Wednesday, July 13, 2005

New Drug Abuse Treatment Shows Promise Science Daily story - "Patients who receive buprenorphine treatment for opioid addiction in an office--based setting are more likely than those receiving methadone treatment to be young men, new to drug use, and with no history of methadone treatment, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Approved for treating heroin and prescription opiate pain killer abuse in 2002, office--based buprenorphine holds the promise of bringing new patients into treatment. While heroin and prescription opiate pain killer abuse has substantially increased over the years, the availability of treatment has not increased with the demand."  
  

U.S. researchers find connection between pleasure-regulating brain chemical and anorexia AP story reprinted at PsycPORT - "Women who suffer from anorexia have increased chemical activity in a part of the brain that controls reward and reinforcement, something that may explain why they are driven to lose weight but don't get any pleasure from it, according to a new study. Researchers used brain-imaging technology on 10 women who had recovered from anorexia and 12 healthy women. In the anorexic women, they found overactivity by dopamine receptors in a part of the brain known as the basal ganglia. Dopamine is a brain chemical that is associated with regulating pleasure..."