Category: From Newswise – Substance Abuse

BYLINE: Tongyue Zhang

Members of the Rutgers Brain Health Institute (BHI), which brings together one of the world’s highest concentrations of neuroscience labs, celebrated 10 years of advancing brain health through research with an awards ceremony.

The institute includes more than 300 faculty and 900 trainees from 33 departments and 14 schools throughout Rutgers University. 

Over the past 10 years, BHI has established five Centers of Excellence and initiated two new centers focused on pain and neurotechnology.

Researchers at these centers study complex brain disorders:

Since its inception, BHI has expanded neuroscience funding at Rutgers. Institute leaders have recruited more than 40 faculty throughout Rutgers.

Funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for Rutgers neuroscientists has more than doubled since 2015, with BHI-recruited faculty securing more than $80 million in extramural funding through 2024. Notably, Rutgers and Princeton faculty recently received a $16 million Silvio O. Conte Center P50 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health in August.

“In its first decade, the Brain Health Institute has not only strengthened Rutgers Health but also brought real benefits to the people of New Jersey and beyond,” said Rutgers Health Chancellor Brian Strom during the  10th Annual BHI Symposium in mid-November.

Celebrating Faculty Excellence

BHI marked its 10th anniversary with the 2024 Research & Service Awards ceremony held on Dec. 10 at the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick. The ceremony celebrated BHI faculty for their outstanding research and service contributions. Award recipients included:

• Early Career Faculty “Rising Star” Research Excellence Award: Anna Konova, assistant professor of psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) and co-director of the Rutgers-Princeton Center for Computational Cognitive Neuro-Psychiatry.
• Mid-Career Faculty “Shining Star” Research Excellence Award: Victoria Abraira, assistant professor of cell biology and neuroscience in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers–New Brunswick.
• Senior Faculty “Super Star” Research Excellence Awards: Dipak Sarkar and Laszlo Zaborszky, Distinguished Professors from the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers–New Brunswick and the School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers–Newark, respectively.
• BHI “Outstanding Service” Award: Chiara Manzini, associate professor of neuroscience and cell biology in RWJMS.

“These awards and our 10th anniversary highlight the transformative impact of BHI’s faculty and programs,” said Gary Aston-Jones, director of BHI and the Murray and Charlotte Strongwater Endowed Chair in Neuroscience and Brain Health. “Our faculty’s research continues to address critical challenges in brain health, and our interdisciplinary approach fosters collaboration across Rutgers and beyond.”

Rochester, Minn. — People around the globe are living longer — but not necessarily healthier — lives, according to Mayo Clinic research. A study of 183 World Health Organization (WHO) member countries found those additional years of life are increasingly fraught with disease. This research by Andre Terzic, M.D., Ph.D., and Armin Garmany documents a widening gap between lifespan and healthspan. Their paper is published in JAMA Network Open.

“The data show that gains in longevity are not matched with equivalent advances in healthy longevity. Growing older often means more years of life burdened with disease,” says Dr. Terzic, senior author. “This research has important practice and policy implications by bringing attention to a growing threat to the quality of longevity and the need to close the healthspan-lifespan gap.”

Dr. Terzic is the Marriott Family Director, Comprehensive Cardiac Regenerative Medicine for the Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics and Marriott Family Professor of Cardiovascular Research at Mayo Clinic.

Lifespan-healthspan gap largest in the U.S.

Life expectancy, or lifespan, increased from 79.2 to 80.7 years in women and from 74.1 to 76.3 years in men between 2000 and 2019, according to WHO estimates. Healthspan describes the number of years a person has lived a healthy, active, disease-free life. However, the number of years those people were living in good health did not correspondingly increase. The average global gap in lifespan versus healthspan was 9.6 years in 2019, the last year of available statistics. That represents a 13% increase since 2000.

The U.S. recorded the world’s highest average lifespan-health span divide, with Americans living 12.4 years on average with disability and sickness. This increase from 10.9 years in 2000 comes as the U.S. also reported the highest burden of chronic disease. Mental health, substance use disorders and musculoskeletal conditions were the key contributors to illness nationally.

In addition, the study found a 25% gender disparity worldwide. Across 183 surveyed countries, women experienced a 2.4-year larger gap in lifespan versus healthspan than men. Neurological, musculoskeletal, urinary and genital tract disorders contributed to extended years of poor health among women.

“The widening healthspan-lifespan gap globally points to the need for an accelerated pivot to proactive wellness-centric care systems,” says Armin Garmany, first author and an M.D./Ph.D. student in Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine and Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. “Identifying contributors to the gap unique to each geography can help inform healthcare interventions specific to each country and region.”

Healthspan research

The Mayo Clinic research team studied statistics from the WHO Global Health Observatory. This cross-sectional study provided data on life expectancy, health-adjusted life expectancy, years lived with disease and years of life lost among member states. The healthspan-lifespan gap for each member state was calculated by subtracting health-adjusted life expectancy from life expectancy.

The research team recommends additional exploration of demographic, health and economic characteristics to better define the disease patterns that are shaping the lifespan-healthspan disparities. Funding for the paper was provided by the Marriott Family Foundation, National Institutes of Health and National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news. 

In a new collaboration, Case Western Reserve University’s Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education has partnered with the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office (CCMEO) to launch a pilot program designed to help curb fatal overdose trends.

This new initiative involves lab testing syringes collected from syringe service programs—also known as “needle exchanges”—at The Centers and MetroHealth System. Researchers hope to gain insights into the drug use behaviors of people participating in harm reduction services.

That’s the key to developing more effective public health interventions, said Daniel Flannery, the Dr. Semi J. and Ruth Begun Professor and director of the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education, who is part of a team of researchers representing CWRU.

While the CCMEO conducts thorough testing on fatal overdose cases and law enforcement drug seizures, understanding the substances used by individuals in syringe service programs can offer a clearer picture of current drug trends and potential risks, Flannery added.

“The testing of syringes is an important harm reduction tool that helps us better understand the gap between what people think they’re using and what they’re actually using,” he said. “This program will help track changes in the local drug supply and improve how we educate, prevent and treat substance use.”

Since its launch this fall, more than 120 syringes have been tested, and participants have received valuable feedback about the substances in their illicit drugs. This information is critical in reducing harm and preventing overdose deaths, particularly as the local drug supply continues to shift. The initiative is part of a CDC-funded effort to limit overdose fatalities and improve local health outcomes. The ambitious study also includes collaboration with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health (CCBH) and is funded by the CDC’s Overdose Data to Action program.

 “The partnership with the Begun Center provides an essential evaluation of this program’s effectiveness,” said Thomas Gilson, Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner. “By comparing the drug use patterns of those utilizing harm reduction services to overdose victims, we can enhance our public health response to the opioid epidemic.”

For more information, please contact Colin McEwen at [email protected].

EL PASO, Texas (Dec. 3, 2024) – Consuming addictive substances often involves an unpleasant experience, like using a needle, ingesting a bitter substance or inhaling smoke. These distasteful experiences — known as aversive cues — and our initial reactions to them are pivotal to understanding who will become an addict, said University of Texas at El Paso biologist Travis Moschak, Ph.D.

“Aversive cues matter from the very first exposure,” Moschak said. But until now, he said, there hasn’t been a good animal model to study this concept. 

Moschak is the lead author of a new study published this month in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependencethat describes a novel approach for rats to self-administer cocaine and encounter aversion from that very first “high.” 

The study found widely varying responses in rats, revealing that individual reactions to the unpleasant aspects of drug consumption can be important in determining susceptibility to addiction.

Moschak explained that nearly 30 rats were given the opportunity to self-administer small doses of cocaine by poking their nose into a designated hole. Each dose of cocaine was preceded by a small, bitter-tasting dose of quinine, a substance that is safe for rats and commonly used to impart the bitter flavor in tonic water. The study measured the rats’ response to the mixed positive-negative experience of the cocaine and quinine and gauged whether their dislike of the quinine outweighed the impact of the cocaine.  

After having the opportunity to self-administer the cocaine, Moschak said that three distinct patterns became evident among the rats. One group responded strongly to the quinine and stopped self-administering the cocaine entirely, which can be compared to the experience of a person who tries a drug, has a negative experience, and never does it again. A second group started off consuming the cocaine in low doses but gradually increased their consumption, indicating that the quinine did not deter them enough to stop. A third, unexpected group began the study with heavy cocaine consumption but then gradually leveled off.

“The third group surprised us,” Moschak said. “They seemed to have over-indulged and the combination of too much cocaine and too much aversive stimulus took over.”

While previous studies have explored the relationship between aversive cues and drug use, Moschak’s research is the first to study them as a paired experience from the very first instance of drug use, he said.

“These findings could help explain why some individuals develop substance use disorders while others do not, and future studies may uncover genetic or neural differences that could guide targeted treatments,” Moschak said.

The rats were taken off of the cocaine at the conclusion of the study and were unharmed by the experience, the team said. Future research will examine the brain regions in the rats that are active during drug use with an aversive cue and seek to understand the genetic or biological differences behind the rats’ differing experiences. 

“This is a fascinating study with great potential to help us better understand and address drug abuse in people,” said Robert Kirken, Ph.D., dean of the College of Science. “With further study, this research could lead to better ways to prevent and treat addiction.”

The cocaine used in the study was procured through the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Drug Supply Program, which supplies restricted substances for the purpose of research.

About The University of Texas at El Paso

The University of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 25,000 students are Hispanic, and more than half are the first in their families to go to college. UTEP offers 170 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.

Newswise — A new report from the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that life expectancy in the United States is, on average, 78.6 years versus 81.3 years in England and Wales, an overall 2.7-year difference.  

The analysis, which reviewed causes of death based on newly released 2023 data, found that preventable causes—heart disease, overdose, firearm violence, and motor vehicle crashes—explain the almost three-year gap in life expectancy.

The report, A Tale of Two Countries: The Life Expectancy Gap Between the United States and the United Kingdom, offers evidence-based solutions from Johns Hopkins public health experts to close this gap and to increase lifespans in the U.S. 

The report is set to be announced by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies and WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, at the seventh annual Bloomberg American Health Summit in Washington, D.C. The Summit convened public health leaders, government officials, community organizations, researchers, and students to discuss the urgent need to uphold evidence-based health policies to improve life expectancy in a politically divided country.

“There is simply no good reason why people in the U.S. can expect to die nearly three years earlier than their counterparts across the Atlantic,” says Joshua M. Sharfstein, MD, director of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative and vice dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at the Bloomberg School. “If we choose programmatic and policy solutions based on evidence, we will close this gap.”

In 1984, life expectancy in the U.S. and the U.K. was the same. But the gap has widened over time, peaking in 2022 during the pandemic with a difference of 4.7 years, as the two countries have taken different directions on health and social policy on issues that include dietary sodium, firearm policy, addiction treatment, injury prevention, COVID-19, and health care. The U.S. health care system is particularly unable to deliver needed preventive services equitably and at scale.

The report found the life expectancy gap is due to the following:

• Cardiovascular disease: Cardiovascular disease, which is linked to environmental factors, structural conditions, and lifestyle choices, represents the largest contributor to the life expectancy gap. The U.S. death rate due to cardiovascular health issues is 38% greater than that of England and Wales.

• Overdose deaths: Overdose is the second leading contributor to the gap. The U.S. overdose death rate is more than three times greater than England and Wales—31.6 per 100,000 versus 9.3 per 100,000. 

• Gun-related deaths: The death rate for firearm-related homicides and suicides is 13.3 deaths per 100,000 in the U.S. compared to 0.1 per 100,000 in England and Wales. Ninety individuals died from firearm-related causes in England and Wales in 2023 compared to more than 45,000 in the United States. 

• Motor vehicle crashes: The death rate from motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. is six times greater than the rate in England and Wales—13.3 per 100,000 versus 2.2 per 100,000 in England and Wales. 

COVID-19 and cancer offset some of the life expectancy gap between the two countries. The death rate for COVID-19 in the U.S. was 12 per 100,000 compared to 13.8 per 100,000 in England and Wales. For cancer-related deaths, the U.S. had a lower rate of 147.2 per 100,000 compared to 186.1 in England and Wales.

The new report is a follow-up to a 2022 report from the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, which detailed actions the U.S. can take to address declining life expectancy.

The new report draws from preliminary 2023 mortality data from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and final 2023 data from the United Kingdom Office for National Statistics. Available U.K. data includes England and Wales, which represent about 90% of the population, but not Scotland or Northern Ireland. While the U.S. has about five times more people than the U.K. and greater per capita income, the age distributions and several other demographic factors are similar.

Younger Americans, Men Die Before U.K. Counterparts

For younger Americans, the researchers found even larger gaps in life expectancy between the U.S. and the U.K. Firearm-related homicide and suicide rates are 485.9 times higher for people under age 25 in the U.S. compared to England and Wales. Drug overdose rates are 4.5 times higher in the U.S. for people under age 25. 

Men overall had the largest age gap in life expectancy, a difference of 3.4 years, and lower life expectancy overall. Men living in the U.S. have a life expectancy of 75.9 years, while those in England and Wales have a life expectancy of 79.3 years. Women have a difference of 1.9 years, with the U.S. having a life expectancy of 81.3 years compared with 83.2 years in England and Wales. 

In the new report, researchers also highlight health policies, some in place in the U.K., that can address the key areas they found to be responsible for the life expectancy gap between the two countries. These include:

• Reducing cardiovascular disease by prioritizing clinical and population-based solutions including increasing access to treatment for hypertension, increasing access to more nutritious food, reducing sodium through food policy, and providing more opportunities for physical activity.

• Reducing overdose-related deaths by expanding access to treatment for opioid use disorder, such as methadone, in the U.S. through community pharmacies and correctional facilities.

• Reducing gun homicides and gun-related suicides by limiting access to gun ownership through Firearm Purchaser Licensing and Extreme Risk Protection Orders, both popular policies that have been shown to reduce violence or self-harm.

• Reducing teen suicides by building a national community mental health infrastructure that allows for ongoing investment in mental health care services, especially in rural and historically underserved areas.

• Reducing motor vehicle crashes by incorporating intelligent speed technology that alerts drivers when they are over the speed limit, enforcing penalties for impaired driving, and including a hazard perception test as part of driver licensing requirements.

“This analysis tells a story of how preventable disease is responsible for the U.S. falling behind in life expectancy,” says Alison Gemmill, PhD, MPH, assistant professor in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Bloomberg School and lead researcher on the analysis of the study. “What we do with this information will determine whether this gap grows or shrinks over time.”

Contributors to A Tale of Two Countries: The Life Expectancy Gap Between the United States and the United Kingdominclude Joshua Sharfstein, Alison Gemmill, Lawrence Appel, Sonia Angell, Brendan Saloner, Josh Horwitz, Silvia Villareal, Kiara Alvarez, and Johnathan Ehsani.

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The seventh Bloomberg American Health Summit organized by the Bloomberg American Health Initiative will bring together public health leaders, government officials, community organizations, researchers, and students to discuss evidence-based health policies that remain critical to advancing health in a politically divided country. The Summit will take place on December 3 in Washington, D.C.

Following the recent U.S. election, this year’s event, “Advancing Public Health in Uncertain Political Times,” will underscore the essential role of evidence and policy to address preventable illness that is holding back American life expectancy and progress. The Summit will also emphasize how fostering bipartisan collaboration, reforming policies that drive health disparities, and using innovative methods to enhance policy impact are essential to safeguard public health.

Keynote discussions will cover urgent topics including:

• Building bipartisan support for public health initiatives in 2025 and beyond
• Protecting reproductive health
• Defending the role of science in uncertain political times

Featured speakers include:

• Jerome Adams, Former U.S. Surgeon General & Director of Health Equity, Purdue University
• Xavier Becerra, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Michael R. Bloomberg, Founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies, WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, and 108th mayor of New York City
• Cory Booker, U.S. Senator (D-NJ)
• Muriel Bowser, Mayor, Washington, D.C.
• Jonathan Capehart, Associate Editor, The Washington Post 
• Francis S. Collins, Distinguished Investigator, National Institutes of Health
• Ron Daniels, President, Johns Hopkins University
• Madlen Davies, Senior Editor, The Examination
• Rosa DeLauro, Congresswoman, U.S. House of Representatives, Connecticut
• Thomas Dobbs, Former Mississippi State Health Officer
• Jamie Ducharme, Health Correspondent, TIME Magazine
• John Feinblatt, President, Everytown for Gun Safety
• Brian Fitzpatrick, U.S. Representative, Pennsylvania 
• Cynthia Bissett Germanotta, President and Co-Founder, Born This Way Foundation
• Riley Griffin, Health Care Reporter, Bloomberg News
• Ellen J. MacKenzie, Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, New York University
• Joshua M. Sharfstein, Director, Bloomberg American Health Initiative
• Michelle Spencer, Deputy Director, Bloomberg American Health Initiative
• Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Washington Correspondent, The New York Times
• Yasmin Tayag, Staff Writer, The Atlantic

Additional speakers will be announced and posted on the Summit’s website.

Members of the media are invited to attend the plenary from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in person or view the event’s livestream. Apply for credentials here. For more information, please contact [email protected].

“Science and data should drive U.S. public health research and policy​—not partisan politics or baseless conspiracy theories,” says Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies, WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, and 108th mayor of New York City. “This year’s Bloomberg American Health Summit brings leading experts to Washington to share evidence-based approaches that can improve the health of the American people.”

Through a series of on-stage conversations, keynote speakers, and videos, the event will highlight successful public health efforts and explore implications for national and state policy across the Initiative’s five focus areas: addiction and overdose; adolescent health; environmental challenges; food systems for health; and violence.

The Bloomberg American Health Initiative was created in 2016 to address the nation’s most pressing health challenges and works to improve health and life expectancy in the United States in ways that advance equity, use evidence, and change policy. The Initiative was established with a $300 million gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the world’s leading school of public health.

The Summit will also feature the work of Bloomberg Fellows, a program of the Initiative that provides world-class public health training to individuals in organizations tackling critical challenges facing the United States. Each year, the Initiative supports 60 Fellows with full scholarships to earn an MPH or DrPH degree from the Bloomberg School. Each Fellow represents an organization working on one of the Initiative’s five focus areas. The growing network of 388 Fellows and 318 collaborating organizations from 43 states, Washington, D.C., and two territories, is using the tools of public health to positively impact their own communities.

“I am thrilled that this year’s summit is bringing leading thinkers and changemakers together in our nation’s capital to discuss the future of public health policy, especially in a new administration,” says Ellen J. MacKenzie, dean of the Bloomberg School. “This is an extraordinary opportunity to spark new ideas and forge new partnerships as we work to pursue practical, achievable solutions to some of our greatest health challenges in such a historic time.”

The main plenary session on December 3 will be available to the public via livestream.

To learn more about the Bloomberg American Health Summit, please visit the Summit website.

About the Bloomberg American Health InitiativeThe Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health was developed to tackle five core issues that deeply challenge the nation’s health: addiction and overdose; adolescent health; environmental challenges; food systems for health; and violence. The Initiative’s work with faculty, Bloomberg Fellows, and collaborating organizations is building a dynamic nationwide network committed to harnessing data and developing new approaches to public health that will ensure a healthier future for all Americans. Learn more here: Bloomberg American Health Initiative.

About Bloomberg Philanthropies

Bloomberg Philanthropies invests in 700 cities and 150 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on creating lasting change in five key areas: the Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation, and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s giving, including his foundation, corporate, and personal philanthropy as well as Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consultancy that advises cities around the world. In 2023, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $3 billion. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org, sign up for our newsletter, or follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, Facebook, and X.

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Australian researchers say access to a free medicated nasal spray which temporarily reverses the effects of opioid toxicity while waiting for an ambulance to arrive, will save lives and reduce opioid-related hospital admissions.

The Federal Government is funding a national Take Home Naloxone (THN) program which makes the life-saving medication available for free and without prescription in pharmacies across Australia.

Naloxone reverses the effects of opioid toxicity and, under the THN program, is available from pharmacies for anyone at risk of either experiencing or witnessing an opioid overdose or adverse reaction.

Initially introduced on a trial basis, the THN program has expanded to now include more than 384 participating pharmacies across South Australia.

Dr Victoria Cock, Statewide Clinical Director, Drug and Alcohol Services SA, says demand for free naloxone is growing as more people become aware of its availability, with 8377 units being supplied across South Australia (SA) alone in 2022-23 and 16,171 in 2023-24.

A recent paper co-authored by SA Health experts and University of South Australia pharmacist Dr Jacinta Johnson found there were 2046 hospital admissions in SA involving opioid toxicity between 2017 and 2020, costing the State approximately $18 million.

Almost 20% of the patients admitted stayed in hospital for more than five days, 22% required intensive care and around 10% required mechanical ventilation.

Of the 2046 opioid toxicity-related admissions in SA hospitals, 6% involved children who were accidentally poisoned, prompting health officials to remind South Australians about the importance of safe medication storage and disposal of opioids to protect children.

Families also may wish to consider having naloxone on hand in case of an accidental poisoning at home.

Members of the public can locate their nearest registered pharmacy using the user-friendly map available on www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/naloxone. They do not need to provide any identifying details when requesting naloxone at a pharmacy. The webpage also includes a range of resources consumers may find useful.

Dr Maria Sarantou from Flinders Medical Centre says a 2019 trial of the Take Home Naloxone (THN) program, providing free access to the opioid blocker, found that it saved an estimated three lives a day.

“Research evaluating the pilot program showed that expanding THN supply to include the majority of patients prescribed medium to high doses of opioids would save hundreds of lives over the next five years,” Dr Sarantou says.

Dr Johnson, the UniSA senior lecturer who is responsible for driving all pharmacy research across SA Health, says a history of opioid toxicity is a major risk factor for future overdoses, yet many patients were not referred to drug and alcohol services or specialist pain services for help after discharge.

“There are things within the system we can improve,” Dr Johnson says.

In addition to the now implemented THN program, which is expanding to include an increasing number of public hospitals, the authors have made the following recommendations:

• Improved discharge referrals to external healthcare services; and
• Parental/carer education around safe storage and disposal of opioids to protect children.

Organisations involved in the study included local health networks in Adelaide, South Australian Statewide Chronic Pain Clinical Network, University of South Australia, University of Adelaide, and SA Pharmacy Statewide Clinical Support Services.

“A 3-year retrospective review of hospital admissions involving opioid toxicity in South Australia” is published in Drug and Alcohol Review. DOI: 10.1111/dar.13913

Background

Naloxone is a drug that can temporarily reverse the effects of opioid toxicity, which may be referred to as an opioid overdose or adverse reaction. If someone is experiencing severe opioid toxicity, they may be unconscious or awake, but unable to talk. It’s unlikely they will be able to administer naloxone themselves.  

Naloxone can be administered by injection into a muscle or delivery through a nasal spray. It works by blocking opioid drugs, such as heroin and oxycodone, from attaching to opioid receptors in the brain. 

It is vital to call an ambulance (000) as naloxone’s effect only lasts about 30-90 minutes and the person can experience toxicity again once it wears off. 

Opioids include pharmaceutical opioids, that is, medicines used for pain, and non-pharmaceutical opioids, such as heroin. The average Australian drug-related death last year involved a middle-aged person who was taking prescribed pharmaceutical opioids in combination with other prescribed pharmaceutical drugs.

Study Identifies Pregnant Women at Risk for Substance Use

STONY BROOK, NY, November 18, 2024 – Use of tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, and illicit drugs is dangerous in pregnancy, increasing risks of stroke, miscarriage, preterm delivery, low birth weight and infant neurodevelopmental problems. Yet according to the 2020 National Survey of Drug Use and Health, more than 20 percent of pregnant women in the United States report using one or more of these substances. Public health experts agree on the need to identify pregnant women who are most vulnerable to using harmful substances. A new study published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine conducted by a team of Stony Brook University researchers used the PROMOTE Prenatal Screener – a unique screening tool for use during pregnancy – to pinpoint vulnerabilities for substance use.

The study, led by Heidi Preis, MSW, PhD, Assistant Professor of Research in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine in the Renaissance School of Medicine (RSOM), focused on vulnerabilities for tobacco, cannabis, or alcohol use in pregnancy.

“When patients complete the PROMOTE at the start of their prenatal care, their health care providers can identify any psychological, social, or other needs and determine whether a particular patient is likely to use harmful substances during pregnancy,” explains Preis, who also has academic affiliations and collaborates with Stony Brook’s Program in Public Health and Department of Psychology. “This way a patient’s needs can be addressed very early and she can be referred for counseling, treatment, or resources, and this reduces harms for both mother and child.”

Preis and colleagues developed the PROMOTE with a grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Prior to its creation, a comprehensive yet concise screening tool to detect psychosocial and substance use risk was not available in prenatal care settings. The PROMOTE includes 18 core items that address vulnerabilities in areas such as education, financial stability, living conditions, partner and family stress and support, exposure to violence, and mental health.

For their current study, the team reviewed medical charts of 1,842 patients who completed the PROMOTE during their first prenatal visit to a New York State health system outpatient clinic.  They found that 188 patients (10.2%) used at least one substance during pregnancy, including 132 (7.2%) tobacco, 50 (2.7%) cannabis, and 45 (2.4%) alcohol. Patients with limited education were most likely to use tobacco during pregnancy, single and unpartnered patients were most likely to use cannabis, and those who experienced a major stressful life event were most likely to use alcohol during pregnancy. Other vulnerabilities were also associated with harmful substance use.

Their study results highlight the value of using a well-developed screening tool to gain a better understanding of the life context of pregnant patients and identify those who are most vulnerable or might be struggling with substance use. Preis stresses that addressing their needs has great potential to improve the health and well-being of pregnant women and their children.

Co-authors and collaborators on the PROMOTE project include: Marci Lobel, PhD, Department of Psychology and Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine; Cassandra Heiselman, DO, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine; Ayesha Azeem, RSOM student and first author of the publication; David Garry, MD, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine.

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Contact:
Stacy A. Anderson                    
Mount Sinai Press Office                    
347-346-3390                    
[email protected]                          

Mount Sinai Awarded Nearly $7 Million From National Institutes of Health to Create New York Coalition to Recruit for Highly Diverse Health Database 
Health System to serve as a lead site for the All of Us research program

(New York, NY – November 11, 2024) – The Mount Sinai Health System has been awarded nearly $7 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create and lead a New York coalition to contribute to one of the most diverse health databases in history, ultimately informing and guiding individualized treatment and care for a variety of diseases and health conditions. Mount Sinai will also work to increase the number of participants from various demographics, regions, and stages of opioid use disorder to address the public health crisis of rising overdose deaths.

The New York coalition will include academic medical centers and community partners with expertise in engaging, recruiting, and retaining participants often underrepresented in biomedical research in New York City—one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse enclaves in the world. Along with Mount Sinai, the group of collaborators includes Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City Health + Hospitals, the Institute for Family Health, and NYU Langone. The New York coalition will try to recruit more than 7,000 new participants across the tri-state area to join the NIH’s All of Us Research Program in the first year.

“This multi-institutional effort will fill a gap to significantly increase recruitment of participants in an area of the country with rich diversity,” said Principal Investigator Monica Kraft, MD, the Murray M. Rosenberg Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Our partnership encompasses dozens of hospitals and medical practices, longstanding collaborations, senior research investigators, and seasoned staff with experience in recruiting diverse populations. We will work closely with the All of Us consortium and key stakeholders, assess the impact of our activities, identify best practices, and share both our expertise and discoveries along the way. We look forward to continuing to build on our strong and robust IT, data science, clinical, data collection, and electronic health record infrastructures.”

The coalition will join the other All of Us regional hubs to also enroll 3,300 new participants with opioid use disorder, an epidemic that has affected thousands across the United States through increasing opioid use, addiction, and overdose deaths. The crisis has most recently involved a rise of synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which are significantly more potent and deadly than heroin and prescription opioids. There are distinct racial disparities among those with opioid use disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: although opioid use is more common among white Americans, Black adults and teens experienced a steeper increase in the rate of fatal opioid overdoses than whites during the last decade.

Three Icahn Mount Sinai leaders join Dr. Kraft as Principal Investigators for the New York coalition: Bruce D. Gelb, MD, Dean for Child Health Research, the Gogel Family Professor and Director of The Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, and Director of the Center for Molecular Cardiology; Carol R. Horowitz, MD, MPH, Dean for Gender Equity in Science and Medicine, Director of the Institute for Health Equity Research, and Professor of Medicine, and Population Health Science and Policy; and Girish N. Nadkarni, MD, MPH, Irene and Dr. Arthur M. Fishberg Professor of Medicine, Director of The Charles Bronfman Institute of Personalized Medicine, and System Chief of the Division of Data-Driven and Digital Medicine.

“Our participation in the All of Us Research Program is a significant step towards revolutionizing health care through the power of multimodal data,” said Dr. Nadkarni. “This grant will enable us to harness cutting-edge technologies and integrate vast amounts of health information to uncover new insights and accelerate the development of personalized treatments. The world can leverage this comprehensive dataset to identify novel biomarkers, predict disease progression, and ultimately enhance clinical outcomes.”

Dr. Horowitz added: “Mount Sinai has a longstanding and deep commitment to health equity. Working in close partnership with expert clinicians, patients, and community advocates, we will ensure that our New York neighbors from more disadvantaged backgrounds and who have experienced health disparities are among the first to benefit from the advances in science and medicine that stem from All of Us.”

The investigators will harness insights from trusted networks and communities of ongoing research they currently lead, including The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine’s BioMe BioBank program, which supports rapid analysis from electronic medical information; the Mount Sinai Million Health Discoveries Program, which aims to carry out genetic sequencing of 1 million Mount Sinai patients within the next five years; and the NIH Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative, which is examining the long-term effects of COVID-19.

The All of Us Research Program was created in 2015 to reflect the diversity of the United States and its territories, with a focus on precision medicine, or development of individualized plans for disease prevention and treatment. The national effort includes gathering data from 1 million or more diverse people, including those who are LGBTQ+ or Indigenous, with the goal of accelerating medical research and health breakthroughs. The comprehensive dataset is housed on a secure cloud-based platform and participating researchers can access information from surveys, genomic analyses, electronic health records, physical measurements, and wearables to study a range of factors that influence health and disease, including the environment, lifestyle, and genes. To date, more than 800,000 people have enrolled in the program.

About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across eight hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report’s® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Newswise — University of California San Diego School of Medicine has received a five-year, $8 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to study the genetics of substance use disorders. The grant will support a NIDA P30 Core Center of Excellence, which ultimately aims to understand why some people are more susceptible to addiction than others. This knowledge will be instrumental in developing more personalized and effective treatments to address the public health crisis posed by substance use disorders, which affect tens of millions of Americans at an enormous cost to the U.S. economy.

Some people who drink alcohol or try illicit substances become addicted to these drugs, but most do not, according to principal investigator Abraham Palmer, Ph.D., professor and vice chair for basic research in the School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry.

“And that vulnerability is partially genetic,” said Palmer. “We’re very interested to know: what are the genetic differences between people who develop substance use disorders and those who do not?”

The P30 center uses heterogeneous stock (HS) rats as a model organism to address this question because, like humans, they display individual differences in drug-seeking behaviors and their genomes lend themselves to genotype-phenotype association studies. They also share many of the same genes that control reward pathways in the brain thought to be important in substance use disorders. The center will build upon 10 years of NIDA-supported research mapping the relationship between HS rat genotypes and these complex behavioral traits.

“We have an enormous database of both the behavior of the animals and of the genetic characteristics of those animals,” said Palmer. “And that allows us to look at the relationship between the genotype of an animal and its phenotype to understand which important genetic differences shape certain behaviors.”

Research by Palmer, Francesca Telese, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry, and colleagues used single nucleus RNA sequencing to compare gene expression of individual brain cells in the amygdalas of HS rats who sought large amounts of cocaine versus those who abstained. The amygdala is an area of the brain found in all mammals, including humans, and it plays a central role in addiction.

“By looking at these single nuclei, we were able to see lots of differences that persist weeks after the drug has gone away,” said Palmer.

One of the strongest patterns was a difference in genes related to oxidative stress, which affects cellular energy metabolism. The brain cells of the cocaine-preferring rats also showed increased GABAergic signaling, which regulates cognition, emotion and motivation. In addition, these rats engaged in relapse-like behavior.

“Our results suggested to us that vulnerability to cocaine addiction affects the way cells produce and use energy,” said Telese.

Glyoxalase 1 (also known as Glo1) is a gene that codes for an enzyme which mediates the relationship between oxidative stress and energy metabolism. The researchers found that inhibiting the enzyme’s activity using a molecule called pBBG reversed the drug-seeking behavior of rats who had previously shown a preference for cocaine.

“Those animals dramatically reduced the amount of cocaine that they took, whereas the normal animals didn’t show any response to the drug,” said Palmer. “It’s as if the drug is specifically doing something in these vulnerable individuals.”

Based on these findings, the researchers believe Glo1 could be a promising target for the development of new therapeutic compounds to treat substance use disorders in humans. And Glo1 is just one of many genes the center is investigating as potential drug targets. With the costs of addiction to individuals and society so high, better treatment options are sorely needed.

The center supports a growing national and international community of researchers studying the genes behind substance use disorders. It conducts genome-wide association studies and maintains and distributes data from its vast repository of genotype-behavioral phenotype relationships to other investigators. Its comprehensive database allows the center to provide researchers with drug-naive HS rats at predictably high and low genetic risk for drug abuse, which make them a particularly good model for studying human addiction.

To foster innovation and support workforce development, the center also provides grants and services to early-stage investigators for pilot studies. In addition, it offers immersive research opportunities for high school and undergraduate students in the laboratories affiliated with the center. Research supported by the center could lead to new treatments for other psychiatric disorders as well.

Additional principal investigators (PIs) on the project include Oksana Polesskaya, Ph.D., in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego, Leah Solberg Woods, Ph.D., professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest University, and Pejman Mohammadi, Ph.D., associate professor at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute and the Department of Genome Sciences at University of Washington School of Medicine.

The title of the grant, awarded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is “Center for Genetics, Genomics, and Epigenetics of Substance Use Disorders in Outbred Rats” (P30DA060810).

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