Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly articles from July 2005

Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly archives from July 2005

Medications + counseling: the 'new paradigm' in alcoholism treatment.
July 25, 2005... Alcoholism treatment works, and when the treatment includes medications aimed at reducing relapse, it works long-term, according to researchers. There are already medications currently approved for alcoholism treatment which alleviate...

Prescription narcotics, methamphetamine top list of treatment admissions.
July 25, 2005... New data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) show that admissions to treatment for prescription drugs or methamphetamine as primary addictions increased dramatically from 2002 to 2003. The data serve to...

Substance abuse treatment coverage lags behind mental health: employee benefits.
July 25, 2005... While substance abuse benefits for employees have improved somewhat over the past decade or so, they still lag way behind those for mental health, recent data from the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) National Compensation Survey shows....

Working together to address the myth of "circling the wagons".(From the Field ...)
July 25, 2005... "We have a tendency in the addiction field to circle our wagons--and shoot in at each other." Meeting participants or audience members respond with applause, laughter, nods or all three statements. This scene, at least for me, has played out...

Fentanyl patch abuse leading to overdose deaths.
July 25, 2005... Fentanyl, an opiate analgesic that is 100 times the strength of morphine, is being abused in its patch form, according to a report from the University of Florida's College of Medicine. The patch is prescribed to manage pain over time; it's...

Doctors need more training on prescription drug abuse: CASA.(Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University)
July 25, 2005... Prescription drug abuse is increasing, but most physicians--the people you might think would know the most about these drugs--haven't been trained in identifying the abuse. According to a new report, only 19 percent of physicians have had...

California resumes medical marijuana program.(Briefly Noted)(Brief Article)
July 25, 2005... California has resumed arming medical-marijuana users with identification cards, according to The Associated Press, and the pilot program will expand statewide on August 1. This follows a suspension of the program following a U.S. Supreme...

RAND reports on imprisoned drug offenders.(Briefly Noted)(Brief Article)
July 25, 2005... A recently released RAND Corporation study raised questions regarding the use of the language "low-level" in classifying drug offenses. The report cites initiatives passed by Arizona and California voters, Proposition 200 (1996) and...

Palladone sales suspended.(Briefly Noted)(Brief Article)
July 25, 2005... The Food and Drug Administration has requested that Purdue Pharma L.P. withdraw Palladone (hydromorphone hydrochloride) extended release capsules from the market, citing potentially fatal adverse reactions when the potent pain medication is...

Rosenthal encourages substance abuse screening.(Briefly Noted)(Brief Article)
July 25, 2005... Wyoming's first lady Nancy Freudenthal has expressed concerns about the law allowing insurance companies to deny coverage for injuries related to drug or alcohol use. Freudenthal cited a 1999 Annals of Surgery study reporting that instituting...

MIT settles in student overdose case.(Briefly Noted)(Brief Article)
July 25, 2005... Following the 1999 death of Massachusetts Institute of Technology student Richard Guy, who suffered from a fatal dose of nitrous oxide while in his dorm room, MIT has settled in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Guy's parents, who accused the...

Coming up ...(Calendar)
July 25, 2005... On July 29 at 8 pm EST, Dateline NBC will present a Faces and Voices of Recovery program documenting 16 months in the life of a family dealing with addiction and recovery. The National Academy for State Health Policy will hold its 18th...

In case you haven't heard ...(Brief Article)
July 25, 2005... It's not fortified, but... West coast vintners are leading a growing trend of producing wines with higher alcohol content, some bottles 16.5 percent--up from the average of 12 percent. Alcoholics have always known sweeter wines give a better...

Mothers addicted to meth face losing their children; crisis looms in child welfare systems.
July 18, 2005... "Crack babies" as a term stood for babies who were born to crack-addicted mothers, who with care could develop normally but who required extra services, and who overburdened the child welfare caseload tremendously in the 1980s. Additionally,...

Two studies show disparate triggers for gambling.
July 18, 2005... Studies have found that environmental causes (proximity to casinos) and biochemical causes (Parkinson's drugs) are linked to problem gambling. With little yet known about the links between alcoholism and gambling, or drug addiction and...

Federal grants available for school drug tests.
July 18, 2005... The federal Department of Education has announced the availability of funding for student drug testing programs. This is a $6.5 million initiative that will fund school districts who test students at random, providing that the students...

Senate subcommittee approves $300 million for Drug-Free Schools.
July 18, 2005... The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor/HHS Education has approved a spending bill that would give level funding, with minor increases and cuts here and there, to substance abuse treatment. The big news at the July 12 "mark-up" was...

SAMHSA awards $60 million for SA services to homeless.(Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
July 18, 2005... The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) this month announced 30 grants totaling $59.5 million over five years to provide substance abuse and mental health services to homeless individuals. These grants will...

Coming up ...(Brief Article)(Calendar)
July 18, 2005... The Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America sponsors its Midyear Training Institute, July 25-28 in Phoenix. Training will focus on "The Business of Coalitions." For more information visit www.cadca.org. The U.S. Department of...

In case you haven't heard ...(Brief Article)
July 18, 2005... A 25-year old Portland, Maine native is challenging the Massachusetts Protective Custody Law, a law enacted in 1971 that allows police in the state to take incapacitated people to their homes, a treatment facility or a police station and hold...

Feds plan to use NOMS for quality improvement, not penalties or incentives.(National Outcome Measures)
July 11, 2005... Three years from now, all states must report to the federal government on how well their patients are doing in substance abuse treatment. This information will then be used to gauge how well treatment providers are doing--federal officials...

'HANDS Protocol' for alcoholism treatment to be tested in controlled clinical trial.
July 11, 2005... A secret formula for alcoholism treatment--does this make you suspicious? If so, prepare to be less suspicious--the patented formula is about to be put to a test via controlled randomized trials. The "HANDS Protocol," as the treatment is...

Denial of medical care to addicts and recovering addicts.(From the Field ...)
July 11, 2005... In case there is any doubt that alcoholics, addicts and people in recovery are discriminated against in the provision of medical care, a lawsuit currently before the United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit (Morgan v.Wright,...

Topiramate holds promise for cocaine, alcohol and opiates.
July 11, 2005... Topiramate, an anti-seizure medication, can help cocaine addicts get through the first month or two of abstinence, research has shown. And once they've gotten that far, they stand a much better chance of maintaining long-term abstinence on...

A third of 21-25-year-old drivers drank or used drugs in first year.
July 11, 2005... About one in three adult drivers ages 21 to 25 have driven under the influence of alcohol or drugs during the past year, according to a new report released last week by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)....

Study points out role of cannabinoids.(Briefly Noted)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... One way the brain responds to stress is by releasing natural pain relievers called opioids that are similar to morphine and heroin. Now, new research in rats shows that the brain also responds to stress by another independent process that...

California commissions a statewide gambling study.(Briefly Noted)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... The California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (ADP) last month awarded a $1.4 million contract to the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago to determine the prevalence of at-risk, problem and...

Coming up ...(Calendar)
July 11, 2005... The Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America sponsors its Midyear Training Institute July 25-28 in Phoenix. Training will focus on "The Business of Coalitions." For more information, visit www.cadca.org. The U.S. Department of...

In case you haven't heard ...(tobacco advertising)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... An agreement between states attorneys general and publishers will result in school library editions of Time, Newsweek, People and Sports Illustrated bereft of tobacco advertising, the Associated Press reported. The deal follows a 2003...