in a music studio and performed in a Glasgow pub. The song is about how it feels to face life sober for the first time, following years of alcohol abuse. Kirsty, who wrote the music and lyrics, said: "Attending the class made me realize not all answers lie at the bottom of a bottle."

Another of the writers, Gordon Wilson, relives some of his darkest moments as a heroin user. His song, Neon Rain, paints a realistic portrait of what is involved in trying to score drugs in Glasgow.

Alex Kerr's The Damage I've Done examines the physical and mental impact of painkiller dependence.

Although the songbook will not be sold in shops, it is hoped Flashback will inspire other project members and help them confront their demons. Tutor Iain McNeill, who hosts the creative sessions at the project, which is run by Turning Point Scotland, said: "The standard of their work is excellent. All six are now doing really well getting their lives back together. The creative development is very important because at some point in the future they might think ‘I'm feeling a bit down. What will I do?’ They might think ‘Instead of using drugs, I could write a song'."

Alex Henderson, 30, said: "I really enjoyed attending the class. Music therapy has allowed me to express my feelings and let me get a lot of stuff out of my head on to paper, which I have found very beneficial."

Since joining South East Alternatives Alex has started addressing his drug problems and getting his life back on track. He has rebuilt his relationship with his son and is now in his third year of an HNC in Social Care.

Mr. McNeill added: "What they achieved is amazing, considering they had never written songs before or played any instruments. We had guitars and a keyboard and they spent a lot of time learning how to play. Once they did they were able to put music to the lyrics they had written."

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Reprinted with permission from Evening Times (Scotland).

Finnish researchers studied more than 4,700 male and female adolescents and their parents, questioning the teens about their alcohol use at ages 14 and 17.5 and querying parents about their current rates of alcohol use and intoxication and alcohol-related problems over their lifetime.

Researcher Shawn J. Latendresse, of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University and colleagues found that parental monitoring and discipline played a stronger role in drinking behaviors among the younger youths, whereas parental drinking habits had a stronger effect on the older teens, who often increased their drinking when parents attempted to discipline them.

"With respect to individual aspects of parenting, our analyses show that parental alcohol use, intoxication, and problem-drinking symptoms are consistently associated with decreases in monitoring and increases in discipline," Latendresse said. "Decreases in monitoring are related to higher levels of adolescent alcohol use at age 14 and more frequent intoxication at both 14 and 17.5. Likewise, increases in discipline are linked to more frequent use and intoxication but only when adolescents are 17.5."

"It is important to note that excessive discipline may actually have the unintended effect of conveying greater risk for alcohol-related behaviors among adolescents as they get older and are seeking a greater sense of autonomy," Latendresse added.

The research was published in the February 2008 issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

 The vast majority of U.S. taxpayers say that youth offenders can be rehabilitated and that failing to do so is tantamount to giving up on their future, according to a new survey and study.

A poll conducted by the Center for Children's Law and Policy found that 70 percent of Americans view imprisoning young offenders without providing rehabilitation negatively, while 90 percent believe that nearly all young offenders have the potential for change.

Americans also say they are willing to pay up to 20 percent more in taxes to rehabilitate young offenders rather than jailing them, according to a research report from the MacArthur Research Network.

"Momentum is gathering across the nation to replace harsh, ineffective measures with programs that address the welfare of young people while preserving safe communities," said Jonathan Fanton, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which funded the survey and study. "The public understands that youth in trouble with the law are not lost, and that working with them to solve problems is a better approach to public safety than just locking them up."

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

A hardscrabble region where employment is often limited to working the mines or working in prisons, Appalachia also has become home to some of the nation's worst addiction problems, the Washington Post reported Jan. 13.

OxyContin first appeared as a drug of abuse in the region almost a decade ago, but experts say prescription-drug abuse is worse now than ever. In western Virginia, for example, 248 people died of overdoses in 2006, a 270-percent increase from a decade earlier.

The region's coal industry is booming, and many addicts -- and former addicts now on methadone maintenance -- work in the mines. Defying common stereotypes, the addiction problem is worst in the region's rural areas. And methadone, an addiction treatment for some, has become the drug most commonly associated with fatal overdoses. Some methadone is diverted from addiction clinics, some from doctors who prescribe it as a painkiller now that OxyContin has fallen into disfavor.

"The abuse and misuse of painkillers is the worst I have seen it in the 16 years I have worked narcotics in this area," said Lt. Richard Stallard, director of the Southwest Virginia Drug Task Force.

Some miners slid into addiction while treating pain associated with years of hard labor, or to numb the stress and fear associated with the job. Drug testing in bigger mines has led many to lose their jobs, but addicts often can still find work in smaller, less-well-paying mines. However, the state of Virginia has been cracking down, last year passing a law requiring drug testing as a condition of employment as well as random testing of miners.

"I can't find nobody to work," said Noah Vandyke, 60, who runs the small Pioneer Coal mine. "The younger generation, you can't hardly find one that will pass a drug test ... Every family in the area has been affected by drug abuse, and it ain't just coal miners."

Some officials in rural Tazewell County want to shut down the region's only methadone clinic, the Clinch Valley Treatment Center, saying that a for-profit company shouldn't be in the treatment business. Clinic director Sterlyn Lineberry says people need to rethink their concept of addiction and recovery. "Are we reducing harm to the individual? Is the person working? Taking care of their family?" she said. "A lot of people in southwest Virginia believe this is a moral weakness, not a public health problem."

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

The decline of the steel industry and the former U.S. industrial heartland -- now known as the Rust Belt -- has left behind poverty, unemployment, hopelessness and drug abuse, the Associated Press reported Jan. 16.

In towns like Aliquippa, Pa., violent drug gangs inhabit a landscape dotted with decaying brick factories. In 10 of 14 Rust Belt cities studied, drug arrests have more than doubled in the past 15 to 20 years.

In Aliquippa, the now-closed Jones & Laughlin Steel Co. mill once employed more than 10,000 people. Since the mill was shuttered, the city has lost more than half of its population. The unemployment rate is 21 percent. In Sandusky, Ohio, drug arrests are up fivefold since the mid-1980s, when the city's two big auto plants began downsizing.

Experts like Rick Matthews, a sociology and criminal-justice professor at Carthage College, said closing factories and layoffs created "a niche in the economy for drug dealing."

"The immediate response is, 'I can make a lot more money swinging crack than working at Wal-Mart,'" he said.

Former Aliquippa police chief William F. Alston noticed that starting in the mid-1980s, police began arresting more and more middle-aged drug dealers, rather than teenagers. "That was a direct correlation to the decline of the steel industry," he said.

"People were not going to accept not having a good lifestyle, so if they had to sell drugs, they sell drugs, if they have to sell their bodies, they sell their bodies, yes," said Timothy Hollins, a former steel worker who has been addicted to crack and alcohol for the past 25 years.

"The American dream ain't here anymore," Hollins said.

The mayors of America's large cities have unanimously approved a resolution stating that the drug war "has failed" and calling for a harm-reduction oriented approach to drug policy that focuses on public health.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted the resolution during its June 21-26 annual meeting in Los Angeles, calling for a "new bottom line" in drug policy that "concentrates more fully on reducing the negative consequences associated with drug abuse, while ensuring that our policies do not exacerbate these problems or create new social problems of their own; establishes quantifiable, short- and long-term objectives for drug policy; saves taxpayers money; and holds state and federal agencies responsible."

Sponsored by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, the resolution states that the drug war costs $40 billion annually but has not cut drug use or demand. It slams the Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) drug-prevention programs -- specifically, the agency's national anti-drug media campaign -- as "costly and ineffective," but called drug treatment cost-effective and a major contributor to public safety because it prevents criminal behavior.

"This Conference recognizes that addiction is a chronic medical illness that is treatable, and drug treatment success rates exceed those of many cancer therapies," the document states.

The resolution condemns mandatory minimum sentences and incarceration of drug offenders, particularly minorities, and called for more control of anti-drug spending and priorities at the local level, where the impact is most acutely felt.

"U.S. policy should not be measured solely on drug-use levels or number of people imprisoned, but rather on the amount of drug-related harm reduced," according to the resolution. The document calls for more accountability among federal, state and local drug agencies, with funding tied to performance measures, more treatment funding and alternatives to incarceration, and lifting the federal funding ban for needle-exchanges.

The resolution, which will be used to guide the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Washington lobbying on addiction issues, passed with minimal debate, clearing two committees and the general assembly by unanimous votes.

"The mayors are clearly signaling the serious need for drug policy reform," said Daniel Abrahamson, director of legal affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), who worked with Anderson's staff to draft the resolution. Daniel Robelo, a DPA legal research assistant, said the resolution could become an "incredibly powerful" advocacy tool for DPA and other drug-reform groups. "While it has no legal effect, it has a powerful symbolic effect," he told Join Together.

Alexa Eggleston, director of national policy for the Legal Action Center, which advocates for increased investment in addiction treatment and prevention, praised the mayors for acknowledging "that alcohol and drug addiction is a treatable medical illness and is supportive of expanding treatment to the approximately 21 million Americans with alcohol and drug problems who need it, expanding effective prevention initiatives in communities nationwide, and fighting discrimination against people with addiction histories by repealing discriminatory laws and policies that prevent them from accessing employment, insurance, and other necessities of life."

But Tom Riley, a spokesperson for ONDCP, called the resolution a "grab bag" of DPA positions and a publicity stunt by proponents of drug legalization. "We don't think it's very serious," he said of the resolution, adding that to declare the drug war a failure "is a slogan rather than a policy proposal."

"Most of the mayors our office talks to consider drugs a huge problem in their communities and are anxious to get more resources for prevention, treatment and law enforcement," said Riley. "I don't know many mayors who are in favor of drug legalization."

Anderson is no newcomer to the drug issue; he has previously called the drug war "phony, inhumane, and ineffective," and his official biography calls him "an outspoken advocate for drug policy reform." He received the DPA's 2005 Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for outstanding achievements in the field of drug policy reform.

Nor is Anderson alone in his harsh criticism of the drug war: Newark Mayor Cory Booker, seen as a rising political leader, recently stated that he's prepared to go to jail to protest a war on drugs that he sees as shackling African-Americans into poverty and feeding crime and murder in his city.

"I'm going to battle on this," Booker recently told the Newark Star-Ledger. "We're going to start this in the gentlemanly way. And then we're going to do the civil disobedience way. Because this is absurd."

Booker says he wants to see nonviolent drug offenders placed in treatment programs and halfway houses, not prisons, and to stop banning ex-offenders from jobs. "The drug war is causing crime," he said. "It's just chewing up young black men. And it's killing Newark."

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

The holidays are the hangover season -- liquor companies estimate they make 25 percent of their profits between Thanksgiving and New Year's. But researchers warn that there is no real cure for the hangover other than limiting alcohol consumption, Newsweek reported Dec. 12.

Veisalgia -- the medical term for the hangover -- is partly a "kind of mini withdrawal" caused by dropping blood-alcohol levels, partly the result of the impact of alcohol on the body, experts say. The worst moments of the morning-after hangover occur when the body's blood-alcohol level hits zero, but the stimulating chemicals released by the brain in response to drinking remain, causing an increased pulse rate, nausea, tremors, and heightened sensitivity to light and sound.

Hangover symptoms also may be caused by the body breaking down alcohol into the toxin acetaldehyde, which causes nausea, vomiting, and other hangover-like symptoms. The chemical can remain in the body even after all the alcohol is gone.

Another contributor to hangovers may be congeners, which are byproducts of distillation and fermentation and are especially prevalent in dark-colored liquors. Methanol is a congener; it is broken down by the body into formaldehyde. Alcohol also is a diuretic, which makes drinkers dehydrated, causing headaches and dry mouth.

Drinking water at a party can help lower alcohol consumption and keep you hydrated; eating, sleep and pain relievers also can help. Some say exercise eases hangovers, too. But experts say that so-called hangover remedies touted in commercials and ads are a waste of money. 

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

European regulators are calling for a suicide warning to be including on packaging for the stop-smoking drug Champix (varenicline), Medical News Today reported Dec. 17.

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) said the warning should note that some Champix users have had suicidal thoughts and attempted suicide. The drug, made by Pfizer, has been on the market in Europe since September 2006, and since then regulators have received numerous reports linking the drug to suicides.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also warned patients about possible links between the drug -- sold as Chantix in the U.S. -- and depression and suicide in a November 2007 alert.

The proposed European warning would state: "Depressed mood may be a symptom of nicotine withdrawal. Depression, including suicidal ideation and suicide attempt, has been reported in patients undergoing a smoking cessation attempt. These symptoms have also been reported while attempting to quit smoking with Champix. Clinicians should be aware of the possible emergence of significant depressive symptomatology in patients undergoing a smoking cessation attempt, and should advise patients accordingly." 

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

The president of Great Britain's Royal College of Physicians said that alcohol education efforts have failed and that the only way to prevent excessive drinking is to raise alcohol prices, ban alcohol advertising, and reduce availability, Reuters reported Dec. 21.

The Royal College's Ian Gilmore joined liver specialist Nick Sheron of Southampton University Hospital issued a statement saying, "To suggest, as producers and retailers do, that increasing the price of alcohol would not reduce alcohol-related harm goes against the evidence and the fundamental principles of marketing -- product, price, promotion, and place."

"How many more lives will be damaged by alcohol in the U.K. before our governments decide to tackle the problem with measures that are likely to work?" the doctors wrote. "This seems justification enough for society to debate what reasonable and evidence based means could reduce the harm caused by alcohol."

A spokesperson for The Portman Group, which represents the alcohol industry in the U.K., said that excessive drinking among adults was declining and that improved product labeling was educating consumers about the dangers of excessive consumption. 

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org

Addiction and mental illness may be so closely related because both affect the brain region called the amygdala, Science Daily reported December 3.

About half of people seeking treatment for addiction or mental-health problems are dually diagnosed. Researcher Andrew Chambers, M.D., of Indiana University and colleagues, seeking to understand the roots of this linkage, studied two groups of lab rats: one with damaged amygdalas, and one with normal amygdalas. The amygdala is involved in fear, anxiety and other emotions.

The rats with the damaged amygdalas were less responsive to dangerous stimuli and were more responsive to novelty. They showed less fear when placed in an elevated maze, for example, and continued to socialize with each other even when exposed to the scent of a predator. Moreover, they were significantly more sensitive to cocaine and seemed more prone to addiction.

The researchers concluded that the damage to the rats' amygdala was the cause of the heightened drug response and their impaired fear response. "Brain conditions may alter addiction vulnerability independently of drug history," said Chambers, who concluded that heightened vulnerability to drugs could explain high rates of dual diagnosis and why such patients tend to respond less to psychiatric medications.

Chambers said that early emotional trauma and genetics may alter the development of the amygdala, "resulting in a cascade of brain effects and functional changes that present in adulthood as a dual-diagnosis disorder."

The study was published in the December 2007 issue of the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

The annual Monitoring the Future survey finds declining use of cigarettes and illicit drugs among 8th-graders that signifies "an ongoing cultural shift among teens and their attitudes about smoking and substance abuse," according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

NIDA said that the 2007 survey found considerable declines in lifetime, past-month, and daily smoking among 8th-graders. Daily smoking rates fell to 3 percent, down from a peak of 10.4 percent in 1996.

A similar percentage of 8th-graders reported past-year marijuana use, down from 18.3 percent in 1996. However, the report found no declines in annual marijuana use among 10th- and 12th-graders.

"We are definitely seeing a decline in substance abuse among our youngest and most vulnerable teens, and we are committed to continuing our efforts," said Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., director of the National Institutes of Health. NIDA director Nora Volkow added, "If this change in attitude is carried with [8th-graders] throughout the rest of their teen years, we could see a dramatic drop in smoking-related deaths in their generation."

The survey reported stubbornly high rates of prescription-drug abuse among students, however, with about 15 percent of high-school seniors reporting nonmedical use of drugs like Vicodin and OxyContin in the past year. Binge-drinking rates among 10th- and 12th-graders also remain high, NIDA said.

Also, the bad news in the report was not limited to older participants: 8th-graders are less likely to perceive drugs like ecstasy and LSD as harmful, and both perception of harm and use of these drugs has increased among 10th- and 12th-graders.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

According to a recent study, recovering alcoholics who opt to completely abstain from alcohol consumption have the best chance of sustaining their recovery, Newswise reported on Nov. 27. However, sustained recovery may be more difficult for young people, regardless of whether they remain abstinent or simply restrict their consumption. 

Deborah Dawson, PhD, a researcher with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and colleagues analyzed data on over 1,700 adults who were previously alcohol dependent, but in some form of recovery at the start of the study. 

Overall, the study found that people in recovery who were abstainers at the beginning of the study were least likely to relapse during the three years reviewed (2002-2005). Fifty-one percent of asymptomatic risk drinkers (people who did not have abuse or dependence symptoms, but who drank more than the recommended guidelines to avoid relapse) experienced a recurrence of alcohol dependence symptoms.

Among low-risk drinkers (drinking at levels lower than those thought to increase risk of relapse), 27 percent experienced relapse, compared with only 7.3 percent of abstainers.

But researchers discovered that abstaining worked best for those over 25.

"The biggest surprise was how little abstinence did to improve the prospects for younger alcoholics remaining in remission," noted Dawson. "To my knowledge, no one has looked at this age differential before."

The study was based on results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions and was published in the December edition of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

Two-thirds of reports of poisoning involving alcohol hand wipes involve intentional use, according to British researchers who said that the sanitary wipes and liquids may pose a hazard to alcoholics.

Researcher Paul Dargan of Guy's and St. Thomas NHS Foundation Trust and colleagues found that poison-control center reports of adult ingestion of alcohol hand cleaners -- both intentional and unintentional -- rose 314 percent between the time that only hand wipes were available and when liquid alcoholic hand rubs became widely available.

All of the cases involved ingestion in hospitals or nursing homes. The most serious cases were those involving ingestion of 500 ml or more of alcoholic hand rubs.

The authors recommended more controls over larger hand-wipe dispensers, such as placing them in locked or secured areas.

The study was published in the Dec. 1, 2007 issue of the British Medical Journal.  

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

The UN has said the "emergency phase" is over in the areas affected by the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in Ukraine in 1986. A resolution has been adopted by the General Assembly in New York. It calls for continuing attention to "Chernobyl-related needs" but also urges a move to the "recovery phase."

A UN official said the body should now focus on rebuilding self-reliance of the affected population instead of treating them as victims. The 1986 explosion spewed radioactive fallout over swathes of the then-USSR - including Ukraine, Russia and Belarus - and many other parts of Europe. More than 330,000 people were forced to leave their homes after the world's worst nuclear accident. Estimates of the number of deaths linked to the radiation leak vary widely, with the World Health Organization (WHO) putting the death toll at 9,000. Experts are still studying the long-term effects on health, especially on children.

Tuesday's UN declaration proclaimed the next 10 years as a decade of "recovery and sustainable development" of the affected areas. It said the focus should now be on helping the communities to reverse the domino effect of poverty, poor health and fear that had hampered growth in the region. The General Assembly also requested the UN secretary general to provide a report on recovery efforts in 2010.

The declaration comes on the back of a report by the WHO which found "the health impact of the accident was much less severe than was initially feared," the BBC's Thomas Lane in New York says. It also said the majority of the affected areas only suffered "low doses of radiation - doses that are close to naturally existing 'background levels.'" This paves the way for the UN to alter its aid structure to the region, namely parts of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, our correspondent says.

Before the UN vote, Cihan Sultanoglu, a UN Development Program (UNDP) official, said that "20 years of treating the residents of those regions as victims has created a culture of apathy." Ms. Sultanoglu said the UN's new role should be "to help rebuild a sense of self-reliance." UNDP officials argue that "lifestyle issues" - like alcoholism and smoking - now pose a greater cancer threat than radiation for many residents in the affected areas. The agency is already involved with various assistance projects, including giving advice and loans to small-scale farmers.

Ms. Sultanoglu said the radiation resistance of several plants - including a rapeseed used in biofuels - held out hope for an agricultural revival. Other UNDP officials suggested that eco-tourism might also help the region, our correspondent says. But they conceded there would have to be plenty of attention to marketing, in order to overcome any "brand stigma" associated with Chernobyl.

Earlier this year, the UNDP made a first shot at this by appointing Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova as a "goodwill ambassador" for the cause.

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Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7105273.stm

Addiction recovery is "a voluntarily maintained lifestyle characterized by sobriety, personal health, and citizenship," according to a draft definition composed by an expert panel convened by the Betty Ford Institute.

Published in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, the draft definition was included in a special section on Defining and Measuring Recovery. Experts noted that while the term "recovery" enjoys widespread use, no clear definition exists.

"Recovery may be the best word to summarize all the positive benefits to physical, mental, and social health that can happen when alcohol- and other drug-dependent individuals get the help they need," according to the panel report. The group noted that while sobriety is necessary as part of recovery, the two are not synonymous.

A hierarchy of sobriety also was proposed, including "early" sobriety (one month to one year), "sustained" sobriety (one to five years), and "stable" sobriety (five years or longer).

Personal health was included in the definition to emphasize the importance of engaging in social roles as well as personal physical and mental health, while citizenship was included to reinforce the need for recovering addicts to give back to their community and society.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

Adult smoking rates have been flat for three straight years, CDC said, and smoking among high-school students has also leveled off or even increased somewhat. About 21 percent of U.S. adults smoke.

"Anytime we are not seeing a decline, it's a cause of real concern to us," said Corrine Husten of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, who blamed cigarette-industry discounts and declining state spending on prevention for the stall. William Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the Bush administration has been "AWOL regarding tobacco control -- doing little or nothing."

Industry discounts have largely offset cigarette tax increases, meaning that cigarette prices have remained relatively unchanged since 2002. Federal tobacco taxes have not been increased in more than a decade, and the Bush administration has opposed raising tobacco taxes to pay for children's health care.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan report worse symptoms of addiction and depression months after they leave the combat zone than when they initially get home, the New York Daily News reported Nov. 13.

Initial screening tests conducted by the Army on returning troops found that 17 percent had signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and interpersonal conflict. But when researchers screened troops again six months later, about a third of the 88,235 soldiers studied reported problems.

About 12 percent of active-duty soldiers and 15 percent of reservists had signs of alcoholism six months after returning from combat, but few were referred to treatment. "It's not unusual for a soldier's body to be revved up after returning from war, so it's not unusual to self-medicate with alcohol," said study author Charles Milliken of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. "The referral rate is too low right now."

"With some problems, such as relationships or if somebody lost a buddy over there, it may be that they're busy enough in combat that they have no time to dwell on it much," said Milliken. "But now that they're back home, some of those things start to be on their mind more."

The study was published in the Nov. 14, 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

Understanding brain chemistry, not building up willpower, is the key to preventing adolescent alcohol and other drug addiction, according to Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA).

The Associated Press reported April 3 that Volkow said that adolescent brains are still developing and react differently to drugs than those of adults. Volkow, a researcher with a long history of exploring the brain circuitry involved in addiction, has been shifting some of NIDA's research efforts toward examining how the brains of adolescents and people who don't become addicted to alcohol or other drugs differ from the brains of those who do develop drug problems. "What is it that makes a person more vulnerable to take drugs or not?" said Volkow.

"Now we have Nora's picture rather than a picture of fried eggs," said Joanna Fowler, a former colleague of Volkow's at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. "We can go beyond that knee-jerk picture of a brain to a real brain... If you can conceptualize (addiction) as a brain disease rather than a moral weakness or lack of willpower, you can more easily bring resources to bear."

Former NIDA head Alan Leshner said Volkow has promoted the idea that addiction "has to be seen as a health issue as well as a criminal or social-justice issue. She has definitely moved neuroscience forward."

Volkow said she always has been fascinated in the brain and issues of free will. She noted that the brain is not fully matured until the early 20s, with the frontal cortex -- the brain's cognitive and reasoning center -- the last to be finished. Thus, for teens, "to stand up and say 'I'm not going to do it' is much harder than (for) an adult," Volkow said.

Brain immaturity may also explain teen risk-taking and why scare tactics can backfire in drug prevention. "It is that notion of 'I dare you,'" she said. "It may be appealing to an adolescent because they are seeking for danger in many instances."

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

For years, parents have been berated in anti-drug ads for their supposed ignorance about the drug-ingesting habits of their children, but a new study suggests that many parents aren't so myopic, after all.

Medical News Today reported Oct. 25 that researchers from the Research Institute on Addictions at the University of Buffalo found that 82 percent of parents accurately identified cigarette smoking by their children, with similar success in reporting the use of alcohol (86 percent) and marijuana use (86 percent). Parents were least successful in determining if their children were using illicit drugs other than marijuana (72 percent).

"This study begins to dispel the notion that parents don't know the extent to which their teens are using cigarettes, alcohol and illicit drugs," said lead researcher Neil B. McGillicuddy, Ph.D. "It seems that, despite a few exceptions, many parents do know the extent of their teenager's substance use. Parents can use this knowledge to help themselves cope with teenage substance use and the resulting stress on the family, as well as to begin conversations with their teen about making changes."

In cases where parental and youth reports of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use diverged, parents tended to underestimate the frequency and amount of their children's drug use. This was more likely to happen with parents of younger teens and among parents who provided less supervision of their children after school, at night, and on the weekends.

The study was published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse.

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The original off-Broadway hit production of "Bill W. and Dr. Bob" is now available on DVD from Hazelden Publishing. The New York Times called this story of the men who pioneered Alcoholics Anonymous "an insightful new play."

The production is believed to be the first devoted to the founders of AA and the early days of the fellowship. "Bill W. and Dr. Bob" ran for 132 performances at the New World Stages Off-Broadway, which prompted media coverage marveling at how well the play was received by the recovery community, as well as those not a part of that fellowship. This moving production tells how Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith created a program for healing for alcoholics that has spread throughout the world, and how their wives, Lois Wilson and Anne Smith, created Al-Anon.

The play was written by Stephen Bergman, MD, and Janet Surrey, PhD. This is "a great American story of two men who, alone, were going to die, but who together found a way to live," Bergman and Surrey said. When they decided to produce the story as a play, they immediately knew it has to be framed as if it were a meeting. "The second thing we knew right away was that this would not be the story of a 'great man,' but rather of a ‘great relationship,' of two people coming together. Neither of them could have done it alone."

The 118-minute DVD is available from Hazelden at http://www.hazelden.org or by calling 800-328-9000.

Begun in fall 2006 to help undergraduates in their recovery from addictive behaviors – primarily alcohol and drug use – the center enrolled 10 students in fall 2007, including six juniors and seniors and four first-year students, said center Coordinator Jack Lavino. Participating students are required to be involved in structured recovery programs and community outreach efforts and meet the academic requirements of the university, he said.

“I’m very excited about this year’s program,” Lavino said. “One thing we are doing this fall is letting our students have more of a role in developing activities for the program, including mentoring new students and increasing our outreach to area high schools.”

The center provides students with needs assessment, academic and housing support, 12-step meetings, addiction recovery education and community service opportunities, he said. It also sponsors two seminars a month on topics like “natural high” sober living, social skills, dating and making new friends. Students also work on semester-long volunteer projects each year as a way to give back to the community.

The CU-Boulder program is based on a model, 20-year-old program emphasizing peer-based support at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Lavino said. The Texas Tech program admits nearly 100 recovering students each year, using its $2 million endowment to support high-achieving students with partial scholarships. 

Lavino said participating Texas Tech students have an 80 percent recovery rate, a 90 percent graduation rate and a collective 3.34 grade point average. 

Now funded by the CU Parent Fund, CU-Boulder’s recovery program would benefit from an endowment similar to Texas Tech’s to operate on a permanent basis and create a scholarship program, he said. “Partial scholarships would give students an added boost,” Lavino said.

CU-Boulder is one of eight universities in the country with student recovery programs. In addition to Texas Tech, they include the University of Texas at Austin, Rutgers University, Case Western University, Brown University, Washington State University and Augsburg College in Minneapolis. The center also is in regular contact with nearly three-dozen recovery high schools in the nation as well as treatment centers focused on teenagers and young adults in Colorado and other states, he said.

The CU-Boulder program also includes weekly “Celebration of Recovery” meetings which are open to all members of the Boulder community involved in recovery and include free pizza, he said. The center also will be sponsoring a weekly bowling night for its students and others on campus looking for sober activities at the University Memorial Center, he said.

“The Center for Students in Recovery is one piece of our overall strategy for addressing alcohol-related issues on campus,” said Jane Curtis, CU-Boulder’s director of alcohol and other drugs program. CU-Boulder offers a range of services to students depending on where they fall on the “alcohol use/abuse continuum” that include intervention programs at Wardenburg Health Center, she said. 

In 2006, CU-Boulder began a research-based intervention effort asking parents to initiate conversations with their children about alcohol and drug use prior to arriving on campus, Curtis said. CU-Boulder also is attempting to involve faculty more in student alcohol discussions and is working with “feeder” high schools to let students know about increased academic standards and student conduct expectations. 

“Studies have shown that up to 38 percent of high school students participate in binge drinking, so alcohol abuse is an inherited problem for colleges across the country. We continue to talk with community members about finding new venues for our students to participate in safe, fun and alcohol-free activities on and off campus,” Curtis said. 

Lavino said, “In this day and age, I think it’s almost a miracle that any college students are living their lives free of alcohol and drugs. The fact that more and more young people are getting into recovery makes this center an important resource on campus.”

For more information, visit www.colorado.edu/healthcenter/recoverycenter/ and www.colorado.edu/alcohol/awareness/index.html.

The New York Times reported Oct. 18 that researcher Linn Goldberg of the Oregon Health & Science University and colleagues compared self-reported drug-use rates at 11 Oregon high schools -- five with random drug-testing, and six that don't require drug testing of student athletes.

"The big thing that people say is you got to give kids a reason not to use drugs, and drug testing is a reason," Goldberg said. "That's not what we found. You can look at testing as a way to catch an early addiction, but as a deterrent, which this study was looking at, we didn't find any evidence that testing was a deterrent."

The authors did not recommend that schools stop drug testing of athletes, but said that school administrators may want to think twice about spending money on programs that may not have the deterrent effect they expect. Goldberg also warned schools against using testing as a substitute for drug education.

"Here's what I see is the big problem: If you put in drug testing and you think it works, then you're not going to put anything else in," he said. "You're not going to care about anything else because you probably feel, 'We've taken care of it.' "

The study was published in the November 2007 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.

In the first three months of the program, 35 cases of suspected overprescription of drugs have been uncovered. The state Medicaid program is analyzing records of prescriptions to 82,900 children under age 5; flagged cases include those where kids are receiving three or more psychiatric drugs or one powerful antipsychotic.

In suspicious cases, health officials are contacting prescribing physicians for further information.

Many doctors question the practice of prescribing psychiatric drugs to young children, saying they are unlikely to display symptoms of mental illness at a young age and that the effect of the drugs on developing brains is unknown. Prior to the 1990s, few children under age 5 were treated with such drugs.

A similar monitoring system set up for Texas' foster-care system led to a quick decline in such prescriptions. "Just the fact that doctors are being asked to get involved in this discussion, they are going to be a little more reflective about what they are doing," said Ted Hughes of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

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Reprinted with permission from JoinTogether.org.