Addiction News

December 29, 2025

Top Headlines

ADHD Drugs Don’t Work the Way We Thought

Dec. 29, 2025 ADHD stimulants appear to work less by sharpening focus and more by waking up the brain. Brain scans revealed that these medications activate reward and alertness systems, helping children stay interested in tasks they would normally avoid. The ...

Young Adults Are Using Cannabis to Sleep at Alarming Rates

Dec. 18, 2025 More than 20% of young adults say they use cannabis or alcohol to fall asleep, with cannabis leading by a wide margin. Researchers warn this strategy can backfire, disrupting sleep quality and increasing the risk of long-term sleep and substance-use ...

Her Food Cravings Vanished on Mounjaro Then Roared Back

Dec. 8, 2025 Deep-brain recordings showed that Mounjaro and Zepbound briefly shut down the craving circuits linked to food noise in a patient with severe obesity. Her obsessive thoughts about food disappeared as the medication quieted the nucleus accumbens, the ...

Blocking One Enzyme May Break the Link Between Alcohol and Liver Disease

Nov. 18, 2025 Scientists discovered that alcohol activates a sugar-producing pathway in the body, creating fructose that may reinforce addictive drinking. The enzyme responsible, KHK, appears to drive both alcohol cravings and liver injury. When this enzyme was ...

Weight-loss Drugs Like Ozempic May Also Curb Drug and Alcohol Addiction

Oct. 26, 2025 GLP-1 drugs, originally developed for diabetes and obesity, may also curb addictive behaviors by acting on reward circuits in the brain. Early trials show reductions in alcohol intake, opioid seeking, and nicotine use. Though more research is ...

Your DNA May Shape How You Use Cannabis

Oct. 20, 2025 A major collaboration between UC San Diego and 23andMe identified genes that shape cannabis use behaviors. The study linked the CADM2 and GRM3 genes to cannabis use and connected these patterns to more than 100 traits across mental and physical ...

Scientists Find Brain Circuit That Traps Alcohol Users in the Vicious Cycle of Addiction

Oct. 7, 2025 Addiction often isn’t about chasing pleasure—it’s about escaping pain. Researchers at Scripps Research have discovered that a tiny brain region called the paraventricular nucleus of the ...

Think Light Drinking Protects Your Brain? Think Again

Oct. 4, 2025 A massive new study combining observational and genetic data overturns the long-held belief that light drinking protects the brain. Researchers found that dementia risk rises in direct proportion to alcohol consumption, with no safe level ...

Cannabis for Coping? Why It May Trigger Paranoia

Aug. 28, 2025 Using cannabis to self-medicate comes with hidden dangers—new research shows these users face higher paranoia and consume more THC. Childhood trauma further amplifies the risks, especially emotional abuse, which strongly predicts ...

People with Eating Disorders Say Cannabis and Psychedelics Help More Than Antidepressants

July 24, 2025 A massive global survey has revealed that people with eating disorders often turn to cannabis and psychedelics like magic mushrooms and LSD to ease their symptoms, rating them more effective than ...

Brain Food Fight: Rutgers Maps the Hidden Switch That Turns Cravings on and Off

June 14, 2025 Rutgers scientists have uncovered a tug-of-war inside the brain between hunger and satiety, revealing two newly mapped neural circuits that battle over when to eat and when to stop. These findings ...

Cannabis Use Among Seniors Surges 46% in Two Years--Study Reveals

June 7, 2025 Cannabis use among older Americans has climbed dramatically, with 7% of adults 65 and older now reporting recent use. This rise isn't just in numbers but also in diversity older users today are more likely to be women, college-educated, and ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:39am EST

Why Some People Keep Making the Same Bad Decisions

Dec. 26, 2025 Everyday sights and sounds quietly shape the choices people make, often without them realizing it. New research suggests that some individuals become especially influenced by these environmental ...

New Research Reveals How Everyday Cues Secretly Shape Your Habits

Dec. 10, 2025 Researchers uncovered how shifting levels of a brain protein called KCC2 can reshape the way cues become linked with rewards, sometimes making habits form more quickly or more powerfully than ...

Smoking Cannabis With Tobacco May Disrupt the Brain’s “bliss Molecule”

Nov. 15, 2025 Scientists found that people who use both cannabis and tobacco show a distinct brain pattern tied to mood and stress regulation. Their scans revealed ...

Why Gen X Women Can’t Stop Eating Ultra-Processed Foods

Sep. 29, 2025 Researchers found that middle-aged adults, especially women, are far more likely to be addicted to ultra-processed foods than older generations. Marketing of diet-focused processed foods in the 1980s ...

How the Brain Decides Which Moments You’ll Never Forget

Sep. 27, 2025 Boston University researchers found that ordinary moments can gain staying power if they’re connected to significant emotional events. Using studies with hundreds of participants, they showed that ...

Record High: Study Finds Growing Cannabis Use Among Older Adults

June 3, 2025 Marijuana use among older adults in the US has reached a new high, with 7 percent of adults aged 65 and over who report using it in the past month, according to a recent ...

Sustained in the Brain: How Lasting Emotions Arise from Brief Stimuli, in Humans and Mice

May 29, 2025 Humans and mice share persistent brain-activity patterns in response to adverse sensory experience, scientists find, opening a window to our emotions ...

Whether It's Smoking or Edibles, Marijuana Can Be Bad for Your Heart, Study Suggests

May 28, 2025 A new study finds that chronic cannabis use -- whether it's smoked or consumed in edible form -- is associated with significant cardiovascular ...

Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms More Common Among Long-Term Users

May 26, 2025 People who have been taking antidepressants for more than two years are substantially more likely to experience withdrawal symptoms compared to short-term users when they come off the medication, ...

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 ...

Experimental Painkiller Could Outsmart Opioids -- Without the High

May 19, 2025 A breakthrough drug from Duke University, SBI-810, promises strong pain relief without the pitfalls of opioids. Unlike traditional painkillers that trigger multiple brain pathways—and often ...

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

May 7, 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 ...

Study Links Childhood Trauma to Increased Substance Use and Unexpected Effects on Heart Rate and Blood Pressure in Adolescents

Apr. 30, 2025 Childhood trauma significantly increases the likelihood of engaging in harmful alcohol consumption, smoking and illicit drug use, by the age of ...

Mindfulness Therapy Reduces Opioid Craving and Addiction, Study Finds

Apr. 30, 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 ...

Machine Learning Brings New Insights to Cell's Role in Addiction, Relapse

Apr. 30, 2025 Researchers have applied object recognition technology to track changes in brain cell structure and provide new insights into how the brain responds to heroin use, withdrawal and ...

Physical and Psychological Symptoms of Ketamine Abuse Revealed in Research

Apr. 28, 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 ...

Dangerous Synthetic Opioids and Animal Sedatives Found in Wastewater

Apr. 28, 2025 Scientists have developed a highly sensitive method to detect illegal opioids and a veterinary sedative in Australia's wastewater system, providing a vital early warning tool to public health ...

The Effects of Smoking, Drinking and Lack of Exercise Are Felt by the Age of 36, New Research Indicates

May 1, 2025 Bad habits such as smoking, heavy drinking and lack of exercise must be tackled as early as possible to boost the odds of a happy and healthy old ...

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 ...

How Dopamine Helps Us Learn to Avoid Bad Outcomes

Apr. 22, 2025 Dopamine is the brain's motivational spark, driving us to chase what feels good, say scrolling another reel on social media, and steer clear of what doesn't, like touching a hot stove. But ...

More Americans Are Using Psilocybin -- Especially Those With Mental Health Conditions, Study Shows

Apr. 21, 2025 Use of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic chemical found in what is known as 'magic mushrooms,' has increased significantly nationwide since 2019, according to a new ...

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 ...

Brain Study Increases Understanding of What Triggers Drug Use Relapse

Apr. 10, 2025 Research on the biological basis of addiction has found that the critical epigenetic enzyme histone deacetylase 5 (HDAC5) limits the expression of the gene Scn4b, regulating neuronal activity and ...

'Eolving' Opioid Epidemic Across U.S.

Apr. 10, 2025 The heart of the opioid epidemic that killed 665,341 people in the United States between 2005 and 2020 shifted geographically from the Northwest to the East, according to a new geographical ...

Simultaneous Alcohol, Cannabis Use May Fuel More Drinking

Apr. 10, 2025 A recent study found that people may perceive fewer negative effects of alcohol if they are also using cannabis at the same ...

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 ...

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 ...

PTSD Can Undermine Healthy Couple Communication When People Fear Their Emotions

Mar. 31, 2025 Fear of emotions among couples with PTSD is associated with unproductive communication, according to a new ...

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 ...