New Vaccines Meant To Block Drug Highs Could Help Break A Habit Or Keep One From Starting When Charles Schuster developed a vaccine that made monkeys immune to a heroin high, he hoped the work might someday help recovering addicts. But Schuster, now at Wayne State University, wasn't prepared for what happened next. "I began to get calls and plaintive letters from parents all over the world saying please won't you immunize my child so that they won't become a heroin addict," he recalls. The idea of using a vaccine to prevent rather than just treat addiction made Schuster "leery," and he dropped the research. [continues 677 words]
Monkeys Stir Up The Debate About Cannabis Addiction THE question of whether marijuana is physically addictive has been troubling researchers for years-but the latest evidence suggests that lab monkeys, at least, are easily hooked. For the first time, scientists in the US have shown that monkeys will seek out the active chemical in cannabis just as they would with cocaine or morphine. The finding has created an uproar over the implications for humans who smoke pot. Therapists and psychiatrists who treat marijuana dependency are convinced the study will persuade people to take pot's potential for abuse more seriously. "A lot of people think it's not addictive," says Ron Kadden of the University of Connecticut Health Center. "[Users] have been told by treatment professionals and friends that they couldn't really be addicted to marijuana." But Kadden says he recently found plenty of takers when he advertised a programme tailored to treat cannabis dependency. [continues 385 words]
SNOOPY is suddenly gripped by a wave of anxiety. But it's OK, he realises, there's a simple way to feel better-lie with your head in your water dish. "This is hushed up, of course, because it would completely ruin the drug companies," says Snoopy. When one of the speakers at the Mind Aid conference showed the Snoopy strip, the audience laughed. I cringed. I'd gone to New York City not knowing what to expect, but intrigued by the claim that neuroscientists and critics of psychiatry would be debating the biomedical model of mental illness. [continues 454 words]
Chances Are You've Already Had Several Cups Of Tea Or Coffee Today. Does That Mean You're Addicted To Caffeine? And, Asks Nell Boyce, Should You Be Worried About It? The situation was very troubling. Counsellors at the Hazelden Foundation in Center City, Minnesota, a leading drug treatment clinic, had learned that some of the residents were smuggling in an addictive stimulant and sharing it with their friends. This was a clear violation of the rules, but the clinic's staff concluded that they would fight no longer, and rescinded the unpopular ban on coffee. [continues 2351 words]
Can an arthritis drug protect the livers of alcoholics? WITH the help of some hard-drinking mice, researchers have shown how alcohol abuse damages the liver. What's more, they say a drug already on the market could stave off such damage. Alcohol abuse can cause inflammation of the liver, or hepatitis, which eventually leads to scarring, or cirrhosis. Alcoholics with severe hepatitis have higher levels of an inflammatory protein called tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) than alcoholics without liver disease. In the liver, TNF-alpha is mainly produced by cells called Kupffer cells, and animal experiments show that selectively destroying these cells can prevent alcohol-induced damage. [continues 220 words]
A SURPRISE finding in fruit flies suggests that biological clocks may be involved in cocaine addiction. Last year, Jay Hirsh and his colleagues at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville discovered that fruit flies respond to crack cocaine smoke by grooming and walking in circles. Repeated exposure to the drug made the flies respond more dramatically to the same doses, the same kind of "sensitisation" found in humans. This kind of reaction is peculiar to drugs like cocaine. Now Hirsh's graduate student Rozi Andretic has found that flies with broken clocks fail to become sensitised. The researchers report in the current issue of Science (vol 285, p 1066) that flies missing any one of four biological clock genes have a constant response to cocaine despite repeated exposures. "This is not something that anyone would have predicted," says Hirsh. "We still find it somewhat surprising." [continues 115 words]
Just What Is The Link Between Hyperactivity Drugs And Cocaine Use? CONTROVERSY has flared up again over the claim that the drugs used to treat hyperactive children "prime" them to abuse cocaine. The latest studies suggest that drug treatment actually makes children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder less likely to become cocaine users. Children with ADHD---mostly boys---constantly fidget and struggle to concentrate. Their symptoms can be eased by certain stimulant drugs, the most common being Ritalin. But in 1995, brain scans suggested that the distribution of Ritalin in the brain was just like that of cocaine. Since then, researchers have been studying children with ADHD to see if there is a link between drug treatment and later cocaine abuse. [continues 393 words]
A new report rejects American government policy on therapeutic cannabis MARIJUANA can treat nausea, pain, the wasting caused by AIDS and other symptoms, a controversial report paid for by the US government concludes. In November, six states legalised marijuana for medical use following referendums, but doctors generally do not recommend the drug because the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has said that users will be arrested. In 1997, however, the drug control office commissioned a scientific review of the therapeutic uses of marijuana from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the medical branch of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC. [continues 421 words]
SLIGHT genetic variations may make the difference between a person being unlikely to abuse heroin and being predisposed to it. Now researchers in Cincinnati are discovering how small changes in a gene could influence people's tendency to abuse opiates. If it exists, the link between genes and addiction is likely to be easier to pinpoint for opiates such as heroin than for other types of addiction. This is because, unlike alcohol or cocaine, opium works through only one molecular gateway in the cell. [continues 265 words]
SLIGHT genetic variations may make the difference between a person being unlikely to abuse heroin and being predisposed to it. Now researchers in Cincinnati are discovering how small changes in a gene could influence people's tendency to abuse opiates. If it exists, the link between genes and addiction is likely to be easier to pinpoint for opiates such as heroin than for other types of addiction. This is because, unlike alcohol or cocaine, opium works through only one molecular gateway in the cell. [continues 259 words]
MARIJUANA damages DNA as much as tobacco, creating potentially fertile ground for cancers, according to a study of mothers and their newborn infants. Marijuana smoke contains many of the same carcinogenic chemicals found in cigarette smoke, and people tend to hold marijuana smoke longer in their lungs. Epidemiologists have not yet linked marijuana to cancer, but this may be because cancers take decades to develop and widespread marijuana use is a recent phenomenon. Marinel Ammenheuser and her colleagues at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston set out to discover whether marijuana smoke directly damages DNA. Using blood and urine tests, the researchers identified 17 pregnant women who smoked marijuana but did not use tobacco, cocaine or heroin. The study also enrolled an equal number of women who used none of the drugs. [continues 158 words]
