The Latest News from Our Field

The dramatic rise in the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder coincided with a two-decade campaign by drug companies, aimed at doctors, educators and parents, to promote pills to treat the disorder, according to The New York Times.

Some Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers are beginning to treat substance use disorders and mental illness together, The Columbus Dispatch reports. Until recently, VA hospitals tended to treat the two problems separately.

People who use e-cigarettes indoors may be exposing the people around them to nicotine, a new study suggests. The amount of secondhand nicotine exposure from e-cigarettes is much smaller than from traditional cigarettes, the researchers conclude.

Heavy marijuana use in the teenage years could damage brain structures vital to memory and reasoning, a new study suggests.

Should doctors recommend alcohol as a way to reduce their risk of heart disease? At the recent Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse annual meeting, an expert in heart health and an expert in addiction and primary care medicine came up with sharply different answers.

The Ohio Attorney General’s office is investigating complaints that some people are abusing drugs prescribed for pets, or intentionally abusing animals to obtain painkillers.

A study of female drug offenders in the St. Louis area finds one-quarter report experiencing police sexual misconduct, MedicalXpress reports.

Tobacco manufacturers are raising the prospect of costly, long legal battles against antismoking laws in developing nations, according to The New York Times. The industry is telling these countries their tobacco laws violate trade and investment treaties.

A series of online courses is being offered to help behavioral health providers prepare their organizations to expand in 2014, as part of the Affordable Care Act.

The attorneys general from 28 states are asking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reassess its decision to approve Zohydro ER (extended release), a pure form of the painkiller hydrocodone. Earlier this month, four U.S. senators told the FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg they disagree with the agency’s decision to approve the drug.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced its plans to provide $50 million to expand treatment for substance use disorders and mental health. The funds will be used to hire staff, add services and employ team-based models of care.

Children whose mothers drank during pregnancy are more likely to have problems with social skills, compared with their peers whose mothers did not drink while pregnant, according to a new study.

A bill to legalize, tax and regulate the sale of marijuana to adults in New York state was introduced this week by three state legislators.

States with stronger alcohol control policies have lower rates of binge drinking than states with weaker policies, a new study concludes.

A new study finds smokers who are addicted to methamphetamine or cocaine can stop smoking while they are being treated for their addiction to stimulants, without adversely impacting their addiction treatment.

A new analysis of previous studies involving more than 30,500 smokers concludes smoking cessation therapies do not increase the risk of heart attack or stroke. The study included nicotine patches and gums, as well as the medications bupropion and varenicline.

The Uruguay Senate has voted to legalize marijuana, The Wall Street Journal reports. The law, approved Tuesday, puts the government of the South American nation in control of the distribution and sale of marijuana.

New Legacy President applauds New York, where the minimum age for buying cigarettes has just been increased from 18 to 21, making tobacco products a lot harder for young people to purchase.

The American College of Physicians, one of the nation’s largest medical groups, has released a set of recommendations about how doctors can help reduce prescription drug abuse.

Alaska and North Dakota are the only states that will meet 2014 recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for spending on programs to prevent youth from starting to smoke, and helping current smokers quit, according to a new report by advocacy groups.

Pregnant women who smoke marijuana may increase their risk of stillbirth three-fold, a new study concludes.

An analysis of almost 400 top-grossing movies from 1985 to 2010 shows about 90 percent included at least one moment of violence involving a main character. In 77 percent of those movies, the main character also smoked tobacco or drank alcohol or engaged in sexual behavior, HealthDay reports.

A new study dispels the myth that the most frequent users of hospital emergency rooms are people with mental illness and substance use disorders. This population accounts for only a small percentage of visits, the researchers found.

Four U.S. senators told the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration they disagree with the agency’s decision to approve a pure version of the painkiller hydrocodone, Newsday reports.

The operator of the new Silk Road website, which sells illegal drugs, says he has distributed encrypted portions of the site’s source code to 500 locations in 17 countries. He claims this will allow the site to be relaunched immediately if law enforcement shuts it down again.