NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children born to mothers who used cocaine heavily during pregnancy do not seem to have lower IQ scores than their peers, although they may have problems with specific skills, according to a report released Tuesday. Placing these so-called "crack babies" in foster care or adoptive homes, however, seems to compensate for some of those problems, the study findings suggest. During the cocaine epidemic in the US in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many experts predicted that children exposed to cocaine in the womb would suffer lasting developmental impairment. [continues 441 words]
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - At least one in four people enrolled in substance abuse treatment programs may experience chronic severe pain, and many use illicit drugs to get relief, researchers reported Tuesday. In the study, 37 percent of participants in methadone maintenance treatment programs and 24 percent of inpatients in short-term, residential drug-treatment programs said they had suffered chronic severe pain. And among these, half of inpatients and one-third of those on methadone maintenance said they self-medicated with illicit drugs and alcohol. [continues 424 words]
NEW YORK - Contrary to many experts' predictions, infants born to mothers who used cocaine heavily during pregnancy do not seem to have developmental delays in early life, new study findings show. During the cocaine epidemic in the US, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many expected that children exposed in the womb to their mother's cocaine use, or "crack babies," would suffer lasting developmental impairment. However, the idea that these children are "doomed at birth" is not consistent with the present study findings, which looked at children up to the age of 2 years, or with previous research, lead study author Dr. Deborah A. Frank of Boston University's School of Medicine in Massachusetts, told Reuters Health. [continues 625 words]
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More than 60% of 19- to 21-year-olds in South Florida have experienced depression, alcohol dependence or some other psychiatric or substance use problem, according to the results of a new study. African-American youth, however, were at lower risk for such disorders than their white peers, researchers report. "Psychiatric and substance use disorders are not rare in our society, even among relatively young individuals," study author Dr. R. Jay Turner, director of the Life Course and Health Research Center at Florida International University in Miami, told Reuters Health. [continues 423 words]
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Some teenagers receiving treatment for marijuana or other drug abuse should be assessed and treated for gambling problems as well, according to the results of a new study. The findings show that a significant number of adolescents getting treatment for drug abuse also had a gambling problem, "yet gambling problems are rarely assessed or treated, even in high-risk populations," study author Dr. Nancy M. Petry of the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington told Reuters Health. [continues 292 words]
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Gone are the days when college students could say "everybody's doing it"--with the "it" referring to drug use, new study findings suggest. Drug use during the college years seems to be declining, researchers report. And drug users are exhibiting distinctly different lifestyle behaviors and values from those of their non-drug-using peers. "It appears that drug use is becoming a little less 'mainstream' and a little more 'deviant' on the campus than it was one or two decades ago," study lead author Dr. Harrison G. Pope, Jr., of Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, told Reuters Health. [continues 330 words]
NEW YORK - Substance abuse programs that use methadone or Levo-Alpha-Acetyl-Methadol (LAAM) to treat heroine and similar addictions will soon be required to undergo accreditation, according to a new federal regulation announced on Wednesday by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The effort is intended to improve the quality and accountability of drug treatment programs. ``We believe that these reforms will improve and set higher standards of care for patients,'' Dr. H. Westley Clark, director of SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), told Reuters Health. [continues 208 words]