Modified Yeast Produce Opiates from Sugar Science Magazine Move over, poppies. In one of the most elaborate feats of synthetic biology to date, a research team has engineered yeast with a medley of plant, bacterial, and rodent genes to turn sugar into thebaine, the key opiate precursor to morphine and other powerful painkilling drugs that have been harvested for thousands of years from poppy plants.
BMC Medicine is the flagship medical journal of the BMC series, publishing original research, commentaries and reviews that are of significant interest to all areas of medicine and clinical practice, including the impact of addiction.
FROM JOURNAL OF ADDICTION MEDICINE
Impaired Decision-Making, Higher Impulsivity, and Drug Severity in Substance Dependence and Pathological Gambling Journal of Addiction Medicine (free ASAM member resource) Substance use disorder is characterized by impaired decision making, impulsivity, and risk taking. Pathological gambling shares many of these characteristics, and having both diagnoses may be associated with greater problems than either diagnosis alone. The authors investigated whether among substance-dependent individuals, comorbid pathological gambling would be associated with worse decision making, greater impulsivity, risk taking, and drug severity.
FREE Online CME/CE Tools for Motivational Interviewing
NIDA is offering 2 FREE CME opportunities for Motivational Interviewing. These online simulations guide providers of adult and adolescent patients through MI skills-building with real time testing in a clinical setting.
2015 World Drug Report Finds Drug Use Stable, Access to Drug & HIV Treatment Still Low UNODC This link is the Executive Summary of the UNODC 2015 Report: Drug use prevalence continues to be stable around the world, according to the 2015 World Drug Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It is estimated that a total of 246 million people – slightly over 5 per cent of those aged 15 to 64 years worldwide – used an illicit drug in 2013. Some 27 million people are problem drug users, almost half of whom are people who inject drugs…
Drug Manufacturers’ Delayed Disclosure of Serious and Unexpected Adverse Events to the US Food and Drug Administration JAMA Internal Medicine This is an investigative report with disturbing outcomes; see “Results” and “Discussion.” Federal regulations define adverse drug events as those “associated with the use of a drug in humans whether or not considered drug related”. Health care professionals and consumers can voluntarily report adverse drug events directly to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the drug manufacturer. It examines the level of reporting compliance on the part of industry.
September is National Recovery Month Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Every September, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) sponsors National Recovery Month to increase awareness of behavioral health conditions. This observance promotes the belief that behavioral health is essential to health, prevention works, treatment is effective, and people recover from mental and/or substance use disorders. Organizing an event for Recovery Month is an ideal way to celebrate the achievements of the recovery community. It is also a great way to support this year’s theme, “Join the Voices for Recovery: Visible, Vocal, Valuable!” Events bring people together to share real life experiences of the power of recovery from mental and/or substance use disorders.
CDC Webinar: Engaging Providers, Patients, and Organizations on Draft CDC Opioid Prescribing Guidelines for Chronic Pain Centers for Disease Control and Prevention As the nation’s leading public health agency, the CDC is issuing new guidelines for the prescribing of opioid pain relievers to patients 18 and older for chronic, non-end-of-life care in primary care outpatient settings. These guidelines are targeted toward primary care providers and are intended to equip providers with uniform recommendations based on the most recent scientific evidence to improve patient care. The CDC Opioid Prescribing Guidelines Public Webinar offers an opportunity for the public to engage as CDC experts walk through the 12 (draft) top-line prescribing recommendations and to provide feedback on the feasibility and reasonableness of each recommendation.
Modulation of Late Positive Potentials by Sexual Images in Problem Users and Controls Inconsistent with “Porn Addiction” Biological Psychology “Excessive” viewing of visual sexual stimuli (VSS) is the most commonly reported hypersexual behavior problem and is especially amenable to laboratory study. A pattern of enhanced sexual cue responsiveness is expected in this sample if hypersexuality shares features of other addiction models. The findings suggest that an alternate model may be necessary for compulsive internet pornography viewing than “addiction”.
The Effects of Naltrexone on Subjective Response to Methamphetamine in a Clinical Sample Neuropsychopharmacology Methamphetamine (MA) use disorder is a serious psychiatric condition for which there are no FDA-approved medications. Naltrexone (NTX) is an opioid receptor antagonist with demonstrated efficacy, albeit moderate, for the treatment of alcoholism and opioid dependence. This is one more among preclinical and clinical studies which suggest that NTX may be useful for the treatment of MA use disorder.
Inhibitory Behavioral Control: A Stochastic Dynamic Causal Modeling Study Comparing Cocaine Dependent Subjects and Controls NeuroImage: Clinical Cocaine dependence is associated with increased impulsivity in humans. Both cocaine dependence and impulsive behavior are under the regulatory control of cortico-striatal networks. This fMRI study has both anatomic and functional implications for mapping brain activation in cocaine use.
Lifetime Prevalence of Anxiety Disorders in People with Bipolar Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis The Lancet Psychiatry People with bipolar disorder are at increased risk of anxiety disorders compared with those without bipolar disorder; nearly one in two has an anxiety disorder in their lifetime. Anxiety disorders should therefore be assessed alongside the mood symptoms in patients with bipolar disorder.
‘No One Starts with a Needle in Their Arm’: A Police Chief Fights Drugs with Empathy The Guardian On 1 June, the Gloucester police department began a pilot program in which any person with opioid addiction can walk into the police station at any time, surrender their drugs and related paraphernalia, and not be arrested. Instead, they are fast-tracked into a recovery program. Ostensibly, no one is turned away, regardless of their income, where they are from, or what insurance they have. The funding streams and referral algorithms employed will be of critical interest to those in addiction public health.
CSAM's Synapse to Society: Addiction Medicine State of the Art 2015 California Society of Addiction Medicine 21–24 October, San Francisco: This excellent annual conference presents the latest advances in addiction medicine at Synapse to Society: Addiction Medicine State of the Art 2015 conference. The conference will cover the latest clinical and scientific information in the field of addiction medicine focusing on practical applications and presented by leading experts. Topics include: Neurobiology New Breakthroughs, Technology and Addiction, Gender Differences in Addiction, Integrating Whole Health into Addiction Medicine, Chronic Pain and Addiction, Policy: From the Affordable CareAct to Marijuana and other cutting edge addiction medicine topics. The course offers up to 26 units of AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.
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Articles included are reviewed on their merit at the discretion of ASAM Weekly’s Editor-in-Chief. Any relationship that exists with products or services advertised with content is coincidental and not an endorsement, guarantee or condemnation of said products or services. Similarly, the views and positions of any content published in ASAM Weekly are not necessarily endorsed by ASAM nor a reflection of ASAM's beliefs and policies. The features are presented as a summary of the contemporary issues being represented and expressed in scientific, governmental, commercial, and media sources across the specialty field of addiction medicine. Contact ASAM Weekly with any comments or feedback.