Alcoholism News

June 26, 2025

Top Headlines

Research Untangles Role of Stress Granules in Neurodegenerative Disease

May 28, 2025 — Scientists found that stabilizing stress granules suppresses the effects of ALS-causing mutations, correcting previous models that imply stress granules promote amyloid ...

Thinking Peers Drink More Drives Risky Behavior

May 21, 2025 — The study explores how social influences, particularly peer pressure, impact substance use -- and misuse -- among young adults. A confidential online survey on alcohol use was given to 524 students at a large public university (not ...

Cannabis Study: Legalization Reduces Problematic Consumption, Particularly Among Certain Individuals

May 9, 2025 — Researchers are investigating how the legal supply of cannabis affects consumption and mental health among participants. In a first academic publication, the study team has now reported on the direct ...

Social Drinking Also a Well-Worn Path to Alcohol Use Disorder

May 6, 2025 — When picturing a 'typical' alcoholic, people tend to imagine a person drinking at home alone. But that focus overlooks the social origins of many serious alcohol ...

Physical and Psychological Symptoms of Ketamine Abuse Revealed in Research

May 4, 2025 — Ketamine addiction is linked to high levels of physical health problems and psychological consequences, with nearly half of those affected not seeking support or treatment, new research has ...

Mindfulness Therapy Reduces Opioid Craving and Addiction, Study Finds

May 2, 2025 — Researchers found that Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) can help rewire the brain's response to natural healthy pleasure, leading to reduced opioid cravings. The findings suggest that MORE could be a promising tool in the fight ...

Remembering the Cold: Scientists Discover How Memories Control Metabolism

Apr. 23, 2025 — New multidisciplinary research shows that the brain forms memories of cold experiences and uses them to control our metabolism. The study shows that cold memories form in the brain -- and map out how they subsequently drive thermoregulation. The ...

A Repurposed Anti-Inflammatory Drug May Help Treat Alcohol Use Disorder and Related Pain

Apr. 22, 2025 — A preclinical study finds that a drug already FDA-approved for treating inflammatory conditions may help reduce both alcohol intake and pain sensitivity -- two issues that commonly co-occur with ...

New Study Finds Surprising Way to Curb College-Aged Drinking Harms -- Without Cutting Alcohol

Apr. 14, 2025 — Researchers have developed and tested an intervention called Counter-Attitudinal Advocacy and compared it to to the well-established Personalized Normative Feedback (PNF) to evaluate their ...

Stress, Depression Factor Into Link Between Insomnia, Heavy Drinking

Apr. 14, 2025 — A new study suggests that perceived stress and depression factor into the relationship between insomnia and hazardous drinking -- perhaps not a surprise. But because the relationship between insomnia and heavy drinking goes in both directions, the ...

Eight or More Drinks Per Week Linked to Signs of Injury in the Brain

Apr. 9, 2025 — Heavy drinkers who have eight or more alcoholic drinks per week have an increased risk of brain lesions called hyaline arteriolosclerosis, signs of brain injury that are associated with memory and thinking problems, according to a new ...

Study Reveals How Alcohol Abuse Damages Cognition

Apr. 2, 2025 — For the first time researchers demonstrate in an animal how heavy alcohol use leads to long-term behavioral issues by damaging brain circuits critical for ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:28pm EDT

Study Identifies Shisa7 Gene as Key Driver in Heroin Addiction

Mar. 27, 2025 — Researchers have found a unique molecular signature and genes in the orbitofrontal cortex associated with heroin-seeking behavior. A preclinical rodent model implicated a gene called Shisa7 as the ...

How Childhood Adversity Shapes Brain and Behavior

Mar. 17, 2025 — Early-life adversity affects more than half of the world's children and is a significant risk factor for cognitive and mental health problems later in life. In an extensive and up-to-the-minute ...

Depressing Findings for Those Suffering from Eating Disorders

Mar. 15, 2025 — New research shows that people with eating disorders are more harshly judged than those suffering from depression, making it much harder for them to seek ...

Stressed Out? It May Increase the Risk of Stroke

Mar. 5, 2025 — Some people living with chronic stress have a higher risk of stroke, according to a new study. The study looked at younger adults and found an association between stress and stroke, with no known ...

Research in Fruit Flies Pinpoints Brain Pathways Involved in Alcohol-Induced Insomnia

Feb. 6, 2025 — Research in fruit flies has identified specific groups of cholinergic brain cells that are involved in alcohol-induced insomnia. This work could ...

Innovative Program Helps Seniors Manage Stress

Feb. 3, 2025 — A new study shows significant long-term reductions in the stress hormone cortisol in seniors taking part in the O'stress ...

Scientists Discover How Genetic Risk for Alcoholism Changes Brain Cell Behavior

Feb. 3, 2025 — A new study may help explain why some people are more susceptible to developing drinking ...

Preclinical Study Finds Surges in Estrogen Promote Binge Drinking in Females

Dec. 30, 2024 — The hormone estrogen regulates binge drinking in females, causing them to 'pregame' -- consume large quantities of alcohol in the first 30 minutes ...

Drinking Coffee May Help Prevent Mental Decline in People With Atrial Fibrillation

Dec. 20, 2024 — A study of more than 2,400 people with atrial fibrillation, who had an average age of 73, found that drinking more than five cups of caffeinated ...

New Evidence on the Relationship Between Moderate Wine Consumption and Cardiovascular Health

Dec. 18, 2024 — Light and moderate consumption of wine is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular complications, according to a multicenter study. The study ...

Propranolol Reduces Tremors in Parkinson's Disease

Dec. 23, 2024 — The standard medication levodopa does not always work against tremors in Parkinson's disease, especially in stressful situations. Propranolol, however, does work during stress, providing insight ...

Researchers 'See' Vulnerability to Gaming Addiction in the Adolescent Brain

Dec. 9, 2024 — Researchers found that adolescents with more symptoms of gaming addiction showed lower brain activity in the region involved in decision-making and reward processing; this blunted response to reward ...

Perceptions of Parent Cannabis Use Shape Teen Attitudes

Dec. 4, 2024 — Teens who think their parents use cannabis are more likely to hold favorable attitudes toward the drug and to consider trying it themselves, according to a new study. The research also reveals that ...

Rats on Cocaine: When Aversion Is Not Enough

Dec. 3, 2024 — Propensity to addiction starts with the very first drug use experience, a new study ...

'I Don't Feel Your Pain': How Alcohol Increases Aggression

Dec. 2, 2024 — Alcohol's ability to increase people's pain threshold is one reason that drinking also leads to more aggressive behavior, a new study suggests. Researchers found that the less pain that ...

Reducing Risk of Opioid Addiction While Alleviating Pain

Dec. 2, 2024 — Increasing the levels of chemicals naturally produced in the body called endocannabinoids may thwart the highly addictive nature of opioids such as morphine and oxycodone while maintaining the ...

How Long Ring Fingers Can Point to a Love of Alcohol

Nov. 26, 2024 — There is evidence that alcohol consumption is influenced by prenatal sex steroids, so experts decided to use a sample of students for their research into the ...

Dopamine and Serotonin Work in Opposition to Shape Learning

Nov. 25, 2024 — Research shows that reward-based learning requires the two neuromodulators to balance one another's influence -- like the accelerator and brakes on a ...

Cocoa or Green Tea Could Protect You from the Negative Effects of Fatty Foods During Mental Stress

Nov. 18, 2024 — New research has found that a flavanol-rich cocoa drink can protect the body's vasculature against stress even after eating high-fat ...

Nov. 18, 2024 — Alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. nearly doubled from 1999 to 2020. The sharpest spike occurred among 25- to 34-year-olds (nearly fourfold), while individuals aged 55 to 64 had the highest rates. ...

How Stress Is Fundamentally Changing Our Memories

Nov. 15, 2024 — In a new study, researchers identify the biological processes behind stress-induced aversive memory generalization and highlight an intervention which could help restore appropriate memory ...

Exposure to Marijuana in the Womb May Increase Risk of Addiction to Opioids Later in Life, Study Finds

Nov. 14, 2024 — Evidence has been growing to suggest that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, poses risks to the developing fetus by impacting brain development. Now a new ...

Stress Is Contagious -- For Animals, Too

Nov. 13, 2024 — What happens to animals when their friends are stressed? Is it possible to document the spread of stress within groups of ...

Researchers Suggest Stress Hormones Explain How Obesity Causes Diabetes

Nov. 12, 2024 — Obesity causes insulin resistance by increasing activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the release of the stress hormone norepinephrine, according to a new ...

Pandemic-Era Increase in Alcohol Use Persists, Research Shows

Nov. 11, 2024 — A new finds that heavy drinking among adult Americans increased more than 20 percent during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and continued for the following two ...

An Individual's Reward-Seeking Strategy Reflects Responses to Nicotine

Oct. 24, 2024 — Individualistic reward-seeking strategies predict responses to nicotine among mice living in a micro-society, according to a new ...

For Heavy Drinkers, Chronic Pain Associated With Alcohol Withdrawal Could Be Permanent

Oct. 17, 2024 — One of the main physical symptoms of alcohol withdrawal is 'allodynia' -- increased sensitivity to mechanical stimuli that are normally innocuous, which is a clinical sign of chronic pain. ...

Students Who Feel More University Connection May Be More Likely to Binge Drink, Study Finds

Oct. 10, 2024 — Mentally healthy college students who felt connected to their university were more likely to binge drink than those who did not feel connected to their university, according to a new ...

Coffee During Pregnancy Safe for Baby's Brain Development, Study Suggests

Oct. 10, 2024 — A new study has failed to find any strong links between drinking coffee during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental difficulties in ...

Arrhythmic Hearts After Excessive Alcohol Consumption

Oct. 9, 2024 — Researchers find cardiac arrhythmias in partygoers who had drunk a lot of ...