The Latest News from Our Field

Depressive symptoms in problem drinkers often are the result of heavy alcohol intake, a new study suggests.

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill that would strengthen the nation’s mental health care system, and improve access in communities, according to The Washington Post. The bill would require about 2,000 federally qualified community behavioral health centers to provide substance abuse treatment and 24-hour care.

The Colorado legislature is gearing up to debate where to set the limit on how much marijuana can be in a person’s system before they are considered to be driving under the influence, according to The Denver Post.

A new report links acute kidney injury with use of synthetic marijuana. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham say doctors should consider the possibility of synthetic marijuana use in young adult patients with negative urine drug screens who have acute kidney damage.

People view addiction to food in a less negative light than addiction to alcohol or tobacco, according to a study by researchers at Yale University.

Many doctors in the United Kingdom (U.K.) are reluctant to prescribe painkillers, CNN reports. Patients in the U.K. take less than half the pain medication consumed by American patients.

Over the past decade, America has experienced a rampant rise in the number of people addicted to prescription painkillers, heroin and other opioids. We truly face an epidemic, says Dr. Marvin Seppala of Hazelden.

Illegal street sales of take-home doses of liquid methadone, prescribed to treat opioid addiction, are on the rise, according to law enforcement officials in Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.

Relatives of patients who overdosed on painkillers told federal regulators Thursday they want changes on the labels of narcotic painkillers, The Wall Street Journal reports. Pain patients concerned such action could limit their access to the medications spoke against the proposed changes.

The percentage of teenagers who received substance abuse prevention messages from the media in the past year dropped from 83.2 percent in 2002, to 75.1 percent in 2011, according to a new government report.

Deaths caused by alcohol drop when minimum alcohol prices increase, a new study finds. Researchers in British Columbia found boosting the price of the cheapest alcohol by 10 percent led to a 32 percent drop in the drinking-related death rate, Reuters reports.

The ability to legally buy alcohol before age 21 is associated with an increased risk of binge drinking later in life, a new study suggests. The study included more than 39,000 people who started drinking in the 1970s, when some states allowed people as young as 18 to purchase alcohol.

For decades, patients in most psychiatric hospitals were allowed—even encouraged—to smoke. Now state and federal health officials are changing course, and banning smoking in a growing number of these facilities, according to The New York Times.

About 10 percent of young teens with mental illness frequently use alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana, a new Australian study suggests. This substance abuse pattern becomes more common as teenagers grow older.

A bond is growing between the fledging medical marijuana industry and labor unions, Reuters reports.

The rate of smoking for adults with some form of mental illness is 70 percent higher, compared with those without a mental health issue, according to a new government report.

Congressmen from Colorado and Oregon have proposed legislation that would weaken federal restrictions on marijuana, The Wall Street Journal reports. The proposals, which are likely to face stiff opposition, would begin to address the disparity between federal and state marijuana laws.

Marriages in which one spouse drinks more than the other are more likely to end in divorce than unions in which both spouses drink a similar amount, Norwegian researchers have found.

People who mix diet soda with alcohol get more intoxicated, and more quickly, compared with those who use regular soda in their alcoholic drinks, a small study suggests.

Stereotypes about addiction, perpetuated by the media, can be unintentionally reinforced by addiction professionals, according to a New York addiction expert.

Many doctors don’t ask their teenage patients about their drinking, a new study finds. A survey of 10th graders found that while more than 80 percent had seen a doctor in the past year, only 54 percent of them were asked about drinking, and 40 percent were advised about the dangers of alcohol.

The shape of cocaine users’ brains may influence whether they become addicted to the drug, British researchers have found. A smaller frontal lobe is associated with a greater risk of cocaine addiction.

Recovering alcoholics who feel shame about past alcohol abuse may have an increased risk of a relapse, a new study suggests.

Prescription opioid overdoses rose seven-fold in New York City from 1990 to 2006, according to researchers at Columbia University. They found the increase in drug overdoses was due to painkillers. Methadone overdoses remained stable, and heroin overdoses decreased during the same period.

A program that teaches people to recognize and respond to overdoses of opioids can significantly decrease the number of overdose deaths, researchers at Boston Medical Center have found.