Addiction Medicine and Addiction Psychiatry Updates

A new MRI study revealed that consumption of alcohol even in low to moderate amounts during pregnancy can change the baby's brain structure and delay brain development. Results of the study will be presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).  

Nora Volkow, MD, Director of NIDA, calls for broad deregulation of methadone treatment for addiction.

"From 2005 to 2019, nearly 98% of smokers—including those with and without serious mental illness (SMI)—were not prescribed treatments for tobacco use disorder, according to a  study  published yesterday in  Psychiatric Services ...." This is really outrageous.  We should be doing a much better job helping people quit smoking!

" State paraphernalia laws don’t target drugs or drug-related harm; they target people who use drugs, and they cause widespread collateral damage to families and communities  and erode trust in law enforcement and other government institutions." https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2207866  

Santiago Cuesta, Paula Burdisso, Amir Segev, Saïd Kourrich, Vanessa Sperandio.  Gut colonization by Proteobacteria alters host metabolism and modulates cocaine neurobehavioral responses .   Cell Host & Microbe , 2022; DOI:   10.1016/j.chom.2022.09.014

Scripps Research findings unexpectedly show that heroin, not its metabolites, is the best therapeutic target . Jinny Claire Lee, Lisa M. Eubanks, Bin Zhou, Kim D. Janda.  Development of an Effective Monoclonal Antibody against Heroin and Its Metabolites Reveals Therapies Have Mistargeted 6-Monoacetylmorphine and Morphine over Heroin .   ACS Central Science , 2022; 8 (10): 1464 DOI:   10.1021/acscentsci.2c00977  

The word “alcohol” often conjures up positive feelings and associations with fun, socializing, relaxing, and partying. Yet there is another side to drinking alcohol, especially with risky, hazardous levels of consumption. This side is associated with distress and may include anxiety, loneliness, pain, and depressive symptoms. 1  This has been labeled the “dark side,” or “negative emotional, stress side,” of alcohol intake. 2  These two paradoxical, dialectically opposing alcohol experiences map onto the biphasic drug effects of alcohol, with alcohol being both a stimulant and a depressant drug. They also represent a shift from positive to negative situations that may drive alcohol intake, especially as alcohol intake increases from low or moderate “social” levels of drinking to binge, heavy, and chronic consumption. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines drinking in moderation as an intake of two drinks or less per day for men and one drink or less per d