Spanish study shows drugs' effect on cognition

As well as having adverse effects on people's physical health drug abuse can also affect people's cognition, including their ability to recognise emotions in other people. Researchers from the University of Granada in Spain compared 123 drug users with 67 non users on a variety of different tests. 70% of the drug users showed some type of neuropsychological deterioration, regardless of the type of substance consumed. The study showed deterioration in the drug users' working memory, fluency, flexibility, planning and multitasking abilities. The study also found that drug users had difficulty in recognising negative emotions such as anger, disgust, fear and sadness.

Sexuality, victimization and drug abuse

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have been looking into the links between sexuality, victimization and drug abuse. They studied 34,635 people using data collected as part of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. The study found that lesbian and bisexual women were more than twice as likely to report victimization over their lifetime and as a whole lesbians, gay men and bisexual women reported a greater number of victimization experiences than heterosexuals. Three times as many lesbians as heterosexual women reported childhood sexual abuse. Homosexual men also reported significantly higher rates of childhood sexual abuse, childhood neglect, partner violence and assault with a weapon than heterosexual men. Regardless of sexual identity women who reported two or more victimization experiences had two to four times the prevalence of alcohol dependence, drug abuse and drug addiction as women who reported no victimization.

ADHD kids at greater risk of drug problems

Children with ADHD are two to three times more likely to develop serious substance-abuse problems in adolescence and adulthood. Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles and the University of South Carolina reviewed 27 long-term studies including a total of 10,900 children and following them from childhood to late adolescence and young adulthood. The study found that both boys and girls and children from all ethnic groups with ADHD were more likely to develop a range of problems with substances including nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and other drugs.

Homeless youngsters' drug problems

Compared to other young people homeless youngsters are more likely to start taking drugs at a younger age and to take them more often. However, little research has been done into the specific factors that lead homeless youngsters into drug taking. A team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles looked into this issue in a sample of 156 homeless youngsters, aged between 15 and 25. They found that the youngsters who perceived their health as being worse and who had poorer coping strategies were more likely to have bigger drug problems.

Nyamathi, Adeline ... [et al] - Correlates of Substance Use Severity Among Homeless Youth Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 23(4), 214–222

Misusing prescription drugs - the hidden rural drugs problem

Misuse of prescription drugs could be described as a hidden drug problem. One in eight U.S. teenagers abuse prescription opioids at some point, something which is associated with using cocaine and heroin as well as gambling, increased sexual activity and impulsivity. Researchers from the University of Kentucky analyzed data from 17,872 12 to 17-year-olds who took part in the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Overall there was no difference in illegal drug use between urban and rural teenagers and the rates of usage were similar for cannabis, cocaine, heroin and hallucinogens. However, 13% of rural teenagers reported abusing prescription drugs compared to 10% of urban ones and they were more likely to have used pain relievers and tranquilizers non-medically. Even after taking other factors into account rural teenagers were 26% more likely to abuse prescription drugs. Poor health, episodes of depression and other substance abuse were all risk factors but children who lived with both parents were 32% less likely to misuse prescription drugs.

Jailed parents raise children's drug risk

The prison population of the U.S. has grown from 250,000 in the mid-1970s to about 2.25 million today and it is now estimated that one in eight youngsters in the U.S.  has a father who has done time. Children of fathers who have been in prison are known to be at a greater risk of developing mental-health problems, becoming prisoners themselves, dropping out of high school and being poor and a new study suggests - perhaps hardly surprisingly - that they are at a greater risk of developing drug problems too. Michael E. Roettger, formerly of Bowling Green State University in Ohio and now at the University of Colorado in Boulder looked at data from 150,000 young men and women followed from adolescence into early adulthood as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Half of the young men and 39% of the young women whose fathers had been in jail reported using cannabis compared to 38% and 28% respectively of young people whose fathers had not been imprisoned. Those whose fathers had served time also used the drug more frequently and longer into adulthood. One out of every four young men whose fathers had been in prison had used harder drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine - double the rate of other youngsters. While only 4% of white children have a parent who has been in jail one in four African-American children do so.

Poor drug taking sends people into crisis

In the U.K. people who might previously have been admitted to a psychiatric hospital are now often referred to Crisis Resolution Home Treatment (CRHT) services who decide whether to treat people themselves or send them on to hospital. CRHTs are an expensive service so finding out what factors make people likely to be referred to them is quite important. One factor that leads people's mental health to go downhill is not taking their medication but there has been little research into how this affects referrals to CRHTs so far. A team of researchers from Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Trust and Newcastle University looked at this issue in a study of 172 referrals to a CRHT. They found that 30% of the referrals had not taken their medication properly in the last month. These people were significantly more likely to have a dual diagnosis - i.e. a drug problem as well as a mental-health problem.

Sreenath, San ... [et al] - Medication adherence in crisis? Journal of Mental Health October 2010, 19(5), 470-474

Sober living houses help addicts clean up

People being treated for drug and alcohol problems in the community often experience problems because they still live in an environment where they are surrounded by drugs. One way around this is Sober Living Houses which are alcohol- and drug-free environments. They don't offer any formal treatment services but encourage, or require, attendance at self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous. Residents are free to stay as long as they like and the houses are financed by residents' fees, some of which at least can be payed by welfare. A team of researchers from the Alcohol Research Group in Emeryville, California studied 55 people living in Sober Living Houses. The participants showed significant improvement on measures of alcohol and drug use, arrests and days worked, got into less trouble with the law and did better in the jobs market. They did well as far as their drug and alcohol use was concerned and involvement in self-help groups was associated with reductions in alcohol and drug use.

Polcin, Douglas L. ... [et al] - Eighteen-month outcomes for clients receiving combined outpatient treatment and sober living houses Journal of Substance Use October 2010, 15(5), 352-366

Implant could help heroin users

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles have been studying the effectiveness of implants in improving the lives of heroin addicts. The implants are inch-long rods that sit just underneath the skin on people's arms. They last for six months and release a steady trickle of buprenorphine, an anti-addiction medicine which is chemically-related to heroin but less harmful. The study involved 163 participants, half of whom received dummy implants and half of whom received buprenorphine ones. After four months urine samples showed that 40% of those with the buprenorphine implants tested negative for illegal drugs compared to only 28% of those with the dummy implants. The drug did have side effects such as nausea, vomiting and constipation.

Supervised injections help drug users

Sometimes people who inject drugs are provided with supervised facilities where they can do this on the basis that this allows them to use clean needles and brings them into contact with health professionals who may persuade them to seek treatment for their drug use. One of the places where this happens is Vancouver, in a project called Insite. Researchers from St Paul's Hospital in British Columbia and the University of British Columbia studied the effectiveness of the Insite programme and came up with some encouraging results. Of 902 Insite clients who visited the facility between December 2003 and June 2006 95 reported quitting injecting drug use for at least six months, 78% of whom had recently taken part in addiction treatment. The Insite clients who went into treatment were more likely to have been regular users of the service and to have had contact with on-site addiction counsellors.

You can find out more about this research by clicking on the title of this post.

Gateway to drug problems could be legal pills

Gateway drugs are the less damaging substances people start taking before they move on to more damaging drugs like heroin and cocaine. Traditionally alcohol, cannabis and tobacco have been seen as gateway drugs but new research from the University at Buffalo in New York State suggests that prescription drugs could be just as significant. The researchers interviewed 75 people hospitalized for opioid detoxification and found that 31 of them said that they had first become addicted to legitimately-prescribed painkillers. Another 24 people said that they had become addicted to a friend's left-over pills or had stolen drugs from their parents' medicine cabinet. The remaining 20 participants said that they had got hooked on street drugs. However, 92% of the sample said that they had eventually bought illegal drugs because they were cheaper and more effective.

You can find out more about this research by clicking on the title of this post.

Drug use and suicide

In the U.S. suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in adults between 18 and 65. There is a link between drug problems and an increased risk of suicide but the specific risk factors among drug users are poorly understood. A team of researchers from the Ann Arbor Department of Veterans Affairs compared 854 drug users who killed themselves between 2002 and 2006 and 4,228 drug users who didn't. Of those people who killed themselves 70% did so by violent means such as shooting or hanging themselves or jumping off a tall building. Diagnoses of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were all associated with an increased risk of violent and non-violent (e.g. taking a deliberate overdose, gassing oneself) suicide. People who took drugs from the opium family or who took more than one kind of drug were more likely to kill themselves in a non-violent fashion.

Ilgen, Mark A. ... [et al] - Violent and nonviolent suicide in veterans with substance-use disorders Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs July 2010, 71(4), 473-479

Study backs use of methadone

Methadone is often used as a substitute for heroin in drug-treatment programmes, the idea being that it stops users from stealing to pay for their drug habit and stops them from overdosing, using contamintated heroin and storing dirty needles. Defenders of methadone say that it cuts crime and reduces the danger to addicts while opponents say that drug users are just 'parked' on methadone without moving on to rehabilitation programmes. Researchers from Edinburgh University studied 800 heroin users, of whom 571 were still alive when the research was followed up. The study found that methadone treatment reduced the frequency of drug use and led to a drop in the risk of death by 13% each year. The drug did not prolong the number of years users continued to inject heroin but those who took it led less chaotic lives and lived for longer. Overall the researchers concluded that "suggestions that methadone prescribing should be cut back or confined to the short-term are clearly misplaced and would lead to poorer health for drug injectors."

You can find out more about this research at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_east_and_fife/10558740.stm

Alcohol and cannabis - the earlier they start the harder they fall

Alcohol and cannabis are the most commonly used substances among adults and teenagers in the U.S. and other developed countries. One survey showed that 41, 62 and 73% of Year 8, 10 and 12 students respectively had drunk alcohol with the figures for cannabis smoking for the same years being 16, 32 and 42%. Many programmes for preventing teenage alcohol and drug use aim to delay the age at which people first start using these substances with the hope that this will prevent problems in adolescence and adulthood. However, few long-term studies have followed people from early adolescence to young adulthood in order to examine the effects of early drug and alcohol use. Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York followed 621 people from Year 7 to Year 12 asking them about their drug and alcohol use and then got them to fill out a survey about their lives at 24. The study found that an early start to substance use was linked to a higher incidence of weekly alcohol use in young adulthood as well as more substance-related occupational,relationship and legal problems. The majority of young adults with problems due to alcohol or drug use had first reported having alcohol and cannabis before Year 12. The negative effects of early-onset substance use were strongest in people's social and work lives.

Griffin, K.W., Bang, H. and Botvin, G.J. - Age of alcohol and marijuana use onset predicts weekly substance use and related psychosocial problems during young adulthood. Journal of Substance Use, June 2010, 15(3), 174-183

Sleep, drugs and social networks

Previous research has pointed to a link between poor sleep in children and an increased risk of drug use. Now new research from the University of California, San Diego has confirmed this and also suggests that bad sleep can spread throughout social networks. The study covered 8,349 children between year 7 and year 12 and found that children who slept less than seven hours a night were 19% more likely to take drugs. By mapping the social networks of the children the researchers found that the friends of children who slept badly were 29% more likely to sleep badly themselves. This influence carried on through up to four degrees of separation although it diminished as the connections between people got more remote. Lack of sleep is also linked to behavioural, cognitive and emotional problems and the study recommended that children got an average of between 8 1/2 and 9 1/4 hours sleep a night.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/04/26/sleep-deprivation-makes-teenagers-and-their-friends-more-likely-to-do-drugs/13177.html

Young drug users prefer being high to being healthy

Researchers from Liverpool John Moores University and IREFREA, a European body which researches drug use and its prevention, have been looking into 'recreational' drug use and its impact on people's happiness and well-being. They studied 1,341 16-35 year-olds in nine European cities. Starting to use drugs at a younger age and using them more frequently were linked to poorer life satisfaction and more suicidal thoughts and hopelessness. Younger people who used drugs more frequently placed more value on having fun than maintaining long-term health. People who were homosexual or bisexual were more likely to report hopelessness, suicidal thoughts and dissatisfaction with life and more likely to prefer fun to health. People who had started using cocaine at a younger age were more likely to have thought about killing themselves in the last 12 months.

Sumnall, H. ... [et al] - A choice between fun or health? Relationships between nightlife substance use, happiness and mental well-being Journal of Substance Use April 2010, 15(2), 89-104

Sleep problems and substance abuse

Sleep problems in early childhood could be linked to substance abuse in adolescence. Researchers from Idaho State University studied 386 chidren, gathering information on sleep problems and substance abuse from when they were three to when they were twenty. They found that having trouble sleeping in early childhood - between three and five - predicted a higher probability of having trouble sleeping between 11 and 17, which, in turn, predicted drug problems in young adulthood (18-21). Overtiredness in early childhood predicted problems inhibiting impulsive behaviour in adolescence which was also linked to using more illegal drugs. Overtiredness in childhood also predicted the presence of binge drinking, blackouts and drink driving in young adulthood. It is known that the prevalence of sleep problems in childhood is increasing and in 2006 more than half of secondary-school students in the U.S. reported feeling tired and sleepy with more than 30% saying they had problems sleeping.

You can find out more about this issue at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100405174940.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Drugs and bipolar disorder

People with bipolar disorder are more likely to use drugs than people with any other mental illness yet the effects of drugs on bipolar disorder are not clearly understood. A team of researchers led by Michael J. Ostacher from Massachusetts General Hospital studied 3,750 people with bipolar disorder over two years. Contrary to the researchers' expectations the people who used drugs were no slower to recover from the depressive phase of the illness than those who didn't. However, the people who used drugs were more likely to switch straight from a depressed to a manic state with no period of 'normality' in between.

Ostacher, Michael J. ... [et al] - Impact of substance use disorders on recovery from episodes of depression in bipolar disorder patients: prospective data from the systematic treatment enhancement program for bipolar disorder (STEP-BD) American Journal of Psychiatry March 2010, 167(3), 289-297

Comorbidity - drug abuse and mental illness. Guest post by Susan White

There’s a reason why the human brain is deemed the nerve centre of life, because without it functioning as well as it should, it’s better we are dead than alive. This point was brought home to me stronger than ever before a few weeks ago when an old woman who lived in the same condo complex as I was found unconscious in the toilet of her home. She had apparently been in there for more than three days and emergency personnel had to break down her door and evacuate her to a hospital where she is still in a coma.
The poor woman, in her late 50s to early 60s, was mentally ill. I’ve seen her now and then – she would manage to take care of herself, but she seemed to be all alone. It was only after her tragic accident that I came to know a few more facts about her life – she was a well-known doctor who apparently began to abuse drugs after her only son broke off all ties with her. She lost the ability to think clearly because of the drugs and depression, and with each feeding off the other in a vicious cycle, she lost her mind completely.
Mental illness has long been linked to drug abuse, and combined with loneliness, it forms a potent combination that could bring even the strongest of people down. Comorbidity, or the existence of two or more medical conditions or disorders occurring simultaneously in the same person, is never more obvious as in the combination of drug abuse and mental illness. The drug abuse leads to mental illness or vice versa, or a set of genetic and other factors bring on both mental illness and a tendency to abuse drugs.
The most significant factors that affect comorbid drug abuse and mental disorders are:
· Personal trauma: People who suffer unexpected and sudden trauma are often unable to cope with the stress and resort to using drugs as a way to relieve their depression. Their addiction and loneliness leads to further depression and an increased dependence on the drugs.
· Adolescence: When teens and pre-teens experiment with drugs, it affects their brains more significantly than when adults do it. This is because the brain is still undergoing developmental changes and when it is affected by drugs at this stage, it could lead to mental illness later on in life.
· Genetic factors: Some people are more predisposed to mental illness if their immediate family members have suffered it and if they are substance abusers, or vice versa.
The presence of both mental illness and substance abuse symptoms in a patient can cause confusion when they’re to be treated. Unless they’re in the hands of competent medical personnel who know how to identify the symptoms of each and treat them accordingly, the reactions to illegal drugs could be taken as symptoms of mental illness and vice versa.

By-line:
This article is contributed by Susan White, who regularly writes on the subject of Radiology Technician Schools in Texas. She invites your questions, comments at her email address: susan.white33@gmail.com.

Mixed reviews on UK's drug strategy

In the U.K. the National Audit Office has produced a report into the Government's £1.2 bn anti-drug strategy. It conludes that every £1 spent has brought £2.50 worth of benefit. Between 2004-5 and 2008-9 the number of adults in effective treatment rose from 134,000 to 195,000 and the number of problem drug users completing their treatment free from dependency rose from 6,000 to 15,000. However, of the 12,500 people who entered a programme aimed at getting drug users back into work early only 8% kept a job for 13 weeks or more. The report also criticised the lack of a framework for evaluating the success of the strategy saying that this made it difficult to accurately assess its success.

You can download a copy of the National Audit Office report at

http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/0910/problem_drug_use.aspx