Addiction News

April 12, 2025

Top Headlines

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 ...

Cannabis Users Face Substantially Higher Risk of Heart Attack

Mar. 18, 2025 — Marijuana is now legal in many places, but is it safe? Two new studies add to mounting evidence that people who use cannabis are more likely to suffer a heart attack than people who do not use the drug, even among younger and otherwise healthy ...

Why Are Night Owls at Greater Risk of Depression?

Mar. 19, 2025 — Mindfulness, total sleep quality, and alcohol consumption may help explain why people who stay up late have a greater risk of depression, according to a new ...

Latest Headlines

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Study Identifies Shisa7 Gene as Key Driver in Heroin Addiction

Mar. 26, 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 ...

Research Into Alcohol Use Disorder: Imagining Future Events Changes Brain to Improve Healthy Decision-Making

Mar. 3, 2025 — Learning to think more about specific events in the future appears to reduce impulsivity, improve decision-making, and shows potential as a therapy ...

Re-Purposed FDA-Approved Drug Could Help Treat High-Grade Glioma

Mar. 13, 2025 — A study shows that high-grade glioma tumor cells harboring DNA alterations in the gene PDGFRA responded to the drug avapritinib, which is already approved by the United States Food and Drug ...

Does Getting ADHD Drugs Via Telehealth Increase Addiction Risk?

Mar. 5, 2025 — A study of people who started ADHD stimulant treatment via telehealth vs in-person visits shows no difference in risk of new substance use disorders except for young adults age ...

Compound Harnesses Cannabis' Pain-Relieving Properties Without Side Effects

Mar. 5, 2025 — Researchers have developed a compound that relieves pain in mice but doesn't affect the brain, thereby avoiding mind-altering side effects and abuse potential. The custom-designed molecule, derived ...

Novel Research Shows Brain Connections Can Predict Future Substance Use in Adolescents

Mar. 3, 2025 — Adolescent substance use is a significant predictor of future addiction and related disorders. Understanding neural mechanisms underlying substance ...

A New Path to Recovery: Scientists Uncover Key Brain Circuit in the Fight Against Cocaine Use Disorder

Feb. 26, 2025 — Imagine a future where the grip of cocaine use disorder can be loosened, where cravings fade, and the risk of relapse diminishes. A new study brings ...

Continuing Vs. Discontinuing Opioid Medications Prescriptions for Adults With Chronic Pain

Feb. 20, 2025 — With the goal of informing clinician practice, a new study explores the harms and benefits of continuing and of discontinuing the long-term ...

Emergency Clinicians Increase Prescriptions of Buprenorphine, Effectively Help Patients Get Started on the Path to Recovery

Feb. 19, 2025 — In the face of the alarming number of opioid-related deaths in the U.S., there have been national efforts to increase emergency clinician prescribing ...

Brain Waves Measure the Effect of Anti-Alcohol Campaigns

Feb. 7, 2025 — To evaluate the effectiveness of public video campaigns against risky alcohol consumption, psychologists used EEG measurements to examine the synchronization of brain activity in groups of viewers. ...

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 ultimately lead to targeted treatments for ...

New Drug Shows Promise in Reversing Memory Loss for Early Alzheimer's Patients

Feb. 4, 2025 — A paradigm-shifting study shows an experimental drug, GL-II-73, has the potential to restore memory and cognitive function in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. The study demonstrates that ...

Positive Emotions Plus Deep Sleep Equals Longer-Lasting Perceptual Memories

Feb. 3, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered how perceptual memories linked to positive emotions, such as joy or happiness, are strengthened during sleep. The study could help scientists understand the neurological ...

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 ...

Researchers Track Sharp Increase in Diagnoses for Sedative, Hypnotic and Anxiety Use Disorder in Young Adults

Jan. 23, 2025 — The prevalence of diagnosed disorders from recurrent use of sedative, hypnotic and anti-anxiety medications in adolescents and young adults has increased sharply since 2001, according to researchers. ...

Changes in Opioid Use Outcomes After Passage of Medical Marijuana Laws

Jan. 13, 2025 — A new study found no changes in opioid outcomes among the general population with the states' passage of medical and recreational marijuana laws. However, the findings also show decreases in ...

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 after it's offered, according to a ...

Brain Structure Differences Are Associated With Early Use of Substances Among Adolescents

Dec. 30, 2024 — A study of nearly 10,000 adolescents has identified distinct differences in the brain structures of those who used substances before age 15 compared to those who did not. Many of these structural ...

New Study Reveals How Brain Stimulation Improves Cognition, Decision-Making in Mental Health Disorders

Dec. 19, 2024 — Researchers have uncovered important insights that could improve how mental health conditions are treated with brain stimulation therapy -- a treatment where electrical signals are used to stimulate ...

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 ...

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 ...

Trial Shows Alcohol-Mimicking Medication Can Give Laryngeal Dystonia Patients Back Their Voice

Nov. 20, 2024 — Researchers have led a clinical trial of a drug that mimics the effects of alcohol in more than 100 patients with laryngeal dystonia, a neurological condition that causes involuntary muscle spasms in ...

How Next-Day Responsibilities Influence Cannabis Use

Nov. 15, 2024 — A study found that people are less likely to consume cannabis if they had an upcoming activity, which is consistent with other studies, and would reduce use the most for job interviews and caring for ...

Diabetes Medication May Be Effective in Helping People Drink Less Alcohol

Nov. 14, 2024 — New research has found that certain types of medication used to treat diabetes may be effective in reducing alcohol use. The study looked at whether a type of diabetes medication, called GLP-1 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Alzheimer's and Alcohol Use Disorder Share Similar Gene Expression Patterns, Study Finds

Nov. 5, 2024 — By examining RNA in hundreds of thousands of individual brain cells, scientists further support that alcohol use disorder could accelerate Alzheimer's disease progression, paving the way for ...