Addiction Science

Tools for Tobacco Cessation

April 7, 2020 / Addiction Science, Public Health, Research/Trends/Statistics, Tobacco/Nicotine

Cigarette smoking and nicotine addiction lead to 400,000 deaths annually, despite the fact that the detrimental consequences of smoking are widely known and accepted. While smoking rates have declined considerably since the Surgeon General first announced its health hazards in 1964, still about 21% of the American public continues to smoke. Nicotine addiction is one that is particularly important to treat because it often leads to other addictions and its use has a tremendous impact on health.   Why Quit Smoking? Smoking has been linked to multiple diseases and can worsen many health conditions. Smoking tobacco is responsible for causing …

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Opioid-Induced Hyperalgesia: How Painkillers Can Paradoxically Cause More Pain

April 6, 2020 / Addiction Science, Drugs and the Brain, Heroin and Opioids, Pain

What is opioid-induced hyperalgesia? Opioid-induced hyperalgesia is the occurrence of increased pain sensitivity in response to opioid administration. In other words, taking opioids in excess and/or for a long period of time has been known to lower the individual’s pain threshold so pain seems worse even if the opioid dose is increased. This phenomenon is often associated with opioid tolerance and opioid inefficiency.   What is the difference between opioid tolerance, and opioid-induced hyperalgesia? “Tolerance” suggests that the drug has progressively stopped causing a pharmacological response, but that the issue can generally be overcome by increasing the dosage. “Opioid-induced hyperalgesia” …

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Do Gateway Drugs Exist?

April 6, 2020 / Addiction Science, Drugs and the Brain, Prevention, Young Adults/Teens/College-Aged

Robert L. DuPont, Jr, MD, made the term “gateway drug” famous in his book Getting Tough on Gateway Drugs: a Guide for the Family. DuPont observed that youths at his clinic often engaged in alcohol and tobacco use before proceeding on to marijuana use. He thought that psychological barriers prevented the use of hard drugs and that once a person started frequently using certain soft drugs, they would move on to using marijuana and eventually progress to other illicit drugs as well. This book started the conversation about soft (or legal) drugs leading to the use of illegal and controlled …

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Does Ecstasy Cause Susceptibility to Infection?

April 6, 2020 / Addiction Science, Ecstasy/Molly/Club Drugs, Medical Consequences, Public Health, Research/Trends/Statistics

There has been much debate on whether or not ecstasy, also known as methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), is capable of causing susceptibility to infection. The evidence of infection is suggestive, but not entirely conclusive. Researchers have been studying the immune cell responses of rodents exposed to ecstasy. In these experiments, there seems to be a reduction in the capabilities of two immune responses: one that is genetically encoded and another that adapts to evolving pathogens (the adaptive immune response).   How the Immune System Works T cells, for example, are a group of cells involved in the adaptive immune response that seem …

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Fentanyl Patches: Pain Relief Leading to Unintentional Opioid Drug Overuse and Addiction

April 6, 2020 / Addiction Science, Heroin and Opioids, Pain, Public Health, Research/Trends/Statistics

The increased access to and overuse of painkillers seen in today’s opioid epidemic was the result of past drug policy changes. In the late 1990s, the laws governing the prescription of opioids became relaxed, giving access to populations besides cancer patients with chronic pain. In 2000, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations introduced new pain management standards, and at the same time many physicians were advocating for changes in practice to increase the use of opioids to treat chronic pain. The opioid drug epidemic was highlighted by the Centers for Disease Control in 2015, but it was actually …

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Probuphine: What You Need to Know

April 6, 2020 / Addiction Science, Heroin and Opioids, Pain

Probuphine is the first buprenorphine implant for treatment of opioid dependence. It supplies patients with a constant, low-level dose of buprenorphine for six months at a time and is designed to improve patient compliance and outcomes.   What is buprenorphine? Buprenorphine is a drug meant to help relieve cravings during opioid maintenance therapy and heroin detoxification. It is a synthetic opiate, meaning it can “trick” the brain into thinking it’s a real opiate and trigger a similar release of feel-good chemicals to counter withdrawal symptoms. It is also a partial opioid agonist, meaning that it binds to the same receptors …

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Opioid Dependence: Patient Care and Public Health Challenges

April 6, 2020 / Addiction Science, Heroin and Opioids, Pain, Research/Trends/Statistics, Suboxone Treatment

Non-medical prescription opioid use is a major public health problem. In 2011, 5.1 million people in the United States were using opioids, 4.5 million of whom were using for non-medical purposes and 620,000 of whom were using heroin. 2.2 million of those using opioids were considered clinically dependent. 1.8 million of these dependent individuals were using for non-medical purposes, and 369,000 were using heroin. On the bright side, 750,000 of the nonmedical users sought treatment for their opioid dependence. It is important to recognize that opioid dependence is a chronic disease, not a moral failing. Dependence causes dysfunction in neural …

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Is There an Addictive Personality Type?

April 6, 2020 / Addiction Science, Prevention

A common question we get here at Two Dreams is, “why me?” People want to know what it is about their core that makes them an addict. They want to know why they are dependent on drugs while their friends are able to use in moderation. Were they born that way? Is it the way they were raised? Is there a certain type of person more susceptible to developing addictive tendencies? Most people who use drugs never actually become addicted. Some substances are more addictive than others by virtue of their chemical makeup, but addiction is comprised of so much …

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Can Alcohol Cause Diabetes?

April 6, 2020 / Addiction Science, Alcohol, Research/Trends/Statistics

Most of us have heard by now that alcohol can have detrimental effects on our health, but did you know that it significantly raises the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes?   How is blood sugar regulated? The cells in your body use glucose, a simple sugar, as fuel to survive and function. Normally, the body tries to keep a constant supply of glucose in the blood so that your cells don’t overload while you’re eating and starve when you’re between meals. The body maintains this steady blood-sugar level by storing excess glucose as “glycogen” chains within the liver and …

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Binge Drinking: An Exposé

April 6, 2020 / Addiction Science, Alcohol, Drugs and the Brain, Medical Consequences, Research/Trends/Statistics

What is binge drinking? Binge drinking is a popular form of excessive alcohol use, which the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines as “a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above.” For a typical American adult male, this translates to drinking 5+ servings of alcohol in two hours. For a typical American adult female, this translates to drinking 4+ servings of alcohol in two hours. A serving of alcohol is any drink that contains 0.6 fl oz of pure alcohol. The following portions count as a single serving …

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