Answer Addiction

Tag: study

  • Can A Google Search Predict An Overdose?

    Can A Google Search Predict An Overdose?

    Researchers examined whether Internet search data from Google could help them predict where an overdose will occur.

    Technology has no doubt played a role in the opioid epidemic, with drug users and dealers able to order narcotics online and have them delivered directly to their homes. Now a new study suggests that the internet could also play an important role in alleviating the crisis by helping to predict opioid overdoses. 

    The study, titled “Internet searches for opioids predict future emergency department heroin admissions,” was published in the September issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence and reported in Scientific American last week. 

    Sean D. Young, a researcher at the University of California Institute for Prediction Technology, led a team that analyzed Google search prevalence of opioid-related terms, including “Avinza,” “Brown Sugar,” “China White,” “Codeine,” “Kadian,” “Methadone,” and “Oxymorphone.”

    The researchers compared that data to heroin-related emergency room visits in nine different areas around the US over the following year. They found that in the best model, search data could explain 72% of the variance in emergency department visits. Overall, the more a keyword was searched, the more opioid-related hospitalizations were likely to happen in that region in the next year. 

    “Internet search-based modeling should be explored as a new source of insights for predicting heroin-related admissions,” the study authors wrote. 

    Internet search data could be particularly important in areas where there is little information on the drug epidemic. Analyzing the data is a cost-effective way of predicting how opioid abuse might change in the upcoming year, they said. 

    “In geographic regions where no current heroin-related data exist, Internet search modeling might be a particularly valuable and inexpensive tool for estimating changing heroin use trends,” the authors wrote. “We discuss the immediate implications for using this approach to assist in managing opioid-related morbidity and mortality in the United States.”

    Researchers said this tool could be important for helping to understand and prevent overdose deaths. For example, in areas expecting to see an increase in drug-related hospital visits, community organizations could distribute more doses of naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug. 

    “For a number of fiscal and practical reasons, data on heroin use have been of poor quality, which has hampered the ability to halt the growing epidemic,” the researchers wrote. “Internet search data, such as those made available by Google Trends, have been used as a low-cost, real-time data source for monitoring and predicting a variety of public health outcomes.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Does Empathy Play A Role In Relapse?

    Does Empathy Play A Role In Relapse?

    Scientists examined whether empathy can push a person in recovery to relapse for a new study. 

    Having empathy — being able to relate to other people’s emotions — is generally considered a positive trait, but new research suggests that empathy could lead to relapse for people who are in recovery. 

    Dr. Jonathan Gewirtz, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, led a team of researchers who found that mice who witnessed another mouse in a scary situation were more likely to seek out drugs afterwards. The findings were presented during the 57th Annual Meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, being held this week in Florida. 

    Gewirtz says his lab studies the biology of fearful memories and drug dependence, “since negative affective states are a prominent feature of drug withdrawal and likely play a critical role in the persistence of drug addiction.”

    To set up the empathy experiment, mice were placed in a two-sided container, where they got a dose of saline solution on one side, or morphine on the other, according to EurekaAlert and a press release by the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

    Over several days, the mice associated a specific side with the drug. Then, two weeks later the mice received only saline on either side. This was meant to mimic a period of sobriety after addiction. 

    Next, the mice were exposed to seeing another mouse in a frightening situation. Following that, they were put back in the two-sided compartment. 

    “Consistently, the sober mice preferentially selected the compartment that was associated with morphine, demonstrating drug-seeking behavior in response to witnessing a traumatic event,” according to the press release. 

    During the experiment, the researchers measured the mice’s fear response. 

    To strengthen the connection between empathy and drug-seeking behavior, scientists then treated some of the mice with oxytocin, a chemical that is associated with social bonding and thus empathy. They found that these mice had a greater fear response than mice that were not treated with oxytocin. 

    “[Researchers] conclude that mice, and potentially people, that witness a stressful event are negatively emotionally affected, which may lead them to seek drugs, even after a period of sobriety,” according to the press release. “Oxytocin treatment exacerbates this response, indicating that social bonding (and empathy, by extension) is a driving force in this behavior. The researchers say these findings are the first to demonstrate the direct link between empathy and drug relapse, as well as to suggest oxytocin may play a role in enhancing this response.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Study Questions Treatment For Pregnant Women With Opioid Addiction

    Study Questions Treatment For Pregnant Women With Opioid Addiction

    The study’s findings might cause medical providers to reconsider what is the best standard of care for pregnant women with opioid addiction, according to the lead study author. 

    A study released this week found that infants who are exposed to opioids in the womb have significantly smaller head sizes at birth than babies who were not exposed to opioids, suggesting that they are at increased risk of mental health and developmental problems and potentially calling into question the standard treatment for women with opioid use disorder who discover they are pregnant.  

    The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that infants who were exposed to opioids were three times more likely to have a head circumference that measured in the bottom 10%. A small head circumference has previously been linked to mental health problems and developmental delays. 

    “Babies chronically exposed to opiates [during pregnancy] had a head size about a centimeter smaller’ than babies born to moms not using drugs,” said Dr. Craig Towers, lead study author and professor of obstetrics and gynecology with the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. This included babies whose mothers were on medication-assisted treatment with methadone or buprenorphine, the current standard of care for women who discover they’re pregnant while abusing opioids. 

    Towers said that the findings might cause medical providers to reconsider what is the best standard of care for pregnant women who are addicted to opioids. 

    “What we’re recommending these moms do, which is get on methadone and buprenorphine, may result in a smaller head size of the baby,” Towers said. “This is going to have to make us re-look at what we’re doing.”

    During the study, mothers were routinely screened for drugs so that researchers could control for the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs other than opioids. With this information, they were able to definitively link opioid exposure and lower head circumference. 

    Although the results may call into question the use of prescribed opioids during pregnancy, Towers said that putting women on maintenance therapy remains the best option for now. Women who are abusing opioids and stop suddenly can experience withdrawal that may cause them to miscarry or can increase their risk of relapse, which can have fatal results for both mom and baby. 

    “I don’t want anyone to think putting them on methadone or buprenorphine is not the way to go. If they continue to use street drugs, that’s exponentially worse,” Towers said. With prescribed drugs, a woman and her doctor at least know exactly what she is taking, he said. 

    He said the study could encourage more conversations between women and their care providers. 

    “There are risks to the mom if she tapers and detoxes, but there are risks to the baby if she stays on maintenance therapy,” Towers said. “There needs to be informed consent so the mother can choose how she wants to go.”

    Dr. Mark Hudak, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, said that the research is likely to be “very controversially received.”

    “I think there’s going to be pushback on it, but one has to follow the evidence,” he said. ”The whole pillar of opioid maintenance therapy is based upon the fact this is better for the mother and the baby in the sense that the mother is in therapy, she is more closely monitored, she’s more likely to access good prenatal care, she’s less likely to engage in behaviors that would be harmful to her or the fetus… You now have to ask, is that the only or the best way for all women.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How Does Recreational Marijuana Use Affect Your Sex Life?

    How Does Recreational Marijuana Use Affect Your Sex Life?

    A new report found that cannabis use can affect your sex life in a variety of unexpected ways. 

    Changes to marijuana policy are sweeping through the country, but experts say that legalizing weed could have unintended consequences where Americans least expect them: in the bedroom. 

    According to a report by The Verge, cannabis use can lead to people having more sex and using contraceptives less often, so much that legalization has increased the birth rate by about 16 births a year per 10,000 women of childbearing age. It can also change the quality of the sex people are having, although whether pot will make your experience better or worse is a toss-up. 

    “It’s not like the more, the better,” said gynecologist Melanie Bone, who prescribes medical marijuana for patients who have low libido or trouble orgasming. “Maybe some amount will relax you and make you more open to sensations and less inhibited with your body, but if you get super stoned, you’re not going to be able to concentrate.”

    Lubes infused with cannabis claim to increase pleasure, but Bone said that is open to debate. 

    “For many of the lubes, is it more hype or more true response?” she said. “The only way to know is to study it,” something that is difficult to do because of the on-going federal prohibition on pot. 

    One study found that for men, cannabis use is linked with difficulty climaxing, and another study found that it can lower sperm quality. However, another study found that marijuana use is associated with more sexual partners and that it doesn’t seem to affect sexual functioning.

    Michael Eisenberg, a urologist at Stanford University, found that women who use marijuana have 34% more sex than women who don’t smoke, and men who use pot saw their sex life expand 22%. Although people who use marijuana might just have more sex than people who don’t, researchers still found an increase tied to use.

    “The interesting thing about the study is that we also were able to look at all different demographic groups, based on race and ethnicity, marital status, and education level,” Eisenberg said. “And across all groups, you saw the same relationship, so it’s not like this association is being driven by one particular group.”

    In addition, a working paper published last month found that more and riskier sex associated with cannabis use is driving up birth rates. 

    “Our novel results reveal that birth rates increased after the passage of a [medical marijuana] law corresponding to increased frequency of sexual intercourse, decreased purchase of condoms and suggestive evidence on decreased condom use during sex,” the authors wrote. “More sex and less contraceptive use may be attributed to behavioral responses such as increased attention to the immediate hedonic effects of sexual contact, delayed discounting and ignoring costs associated with risky sex.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Is Vaping Pot More Powerful Than Smoking It?

    Is Vaping Pot More Powerful Than Smoking It?

    Researchers explored whether vaping marijuana produced a stronger high than smoking it in a recent study.

    Researchers have published a new study that suggests inhaling vaporized marijuana will result in a stronger high than smoking it. Their conclusion was drawn from six, eight-and-a-half-hour double-blind sessions in which participants consumed marijuana, via smoking or vaping, in one of three possible dosages – between 0 and 25 mg of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis – and then reported their reactions while scientists conducted physical and cognitive tests.

    The results suggested that vaping produced more significant physical and mental effects, as well as higher blood concentrations of THC, than the same doses ingested via smoking.

    The study, conducted by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Pharmacology Research Unit in Baltimore, Maryland, utilized 17 healthy adult participants – eight women and nine men – all of whom had smoked marijuana at least once in the previous year but not in the 30 days before the first day of the study.

    Over the course of the six outpatient sessions, each lasting 8.5 hours and conducted between June 2016 and January 2017, patients smoked or vaped a dose of marijuana containing either 0, 10 or 25 milligrams of THC.

    Dosage order was randomized within each session, and while each participant smoked or vaped all three possible dosages over the course of the six sessions, they were unaware of how much THC they were consuming during each test.

    After ingesting a dose, participants then filled out a drug-impairment questionnaire and underwent physical and cognitive tests, including heart rate and blood pressure; they were also asked to complete tasks on a computer, such as simple addition and replicating shapes on a screen. 

    What the researchers found was that vaping marijuana resulted in more significant impairment than marijuana ingested via smoking. Both the high and low doses produced greater concentrations of THC in the test subjects’ blood and at least twice as many errors on the cognitive tests. 

    Vaping and smoking did produce similar results in regard to the highest dosage – two participants reportedly vomited after ingesting the 25mg dosage, and one experienced hallucinations – and both methods produced side effects commonly associated with cannabis use, including dry mouth, increased hunger and feelings of paranoia, though participants who vaped reported greater levels of these effects than those who smoked.

    Most significantly, the researchers also noted that the dosage with the highest level of THC – 25mg of THC, or 13.4%  — was “substantially smaller and has a lower THC concentration that what is typically contained in pre-rolled cannabis cigarettes available for purchase in cannabis dispensaries.” According to the study, these typically contain THC concentrations that exceed 18%.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Does Climate Affect Alcohol Intake?

    Does Climate Affect Alcohol Intake?

    Researchers investigated whether there was a connection between alcohol intake and climate for a new study.

    Could the climate where you live be leading you to drink more?

    Recent research says yes. 

    According to The Independent, a new study determined that across the country and the world, alcohol intake and related diseases increased as temperatures and hours of sunlight decreased. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and published in the journal Hepatology, looked at data from 193 countries. 

    Ramon Bataller, the senior author and chief of hepatology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says the study is the first to make the connection between climate and alcohol intake and disease. 

    “It’s something that everyone has assumed for decades,” Bataller told The Independent. “Why do people in Russia drink so much? Why in Wisconsin? Everybody assumes that’s because it’s cold. But we could not find a single paper linking climate to alcoholic intake or alcoholic cirrhosis. This is the first study that systematically demonstrates that worldwide and in America, in colder areas and areas with less sun, you have more drinking and more alcoholic cirrhosis.”

    More specifically, the study found that as the hours of sunlight and the average temperature fell, the intake of alcohol per individual, the percentage of the population drinking alcohol, and binge-drinking levels each increased. 

    According to study author Meritxell Ventura-Cots, people living in Ukraine consumed 13.9 liters of alcohol per capita each year in comparison to 6.7 liters in Italy, which has a warmer climate. The same was true in the US, where in Montana the average was 11.7 liters, compared to 7.8 liters in North Carolina.

    Bataller said the results of the study could help officials focus on colder climates and add resources there accordingly. He also, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, said the results could help an individual with a history of family alcohol use disorder to keep the climate in mind when thinking about moving.

    There are a variety of possible explanations for the link, Bataller stated. One is that people who live in colder areas may drink more because it could lead to feeling warmer. In contrast, those who live in warm areas may be more likely to feel light-headed or unwell if they drink.

    Additionally, Bataller said, cold and dark climates can make depression worse for some people, which may lead to alcohol use. 

    Peter McCann, a medical adviser to Castle Craig Hospital in Scotland, told The Independent that these findings mean stricter laws on winter alcohol prices and advertising are justified. 

    “This weather-related alcohol consumption is directly linked to our chances of developing the most dangerous form of liver disease – cirrhosis – which can ultimately end in liver failure and death,” he said. “Stricter laws on alcohol pricing are surely justified when we consider the devastating combined effect of low sunlight and cheaper alcohol on consumption.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Sexual Orientation Tied To Increased Risk Of Opioid Abuse

    Sexual Orientation Tied To Increased Risk Of Opioid Abuse

    A new study examined the link between sexual orientation and opioid abuse. 

    People who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual are more likely to misuse opioids, and bisexual women are at a particularly high risk, according to a study published this week. 

    The study, published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that bisexual women were about twice as likely to misuse opioids as members of the general population who identify as heterosexual. 

    Lead study author Dustin Duncan, an associate professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU School of Medicine, told The Washington Post that these findings are consistent with previous studies that have showed people who are not heterosexual have poorer health overall. 

    “I think the findings speak to the life experiences of people in society,” he said. “People who have less privilege and power generally have worse health. This isn’t a fluke or a one-time finding. It tends to be systematic.”

    For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 40,000 individuals who took the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

    In 2015, questions were introduced asking about sexual orientation for the first time, allowing researchers to see the connection between sexual orientation and substance abuse, particularly focused on prescription opioids.  

    Joseph Palamar, an associate professor in the Department of Population Health at New York University’s School of Medicine and another author of the study, said that he was surprised to see that bisexual women were most at risk for opioid abuse, since the opioid epidemic is usually associated with men. 

    “Typically women are more protected against drug use,” he said. “It’s usually the men we worry about.”

    Palamar theorized that bisexual woman might be more open to experimentation — both sexually and with drug use. However, Duncan pushed back on that idea, instead suggesting that the “minority stress model” can explain the increased risk factor for bisexual women. The minority stress model suggests that the stress of being a member of a minority group can contribute to negative health outcomes. 

    Bisexual woman, he said, are minorities in many ways: they are female and not heterosexual, but they also don’t fit in fully with members of the lesbian or gay communities. 

    “These things together create further stress, less ability to cope and give rise to poor health,” Duncan said.

    The National Survey on Drug Use and Health does not include questions about gender identity, so researchers were not able to study any potential links between transgender or non-binary individuals and drug abuse. However, Duncan said that doctors can use the study to better serve people who are at increased risk of abusing opioids. 

    “We need to continue documenting who is at risk,” he said. “This study is really the first step.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Do Problematic Facebook Users Make More Impulsive Decisions?

    Do Problematic Facebook Users Make More Impulsive Decisions?

    A small-scale study examined the impulsivity of problematic Facebook users.

    Impulsive decision-making may be added to the list of negative effects of too much Facebook use, according to new research.

    The study, published in Addiction Research and Theory, was done at a Midwestern university and consisted of surveying 75 students. In doing so, researchers discovered that students who scored higher on the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale had a higher probability of exhibiting “delay discounting.”

    According to PsyPost, delay discounting is when a person is more inclined to take a smaller reward that they can have immediately, rather than waiting for a larger reward. For the study specifically, students were asked whether they wanted $70 immediately or $200 in two weeks. 

    According to the research, many of the students who said they would choose the $70 were also the students who reported utilizing Facebook to forget about personal issues, who tried to decrease Facebook use without success and used the social media platform so much that it impacted their jobs and studies in a negative way. 

    “Steep delay discounting, or a preference for smaller immediate rewards instead of investing in a larger payout in the future, has been an observed behavior across addictions,” researchers wrote. “This finding thus strengthens the proposition that [Facebook addiction] may share neurocognitive processes similar to other addictions.”

    Licensed psychologist Tyler Fortman told Guy Counseling that for those in the field such as himself, the results of this study were expected. “I’m not surprised to see the results of this study. We’ve known for some time now that frequent social media usage has a negative impact on delayed gratification,” he said. 

    In their conclusion, the researchers acknowledge that in the future, such a study would benefit from having more participants from more diverse backgrounds. 

    “More advanced and better powered research on this topic is warranted,” researchers wrote. “Although Facebook can be innocuous for many users, and even provides apparent benefit to users by maintaining social connections, for some persons, Facebook use may be problematic.”

    This research supports a prior study’s findings that measured impulsivity with a “go/no-go” task and found that Facebook addiction aligned with impulsive decision making.

    “The findings indicated that at least at the examined levels of addiction-like symptoms, technology-related ‘addictions’ share some neural features with substance and gambling addictions, but more importantly they also differ from such addictions in their brain etiology and possibly pathogenesis, as related to abnormal functioning of the inhibitory-control brain system,” that study’s researchers wrote. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Sex Addiction May Affect More People Than Previously Thought

    Sex Addiction May Affect More People Than Previously Thought

    Researchers examined the rates of sexual compulsion between the genders for a new study on the prevalence of sex addiction.

    More people than previously thought could be dealing with sex addiction, or at least sexual compulsions, according to a new study.

    The research, published in the JAMA Open Network, found that 8.6% of Americans may struggle with compulsive sexual behavior, defined as “distress and impairment associated with having difficulty controlling one’s sexual feelings, urges, and behaviors.”

    Researchers surveyed 2,000 individuals representative of the U.S. population to get that number.

    Although sex addiction is frequently talked about in the media and there are 12-step groups dedicated to helping people recover from it, sex addiction is not actually a diagnosable condition, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

    However, for the study, researchers were interested in finding out how many people reported “failing to control one’s sexual feelings and behaviors in a way that causes substantial distress and/or impairment in functioning.”

    They acknowledged that the study might exaggerate the problem of sex addiction by labeling people with mild problems as being addicted, but pointed out that regardless, the study indicates that sexual compulsions are playing a big role in many people’s lives.

    “The high prevalence of this prominent feature associated with compulsive sexual behavior disorder has important implications for health care professionals and society,” they wrote. “Health care professionals should be alert to the high number of people who are distressed about their sexual behavior, carefully assess the nature of the problem within its sociocultural context, and find appropriate treatments for both men and women.”

    The team found that compulsive sexual thoughts affected both sexes more evenly than previously considered: While 10% of men reported having compulsive thoughts, 7% of women did as well, suggesting that 40% of people contending with this issue are female.

    “Gender differences were smaller than previously theorized, with 10.3% of men and 7% of women endorsing clinically relevant levels of distress and/or impairment associated with difficulty controlling sexual feelings, urges, and behavior,” researchers wrote.

    They theorized that women might be experiencing increasing rates of intrusive sexual thoughts: “Given recent cultural shifts toward becoming more permissive of female sexual expression and the proliferation in accessibility to sexual imagery and casual sex through the internet, software applications, and social media, one possible explanation for the smaller gender differences found in our study is that the prevalence of difficulty controlling sexual behaviors among women may be increasing,” study authors wrote.

    The study also found that compulsions were highest among people with less than a high school education, those with very high or very low income, racial and ethnic minorities, and people who identified as LGBTQ. The researchers called for further research into the social components of sex addiction.

    View the original article at thefix.com

    Further reading

  • Why People With Internet Addiction React Worse When Wifi Fails

    Why People With Internet Addiction React Worse When Wifi Fails

    Researchers explored the reaction to digital technology failure in people with internet addiction for a recent study.

    When the Wifi loses its connectivity, or the movie we’re streaming buffers endlessly—when the digital technology by which we have come to expect as part of our daily lives fails, our response to this interruption can take a variety of forms, from mild annoyance to more extreme or “maladaptive” reactions, including anger, panic and depression.

    What determines our response, according to a new study, may be dependent on our psychological makeup. Researchers found that participants who expressed a “maladaptive” response to digital technology failure also showed signs of extroversion, neuroticism, internet addiction and a pervasive “fear of missing out” (FOMO).

    Understanding what provokes these responses may help provide better support for such individuals, researchers suggest.

    In the study—published in the November edition of Heliyon—researchers from De Montfort University in Leicester, England engaged 630 participants, all between the ages of 18 and 68, in an online questionnaire that examined their responses to digital technology failure.

    Participants self-reported how they responded such incidents, as well as their attitudes towards “fear of missing out” and internet addiction. The study authors also measured responses in regard to the BIG-5 personality traits: conscientiousness, extraversion-introversion, agreeableness, openness and neuroticism.

    The researchers found that those participants whose responses indicated extroversion and neuroticism, and who expressed positive responses towards FOMO or symptoms of internet addiction also exhibited more signs of a maladaptive response towards digital technology failure. They also noted a correlation between age and level of response: specifically, as Science Daily noted, as age increased, a person’s level of frustration decreased.

    A frustrated response to technological failure is normal, according to study co-author Dr. Lee Hadlington. “[It’s] one of the things we all experience on a daily basis, so it seemed to be a logical step in our research.”

    But with technology playing a more significant role in our lives with each new development, our dependency on those devices to make our lives function also grows.

    “When they don’t work, we tend to just go a little bit ‘crazy’ or just switch off and stop doing things altogether,” Hadlington noted.

    Determining what provokes extreme responses in certain individuals may help make their lives more manageable.

    “If we can understand what leads individuals to react in certain ways, and why these differences occur, we can hopefully make sure that when digital technology does fail, people are better supported and there are relevant signposts for them to follow to get help,” said Hadlington. “Extreme reactions only make things worse.”

    View the original article at thefix.com