Recovery from alcohol and drug abuse or addiction is a long and often difficult process. One of the hardest things to overcome is the almost unbearable craving you have to take a drink, use a drug, just to get over or get back to feeling good again. Cravings are incredibly hard to resist and are …
Methods and Tips to Reduce Cravings for Drugs and Alcohol Read More »
Mood disorders are a group of mental health conditions that involve dysfunctional changes in the everyday stability of mood or psychological/emotional state of mind. Well-known conditions within this group include major depression and the classic manic-depressive illness called bipolar I disorder. One of the widely used treatments for bipolar I disorder is the mood-stabilizing medication lithium.
Naloxone is a medication that temporarily stops heroin and other opioid substances from reaching the brain. When used promptly, it can help stop a person from dying from an opioid overdose. In recent years, public health officials and researchers have sought to increase the availability of naloxone and make the drug easier to administer in …
Intranasal Naloxone on Fast Track for Opioid Overdose Read More »
Starting next month, it will be easier to rid your home of unwanted narcotic painkillers. Calling prescription drug abuse “an urgent and growing threat to our nation and its citizens,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced this week that the Drug Enforcement Agency is loosening its rules to allow neighborhood pharmacies, hospitals and drug treatment …
New Law Lets Pharmacies Take Back Unused Prescription Drugs Read More »
Treating bipolar disorder can be so complicated that a patient ends up taking a variety of medications. A recent study investigated the challenges facing patients required to take multiple medications to treat their symptoms.
As researchers continue to uncover the secrets of addiction, we are beginning to learn more about how to treat this terrible disease. One of the biggest advancements in addiction research and treatment in recent years is the use of medications. Addiction has too long been treated without being informed by research. Today we know that …
Tailor Drug Treatment to Phase of Addiction, Researchers Say Read More »
The prescription drugs naltrexone and acamprosate were approved for the treatment of alcoholism in 1994 and 2004, respectively. Both of these substances can help reduce the incidence and intensity of the cravings associated with alcohol dependency, and both have emerged from several rounds of clinical testing with their reputations intact. Naltrexone and acamprosate are usually …
Given that one person in the world dies every 10 seconds from alcohol consumption, the need for help in staying sober is starkly clear. So why has more than a decade passed with little use of two effective medications for alcoholics? That was the question undertaken by researchers at the University of North Carolina at …
Drugs That Curb Alcohol Cravings Underused, Study Finds Read More »
A study from the University of Warwick Medical School in Coventry, England, has linked certain anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) and hypnotic (sleeping) drugs with an increased risk of early death. The study was published in the British journal BMJ.
People affected by opioid addiction sometimes receive one of two opioid-based medications, called methadone and buprenorphine, as part of their treatment. Current evidence indicates that significant numbers of people who abuse these medications also get involved in the abuse of common prescription substances called benzodiazepines. In a study published in May 2014 in the journal …
Methadone and Benzodiazepines Deadly Combination Read More »