Doctors' leaders in Wales renewed their call for a reduction in the permitted blood alcohol level for driving.
The BMA's call comes as this summer's Police Drink and Drug Driving Campaign to target irresponsible and dangerous drivers began in all 43 police forces across England and Wales was unveiled.
The BMA wants to see the maximum level reduced from 80 mg per 100 ml to 50mg.
BMA Welsh Secretary, Dr Richard Lewis said: "We believe that a further reduction in blood alcohol concentrations will prevent deaths and reduce the number of lives ruined by drinking drivers.
"The introduction of the current limit, backed up by police enforcement and TV and media education campaigns, led to a dramatic fall in the number of deaths on the road, but the position has been stagnant since 1993. We need a new impetus to reduce the toll of injury and death."
There is strong evidence that driving skills become impaired once any alcohol has been consumed and get worse the more someone drinks. Experience from Australia demonstrates that a reduction in the permitted blood alcohol limit does lead to a reduction in drink driving.
The BMA is not suggesting a zero limit because there will be cases where an individual would register slightly above zero even when they had not been drinking (diabetes and the use of mouthwash can both cause an above-zero level). The BMA doubts whether an absolute zero would be enforceable and acceptable to the public but argues that a 50mg level, which would bring the UK into line with many other European countries, would be effective and beneficial.
The BMA argues that a reduction in the blood alcohol limit could have some impact even without additional measures, but to achieve a dramatic reduction in drink driving, the reduced limit should be backed by random breath testing and renewed efforts to make driving after even one drink socially unacceptable.
bma
вторник, 28 июня 2011 г.
суббота, 25 июня 2011 г.
Study Finds Repeat DUI Offenders Have High Mental Illness Rates
A new study shows that alcohol may not be the only problem for repeat drunk drivers. More than half of DUI offenders also suffer from at least one mental illness in
addition to a drug or alcohol-use disorder. The study found almost 60
percent of those with two or more DUI convictions reported experiencing
major depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or
posttraumatic stress disorder over their lifetime.
The study consisted of people convicted of at least two DUI offenses in
the past 10 years, and 40 percent had three or more DUI arrests. The
majority of both men and women reported having at least one psychiatric
disorder, as well as alcohol- or drug-abuse or dependence. Women had higher
rates of depression than men and were more likely to suffer PTSD.
"People who deal with drug and alcohol abusers need to understand there
are often other disorders that need to be dealt with as well," said Sandra
Lapham, M.D., M.P.H., principal investigator of the study. "That's why we
need to screen repeat offenders for multiple disorders. The offender should
be viewed as a unique person with a unique set of issues. If they include
psychiatric problems, these should be treated along with drug and alcohol
issues."
Lapham is director of the PIRE Behavioral Health Research Center of the
Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She says the data suggests DUI
evaluations by the courts and treatment programs should include psychiatric
screening and assessments.
The study participants were part of a three-year program called Driving
Under the Influence of Intoxicants Intensive Supervision Program (DISP)
developed by Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, Oregon. The
volunteer program requires intensive probation, close monitoring and
built-in punishments and rewards, in exchange for reduced jail time.
"The results of this study should encourage the courts to develop a
more comprehensive approach to dealing with the hard-to-treat drinking
driver," says Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Eric J. Bloch.
"Assessing the mental health of a DUI offender will help us choose the
program that will reduce the chance of a re-offense."
The study published in the September edition of Journal of Studies on
Alcohol was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism.
PIRE, or Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, is a national
nonprofit public health research institute, funded mostly by federal
science grants and contracts, with centers in eight U.S. cities. PIRE's
website, PIRE, offers original content about PIRE research
and programs. To stay informed about the latest research on public health
problems, go to PIRE/subscribe to receive monthly updates on the vital work produced by PIRE.
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
PIRE
addition to a drug or alcohol-use disorder. The study found almost 60
percent of those with two or more DUI convictions reported experiencing
major depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or
posttraumatic stress disorder over their lifetime.
The study consisted of people convicted of at least two DUI offenses in
the past 10 years, and 40 percent had three or more DUI arrests. The
majority of both men and women reported having at least one psychiatric
disorder, as well as alcohol- or drug-abuse or dependence. Women had higher
rates of depression than men and were more likely to suffer PTSD.
"People who deal with drug and alcohol abusers need to understand there
are often other disorders that need to be dealt with as well," said Sandra
Lapham, M.D., M.P.H., principal investigator of the study. "That's why we
need to screen repeat offenders for multiple disorders. The offender should
be viewed as a unique person with a unique set of issues. If they include
psychiatric problems, these should be treated along with drug and alcohol
issues."
Lapham is director of the PIRE Behavioral Health Research Center of the
Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She says the data suggests DUI
evaluations by the courts and treatment programs should include psychiatric
screening and assessments.
The study participants were part of a three-year program called Driving
Under the Influence of Intoxicants Intensive Supervision Program (DISP)
developed by Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, Oregon. The
volunteer program requires intensive probation, close monitoring and
built-in punishments and rewards, in exchange for reduced jail time.
"The results of this study should encourage the courts to develop a
more comprehensive approach to dealing with the hard-to-treat drinking
driver," says Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Eric J. Bloch.
"Assessing the mental health of a DUI offender will help us choose the
program that will reduce the chance of a re-offense."
The study published in the September edition of Journal of Studies on
Alcohol was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism.
PIRE, or Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, is a national
nonprofit public health research institute, funded mostly by federal
science grants and contracts, with centers in eight U.S. cities. PIRE's
website, PIRE, offers original content about PIRE research
and programs. To stay informed about the latest research on public health
problems, go to PIRE/subscribe to receive monthly updates on the vital work produced by PIRE.
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
PIRE
среда, 22 июня 2011 г.
Public Accounts Committee Criticises Lack Of Evaluation On Drug Strategy Spend
The Public Accounts Select Committee has published its 30th report of this Parliamentary Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Home Office and the National Treatment Agency, examined the drug strategy, drug-related crime, drug treatment and reintegration and young people and drug use.
The Committee's conclusions are as follows:
- The Government spends ??1.2 billion a year on measures aimed at tackling problem drug use, yet does not know what overall effect this spending is having.
- Around one-quarter of problem drug users are hard-core offenders who resist measures to reduce their offending or 'drop out' of drug treatment.
- Problem drug users typically relapse several times into further drug use and offending during and after drug treatment.
- Despite local authorities spending ??30 million on housing support for problem drug users in 2008-09, up to 100,000 drug users in England continue to have a housing problem.
- Some problem drug users quickly relapse into drug use and reoffending when released from prison.
- Measures to reduce problem drug use by young people have had limited impact.
DrugScope's Chief Executive, Martin Barnes, commented today on the report's findings:
"While many service users and their families will vouch for the value of drug treatment, the Public Accounts Committee is right to highlight the need for the overall drug strategy spend to be evaluated. The Home Office's commitment to publish an annual report, which should be backed by independent feedback and research on progress, is a good step forward.
"The links between problem drug use and crime can be complex, but it is concerning that there is insufficient evidence to confirm whether the drug strategy is directly reducing the cost of drug-related crime. In considering how best to tackle those repeat offenders for whom current interventions do not appear to be effective, it is encouraging to note the Committee's acknowledgement of the positive outcomes from the recent heroin prescribing trials and its potential as a cost-effective option for heroin users who have not responded to other available treatments.
"With the publication of this report, the Public Accounts Committee have highlighted one of the major problems affecting the implementation of the current drug strategy - the lack of evaluation. Since the first drug strategy was published in 1998, there has been insufficient government investment in good quality, longitudinal research into some areas of the strategy's activities, most notably in establishing the evidence base on what is effective in supporting people to reintegrate into society after they have recovered from a drug problem, preventing relapse and stopping the cycle of drug-related offending."
In light of DrugScope's recent work on young people's drug treatment, culminating in the publication of Young People's Drug and Alcohol Treatment at the Crossroads, Martin also made specific reference to the Committee's findings on young people:
"On young people, it is unclear whether the Public Accounts Committee's conclusions are primarily focused on heroin and crack cocaine or other drug use. The main problems for young people are associated with cannabis and alcohol with only a small proportion using heroin or crack cocaine. For young people substance use may be a symptom of wider issues - services therefore need to be geared to address a range of issues, such as problems at home or school, mental health, poor housing and unemployment. While it is important to evaluate progress in reducing the number of problem drug users, target setting is unlikely to be of much value."
Source
DrugScope
The Committee's conclusions are as follows:
- The Government spends ??1.2 billion a year on measures aimed at tackling problem drug use, yet does not know what overall effect this spending is having.
- Around one-quarter of problem drug users are hard-core offenders who resist measures to reduce their offending or 'drop out' of drug treatment.
- Problem drug users typically relapse several times into further drug use and offending during and after drug treatment.
- Despite local authorities spending ??30 million on housing support for problem drug users in 2008-09, up to 100,000 drug users in England continue to have a housing problem.
- Some problem drug users quickly relapse into drug use and reoffending when released from prison.
- Measures to reduce problem drug use by young people have had limited impact.
DrugScope's Chief Executive, Martin Barnes, commented today on the report's findings:
"While many service users and their families will vouch for the value of drug treatment, the Public Accounts Committee is right to highlight the need for the overall drug strategy spend to be evaluated. The Home Office's commitment to publish an annual report, which should be backed by independent feedback and research on progress, is a good step forward.
"The links between problem drug use and crime can be complex, but it is concerning that there is insufficient evidence to confirm whether the drug strategy is directly reducing the cost of drug-related crime. In considering how best to tackle those repeat offenders for whom current interventions do not appear to be effective, it is encouraging to note the Committee's acknowledgement of the positive outcomes from the recent heroin prescribing trials and its potential as a cost-effective option for heroin users who have not responded to other available treatments.
"With the publication of this report, the Public Accounts Committee have highlighted one of the major problems affecting the implementation of the current drug strategy - the lack of evaluation. Since the first drug strategy was published in 1998, there has been insufficient government investment in good quality, longitudinal research into some areas of the strategy's activities, most notably in establishing the evidence base on what is effective in supporting people to reintegrate into society after they have recovered from a drug problem, preventing relapse and stopping the cycle of drug-related offending."
In light of DrugScope's recent work on young people's drug treatment, culminating in the publication of Young People's Drug and Alcohol Treatment at the Crossroads, Martin also made specific reference to the Committee's findings on young people:
"On young people, it is unclear whether the Public Accounts Committee's conclusions are primarily focused on heroin and crack cocaine or other drug use. The main problems for young people are associated with cannabis and alcohol with only a small proportion using heroin or crack cocaine. For young people substance use may be a symptom of wider issues - services therefore need to be geared to address a range of issues, such as problems at home or school, mental health, poor housing and unemployment. While it is important to evaluate progress in reducing the number of problem drug users, target setting is unlikely to be of much value."
Source
DrugScope
воскресенье, 19 июня 2011 г.
To What Extent Can Environmental Pollutants And Alcohol Affect GI Health?
New research quantifies the precise effects of environmental pollutants and alcohol intake on gastrointestinal (GI) health. Both studies being presented this week during Digestive Disease Week® 2009 (DDW®) offer concrete evidence that the environment and alcohol intake can affect GI health and share important insights into new directions for future research. DDW is the largest international gathering of physicians and researchers in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery.
"Past research has indicated that elements in our environment produce reactions that affect our health," said Marcia R. Cruz-Correa, MD, PhD, FASGE, AGAF, University of Puerto Rico. "The research presented today offers new insights about the influences of a variety of environmental factors, some of which may help explain the high prevalence of certain health conditions."
Non-Specific Abdominal Pain: Could Air Pollution be the Culprit? (Abstract #1055)
Abdominal pain is among the most common reasons for visits to emergency departments and a new study suggests air pollution could play a role, especially among young women. The study builds upon previous research linking air pollution to adverse health effects.
"The study adds to the body of evidence that air pollution exposure negatively affects health," said Dr. Gilaad Kaplan, MD, assistant professor of medicine, University of Calgary. "In addition to lung and cardiovascular disease, this study demonstrates that there is also the potential for air pollution to affect the gastrointestinal tract."
Kaplan and his co-authors set out to study the link between air pollution and non-specific abdominal pain (NSAP). NSAP is diagnosed when the cause of abdominal pain is not discovered and triggers of acute pain are not known. The investigators identified more than 95,000 patients discharged from emergency departments with NSAP from hospitals in Edmonton, Alberta. The study was replicated in more than 25,000 abdominal pain patients presenting to a hospital in downtown Montreal, Quebec. Data from Environment Canada's National Air Pollution Surveillance were used to determine the hourly levels of ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter of varying sizes (PM10 & PM2.5).
The investigators determined that nearly two-thirds of visits for NSAP were by women, and the majority of those women were ages 15 to 24. Young women were more likely to present to emergency departments in Edmonton and Montreal for NSAP on days when indicators of air pollution were elevated.
Kaplan and his co-authors speculate that young women are the most affected cohort because they are at increased risk for functional motility disorders, the most common of which is irritable bowel syndrome. He adds, however, that this research is in its early stages and that future studies will need to confirm the connection between air pollution and abdominal pain and to learn the mechanism by which air pollution may contribute to the development of abdominal pain.
Dr. Kaplan will present these data on Wednesday, June 3 at 10:30 a.m. CDT in South Hall, McCormick Place.
Alcohol Intake and Development of Symptomatic Gallstones: An Inverse Association - A UK Prospective Cohort Study (Abstract #15)
Scientists have known that alcohol intake has a protective effect against the formation of gallstones, but a new study establishes for the first time the precise quantitative effect of each unit of alcohol on the development of gallstones.
Using questionnaires, investigators measured the dietary habits of 25,639 men and women and followed them for a ten-year period, during which time 267 patients developed gallstones. Participants in the study provided detailed information on the frequency and quantity of their alcohol intake. Researchers found that those who reported consuming two UK units of alcohol per day had a one-third reduction in their risk of developing gallstones. Each unit of alcohol consumed per week reduced the chances of gallstones by 3 percent. One UK unit of alcohol contains eight grams of alcohol; one standard drink in the U.S. is equal to 14 grams of alcohol.
Researchers emphasized that their findings show the benefits of moderate alcohol intake but stress that excessive alcohol intake can cause health problems. Quantifying how much alcohol reduces the risk of gallstone development allows doctors to offer specific guidance without introducing the risk of excessive alcohol consumption.
"These findings are important to developing our understanding of the development of gallstones. Once we examine all the factors related to their development in our study in the UK, including diet, exercise, body weight and alcohol intake, we can develop a precise understanding of what causes gallstones and how to prevent them," said Andrew Hart, MD, senior lecturer in gastroenterology at The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and The University of East Anglia, in the United Kingdom.
Dr. Hart and Dr. Paul R. Banim presented these data on May 31.
Source:
Aimee Frank
American Gastroenterological Association
"Past research has indicated that elements in our environment produce reactions that affect our health," said Marcia R. Cruz-Correa, MD, PhD, FASGE, AGAF, University of Puerto Rico. "The research presented today offers new insights about the influences of a variety of environmental factors, some of which may help explain the high prevalence of certain health conditions."
Non-Specific Abdominal Pain: Could Air Pollution be the Culprit? (Abstract #1055)
Abdominal pain is among the most common reasons for visits to emergency departments and a new study suggests air pollution could play a role, especially among young women. The study builds upon previous research linking air pollution to adverse health effects.
"The study adds to the body of evidence that air pollution exposure negatively affects health," said Dr. Gilaad Kaplan, MD, assistant professor of medicine, University of Calgary. "In addition to lung and cardiovascular disease, this study demonstrates that there is also the potential for air pollution to affect the gastrointestinal tract."
Kaplan and his co-authors set out to study the link between air pollution and non-specific abdominal pain (NSAP). NSAP is diagnosed when the cause of abdominal pain is not discovered and triggers of acute pain are not known. The investigators identified more than 95,000 patients discharged from emergency departments with NSAP from hospitals in Edmonton, Alberta. The study was replicated in more than 25,000 abdominal pain patients presenting to a hospital in downtown Montreal, Quebec. Data from Environment Canada's National Air Pollution Surveillance were used to determine the hourly levels of ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter of varying sizes (PM10 & PM2.5).
The investigators determined that nearly two-thirds of visits for NSAP were by women, and the majority of those women were ages 15 to 24. Young women were more likely to present to emergency departments in Edmonton and Montreal for NSAP on days when indicators of air pollution were elevated.
Kaplan and his co-authors speculate that young women are the most affected cohort because they are at increased risk for functional motility disorders, the most common of which is irritable bowel syndrome. He adds, however, that this research is in its early stages and that future studies will need to confirm the connection between air pollution and abdominal pain and to learn the mechanism by which air pollution may contribute to the development of abdominal pain.
Dr. Kaplan will present these data on Wednesday, June 3 at 10:30 a.m. CDT in South Hall, McCormick Place.
Alcohol Intake and Development of Symptomatic Gallstones: An Inverse Association - A UK Prospective Cohort Study (Abstract #15)
Scientists have known that alcohol intake has a protective effect against the formation of gallstones, but a new study establishes for the first time the precise quantitative effect of each unit of alcohol on the development of gallstones.
Using questionnaires, investigators measured the dietary habits of 25,639 men and women and followed them for a ten-year period, during which time 267 patients developed gallstones. Participants in the study provided detailed information on the frequency and quantity of their alcohol intake. Researchers found that those who reported consuming two UK units of alcohol per day had a one-third reduction in their risk of developing gallstones. Each unit of alcohol consumed per week reduced the chances of gallstones by 3 percent. One UK unit of alcohol contains eight grams of alcohol; one standard drink in the U.S. is equal to 14 grams of alcohol.
Researchers emphasized that their findings show the benefits of moderate alcohol intake but stress that excessive alcohol intake can cause health problems. Quantifying how much alcohol reduces the risk of gallstone development allows doctors to offer specific guidance without introducing the risk of excessive alcohol consumption.
"These findings are important to developing our understanding of the development of gallstones. Once we examine all the factors related to their development in our study in the UK, including diet, exercise, body weight and alcohol intake, we can develop a precise understanding of what causes gallstones and how to prevent them," said Andrew Hart, MD, senior lecturer in gastroenterology at The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and The University of East Anglia, in the United Kingdom.
Dr. Hart and Dr. Paul R. Banim presented these data on May 31.
Source:
Aimee Frank
American Gastroenterological Association
четверг, 16 июня 2011 г.
Sacramento County, Calif., Board of Supervisors Rejects Proposal to Allow Pharmacies to Sell Nonprescription Needles
The Sacramento County, Calif., Board of Supervisors on Tuesday rejected 3-2 a proposal that would have allowed pharmacies to sell needles to adults without a prescription, the Sacramento Bee reports (Reese, Sacramento Bee, 10/19). California law only allows prescription sales of syringes, except when used to inject adrenaline or insulin. However, under a state law (SB 1159) that went into effect Jan. 1, cities and counties in California can authorize pharmacies to sell up to 10 sterile syringes at a time to an adult without a prescription. If a local government passes an ordinance to allow nonprescription needle sales, the state Department of Health Services must evaluate syringe sales in the jurisdiction and report back to the state Legislature, and pharmacies selling syringes without prescriptions must register with their county health department. Pharmacies also must provide educational and referral information and written and verbal counseling to people purchasing syringes without a prescription (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 3/31). Public health officials said the proposal would have helped to reduce the incidence of bloodborne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, but law enforcement officials expressed concerns that the measure would have encouraged illegal drug use and increased the number of needles improperly discarded. Twelve California counties have approved nonprescription needle sales, according to the Bee (Sacramento Bee, 10/19).
"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Prescription of Heroin is Less Costly for Society
Prescribing methadone plus heroin to chronic, treatment resistant addicts is less costly than methadone alone because it
reduces criminal behaviour, finds a study in this week's BMJ.
The study involved treatment resistant heroin addicts taking part in methadone maintenance programmes in six cities in the
Netherlands. Prior to study entry, the heroin addicts frequently engaged in illegal activities to acquire money or drugs.
They were randomised to treatment with methadone plus heroin (experimental group) or with methadone alone (control group).
After one year, data from 430 patients were analysed.
Co-prescription of heroin was associated with better quality of life measures. Although the costs of co-prescription were
considerably higher, they were offset by lower costs of law enforcement and reduced costs of crime against property. The
average total net savings amounted to ?12,793 per patient per year.
From a societal perspective, supervised medical prescription of methadone plus heroin to chronic, treatment resistant addicts
is very efficient.
(Cost utility analysis of co-prescribed heroin compared with methadone maintenance treatment in heroin addicts in two
randomised controlled trials)
bmj/cgi/content/full/330/7503/1297
reduces criminal behaviour, finds a study in this week's BMJ.
The study involved treatment resistant heroin addicts taking part in methadone maintenance programmes in six cities in the
Netherlands. Prior to study entry, the heroin addicts frequently engaged in illegal activities to acquire money or drugs.
They were randomised to treatment with methadone plus heroin (experimental group) or with methadone alone (control group).
After one year, data from 430 patients were analysed.
Co-prescription of heroin was associated with better quality of life measures. Although the costs of co-prescription were
considerably higher, they were offset by lower costs of law enforcement and reduced costs of crime against property. The
average total net savings amounted to ?12,793 per patient per year.
From a societal perspective, supervised medical prescription of methadone plus heroin to chronic, treatment resistant addicts
is very efficient.
(Cost utility analysis of co-prescribed heroin compared with methadone maintenance treatment in heroin addicts in two
randomised controlled trials)
bmj/cgi/content/full/330/7503/1297
среда, 15 июня 2011 г.
Hispanics In U.S. Contract HIV Through Different Transmission Routes Based On Birthplace, MMWR Study Says
HIV-positive Hispanics living in the U.S. contract the virus through different transmission routes primarily based on where they were born, according to a study published Thursday in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Reuters reports.
According to the study, male-to-male sexual contact was the transmission route for 65% of HIV cases among Hispanic men who were born in South America, 62% of cases among men born in Cuba, 54% of cases among men born in Mexico and 46% of cases among men born in the U.S. About 28% of HIV-positive Hispanics who were born in the U.S. contracted the virus through high-risk heterosexual sex, compared with 47% who were born in the Dominican Republic and 45% who were born in Central America, the study found. In addition, 33% of Hispanics living with HIV who were born in Puerto Rico contracted the virus through injection drug use, compared with 22% who were born in the U.S. The study found less knowledge about HIV/AIDS among injection drug users born in Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico than among IDUs born in the U.S.
The study also found that HIV diagnoses decreased by 4.7% and 13% among Hispanic men and women, respectively, from 2001 to 2004. The study was based on data provided by 33 states in 2005, Reuters reports.
The differences in HIV transmission routes among Hispanics in part is because of cultural and socioeconomic differences among Hispanic subgroups, including stigma associated with homosexuality, the study said. Hispanics have the second-highest HIV rate among all racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. after blacks, the study noted.
Ken Dominguez, a CDC epidemiologist and study author, said, "In terms of the prevention messages, if you are looking at Hispanics, you can't look upon them as a monolithic group," adding, "You have to think about the various subcategories." Dennis deLeon, president of the New York-based Latino Commission on AIDS, said Hispanics are diverse in the amount of time they have lived in the U.S., as well as in levels of education and health literacy. He added that CDC "for too long" has been "treating" Hispanics as "all the same."
DeLeon also questioned the decrease in HIV diagnoses among Hispanics because the report did not include data from some states with large Hispanic populations, such as California (Dunham, Reuters, 10/11).
Several advocacy groups on Oct. 15 will host the National Latino AIDS Awareness Day in an effort to increase HIV awareness and testing among Hispanics, the Orlando Sentinel reports (Ramos, Orlando Sentinel, 10/12).
The study is available online.
Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
According to the study, male-to-male sexual contact was the transmission route for 65% of HIV cases among Hispanic men who were born in South America, 62% of cases among men born in Cuba, 54% of cases among men born in Mexico and 46% of cases among men born in the U.S. About 28% of HIV-positive Hispanics who were born in the U.S. contracted the virus through high-risk heterosexual sex, compared with 47% who were born in the Dominican Republic and 45% who were born in Central America, the study found. In addition, 33% of Hispanics living with HIV who were born in Puerto Rico contracted the virus through injection drug use, compared with 22% who were born in the U.S. The study found less knowledge about HIV/AIDS among injection drug users born in Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico than among IDUs born in the U.S.
The study also found that HIV diagnoses decreased by 4.7% and 13% among Hispanic men and women, respectively, from 2001 to 2004. The study was based on data provided by 33 states in 2005, Reuters reports.
The differences in HIV transmission routes among Hispanics in part is because of cultural and socioeconomic differences among Hispanic subgroups, including stigma associated with homosexuality, the study said. Hispanics have the second-highest HIV rate among all racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. after blacks, the study noted.
Ken Dominguez, a CDC epidemiologist and study author, said, "In terms of the prevention messages, if you are looking at Hispanics, you can't look upon them as a monolithic group," adding, "You have to think about the various subcategories." Dennis deLeon, president of the New York-based Latino Commission on AIDS, said Hispanics are diverse in the amount of time they have lived in the U.S., as well as in levels of education and health literacy. He added that CDC "for too long" has been "treating" Hispanics as "all the same."
DeLeon also questioned the decrease in HIV diagnoses among Hispanics because the report did not include data from some states with large Hispanic populations, such as California (Dunham, Reuters, 10/11).
Several advocacy groups on Oct. 15 will host the National Latino AIDS Awareness Day in an effort to increase HIV awareness and testing among Hispanics, the Orlando Sentinel reports (Ramos, Orlando Sentinel, 10/12).
The study is available online.
Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
вторник, 14 июня 2011 г.
Stressful Events Should Not Prohibit Smoking Cessation
Stressful life events do not decrease a smoker's chances of quitting the habit, a new study reveals. Researchers from North Shore Long Island Jewish Health Systems examined the impact of stressful life events in 1,330 smokers being treated for tobacco dependence.
Self-reported information, including medical history, quitting obstacles, quit attempts, and current major stressors, were gathered on day one, via questionnaires. Using a carbon monoxide monitor, quit status was determined at 30 days and one year.
Forty-one percent of smokers experienced one or more major stressful events during treatment, such as change in marital status and change in job. Though stressed smokers were more likely to "light up when upset" at 30 days, 50 percent quit, compared with 60 percent of nonstressed smokers.
At the one-year mark, there was no difference shown in quit success. Researchers conclude that many smokers who reported major stressful event during treatment were able to successfully quit; therefore, stressful life events should not be a smoking cessation obstacle.
These articles come from the journal Chest
Published by:
American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP)
3300 Dundee Rd.
Northbrook, IL 60062
United States
chestnet
Self-reported information, including medical history, quitting obstacles, quit attempts, and current major stressors, were gathered on day one, via questionnaires. Using a carbon monoxide monitor, quit status was determined at 30 days and one year.
Forty-one percent of smokers experienced one or more major stressful events during treatment, such as change in marital status and change in job. Though stressed smokers were more likely to "light up when upset" at 30 days, 50 percent quit, compared with 60 percent of nonstressed smokers.
At the one-year mark, there was no difference shown in quit success. Researchers conclude that many smokers who reported major stressful event during treatment were able to successfully quit; therefore, stressful life events should not be a smoking cessation obstacle.
These articles come from the journal Chest
Published by:
American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP)
3300 Dundee Rd.
Northbrook, IL 60062
United States
chestnet
понедельник, 13 июня 2011 г.
SAMHSA Announces Over $19 Million for 16 Grants to Better Coordinate Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment, USA
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Administrator Charles G. Curie, M.A., A.C.S.W., today announced grant awards to 16 states totaling more than $19 million over three years to build capacity to provide effective and affordable substance abuse treatment for youth and their families. In addition to increasing access to treatment services for young people, each state will create a staff position dedicated to ensuring resources available for substance abuse treatment are being used in the most efficient manner possible.
"Responsibility for adolescent treatment is often located in a number of state agencies and is frequently not in the office that oversees substance abuse treatment services. As a result, too many young people who need treatment do not receive help," Administrator Charles Curie said. "These grants will help put a system in place that brings together multiple agencies, including mental health, education, health, child welfare, and juvenile justice services, in order to coordinate funding and treatment resources and better serve young people and their families."
States awarded grants include:
Arizona
* Arizona Department of Health Services Division of Behavioral Health, Phoenix -- $400,000 per year for three years to create a sustainable system of care that effectively breaks the cycle of addiction in Arizona's families through early identification, intervention and treatment for substance use disorders among youth and young adults. Arizona will expand network capacity to identify and treat substance abuse by creating a program with the statewide behavioral health provider association and family service organizations to drive education and practitioner training on substance abuse in young people.
Connecticut
* Connecticut Department of Children and Families, Hartford. --$400,000 per year for three years to develop and improve policies, regulations, practices, funding and program development functions of the state system that impact treatment and supports for adolescents with substance abuse and co-occurring mental and substance use disorders.
District of Columbia
* The DC Youth Substance Abuse Treatment Coordination Program --$400,000 per year for three years to develop a continuum of evidence-based youth treatment services, with a quality performance standard of certification for providers.
Florida
* Florida Office of Drug Control, Tallahassee -- $400,000 per year for three years to build enhance capacity in Florida to provide effective, accessible, and affordable substance abuse treatment for adolescents and their families.
Georgia
* Georgia Department of Human Resources Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases, Atlanta -- $400,000 per year for three years to enhance the state's capacity to provide an effective accessible and affordable service system through collaborative strategic planning, cross agency coordination and training.
Kentucky
* Kentucky Youth First Project, Frankfort. -- $400,000 per year for three years to enhance infrastructure supports for adolescent substance abuse treatment in the rural part of the state that includes the Appalachian area.
Illinois
* The Illinois Department of Human Services, Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Chicago -- $400,000 to improve capacity in the state to provide effective, accessible, and culturally competent substance abuse treatment for youths and their families, through the statewide coordination and enhancement of youth treatment services.
Massachusetts
* The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, Boston -- $355,367 the first year; $353,747 expected in the second year and $361,348 in the last year to achieve the vision of the Commonwealth's 2005 Substance Abuse Strategic Plan as it relates to adolescents.
North Carolina
* The North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services, Raleigh -- $400,000 per year for three years to develop a sustainable infrastructure for substance abuse treatment coordination that will build on existing collaborative efforts to strengthen the capacity to serve youth in need of substance abuse treatment, and their families.
Ohio
* Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, Columbus -- $400,000 per year for three years to provide the current publicly-funded alcohol and drug service system with delivery of accessible, effective, culturally competent and affordable prevention and treatment services for Ohio's adolescents and families.
South Carolina
* Adolescents Treatment Coordination in Columbia-- $399,391 in the first year; $399,300 expected in the second and third year to develop a sustainable infrastructure for substance abuse treatment coordination that will strengthen the capacity of the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse.
Tennessee
* State of Tennessee Office of Children's Care Coordination, Nashville -- $400,000 per year for three years to provide and promote accessible, high quality, effective services to adolescents with substance abuse problems, and their families.
Virginia
* State Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Coordination, Richmond --$396,577 in the first year; $394,322 expected in the second and third year to develop the necessary infrastructure to support and maintain the ongoing development and provision of adolescent substance abuse services throughout the Commonwealth.
Vermont
* The State of Vermont Department of Health, Burlington -- $399,998 per year for three years to continue the ongoing efforts to strengthen the infrastructure of the state's adolescent treatment system with the focus on three domains of activity: policy and procedures; better mechanisms for referral treatment programs; and support for adoption of evidence-based practices within local agencies.
Washington
* Washington Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Statewide Coordination, Lacey -- $400,000 per year for three years to develop a statewide infrastructure that fosters cross system planning, and knowledge and resource sharing, to enhance the existing adolescent substance abuse treatment system.
Wisconsin
* Adolescent Treatment Coordination, Madison -- $400,000 per year for three years to bring new energy, emphasis and effectiveness to the treatment, services and supports received by Wisconsin's adolescents with substance abuse and co-occurring mental and substance use disorders, and their families, by improving the provider network; integrating service administration; resolving funding and regulatory barriers; and improving data management.
SAMHSA, is a public health agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency is responsible for improving the accountability, capacity and effectiveness of the nation's substance abuse prevention, addictions, treatment, and mental health services delivery system.
samhsa/news
"Responsibility for adolescent treatment is often located in a number of state agencies and is frequently not in the office that oversees substance abuse treatment services. As a result, too many young people who need treatment do not receive help," Administrator Charles Curie said. "These grants will help put a system in place that brings together multiple agencies, including mental health, education, health, child welfare, and juvenile justice services, in order to coordinate funding and treatment resources and better serve young people and their families."
States awarded grants include:
Arizona
* Arizona Department of Health Services Division of Behavioral Health, Phoenix -- $400,000 per year for three years to create a sustainable system of care that effectively breaks the cycle of addiction in Arizona's families through early identification, intervention and treatment for substance use disorders among youth and young adults. Arizona will expand network capacity to identify and treat substance abuse by creating a program with the statewide behavioral health provider association and family service organizations to drive education and practitioner training on substance abuse in young people.
Connecticut
* Connecticut Department of Children and Families, Hartford. --$400,000 per year for three years to develop and improve policies, regulations, practices, funding and program development functions of the state system that impact treatment and supports for adolescents with substance abuse and co-occurring mental and substance use disorders.
District of Columbia
* The DC Youth Substance Abuse Treatment Coordination Program --$400,000 per year for three years to develop a continuum of evidence-based youth treatment services, with a quality performance standard of certification for providers.
Florida
* Florida Office of Drug Control, Tallahassee -- $400,000 per year for three years to build enhance capacity in Florida to provide effective, accessible, and affordable substance abuse treatment for adolescents and their families.
Georgia
* Georgia Department of Human Resources Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases, Atlanta -- $400,000 per year for three years to enhance the state's capacity to provide an effective accessible and affordable service system through collaborative strategic planning, cross agency coordination and training.
Kentucky
* Kentucky Youth First Project, Frankfort. -- $400,000 per year for three years to enhance infrastructure supports for adolescent substance abuse treatment in the rural part of the state that includes the Appalachian area.
Illinois
* The Illinois Department of Human Services, Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Chicago -- $400,000 to improve capacity in the state to provide effective, accessible, and culturally competent substance abuse treatment for youths and their families, through the statewide coordination and enhancement of youth treatment services.
Massachusetts
* The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, Boston -- $355,367 the first year; $353,747 expected in the second year and $361,348 in the last year to achieve the vision of the Commonwealth's 2005 Substance Abuse Strategic Plan as it relates to adolescents.
North Carolina
* The North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services, Raleigh -- $400,000 per year for three years to develop a sustainable infrastructure for substance abuse treatment coordination that will build on existing collaborative efforts to strengthen the capacity to serve youth in need of substance abuse treatment, and their families.
Ohio
* Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, Columbus -- $400,000 per year for three years to provide the current publicly-funded alcohol and drug service system with delivery of accessible, effective, culturally competent and affordable prevention and treatment services for Ohio's adolescents and families.
South Carolina
* Adolescents Treatment Coordination in Columbia-- $399,391 in the first year; $399,300 expected in the second and third year to develop a sustainable infrastructure for substance abuse treatment coordination that will strengthen the capacity of the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse.
Tennessee
* State of Tennessee Office of Children's Care Coordination, Nashville -- $400,000 per year for three years to provide and promote accessible, high quality, effective services to adolescents with substance abuse problems, and their families.
Virginia
* State Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Coordination, Richmond --$396,577 in the first year; $394,322 expected in the second and third year to develop the necessary infrastructure to support and maintain the ongoing development and provision of adolescent substance abuse services throughout the Commonwealth.
Vermont
* The State of Vermont Department of Health, Burlington -- $399,998 per year for three years to continue the ongoing efforts to strengthen the infrastructure of the state's adolescent treatment system with the focus on three domains of activity: policy and procedures; better mechanisms for referral treatment programs; and support for adoption of evidence-based practices within local agencies.
Washington
* Washington Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Statewide Coordination, Lacey -- $400,000 per year for three years to develop a statewide infrastructure that fosters cross system planning, and knowledge and resource sharing, to enhance the existing adolescent substance abuse treatment system.
Wisconsin
* Adolescent Treatment Coordination, Madison -- $400,000 per year for three years to bring new energy, emphasis and effectiveness to the treatment, services and supports received by Wisconsin's adolescents with substance abuse and co-occurring mental and substance use disorders, and their families, by improving the provider network; integrating service administration; resolving funding and regulatory barriers; and improving data management.
SAMHSA, is a public health agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency is responsible for improving the accountability, capacity and effectiveness of the nation's substance abuse prevention, addictions, treatment, and mental health services delivery system.
samhsa/news
Mental Function May Be Impaired By Smoking
Men and women with a history of alcohol abuse may not see long-term negative effects on their memory and thinking, but female smokers do, a new study suggests.
In a study of 287 men and women ages 31 to 60, researchers found that those with past alcohol-use disorders performed similarly on standard tests of cognitive function as those with no past drinking problems.
The findings were not as positive when it came to tobacco, however.
In general, women who had ever been addicted to smoking had lower scores on certain cognitive tests than their nonsmoking counterparts. The same pattern was not true of men, however, the researchers report in the March issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The reasons for the disparate findings on alcohol and smoking are not fully clear. Nor do they necessarily mean that serious alcohol problems would not affect long-term memory and other cognitive abilities; most study participants who had ever had drinking problems met the criteria for alcohol abuse rather than the more serious diagnosis of dependence.
Alcohol abuse was diagnosed when people reported one symptom of problem drinking -- drinking and driving, for instance, or failing to meet work or school obligations as a result of drinking. Dependence, on the other hand, required people to have at least three symptoms -- such as needing to drink more and more to achieve the same effects and experiencing physical withdrawal symptoms when they did not drink.
If more study participants had been alcohol dependent, the findings on cognition might have been different, says lead researcher Dr. Kristin Caspers, an assistant research scientist in the department of psychiatry at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
But the bottom line, she says, is that people with a history of alcohol abuse appear not to be "doomed" to suffer cognitive effects when current levels of drinking are in the light to moderate range.
The findings are based on assessments of 115 men and 169 women with an average age of 43. Overall, 45 percent of men and 37 percent of women met the criteria for lifetime alcohol abuse, and 13 percent and nearly 4 percent, respectively, had a lifetime history of alcohol dependence. One quarter of women and 18 percent of men had a history of tobacco dependence.
Overall, women who reported having ever smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day scored lower than nonsmokers on tests of executive function -- that is, "higher-order" brain functions that include the ability to reason, plan and organize. The scores were, however, all within normal range.
As for why smoking was related to cognitive scores only among women, it's possible that there is a role for estrogen, according to Caspers.
Animal research suggests that nicotine lowers blood estrogen levels and may inhibit the positive effects of the hormone on brain cells. Sixty percent of the women in the current study were between the ages of 40 and 54, when menopause usually occurs. In theory, nicotine may exacerbate any brain-cell effects of fluctuating estrogen levels in women as they age, the researchers speculate.
Caspers, K., Arndt, S. Yucuis, R., McKirgan, L., & Spinks, R. (March 2010). Effects of alcohol- and cigarette-use disorders on global and specific measures of cognition in middle-age adults. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 71 (2), 192-200.
Source:
Kristin Caspers, Ph.D.
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
In a study of 287 men and women ages 31 to 60, researchers found that those with past alcohol-use disorders performed similarly on standard tests of cognitive function as those with no past drinking problems.
The findings were not as positive when it came to tobacco, however.
In general, women who had ever been addicted to smoking had lower scores on certain cognitive tests than their nonsmoking counterparts. The same pattern was not true of men, however, the researchers report in the March issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The reasons for the disparate findings on alcohol and smoking are not fully clear. Nor do they necessarily mean that serious alcohol problems would not affect long-term memory and other cognitive abilities; most study participants who had ever had drinking problems met the criteria for alcohol abuse rather than the more serious diagnosis of dependence.
Alcohol abuse was diagnosed when people reported one symptom of problem drinking -- drinking and driving, for instance, or failing to meet work or school obligations as a result of drinking. Dependence, on the other hand, required people to have at least three symptoms -- such as needing to drink more and more to achieve the same effects and experiencing physical withdrawal symptoms when they did not drink.
If more study participants had been alcohol dependent, the findings on cognition might have been different, says lead researcher Dr. Kristin Caspers, an assistant research scientist in the department of psychiatry at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
But the bottom line, she says, is that people with a history of alcohol abuse appear not to be "doomed" to suffer cognitive effects when current levels of drinking are in the light to moderate range.
The findings are based on assessments of 115 men and 169 women with an average age of 43. Overall, 45 percent of men and 37 percent of women met the criteria for lifetime alcohol abuse, and 13 percent and nearly 4 percent, respectively, had a lifetime history of alcohol dependence. One quarter of women and 18 percent of men had a history of tobacco dependence.
Overall, women who reported having ever smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day scored lower than nonsmokers on tests of executive function -- that is, "higher-order" brain functions that include the ability to reason, plan and organize. The scores were, however, all within normal range.
As for why smoking was related to cognitive scores only among women, it's possible that there is a role for estrogen, according to Caspers.
Animal research suggests that nicotine lowers blood estrogen levels and may inhibit the positive effects of the hormone on brain cells. Sixty percent of the women in the current study were between the ages of 40 and 54, when menopause usually occurs. In theory, nicotine may exacerbate any brain-cell effects of fluctuating estrogen levels in women as they age, the researchers speculate.
Caspers, K., Arndt, S. Yucuis, R., McKirgan, L., & Spinks, R. (March 2010). Effects of alcohol- and cigarette-use disorders on global and specific measures of cognition in middle-age adults. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 71 (2), 192-200.
Source:
Kristin Caspers, Ph.D.
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
воскресенье, 12 июня 2011 г.
Genetically Targeted Medication Shows Great Promise In Treating Alcohol Addiction
For the first time in alcohol addiction research, UVA investigators have successfully treated alcohol-dependent individuals with medication that is tailored specifically to match their genetic profile.
"Our findings suggest a new paradigm for the treatment of alcoholism, as well as a major breakthrough in individualized medicine for predetermined genotypes," says Bankole Johnson, MD, PhD, study leader and professor and chair of the UVA Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences.
The study, to be published in the March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry and now available online, tested 283 genetically profiled alcoholics for the efficacy of ondansetron, a serotonin antagonist drug.
Previous research by UVA scientists has found that specified variations in the serotonin transporter gene, SLC6A4, play a significant role in influencing drinking intensity. Furthermore, past UVA research has identified ondansetron as a likely pharmaceutical target for serotonin-related genes.
Serotonin is a brain chemical that is involved in the regulation of pain perception, sleep, mood and other psychological processes. Studies have shown that serotonin mediates the rewarding effects of alcohol.
In this latest study, UVA researchers randomized alcoholics by genotype (LL vs. Sx and TT vs. Gx) in a controlled, double-blind clinical trial. Subjects received either ondansetron or placebo for 11 weeks, and all received standard cognitive behavioral therapy. A majority of subjects were white males, and more than 65 percent of subjects completed the study in its entirety. The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). (View NIAAA press release).
Study findings show that ondansetron is indeed a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of severe alcohol consumption among alcohol-dependent individuals with the predicted genetic marker - a marker that's responsible for the amount of pleasure certain people may perceive while drinking or may perceive as a craving when they stop drinking, Johnson explains.
"The treatment response among those who received ondansetron was remarkable," says Johnson. "What this tells us is that we have measurable evidence that personalized medicine is indeed a viable treatment for alcohol dependence.
An animation of how the medication works
The primary outcome tested by researchers involved ondansetron's effects on the severity of alcohol consumption in selected alcohol-dependent individuals. The study was confined to one secondary variable - the percentage of days abstinent, in order to provide clinicians additional efficacy information. Study findings demonstrated a predicted therapeutic response to ondansetron, which increased the percentage of days abstinent relative to placebo for predetermined genotypes.
For men, who comprised 73 percent of all subjects, high-risk drinking of alcohol is defined as consuming five or more drinks per drinking day. This high risk has been associated with such severe health consequences as accidental injuries, deaths from external sources, aggression (both victim and perpetrator of), as well as numerous medical, legal and occupational problems.
For subjects with the LL/TT genotype, those treated with ondansetron, on average, fell below the high-risk drinking category, while those who received placebo remained in the high-risk category. In addition, these same genotype categories responded more positively to ondansetron, versus placebo, in increasing the days of abstinence.
The benefits of this type of personalized treatment approach are remarkably promising. Personalized medicine, or genome-based medicine, has the potential to give patient and their physicians the ability to make more informed treatment decisions.
"By being able to do genetic screening beforehand, clinicians can eliminate a great deal of the trial and error approach to prescribing medicine," Johnson says. "Personalized medicine allows them to better predict a successful treatment option, as well as reducing both premature medication changes and simultaneous multiple medication regimens."
Not all alcohol-dependent individuals are treated successfully with ondansetron.
"Although this treatment approach accounts for nearly one-third of patients with alcohol dependence, more research is needed to identify alcoholics with other genetic variations who will respond significantly to alternative medications," says Johnson. "Our findings, however, are a major step into the forefront of modern medicine."
Source:
University of Virginia Health System
"Our findings suggest a new paradigm for the treatment of alcoholism, as well as a major breakthrough in individualized medicine for predetermined genotypes," says Bankole Johnson, MD, PhD, study leader and professor and chair of the UVA Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences.
The study, to be published in the March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry and now available online, tested 283 genetically profiled alcoholics for the efficacy of ondansetron, a serotonin antagonist drug.
Previous research by UVA scientists has found that specified variations in the serotonin transporter gene, SLC6A4, play a significant role in influencing drinking intensity. Furthermore, past UVA research has identified ondansetron as a likely pharmaceutical target for serotonin-related genes.
Serotonin is a brain chemical that is involved in the regulation of pain perception, sleep, mood and other psychological processes. Studies have shown that serotonin mediates the rewarding effects of alcohol.
In this latest study, UVA researchers randomized alcoholics by genotype (LL vs. Sx and TT vs. Gx) in a controlled, double-blind clinical trial. Subjects received either ondansetron or placebo for 11 weeks, and all received standard cognitive behavioral therapy. A majority of subjects were white males, and more than 65 percent of subjects completed the study in its entirety. The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). (View NIAAA press release).
Study findings show that ondansetron is indeed a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of severe alcohol consumption among alcohol-dependent individuals with the predicted genetic marker - a marker that's responsible for the amount of pleasure certain people may perceive while drinking or may perceive as a craving when they stop drinking, Johnson explains.
"The treatment response among those who received ondansetron was remarkable," says Johnson. "What this tells us is that we have measurable evidence that personalized medicine is indeed a viable treatment for alcohol dependence.
An animation of how the medication works
The primary outcome tested by researchers involved ondansetron's effects on the severity of alcohol consumption in selected alcohol-dependent individuals. The study was confined to one secondary variable - the percentage of days abstinent, in order to provide clinicians additional efficacy information. Study findings demonstrated a predicted therapeutic response to ondansetron, which increased the percentage of days abstinent relative to placebo for predetermined genotypes.
For men, who comprised 73 percent of all subjects, high-risk drinking of alcohol is defined as consuming five or more drinks per drinking day. This high risk has been associated with such severe health consequences as accidental injuries, deaths from external sources, aggression (both victim and perpetrator of), as well as numerous medical, legal and occupational problems.
For subjects with the LL/TT genotype, those treated with ondansetron, on average, fell below the high-risk drinking category, while those who received placebo remained in the high-risk category. In addition, these same genotype categories responded more positively to ondansetron, versus placebo, in increasing the days of abstinence.
The benefits of this type of personalized treatment approach are remarkably promising. Personalized medicine, or genome-based medicine, has the potential to give patient and their physicians the ability to make more informed treatment decisions.
"By being able to do genetic screening beforehand, clinicians can eliminate a great deal of the trial and error approach to prescribing medicine," Johnson says. "Personalized medicine allows them to better predict a successful treatment option, as well as reducing both premature medication changes and simultaneous multiple medication regimens."
Not all alcohol-dependent individuals are treated successfully with ondansetron.
"Although this treatment approach accounts for nearly one-third of patients with alcohol dependence, more research is needed to identify alcoholics with other genetic variations who will respond significantly to alternative medications," says Johnson. "Our findings, however, are a major step into the forefront of modern medicine."
Source:
University of Virginia Health System
суббота, 11 июня 2011 г.
Junk Food And Alcohol Advertising Levy Could Be Used To Better Inform Consumers About Their Choices, Australia
Imposing a levy on junk food and alcohol advertising can assist in addressing the gaps in consumer
information about the health consequences of their consumption choices, and increases the incentive
for food and alcohol industries to promote healthier products, according to an article published in the
Medical Journal of Australia.
Mr Todd Harper, CEO of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), and co-author,
Prof Gavin Mooney, write that consumers are not able to make fully informed choices about
purchasing junk food or alcoholic beverages because the advertising of these products generally
carries little, if any, information on the health consequences of their consumption.
They proposed a model that would see a pool of funds created from a levy imposed on advertising
expenditure for junk food and alcoholic beverages. These funds could be used to provide consumers
with more complete and balanced information on the healthy and harmful impacts of food and
alcohol choices.
"The funding could also be used to provide alternatives to junk food and alcohol sponsorships, and to
inform consumers about healthier food and beverage products," Mr Harper said.
He said the scale of the levy on advertising would be determined by the alcohol content of the
beverage or the nutrient profile of the food.
"Grading the levy on advertising, such that the greater the adverse health effects and risks associated
with the products the higher the levy, would not only assist in addressing consumer information
deficits, it would be directly health-promoting," Mr Harper said.
"It would discourage the advertising of junk food and alcohol, and encourage the promotion of
healthier alternatives, priorities identified by the National Preventative Health Taskforce."
Mr Harper said the proposal addressed the imbalance between the promotion of unhealthy and
healthier products, and securing funds to empower consumers to make more informed choices about
consumer products and health.
"The proposal's underlying premise is that those who profit from selling relatively unhealthy
products need to be encouraged to change their ways, and that harnessing the advertising clout of the
food and alcohol industries to develop and promote healthier products and lifestyles would give
significant impetus to moves to improve the health of society," Mr Harper said.
Source
The Medical Journal of Australia
information about the health consequences of their consumption choices, and increases the incentive
for food and alcohol industries to promote healthier products, according to an article published in the
Medical Journal of Australia.
Mr Todd Harper, CEO of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), and co-author,
Prof Gavin Mooney, write that consumers are not able to make fully informed choices about
purchasing junk food or alcoholic beverages because the advertising of these products generally
carries little, if any, information on the health consequences of their consumption.
They proposed a model that would see a pool of funds created from a levy imposed on advertising
expenditure for junk food and alcoholic beverages. These funds could be used to provide consumers
with more complete and balanced information on the healthy and harmful impacts of food and
alcohol choices.
"The funding could also be used to provide alternatives to junk food and alcohol sponsorships, and to
inform consumers about healthier food and beverage products," Mr Harper said.
He said the scale of the levy on advertising would be determined by the alcohol content of the
beverage or the nutrient profile of the food.
"Grading the levy on advertising, such that the greater the adverse health effects and risks associated
with the products the higher the levy, would not only assist in addressing consumer information
deficits, it would be directly health-promoting," Mr Harper said.
"It would discourage the advertising of junk food and alcohol, and encourage the promotion of
healthier alternatives, priorities identified by the National Preventative Health Taskforce."
Mr Harper said the proposal addressed the imbalance between the promotion of unhealthy and
healthier products, and securing funds to empower consumers to make more informed choices about
consumer products and health.
"The proposal's underlying premise is that those who profit from selling relatively unhealthy
products need to be encouraged to change their ways, and that harnessing the advertising clout of the
food and alcohol industries to develop and promote healthier products and lifestyles would give
significant impetus to moves to improve the health of society," Mr Harper said.
Source
The Medical Journal of Australia
пятница, 10 июня 2011 г.
The Role Of Genes Obesity And Alcohol In Hot Flashes
Many women in the menopausal transition experience hot flashes: unpredictable, sometimes disruptive, periods of intense heat in the upper torso, neck and face. Although generations of physicians have prescribed hormones to reduce these symptoms, very little research has focused on the underlying causes of hot flashes.
Three new studies explore the role of genes, obesity and alcohol consumption in contributing to - or lessening - the intensity and frequency of hot flashes in midlife women. These studies are part of a five-year research effort led by University of Illinois veterinary biosciences professor Jodi Flaws and colleagues at the University of Maryland, Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore and the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University.
Physicians have long noted that some factors, such as smoking, increase the likelihood that a woman will experience more - or more intense - hot flashes than other women. Race also appears to play a role, with African American women at higher risk than others. But the mechanisms that cause some women to suffer from severe (frequent and intense) hot flashes have remained a mystery.
"Even though more than 40 million women experience hot flashes each year," the authors wrote in their paper published in Maturitas, "little is known about the factors that predispose women to hot flashes."
To examine whether genetics might play a role in hot flashes, Flaws and her colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study involving 639 women aged 45 to 54. The researchers looked at individual differences in the genes that code for various hormones. An earlier study by the same team had found that one of these genetic polymorphisms, in an estrogen metabolizing enzyme, cytochrome P450 1B1, was more common in women who reported higher-than-average frequency, intensity and duration of hot flashes.
The new study tied the same genetic polymorphism to lower levels of an androgen known as DHEA-S, and to lower progesterone levels.
These are the first studies to find evidence of a genetic basis for hot flashes, and the first to look at genetic polymorphisms associated with hormone levels in healthy women with and without hot flashes.
The progesterone finding is of particular interest, said Flaws, because the medical community has focused almost exclusively on the role of low estrogen levels in bringing on hot flashes. Hormone replacement therapy, which is sometimes offered to women to alleviate hot flashes or other symptoms of the menopausal transition, may include one or more estrogens alone or in combination with progesterone or an analogue, progestin.
"We think there should be more studies looking at the role of progesterone in causing hot flashes," Flaws said.
The research team identified a second polymorphism, in a gene encoding an enzyme, 3-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, which also is associated with an increase in hot flashes.
"People typically didn't think of hot flashes as having a genetic component," Flaws said. "Now we have some evidence that there is at least in part some genetics behind it."
In another paper, published in the journal Climacteric, the researchers used the same data to analyze the link between obesity and hot flashes. They had shown in an earlier study that obesity is associated with more frequent and intense hot flashes in midlife women. They now wanted to see what might be causing this effect: Did the higher incidence of hot flashes in obese women correlate with varying levels of specific hormones or other factors?
When looking at blood levels of specific hormones and related enzymes, the researchers found a significant link between obesity and hormone levels. Higher body mass index (BMI) was significantly correlated with higher testosterone and lower total estradiol, estrone, progesterone and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) in midlife women.
The researchers were surprised by the findings related to estrogen, because adipose tissue produces and stores estradiol, the major estrogen in humans. Most people had assumed that obese women would have higher circulating estrogen levels because of this, Flaws said. That assumption turned out to be incorrect, at least for women in midlife.
"It could be that estrogen levels are higher in the fat, but not circulating in the blood," she said. "It's the blood that gets to the brain and to the thermoregulatory centers that govern hot flashes."
A third analysis, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, examined the influence of alcohol consumption on hot flashes in midlife women.
This study attempted to explain an earlier finding that moderate alcohol consumption (up to three drinks per month) actually reduced the severity of hot flashes by 25 percent. This effect vanished in women who consumed more than three drinks per month.
Because alcohol consumption is known to affect metabolism in some animals, the team thought that light drinking might alter sex steroid hormone levels in midlife women. But their analysis failed to turn up any significant hormonal differences between the alcohol users and the women who never used alcohol.
"We don't know why (moderate alcohol consumption) is reducing the risk of hot flashes, other than it doesn't seem to be doing so by changing hormone levels," Flaws said.
Together, these studies point to some risk factors for hot flashes that women can change and others that cannot be changed, Flaws said.
"Body mass index, alcohol use and smoking are three things that can change," she said. "So probably if women quit smoking, and they lose weight, it will reduce their risk. If they (engage in) light drinking, that might also reduce the risk of hot flashes. And then there's the genetic piece, which we can't change."
Contact: Diana Yates
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
View drug information on Estradiol Transdermal System.
Three new studies explore the role of genes, obesity and alcohol consumption in contributing to - or lessening - the intensity and frequency of hot flashes in midlife women. These studies are part of a five-year research effort led by University of Illinois veterinary biosciences professor Jodi Flaws and colleagues at the University of Maryland, Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore and the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University.
Physicians have long noted that some factors, such as smoking, increase the likelihood that a woman will experience more - or more intense - hot flashes than other women. Race also appears to play a role, with African American women at higher risk than others. But the mechanisms that cause some women to suffer from severe (frequent and intense) hot flashes have remained a mystery.
"Even though more than 40 million women experience hot flashes each year," the authors wrote in their paper published in Maturitas, "little is known about the factors that predispose women to hot flashes."
To examine whether genetics might play a role in hot flashes, Flaws and her colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study involving 639 women aged 45 to 54. The researchers looked at individual differences in the genes that code for various hormones. An earlier study by the same team had found that one of these genetic polymorphisms, in an estrogen metabolizing enzyme, cytochrome P450 1B1, was more common in women who reported higher-than-average frequency, intensity and duration of hot flashes.
The new study tied the same genetic polymorphism to lower levels of an androgen known as DHEA-S, and to lower progesterone levels.
These are the first studies to find evidence of a genetic basis for hot flashes, and the first to look at genetic polymorphisms associated with hormone levels in healthy women with and without hot flashes.
The progesterone finding is of particular interest, said Flaws, because the medical community has focused almost exclusively on the role of low estrogen levels in bringing on hot flashes. Hormone replacement therapy, which is sometimes offered to women to alleviate hot flashes or other symptoms of the menopausal transition, may include one or more estrogens alone or in combination with progesterone or an analogue, progestin.
"We think there should be more studies looking at the role of progesterone in causing hot flashes," Flaws said.
The research team identified a second polymorphism, in a gene encoding an enzyme, 3-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, which also is associated with an increase in hot flashes.
"People typically didn't think of hot flashes as having a genetic component," Flaws said. "Now we have some evidence that there is at least in part some genetics behind it."
In another paper, published in the journal Climacteric, the researchers used the same data to analyze the link between obesity and hot flashes. They had shown in an earlier study that obesity is associated with more frequent and intense hot flashes in midlife women. They now wanted to see what might be causing this effect: Did the higher incidence of hot flashes in obese women correlate with varying levels of specific hormones or other factors?
When looking at blood levels of specific hormones and related enzymes, the researchers found a significant link between obesity and hormone levels. Higher body mass index (BMI) was significantly correlated with higher testosterone and lower total estradiol, estrone, progesterone and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) in midlife women.
The researchers were surprised by the findings related to estrogen, because adipose tissue produces and stores estradiol, the major estrogen in humans. Most people had assumed that obese women would have higher circulating estrogen levels because of this, Flaws said. That assumption turned out to be incorrect, at least for women in midlife.
"It could be that estrogen levels are higher in the fat, but not circulating in the blood," she said. "It's the blood that gets to the brain and to the thermoregulatory centers that govern hot flashes."
A third analysis, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, examined the influence of alcohol consumption on hot flashes in midlife women.
This study attempted to explain an earlier finding that moderate alcohol consumption (up to three drinks per month) actually reduced the severity of hot flashes by 25 percent. This effect vanished in women who consumed more than three drinks per month.
Because alcohol consumption is known to affect metabolism in some animals, the team thought that light drinking might alter sex steroid hormone levels in midlife women. But their analysis failed to turn up any significant hormonal differences between the alcohol users and the women who never used alcohol.
"We don't know why (moderate alcohol consumption) is reducing the risk of hot flashes, other than it doesn't seem to be doing so by changing hormone levels," Flaws said.
Together, these studies point to some risk factors for hot flashes that women can change and others that cannot be changed, Flaws said.
"Body mass index, alcohol use and smoking are three things that can change," she said. "So probably if women quit smoking, and they lose weight, it will reduce their risk. If they (engage in) light drinking, that might also reduce the risk of hot flashes. And then there's the genetic piece, which we can't change."
Contact: Diana Yates
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
View drug information on Estradiol Transdermal System.
Alcoholics Anonymous and treatment seem to work best together
Most clinical studies examine individuals either during or immediately following treatment. A study in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research tracks individuals for 16 years who have first acknowledged their alcohol-use problems and then chosen Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), treatment, or both. Findings indicate that people who become involved in both AA and treatment fare better than those who obtain only treatment.
"We know that self-help groups, such as AA, contribute to better alcohol-related and psychosocial outcomes," said Rudolf H. Moos, senior research career scientist for the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System in Palo Alto, California, and corresponding author for the study. "For example, patients with alcohol use-disorders who participate in AA, and those who attend more meetings and/or participate for a longer time, are more likely to be abstinent and to maintain remission up to five years after an episode of professional treatment than patients who are not involved or less involved in such groups. Affiliation with AA also is associated with more self-efficacy and problem-solving coping skills, and better social functioning, which are linked to better alcohol-related outcomes."
Moos and his colleague(s) wanted to further examine the even longer-term outcomes of AA and treatment, and how they might interact with one another. "In the current study, we wanted to find out whether individuals who participated only in AA in the first year after initiating help-seeking (and did not obtain professional treatment) achieved outcomes comparable to those of individuals who participated in AA and also obtained professional treatment. We also wanted to find out whether individuals who participated in AA in the first year achieved better long-term outcomes."
Researchers surveyed 362 individuals (193 females, 169 males) who had initial contact with an alcoholism treatment system for their alcohol-use disorder. Study participants were asked about their subsequent participation in AA and/or treatment, as well as their alcohol-related functioning, at baseline (initial contact) and then again at one, three, eight and 16 years later.
"One, individuals who enter AA relatively quickly after initiating help-seeking, either alone or in conjunction with treatment, are more likely to participate in AA in the subsequent 15 years and participate in AA more frequently and for a longer duration," said Moos. "Two, a longer duration of participation in AA is associated with a higher likelihood of continuing remission up to 15 years later. Three, individuals who obtain professional treatment and participate in AA in the first year after initiating help-seeking are more likely to achieve remission for up to 15 years later than are individuals who obtain professional treatment alone. Finally, individuals who have achieved remission but who discontinue participation in AA are at increased risk for relapse; individuals who have not stopped drinking and who discontinue participation in AA are more likely to continue drinking."
"These findings are consistent with previous studies of AA," said William R. Miller, Distinguished Professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. "As we already knew, drop-out from AA is high. Nevertheless, involvement in AA during, and in the few years after, treatment is associated with better long-term outcomes. An additional 10 to 20 percent were in remission, which is a large and clinically meaningful difference. Of those who do not attend AA during treatment, many don't [ever] go, and if they do, [their] delayed entry to AA is associated with less benefit. In sum, there are good reasons to encourage people to get involved with AA while they are still in treatment."
"These findings emphasize that initial and subsequent episodes of participation in AA can have long-term effects on the likelihood of remission of alcohol-related problems," said Moos. "They also emphasize that counselors in information and referral centers and clinicians in substance use treatment settings should make every reasonable effort to enable individuals with alcohol-related problems to enter and continue to participate in self-help groups such as AA."
"Are these better outcomes due specifically to AA?" asked Miller. "We can't be sure. In general, the more actions people take toward their own recovery the better they do, whether it is attending treatment, going to AA, or faithfully taking medication. It is an impressively consistent finding, however, that people who go to AA during treatment have better outcomes. I do not believe that anyone should be required to attend AA, but certainly treatment providers and programs should be seriously encouraging patients to give it a try. Both treatment and AA seem to add something, and the people with the best outcomes are those who get involved in both. In short, AA is not a replacement for treatment, and treatment is not a substitute for AA."
Moos and his colleagues will continue to investigate the benefits of AA. "One of our future projects will try to identify individuals who can achieve abstinence or remission after professional treatment without participation in AA," he said. "Even though participation in AA has substantial benefits, these benefits do not necessarily accrue to all types of individuals; it is important to specify the characteristics of individuals who may not need to join AA in order to overcome their alcohol-related problems."
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER) is the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. The co-author of the ACER paper, "Paths of Entry into Alcoholics Anonymous: Consequences for Participation and Remission," is Bernice S. Moos of the Center for Health Care Evaluation at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California. The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Service.
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
alcoholism-cer
"We know that self-help groups, such as AA, contribute to better alcohol-related and psychosocial outcomes," said Rudolf H. Moos, senior research career scientist for the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System in Palo Alto, California, and corresponding author for the study. "For example, patients with alcohol use-disorders who participate in AA, and those who attend more meetings and/or participate for a longer time, are more likely to be abstinent and to maintain remission up to five years after an episode of professional treatment than patients who are not involved or less involved in such groups. Affiliation with AA also is associated with more self-efficacy and problem-solving coping skills, and better social functioning, which are linked to better alcohol-related outcomes."
Moos and his colleague(s) wanted to further examine the even longer-term outcomes of AA and treatment, and how they might interact with one another. "In the current study, we wanted to find out whether individuals who participated only in AA in the first year after initiating help-seeking (and did not obtain professional treatment) achieved outcomes comparable to those of individuals who participated in AA and also obtained professional treatment. We also wanted to find out whether individuals who participated in AA in the first year achieved better long-term outcomes."
Researchers surveyed 362 individuals (193 females, 169 males) who had initial contact with an alcoholism treatment system for their alcohol-use disorder. Study participants were asked about their subsequent participation in AA and/or treatment, as well as their alcohol-related functioning, at baseline (initial contact) and then again at one, three, eight and 16 years later.
"One, individuals who enter AA relatively quickly after initiating help-seeking, either alone or in conjunction with treatment, are more likely to participate in AA in the subsequent 15 years and participate in AA more frequently and for a longer duration," said Moos. "Two, a longer duration of participation in AA is associated with a higher likelihood of continuing remission up to 15 years later. Three, individuals who obtain professional treatment and participate in AA in the first year after initiating help-seeking are more likely to achieve remission for up to 15 years later than are individuals who obtain professional treatment alone. Finally, individuals who have achieved remission but who discontinue participation in AA are at increased risk for relapse; individuals who have not stopped drinking and who discontinue participation in AA are more likely to continue drinking."
"These findings are consistent with previous studies of AA," said William R. Miller, Distinguished Professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. "As we already knew, drop-out from AA is high. Nevertheless, involvement in AA during, and in the few years after, treatment is associated with better long-term outcomes. An additional 10 to 20 percent were in remission, which is a large and clinically meaningful difference. Of those who do not attend AA during treatment, many don't [ever] go, and if they do, [their] delayed entry to AA is associated with less benefit. In sum, there are good reasons to encourage people to get involved with AA while they are still in treatment."
"These findings emphasize that initial and subsequent episodes of participation in AA can have long-term effects on the likelihood of remission of alcohol-related problems," said Moos. "They also emphasize that counselors in information and referral centers and clinicians in substance use treatment settings should make every reasonable effort to enable individuals with alcohol-related problems to enter and continue to participate in self-help groups such as AA."
"Are these better outcomes due specifically to AA?" asked Miller. "We can't be sure. In general, the more actions people take toward their own recovery the better they do, whether it is attending treatment, going to AA, or faithfully taking medication. It is an impressively consistent finding, however, that people who go to AA during treatment have better outcomes. I do not believe that anyone should be required to attend AA, but certainly treatment providers and programs should be seriously encouraging patients to give it a try. Both treatment and AA seem to add something, and the people with the best outcomes are those who get involved in both. In short, AA is not a replacement for treatment, and treatment is not a substitute for AA."
Moos and his colleagues will continue to investigate the benefits of AA. "One of our future projects will try to identify individuals who can achieve abstinence or remission after professional treatment without participation in AA," he said. "Even though participation in AA has substantial benefits, these benefits do not necessarily accrue to all types of individuals; it is important to specify the characteristics of individuals who may not need to join AA in order to overcome their alcohol-related problems."
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER) is the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. The co-author of the ACER paper, "Paths of Entry into Alcoholics Anonymous: Consequences for Participation and Remission," is Bernice S. Moos of the Center for Health Care Evaluation at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California. The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Service.
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
alcoholism-cer
четверг, 9 июня 2011 г.
Recent Releases In Global Health
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These are the most read articles from this news category for the last 6 months:
The Tragedy Of The Fraudulent MMR Autism Link, A Personal Story
07 Feb 2011
In 1998, our boy with Asperger's Syndrome was 11 years old. A report was published in a prestigious British medical journal called The Lancet, linking the triple MMR vaccine with a significant raised risk of developing autism...
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_uacct = "UA-849615-1";
urchinTracker();
These are the most read articles from this news category for the last 6 months:
The Tragedy Of The Fraudulent MMR Autism Link, A Personal Story
07 Feb 2011
In 1998, our boy with Asperger's Syndrome was 11 years old. A report was published in a prestigious British medical journal called The Lancet, linking the triple MMR vaccine with a significant raised risk of developing autism...
Placebos Plus Positive Thinking May Be Enough
23 Dec 2010
Doctors Persist On Prescribing High-dose Menopausal Hormone Therapy
03 Dec 2010
95% Of US Paper Money Tainted With Bisphenol A (BPA)
08 Dec 2010
Female Doctors Make Less, Entry Into Primary Care A Potential Factor
03 Feb 2011
_uacct = "UA-849615-1";
urchinTracker();
среда, 8 июня 2011 г.
Study Finds Self-Control To Be Contagious
Before patting yourself on the back for resisting that cookie or kicking yourself for giving in to temptation, look around. A new University of Georgia study has revealed that self-control - or the lack thereof - is contagious.
In a just-published series of studies involving hundreds of volunteers, researchers have found that watching or even thinking about someone with good self-control makes others more likely exert self-control. The researchers found that the opposite holds, too, so that people with bad self-control influence others negatively. The effect is so powerful, in fact, that seeing the name of someone with good or bad self-control flashing on a screen for just 10 milliseconds changed the behavior of volunteers.
"The take home message of this study is that picking social influences that are positive can improve your self-control," said lead author Michelle vanDellen, a visiting assistant professor in the UGA department of psychology. "And by exhibiting self-control, you're helping others around you do the same."
People tend to mimic the behavior of those around them, and characteristics such as smoking, drug use and obesity tend to spread through social networks. But vanDellen's study is thought to be the first to show that self-control is contagious across behaviors. That means that thinking about someone who exercises self-control by regularly exercising, for example, can make your more likely to stick with your financial goals, career goals or anything else that takes self-control on your part.
VanDellen's findings, which are published in the early online edition of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, are the result of five separate studies conducted over two years with study co-author Rick Hoyle at Duke University.
In the first study, the researchers randomly assigned 36 volunteers to think about a friend with either good or bad self-control. Those that thought about a friend with good self-control persisted longer on a handgrip task commonly used to measure self-control, while the opposite held true for those who were asked to think about a friend with bad self-control.
In the second study, 71 volunteers watched others exert self-control by choosing a carrot from a plate in front of them instead of a cookie from a nearby plate, while others watched people eat the cookies instead of the carrots. The volunteers had no interaction with the tasters other than watching them, yet their performance was altered on a later test of self-control depending on who they were randomly assigned to watch.
In the third study, 42 volunteers were randomly assigned to list friends with both good and bad self-control. As they were completing a computerized test designed to measure self-control, the computer screen would flash the names for 10 milliseconds - too fast to be read but enough to subliminally bring the names to mind. Those who were primed with the name of a friend with good self-control did better, while those primed with friends with bad self-control did worse.
In a fourth study, vanDellen randomly assigned 112 volunteers to write about a friend with good self-control, bad self-control or - for a control group - a friend who is moderately extroverted. On a later test of self-control, those who wrote about friends with good self-control did the best, while those who wrote about friends with bad self-control did the worst. The control group, those who wrote about a moderately extroverted friend, scored between the other two groups.
In the fifth study of 117 volunteers, the researchers found that those who were randomly assigned to write about friends with good self-control were faster than the other groups at identifying words related to self-control, such as achieve, discipline and effort. VanDellen said this finding suggests that self-control is contagious because being exposed to people with either good or bad self-control influences how accessible thoughts about self-control are.
VanDellen said the magnitude of the influence might be significant enough to be the difference between eating an extra cookie at a party or not, or deciding to go to the gym despite a long day at work. The effect isn't so strong that it absolves people of accountability for their actions, she explained, but it is a nudge toward or away from temptation.
"This isn't an excuse for blaming other people for our failures," vanDellen said. "Yes, I'm getting nudged, but it's not like my friend is taking the cookie and feeding it to me; the decision is ultimately mine."
The research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Source: Sam Fahmy
University of Georgia
In a just-published series of studies involving hundreds of volunteers, researchers have found that watching or even thinking about someone with good self-control makes others more likely exert self-control. The researchers found that the opposite holds, too, so that people with bad self-control influence others negatively. The effect is so powerful, in fact, that seeing the name of someone with good or bad self-control flashing on a screen for just 10 milliseconds changed the behavior of volunteers.
"The take home message of this study is that picking social influences that are positive can improve your self-control," said lead author Michelle vanDellen, a visiting assistant professor in the UGA department of psychology. "And by exhibiting self-control, you're helping others around you do the same."
People tend to mimic the behavior of those around them, and characteristics such as smoking, drug use and obesity tend to spread through social networks. But vanDellen's study is thought to be the first to show that self-control is contagious across behaviors. That means that thinking about someone who exercises self-control by regularly exercising, for example, can make your more likely to stick with your financial goals, career goals or anything else that takes self-control on your part.
VanDellen's findings, which are published in the early online edition of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, are the result of five separate studies conducted over two years with study co-author Rick Hoyle at Duke University.
In the first study, the researchers randomly assigned 36 volunteers to think about a friend with either good or bad self-control. Those that thought about a friend with good self-control persisted longer on a handgrip task commonly used to measure self-control, while the opposite held true for those who were asked to think about a friend with bad self-control.
In the second study, 71 volunteers watched others exert self-control by choosing a carrot from a plate in front of them instead of a cookie from a nearby plate, while others watched people eat the cookies instead of the carrots. The volunteers had no interaction with the tasters other than watching them, yet their performance was altered on a later test of self-control depending on who they were randomly assigned to watch.
In the third study, 42 volunteers were randomly assigned to list friends with both good and bad self-control. As they were completing a computerized test designed to measure self-control, the computer screen would flash the names for 10 milliseconds - too fast to be read but enough to subliminally bring the names to mind. Those who were primed with the name of a friend with good self-control did better, while those primed with friends with bad self-control did worse.
In a fourth study, vanDellen randomly assigned 112 volunteers to write about a friend with good self-control, bad self-control or - for a control group - a friend who is moderately extroverted. On a later test of self-control, those who wrote about friends with good self-control did the best, while those who wrote about friends with bad self-control did the worst. The control group, those who wrote about a moderately extroverted friend, scored between the other two groups.
In the fifth study of 117 volunteers, the researchers found that those who were randomly assigned to write about friends with good self-control were faster than the other groups at identifying words related to self-control, such as achieve, discipline and effort. VanDellen said this finding suggests that self-control is contagious because being exposed to people with either good or bad self-control influences how accessible thoughts about self-control are.
VanDellen said the magnitude of the influence might be significant enough to be the difference between eating an extra cookie at a party or not, or deciding to go to the gym despite a long day at work. The effect isn't so strong that it absolves people of accountability for their actions, she explained, but it is a nudge toward or away from temptation.
"This isn't an excuse for blaming other people for our failures," vanDellen said. "Yes, I'm getting nudged, but it's not like my friend is taking the cookie and feeding it to me; the decision is ultimately mine."
The research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Source: Sam Fahmy
University of Georgia
вторник, 7 июня 2011 г.
Alcohol Advertising Reaching Too Many Teens On Cable TV
A new study from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, in collaboration with UCLA, has found a striking correlation between teenage viewership and the frequency of alcohol advertising on cable television. The findings show that ads for beer, spirits and "alcopop" aired much more frequently when more teens were watching.
While previous studies have shown that the average adolescent is exposed to well over 200 alcohol ads on television each year, this is the first to demonstrate an association between ad placement and teen cable TV viewership. Cable TV attracts about 95 percent of all nationally televised alcohol ads.
The study will be published in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health and is currently available online by subscription.
"Alcohol advertisers have pledged to avoid audiences made up of more than 30 percent underage viewers such as children's programming," said David H. Jernigan, director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth and an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "However, many other shows have adolescent appeal. This research suggests that ads are aimed at groups that include a disproportionate number of teens and that the alcohol industry's voluntary self-monitoring is not working to reduce adolescent exposure to ads."
Using advertising industry data from Nielsen Media Research, researchers examined all 600,000 national cable alcohol ads shown from 2001 through 2006 to audiences with less than 30 percent of viewers between the ages of 12 and 20. Among the findings:
-- Audiences with a higher percentage of youth between the ages of 12 and 20 were exposed to a higher frequency of alcohol ads, even after accounting for other factors that might explain ad placement decisions.
-- Each 1-percentage-point increase in adolescent viewership was associated with a 7-percent increase in beer ads, a 15-percent increase in spirits ads and a 22-percent increase in ads for low-alcohol refreshers/alcopops flavored alcoholic beverages that taste similar to juice or soda.
-- In contrast, wine ads decreased by 8 percent with each 1-percentage-point increase in adolescent viewership; this finding suggests that alcohol advertisers can, in fact, successfully avoid adolescent audiences.
"This study did not examine whether alcohol advertisers are intentionally overexposing adolescents," said lead study author Dr. Paul J. Chung, assistant professor of pediatrics at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA and a senior natural scientist at the RAND Corp. "The alcohol industry has consistently denied actively targeting teens, and our study isn't designed to test that claim. However, the ultimate effect of their advertising strategies, intentional or not, appears to be greater exposure than might be expected if adults were the sole targets of ads."
For years, alcohol has been the substance of abuse most commonly used by teens in the United States, and the public health consequences of underage drinking are considerable. Numerous studies and national statistics report that adolescents are involved in a significant proportion of the injuries, violence and crime that stem from binge drinking and other forms of alcohol abuse. Moreover, studies have shown that starting to drink as an adolescent has been linked with much greater risks of lifelong problem drinking.
Multiple studies suggest that alcohol ads can have substantial influence on underage drinking attitudes and behaviors.
"It's difficult to document experimentally," said Chung, who also directs the UCLA RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion. "But there's not too much doubt that advertising and marketing affect the behavior of both children and adults. Common sense tells us that if it didn't work, companies probably wouldn't be spending so much money on it. So, it's a lot harder for parents, teachers and clinicians to successfully encourage kids to delay drinking when so many things they're seeing on television, on billboards, on movie screens, on the Internet are telling them otherwise."
This study was supported in part by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins University (formerly at Georgetown University), and a grant from Pfizer.
Additional study authors included Craig F. Garfield from the North Shore University Health System, Marc N. Elliott from the RAND Corp., Joshua Ostroff and Craig Ross from Virtual Media Resources, Katherine D. Vestal from UCLA, and senior author Mark A. Schuster from Harvard Medical School, Children's Hospital Boston and RAND.
Source: University of California, Los Angeles
While previous studies have shown that the average adolescent is exposed to well over 200 alcohol ads on television each year, this is the first to demonstrate an association between ad placement and teen cable TV viewership. Cable TV attracts about 95 percent of all nationally televised alcohol ads.
The study will be published in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health and is currently available online by subscription.
"Alcohol advertisers have pledged to avoid audiences made up of more than 30 percent underage viewers such as children's programming," said David H. Jernigan, director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth and an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "However, many other shows have adolescent appeal. This research suggests that ads are aimed at groups that include a disproportionate number of teens and that the alcohol industry's voluntary self-monitoring is not working to reduce adolescent exposure to ads."
Using advertising industry data from Nielsen Media Research, researchers examined all 600,000 national cable alcohol ads shown from 2001 through 2006 to audiences with less than 30 percent of viewers between the ages of 12 and 20. Among the findings:
-- Audiences with a higher percentage of youth between the ages of 12 and 20 were exposed to a higher frequency of alcohol ads, even after accounting for other factors that might explain ad placement decisions.
-- Each 1-percentage-point increase in adolescent viewership was associated with a 7-percent increase in beer ads, a 15-percent increase in spirits ads and a 22-percent increase in ads for low-alcohol refreshers/alcopops flavored alcoholic beverages that taste similar to juice or soda.
-- In contrast, wine ads decreased by 8 percent with each 1-percentage-point increase in adolescent viewership; this finding suggests that alcohol advertisers can, in fact, successfully avoid adolescent audiences.
"This study did not examine whether alcohol advertisers are intentionally overexposing adolescents," said lead study author Dr. Paul J. Chung, assistant professor of pediatrics at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA and a senior natural scientist at the RAND Corp. "The alcohol industry has consistently denied actively targeting teens, and our study isn't designed to test that claim. However, the ultimate effect of their advertising strategies, intentional or not, appears to be greater exposure than might be expected if adults were the sole targets of ads."
For years, alcohol has been the substance of abuse most commonly used by teens in the United States, and the public health consequences of underage drinking are considerable. Numerous studies and national statistics report that adolescents are involved in a significant proportion of the injuries, violence and crime that stem from binge drinking and other forms of alcohol abuse. Moreover, studies have shown that starting to drink as an adolescent has been linked with much greater risks of lifelong problem drinking.
Multiple studies suggest that alcohol ads can have substantial influence on underage drinking attitudes and behaviors.
"It's difficult to document experimentally," said Chung, who also directs the UCLA RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion. "But there's not too much doubt that advertising and marketing affect the behavior of both children and adults. Common sense tells us that if it didn't work, companies probably wouldn't be spending so much money on it. So, it's a lot harder for parents, teachers and clinicians to successfully encourage kids to delay drinking when so many things they're seeing on television, on billboards, on movie screens, on the Internet are telling them otherwise."
This study was supported in part by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins University (formerly at Georgetown University), and a grant from Pfizer.
Additional study authors included Craig F. Garfield from the North Shore University Health System, Marc N. Elliott from the RAND Corp., Joshua Ostroff and Craig Ross from Virtual Media Resources, Katherine D. Vestal from UCLA, and senior author Mark A. Schuster from Harvard Medical School, Children's Hospital Boston and RAND.
Source: University of California, Los Angeles
IIP Recognition For Substance Abuse Testing Lab Trimega Laboratories
UK based Trimega Laboratories is pleased to announce that it has been recognized as having met the standards set by the prestigious Investors in People (IIP) Standard.
Its accreditation follows an examination by the Employer Representative Quality Board of IIP and reflects the commitment and hard work undertaken by Trimega Laboratories as an organization. A significant aspect of the achievement is that, as a substance abuse testing company serving a global market, its 40 strong workforce is spread across offices and laboratories many different locations including Germany and South Africa.
Douglas MacSween, General Manager of Trimega Laboratories, commented: "This credential shows that we, as a company, are committed to the development of our staff in all aspects and are raising the bar in our sector. A key ingredient of our exceptional team is a thorough understanding of our market needs that enables us to focus on the delivery of quality service whilst meeting tight court deadlines. Because we are always mindful that a drug and alcohol test is not just a scientific result but a process that puts children into safer environments, we are all prepared to go the extra mile."
Trimega Laboratories is one of a very small number of specialist companies in the UK that test hair samples for evidence of alcohol or drug abuse. The vast majority of circumstances in which people are required to undergo a hair strand test in the UK are when a child care application is made to a Family Court by one of the UK's Local Authorities.
Source: Trimega Laboratories
Its accreditation follows an examination by the Employer Representative Quality Board of IIP and reflects the commitment and hard work undertaken by Trimega Laboratories as an organization. A significant aspect of the achievement is that, as a substance abuse testing company serving a global market, its 40 strong workforce is spread across offices and laboratories many different locations including Germany and South Africa.
Douglas MacSween, General Manager of Trimega Laboratories, commented: "This credential shows that we, as a company, are committed to the development of our staff in all aspects and are raising the bar in our sector. A key ingredient of our exceptional team is a thorough understanding of our market needs that enables us to focus on the delivery of quality service whilst meeting tight court deadlines. Because we are always mindful that a drug and alcohol test is not just a scientific result but a process that puts children into safer environments, we are all prepared to go the extra mile."
Trimega Laboratories is one of a very small number of specialist companies in the UK that test hair samples for evidence of alcohol or drug abuse. The vast majority of circumstances in which people are required to undergo a hair strand test in the UK are when a child care application is made to a Family Court by one of the UK's Local Authorities.
Source: Trimega Laboratories
понедельник, 6 июня 2011 г.
Government Of Canada To Work With Ontario And Ottawa To Prevent Substance Abuse Among Youth In The National Capital
Pierre Poilievre, Member of Parliament for Nepean-Carleton, on behalf of the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, announced today the Government of Canada's intention to support S.T.E.P. (Support, Treatment, Education and Prevention), a project that provides targeted help for youth in Ottawa who are at risk of engaging in substance abuse.
"This community-based project will provide Ottawa youth with the ability to make the right decisions when it comes to addictive substances," said Minister Aglukkaq. "It is a STEP in the right direction."
This initiative is part of implementing the Government of Canada's National Anti-Drug Strategy, which was announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in October 2007. This project will support this strategy, which focuses on prevention, treatment and enforcement.
"Our government is taking concrete steps to support school-based educational programs that endorse prevention and early intervention for young people at risk of engaging in substance abuse," said MP Pierre Poilievre. "This project will help Ottawa youth make wise decisions and keep them on the right track."
The project will receive up to $1M in support over the next four years.
Please visit the National Anti-Drug Strategy's website for more information.
Health Canada
"This community-based project will provide Ottawa youth with the ability to make the right decisions when it comes to addictive substances," said Minister Aglukkaq. "It is a STEP in the right direction."
This initiative is part of implementing the Government of Canada's National Anti-Drug Strategy, which was announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in October 2007. This project will support this strategy, which focuses on prevention, treatment and enforcement.
"Our government is taking concrete steps to support school-based educational programs that endorse prevention and early intervention for young people at risk of engaging in substance abuse," said MP Pierre Poilievre. "This project will help Ottawa youth make wise decisions and keep them on the right track."
The project will receive up to $1M in support over the next four years.
Please visit the National Anti-Drug Strategy's website for more information.
Health Canada
воскресенье, 5 июня 2011 г.
Floridians Prepare To Take Back The State
September's National Pain Awareness Month has never been more important for the state of Florida. Recent data from the Florida Medical Examiner shows residents are dying at a rate of at least 7 per day as a result of prescription drug abuse. In an effort to combat this sobering statistic and bring the prescription addiction epidemic to the forefront, the Florida Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (FSIPP), with endorsements from the Florida Medical Association (FMA), and the Florida Society of Addiction Medicine (FSAM), is launching a statewide community campaign called The Pain Truth, today, September 1. The program is also supported by the Florida Office of Drug Control's 2009 Drug Control Strategy regarding prescription drug abuse and diversion.
The Pain Truth is designed as an initial 3-month public education program, which will include a series of public service announcements, education, awareness, Internet, and community events across the state. This full-on offensive will canvas the state and reach people at home, workplaces, schools, churches and more, leading up to a December 1 event when The SUNSHINE STATE Goes Dark for a Day. The event is meant to recognize lives lost, by offering an official day of mourning for families and friends of thousands who have died.
"Prescription drug addiction has reached epidemic proportions nationwide and all signs point to Florida as the epicenter of this problem. If we band together as a community we will have greater power to educate, to influence, and to abate the issue," said FSIPP board member, Sanford Silverman, MD.
Recent statistics demonstrate the importance of growing awareness of prescription drug abuse throughout the state:
-- Prescription drug abuse is now the Number ONE killer of middle-aged Floridians.
-- Nearly 3,000 Floridians died from prescription drug use in 2009.
-- Prescription Oxycodone was responsible for more deaths in Florida in 2009 than cocaine, heroin and morphine combined. The increase is up 25.9% over 2008.
Throughout the campaign organizers hope to engage individuals, cities/communities, corporations, government officials, physicians/medical personnel, media and more, from throughout the state to join them. The Pain Truth will also help educate medical practitioners and the public regarding the Department of Health's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and how it will help reduce prescription drug abuse and diversion and improve patient standard of care.
Also at issue is the fact that the public, including those within the medical community, is ill informed and often doesn't understand that there is a difference between legitimate pain management physicians and those that work at pill mills. For the millions of Floridians who suffer pain, The Pain Truth will address this matter and will create a separate, free, searchable website to help them find a legitimate pain physician.
"This epidemic has been extremely difficult for Floridians who suffer from genuine pain. The news is full of negative stories about pain doctors and their so-called "pill mills", and it's left patients apprehensive. They are unsure of where to go to get help for their very real pain. But, there are hundreds of board-certified pain management physicians who can truly help heal those in pain. The Pain Truth program will help patients identify trusted physicians with true credentials," said Deborah Tracy, MD, president of FSIPP.
Source: Florida Society of Interventional Pain Physicians
View drug information on Oxycodone and Aspirin.
The Pain Truth is designed as an initial 3-month public education program, which will include a series of public service announcements, education, awareness, Internet, and community events across the state. This full-on offensive will canvas the state and reach people at home, workplaces, schools, churches and more, leading up to a December 1 event when The SUNSHINE STATE Goes Dark for a Day. The event is meant to recognize lives lost, by offering an official day of mourning for families and friends of thousands who have died.
"Prescription drug addiction has reached epidemic proportions nationwide and all signs point to Florida as the epicenter of this problem. If we band together as a community we will have greater power to educate, to influence, and to abate the issue," said FSIPP board member, Sanford Silverman, MD.
Recent statistics demonstrate the importance of growing awareness of prescription drug abuse throughout the state:
-- Prescription drug abuse is now the Number ONE killer of middle-aged Floridians.
-- Nearly 3,000 Floridians died from prescription drug use in 2009.
-- Prescription Oxycodone was responsible for more deaths in Florida in 2009 than cocaine, heroin and morphine combined. The increase is up 25.9% over 2008.
Throughout the campaign organizers hope to engage individuals, cities/communities, corporations, government officials, physicians/medical personnel, media and more, from throughout the state to join them. The Pain Truth will also help educate medical practitioners and the public regarding the Department of Health's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and how it will help reduce prescription drug abuse and diversion and improve patient standard of care.
Also at issue is the fact that the public, including those within the medical community, is ill informed and often doesn't understand that there is a difference between legitimate pain management physicians and those that work at pill mills. For the millions of Floridians who suffer pain, The Pain Truth will address this matter and will create a separate, free, searchable website to help them find a legitimate pain physician.
"This epidemic has been extremely difficult for Floridians who suffer from genuine pain. The news is full of negative stories about pain doctors and their so-called "pill mills", and it's left patients apprehensive. They are unsure of where to go to get help for their very real pain. But, there are hundreds of board-certified pain management physicians who can truly help heal those in pain. The Pain Truth program will help patients identify trusted physicians with true credentials," said Deborah Tracy, MD, president of FSIPP.
Source: Florida Society of Interventional Pain Physicians
View drug information on Oxycodone and Aspirin.
суббота, 4 июня 2011 г.
Special Issue Of Homicide Studies Explores Homicide In An International Context
Research published by SAGE in current special issue of Homicide Studies.
From cross-national to country-specific empirical analyses and exploratory studies, the special issue, guest edited by Indiana University's William Alex Pridemore, examines homicide from diverse global, gender, age, and cultural directions, looking at such wide-ranging concepts as:
* The association between alcohol consumption and homicide rates in Europe
* How economic inequality affects homicide rates in 14 developed democracies
* Cross-national infanticide
* Homicide in Finland (which has a higher rate than most European countries)
* Neighborhood-levels factors associated with homicide in the Netherlands
* The fall of communism and how it affected homicide rates
* Explanations of the difference in homicide clearance rates in Japan and the United States
* Japan's drop in homicides following World War II
"Homicide Studies is at the forefront in recognizing the importance of international and cross-national scholarship," writes guest editor William Alex Pridemore in the introduction. "This special issue provides us a glimpse of the many and varied types of international, comparative, and cross-national homicide research being carried out today and we hope it encourages further exploration of these topics by an even greater number of scholars, especially in nations and regions not covered here."
The special issue of Homicide Studies, examining homicide in an international context, has been made available by SAGE at no charge for a limited time at hsx.sagepub/content/vol12/issue1/.
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology and medicine. A privately owned corporation, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, and Singapore. sagepublications/
Homicide Studies is a high-quality, multidisciplinary publication devoted to the dissemination of information concerning research, public policy, and applied knowledge relating to the study of homicide. It publishes the latest thinking and discussion in homicide studies aiding more effective public policies to help reduce and possibly prevent future homicides. homicidestudies.sagepub/
Source: Andrea Rulfo
SAGE Publications
From cross-national to country-specific empirical analyses and exploratory studies, the special issue, guest edited by Indiana University's William Alex Pridemore, examines homicide from diverse global, gender, age, and cultural directions, looking at such wide-ranging concepts as:
* The association between alcohol consumption and homicide rates in Europe
* How economic inequality affects homicide rates in 14 developed democracies
* Cross-national infanticide
* Homicide in Finland (which has a higher rate than most European countries)
* Neighborhood-levels factors associated with homicide in the Netherlands
* The fall of communism and how it affected homicide rates
* Explanations of the difference in homicide clearance rates in Japan and the United States
* Japan's drop in homicides following World War II
"Homicide Studies is at the forefront in recognizing the importance of international and cross-national scholarship," writes guest editor William Alex Pridemore in the introduction. "This special issue provides us a glimpse of the many and varied types of international, comparative, and cross-national homicide research being carried out today and we hope it encourages further exploration of these topics by an even greater number of scholars, especially in nations and regions not covered here."
The special issue of Homicide Studies, examining homicide in an international context, has been made available by SAGE at no charge for a limited time at hsx.sagepub/content/vol12/issue1/.
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology and medicine. A privately owned corporation, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, and Singapore. sagepublications/
Homicide Studies is a high-quality, multidisciplinary publication devoted to the dissemination of information concerning research, public policy, and applied knowledge relating to the study of homicide. It publishes the latest thinking and discussion in homicide studies aiding more effective public policies to help reduce and possibly prevent future homicides. homicidestudies.sagepub/
Source: Andrea Rulfo
SAGE Publications
2 Programmes Focus On Addiction Awareness And Control
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) the study designed the two programmes and examined their effectiveness in helping excessive drinkers reduce their drinking. The AACTP and LEAP programmes address the challenges faced by excessive drinkers, including a preoccupation with drinking made worse by alcohol-related stimuli around them. The study also addressed excessive drinkers' difficulties with motivation which prevent them focusing on and achieving goals which provide alternative healthy activities to drinking alcohol.
The principal researcher, Professor Miles Cox, said: "We are very encouraged by the results. They show that excessive drinkers can reduce their drinking with the aid of the simple training procedures that we developed."
The main findings from the two programmes were:
the drinkers' weekly alcohol consumption decreased significantly;
a reduction in alcohol-related problems greatly reduced, and there was an increase in the drinkers' confidence in their ability to resist a drink in situations previously thought of as high-risk;
drinkers' motivation to reduce their consumption increased.
Findings from AACTP
a reduction in overall alcohol consumption;
increased confidence in the drinkers' ability to resist drinking in high-risk situations, such as when feeling socially uneasy or in physical discomfort.
Findings from LEAP
increased motivation of participants to change their drinking habits and reduce alcohol intake.
drinkers were helped to improve their lives and general functioning by breaking the chain of drink-related behaviours.
The impact of this research on how practitioners treat alcohol problems could be wide-ranging with tried-and-tested training programmes used to treat alcohol-related problems much more effectively.
Notes:
Based on the findings from 'Effects of attentional and motivational training on reducing excessive drinking' funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and carried out by W. Miles Cox, Javad S. Fadardi, Steven G. Hosier and Emmanuel M. Pothos of Bangor University.
Methodology:
A sample size of 247 participants was used, and these were recruited from community health initiatives, using posters and fliers distributed in GP surgeries and Bangor University, newspapers, notices on buses and the School of Psychology Student Participant Panel. After giving consent, participants were randomly assigned to four groups: Control group; AACTP group; LEAP group; or Combination group (AACTP and LEAP).
Source:
Press Office
Economic & Social Research Council
The principal researcher, Professor Miles Cox, said: "We are very encouraged by the results. They show that excessive drinkers can reduce their drinking with the aid of the simple training procedures that we developed."
The main findings from the two programmes were:
the drinkers' weekly alcohol consumption decreased significantly;
a reduction in alcohol-related problems greatly reduced, and there was an increase in the drinkers' confidence in their ability to resist a drink in situations previously thought of as high-risk;
drinkers' motivation to reduce their consumption increased.
Findings from AACTP
a reduction in overall alcohol consumption;
increased confidence in the drinkers' ability to resist drinking in high-risk situations, such as when feeling socially uneasy or in physical discomfort.
Findings from LEAP
increased motivation of participants to change their drinking habits and reduce alcohol intake.
drinkers were helped to improve their lives and general functioning by breaking the chain of drink-related behaviours.
The impact of this research on how practitioners treat alcohol problems could be wide-ranging with tried-and-tested training programmes used to treat alcohol-related problems much more effectively.
Notes:
Based on the findings from 'Effects of attentional and motivational training on reducing excessive drinking' funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and carried out by W. Miles Cox, Javad S. Fadardi, Steven G. Hosier and Emmanuel M. Pothos of Bangor University.
Methodology:
A sample size of 247 participants was used, and these were recruited from community health initiatives, using posters and fliers distributed in GP surgeries and Bangor University, newspapers, notices on buses and the School of Psychology Student Participant Panel. After giving consent, participants were randomly assigned to four groups: Control group; AACTP group; LEAP group; or Combination group (AACTP and LEAP).
Source:
Press Office
Economic & Social Research Council
пятница, 3 июня 2011 г.
Study Examines Alcohol and Breast Cancer Risk
Alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, but not ER-negative, breast cancer in postmenopausal women, according to a new study.
Many epidemiologic studies have found an association between alcohol consumption and breast cancer risk, but it has not been known whether this risk varies by hormone receptor type. Alicja Wolk, Dr.Med.Sc., of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues evaluated data on alcohol consumption collected from 1987 to 1990 and again in 1997 from 51,847 postmenopausal women in the population-based Swedish Mammography Cohort. By mid-2004, 1,188 breast cancer patients were identified.
Alcohol consumption was associated with an increased risk of ER-positive tumors, regardless of progesterone receptor (PR) status, but there was no association with ER-negative tumors. The absolute rate of ER-positive breast cancer was 232 cases per 100,000 person-years among women in the highest category of alcohol consumption compared with 158 per 100,000 person-years among women in the lowest category. The researchers also observed an interaction between alcohol intake and the use of postmenopausal hormones on the risk of ER-positive/PR-positive tumors.
The Journal of the National Cancer Institute is published by Oxford University Press and is not affiliated with the National Cancer Institute. Attribution to the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is requested in all news coverage. Visit the Journal online at jncicancerspectrum.oxfordjournals.
Kate Travis
jncimediaoxfordjournals
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
jncicancerspectrum.oupjournals
Many epidemiologic studies have found an association between alcohol consumption and breast cancer risk, but it has not been known whether this risk varies by hormone receptor type. Alicja Wolk, Dr.Med.Sc., of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues evaluated data on alcohol consumption collected from 1987 to 1990 and again in 1997 from 51,847 postmenopausal women in the population-based Swedish Mammography Cohort. By mid-2004, 1,188 breast cancer patients were identified.
Alcohol consumption was associated with an increased risk of ER-positive tumors, regardless of progesterone receptor (PR) status, but there was no association with ER-negative tumors. The absolute rate of ER-positive breast cancer was 232 cases per 100,000 person-years among women in the highest category of alcohol consumption compared with 158 per 100,000 person-years among women in the lowest category. The researchers also observed an interaction between alcohol intake and the use of postmenopausal hormones on the risk of ER-positive/PR-positive tumors.
The Journal of the National Cancer Institute is published by Oxford University Press and is not affiliated with the National Cancer Institute. Attribution to the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is requested in all news coverage. Visit the Journal online at jncicancerspectrum.oxfordjournals.
Kate Travis
jncimediaoxfordjournals
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
jncicancerspectrum.oupjournals
четверг, 2 июня 2011 г.
NHS Confederation Comments On NICE Guidelines To Reduce Alcohol-related Harm
Jo Webber, deputy director of policy and director of the Ambulance Service Network at the NHS Confederation, responds to NICE guidance on reducing alcohol-related harm.
She said:
"Given the facts it is hard to ignore the call made by NICE for a national minimum unit price for alcohol.
"Treatment available on the NHS will remain only part of the response in tackling misuse of alcohol. Proper consideration must be given to society's drinking habits as a whole.
"The NHS has a part to play to ensure treatment is provided for those whose health suffers as a result of too much alcohol but the rising numbers of people admitted to hospital because of addiction and binge drinking is putting an unsustainable pressure on our health service. An examination of our attitude towards alcohol is well-overdue."
Source
NHS Confederation
She said:
"Given the facts it is hard to ignore the call made by NICE for a national minimum unit price for alcohol.
"Treatment available on the NHS will remain only part of the response in tackling misuse of alcohol. Proper consideration must be given to society's drinking habits as a whole.
"The NHS has a part to play to ensure treatment is provided for those whose health suffers as a result of too much alcohol but the rising numbers of people admitted to hospital because of addiction and binge drinking is putting an unsustainable pressure on our health service. An examination of our attitude towards alcohol is well-overdue."
Source
NHS Confederation
среда, 1 июня 2011 г.
Young People's Alcohol Drinking Influenced By How Much Advertising They View
Young people who view more alcohol advertisements tend to drink more alcohol, according to a new study in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA Archives journals.
Young people are beginning to drink at an earlier age than ever before and their actions can have consequences ranging from poor grades to alcoholism and car accidents, according to background information in the article. Several studies have found an association between exposure to alcohol advertisements and youth drinking, but have not been able to establish causality, the authors write. The alcohol industry has no federal restrictions on its advertising but is subject to voluntary codes dictating that 70 percent of the audience for their advertisements be adults older than age 21. The authors report that these ads still appear frequently in media aimed at young people.
Leslie B. Snyder, Ph.D., of the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and colleagues interviewed a random sample of young people aged 15 to 26 years in 24 U.S. media markets four times between 1999 and 2001. The researchers interviewed 1,872 young people in the first wave, 1,173 of the same respondents in the second, 787 in the third and 588 in the fourth.
Young adults who reported viewing more alcohol advertisements on average also reported drinking more alcohol on average--each additional advertisement viewed per month increased the number of drinks consumed by 1 percent. The same percentage increase, 1 percent per advertisement per month, applied to underage drinkers (those younger than age 21) as well.
The authors also analyzed youth drinking in relation to advertising dollars spent in respondents' media markets, based on information purchased from an industry source. They also purchased information about total alcohol sales in each state. "It is important to control for total alcohol consumption levels because markets with greater sales may attract more alcohol advertising from brands competing to sell in markets with more heavy drinkers," they write. Even with this control, young people drank 3 percent more per month for each additional dollar spent per capita in their market. Youth in markets with high advertising expenditures ($10 or more per person per month) also increased their drinking more over time, reaching a peak of 50 drinks per month by age 25.
"Given that there was an impact on drinking using an objective measure of advertising expenditures, the results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that a correlation between advertising exposure and drinking could be caused entirely by selective attention on the part of drinkers," the authors report. "The results also contradict claims that advertising is unrelated to youth drinking amounts: that advertising at best causes brand switching, only affects those older than the legal drinking age or is effectively countered by current educational efforts. Alcohol advertising was a contributing factor to youth drinking quantities over time."
(Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006;160:18-24)
Editor's Note: This study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, Md., to Dr. Snyder.
Editorial: Reduce Exposure to Alcohol Advertising to Reduce Underage Drinking
In an accompanying editorial, David H. Jernigan, Ph.D., of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., comments on the study on youth drinking and exposure to alcohol advertising.
"The work of Snyder et al marks the first time that a national longitudinal sample of young people in the United States has been studied and the first time that self-reported exposure has been complemented by an objective measure of how much alcohol advertising is available in the media environment in which young people live," Dr. Jernigan writes.
The paper "calls into question the industry's argument that its roughly $1.8 billion in measured media expenditures per year have no impact on underage drinking. The fact that young people, regardless of drinking behavior at baseline, were more likely to drink more over time in environments with more alcohol advertising, even when controlling for alcohol sales in those environments, suggests that it is exposure to alcohol advertising that contributes to the drinking, rather than the reverse."
These and other recent findings, Dr. Jernigan writes, "point to alcohol advertising as an important arena for interventions seeking to reduce underage drinking and its tragic consequences." (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006;160:100-101.)
The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth is supported by grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, N.J., USA
JAMA and Archives Journals
jamamedia
Young people are beginning to drink at an earlier age than ever before and their actions can have consequences ranging from poor grades to alcoholism and car accidents, according to background information in the article. Several studies have found an association between exposure to alcohol advertisements and youth drinking, but have not been able to establish causality, the authors write. The alcohol industry has no federal restrictions on its advertising but is subject to voluntary codes dictating that 70 percent of the audience for their advertisements be adults older than age 21. The authors report that these ads still appear frequently in media aimed at young people.
Leslie B. Snyder, Ph.D., of the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and colleagues interviewed a random sample of young people aged 15 to 26 years in 24 U.S. media markets four times between 1999 and 2001. The researchers interviewed 1,872 young people in the first wave, 1,173 of the same respondents in the second, 787 in the third and 588 in the fourth.
Young adults who reported viewing more alcohol advertisements on average also reported drinking more alcohol on average--each additional advertisement viewed per month increased the number of drinks consumed by 1 percent. The same percentage increase, 1 percent per advertisement per month, applied to underage drinkers (those younger than age 21) as well.
The authors also analyzed youth drinking in relation to advertising dollars spent in respondents' media markets, based on information purchased from an industry source. They also purchased information about total alcohol sales in each state. "It is important to control for total alcohol consumption levels because markets with greater sales may attract more alcohol advertising from brands competing to sell in markets with more heavy drinkers," they write. Even with this control, young people drank 3 percent more per month for each additional dollar spent per capita in their market. Youth in markets with high advertising expenditures ($10 or more per person per month) also increased their drinking more over time, reaching a peak of 50 drinks per month by age 25.
"Given that there was an impact on drinking using an objective measure of advertising expenditures, the results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that a correlation between advertising exposure and drinking could be caused entirely by selective attention on the part of drinkers," the authors report. "The results also contradict claims that advertising is unrelated to youth drinking amounts: that advertising at best causes brand switching, only affects those older than the legal drinking age or is effectively countered by current educational efforts. Alcohol advertising was a contributing factor to youth drinking quantities over time."
(Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006;160:18-24)
Editor's Note: This study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, Md., to Dr. Snyder.
Editorial: Reduce Exposure to Alcohol Advertising to Reduce Underage Drinking
In an accompanying editorial, David H. Jernigan, Ph.D., of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., comments on the study on youth drinking and exposure to alcohol advertising.
"The work of Snyder et al marks the first time that a national longitudinal sample of young people in the United States has been studied and the first time that self-reported exposure has been complemented by an objective measure of how much alcohol advertising is available in the media environment in which young people live," Dr. Jernigan writes.
The paper "calls into question the industry's argument that its roughly $1.8 billion in measured media expenditures per year have no impact on underage drinking. The fact that young people, regardless of drinking behavior at baseline, were more likely to drink more over time in environments with more alcohol advertising, even when controlling for alcohol sales in those environments, suggests that it is exposure to alcohol advertising that contributes to the drinking, rather than the reverse."
These and other recent findings, Dr. Jernigan writes, "point to alcohol advertising as an important arena for interventions seeking to reduce underage drinking and its tragic consequences." (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006;160:100-101.)
The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth is supported by grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, N.J., USA
JAMA and Archives Journals
jamamedia
College Alcohol Problems Exceed Previous Estimates, USA
The harm caused by alcohol consumption among college students may exceed previous estimates of the problem. Researchers
report that unintentional fatal injuries related to alcohol increased from about 1,500 in 1998 to more than 1,700 in 2001
among U.S. college students aged 18-24. Over the same period national surveys indicate the number of students who drove
under the influence of alcohol increased by 500,000, from 2.3 million to 2.8 million. The new findings appear in the 2005
issue of the Annual Review of Public Health, now online at arjournals.annualreviews/loi/publhealth.
"This paper underscores what we had learned from another recent study - that excessive alcohol use by college-aged
individuals in the U.S. is a significant source of harm," said Ting-Kai Li, M.D., Director of the National Institute on
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
"The magnitude of problems posed by excessive drinking among college students should stimulate both improved measurement of
these problems and efforts to reduce them," added the report's lead author Ralph W. Hingson, Sc.D, Professor at the Boston
University School of Public Health and Center to Prevent Alcohol Problems Among Young People.
As a member of the NIAAA Task Force on College Drinking, Dr. Hingson and other researchers reported in 2002 that alcohol
contributed to an estimated 1,400 injury deaths among college students age 18-24 in 1998. A subsequent change in college
census methodology that increased the estimated number of 18-24 year olds who were college students in 1998 led to an upward
revision of that estimate to about 1,500 deaths. The same methods were used to calculate the 2001 estimates in the current
review article.
Dr. Hingson and colleagues from the Schools of Public Health at Boston University and Harvard University gathered information
about drinking and its consequences among college students for the year 2001. Their analyses included data from the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Household Survey on Drug
Abuse, and the Harvard College Alcohol Survey, as well as national coroner studies and census and college enrollment data for
18-24 year olds. They compared the 2001 data with similar analyses of 1998 data that they published in 2002.
"In both 1998 and 2001 more than 500,000 students were unintentionally injured because of drinking and more than 600,000 were
assaulted by another student who had been drinking," said Dr. Hingson. "We must remember, however, that since the 18-24 year
old non-college population vastly outnumbers the college population, they actually account for more alcohol-related problems
than do college students. For example, while 2.8 million college students drove under the influence of alcohol in 2001, so
too did 4.5 million college-aged persons who were not in college."
Dr. Hingson and his colleagues propose data collection practices that they believe would improve future analyses of the
consequences of college drinking. For example, they call for alcohol testing in every injury death in the United States.
"The data already collected on the numbers of alcohol-related fatal crashes annually in each state has proven invaluable to
researchers seeking to study the effects of state-level legislative interventions to reduce alcohol-related traffic deaths,"
they note. "Unfortunately, without comprehensive testing for alcohol and determination of college student status of all
persons who die from falls, drownings, poisoning, homicide, suicide, and any other kind of injury, we lack the most
dependable yardstick by which to measure the magnitude of alcohol-related fatal injuries among college students, and whether
this figure is changing over time."
The researchers conclude that greater enforcement of the legal drinking age of 21 and zero tolerance laws, increases in
alcohol taxes, and wider implementation of screening and counseling programs, and comprehensive community interventions are
among the strategies that can reduce college drinking and associated harm to students and others.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, conducts and supports approximately 90 percent of the U.S. research on the causes, consequences,
prevention, and treatment of alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and alcohol problems and disseminates research findings to general,
professional, and academic audiences. Additional alcohol research information and publications are available at niaaa.nih.
Contact: John Bowersox
jbowersoxmail.nih
301-443-2857
NIH/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
niaaa.nih
report that unintentional fatal injuries related to alcohol increased from about 1,500 in 1998 to more than 1,700 in 2001
among U.S. college students aged 18-24. Over the same period national surveys indicate the number of students who drove
under the influence of alcohol increased by 500,000, from 2.3 million to 2.8 million. The new findings appear in the 2005
issue of the Annual Review of Public Health, now online at arjournals.annualreviews/loi/publhealth.
"This paper underscores what we had learned from another recent study - that excessive alcohol use by college-aged
individuals in the U.S. is a significant source of harm," said Ting-Kai Li, M.D., Director of the National Institute on
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
"The magnitude of problems posed by excessive drinking among college students should stimulate both improved measurement of
these problems and efforts to reduce them," added the report's lead author Ralph W. Hingson, Sc.D, Professor at the Boston
University School of Public Health and Center to Prevent Alcohol Problems Among Young People.
As a member of the NIAAA Task Force on College Drinking, Dr. Hingson and other researchers reported in 2002 that alcohol
contributed to an estimated 1,400 injury deaths among college students age 18-24 in 1998. A subsequent change in college
census methodology that increased the estimated number of 18-24 year olds who were college students in 1998 led to an upward
revision of that estimate to about 1,500 deaths. The same methods were used to calculate the 2001 estimates in the current
review article.
Dr. Hingson and colleagues from the Schools of Public Health at Boston University and Harvard University gathered information
about drinking and its consequences among college students for the year 2001. Their analyses included data from the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Household Survey on Drug
Abuse, and the Harvard College Alcohol Survey, as well as national coroner studies and census and college enrollment data for
18-24 year olds. They compared the 2001 data with similar analyses of 1998 data that they published in 2002.
"In both 1998 and 2001 more than 500,000 students were unintentionally injured because of drinking and more than 600,000 were
assaulted by another student who had been drinking," said Dr. Hingson. "We must remember, however, that since the 18-24 year
old non-college population vastly outnumbers the college population, they actually account for more alcohol-related problems
than do college students. For example, while 2.8 million college students drove under the influence of alcohol in 2001, so
too did 4.5 million college-aged persons who were not in college."
Dr. Hingson and his colleagues propose data collection practices that they believe would improve future analyses of the
consequences of college drinking. For example, they call for alcohol testing in every injury death in the United States.
"The data already collected on the numbers of alcohol-related fatal crashes annually in each state has proven invaluable to
researchers seeking to study the effects of state-level legislative interventions to reduce alcohol-related traffic deaths,"
they note. "Unfortunately, without comprehensive testing for alcohol and determination of college student status of all
persons who die from falls, drownings, poisoning, homicide, suicide, and any other kind of injury, we lack the most
dependable yardstick by which to measure the magnitude of alcohol-related fatal injuries among college students, and whether
this figure is changing over time."
The researchers conclude that greater enforcement of the legal drinking age of 21 and zero tolerance laws, increases in
alcohol taxes, and wider implementation of screening and counseling programs, and comprehensive community interventions are
among the strategies that can reduce college drinking and associated harm to students and others.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, conducts and supports approximately 90 percent of the U.S. research on the causes, consequences,
prevention, and treatment of alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and alcohol problems and disseminates research findings to general,
professional, and academic audiences. Additional alcohol research information and publications are available at niaaa.nih.
Contact: John Bowersox
jbowersoxmail.nih
301-443-2857
NIH/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
niaaa.nih
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