Medical diagnoses involving alcohol-related disorders, substance-related disorders and suicidal thoughts and behaviors – commonly referred to as diseases of despair – increased in Pennsylvania health insurance claims between the years 2007 and 2018, according to researchers.
Study Highlights
* The full impact of COVID-19 on alcohol use is not yet known, but rates have been rising during the first few months of the pandemic
* There’s an urgent need for public health and medical responses to address harmful alcohol use
Fewer college-age Americans drink alcohol, compared to nearly 20 years ago, according to a new study.
Scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine have recorded real time changes in dopamine and serotonin levels in the human brain that are involved with perception and decision-making. These same neurochemicals also are critical to movement disorders and psychiatric conditions, including substance abuse and depression.
US veterans with unhealthy alcohol use who reduce their drinking may gain some improvement in chronic pain symptoms and use of other substances, according to a study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Hazardous drinking is common in the US, and frequently co-occurs with chronic pain, depression and anxiety, and with tobacco, cannabis or cocaine use. Many people use alcohol and other substances to mask or self-manage pain and psychiatric symptoms, although there is little evidence to support such use. If, conversely, a reduction in drinking (or use of treatment for alcohol misuse) were to benefit co-occurring conditions or substance use, this could support an integrated approach to screening or treatment. The new analysis assessed the impact of drinking reduction on improvement of chronic pain, psychiatric symptoms, and other substance use among US veterans with unhealthy alcohol use – a population with high rates of these co-occurring conditions.
Cigarette smoking is associated with frequent substance use and poor behavioral and physical health in sexual and gender minority populations, according to Rutgers researchers.
Brief interventions can potentially reduce incarcerated women’s alcohol use when they leave jail, according to a new study. Researchers explored jailed women’s impressions of how their friends and acquaintances drank and used drugs (“social norms”). Research shows that people who perceive their friends drinking heavily are more likely to drink heavily themselves, while individuals who realize that their friends in fact drink moderately tend to reduce their own alcohol use. Often, perceptions of substance use in a social network are skewed. Past research on this phenomenon has focused on college students, with slight attention to people involved in the criminal justice system. Two in three incarcerated adults have a substance use disorder — compared to one in ten of the general population — and consequently may regard their own alcohol and drug use as typical. Substance use is strongly implicated in criminal justice involvement and reoffending, especially for women. This study in Alcoho
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses demonstrate that opioids fail to achieve important benefits beyond alternative interventions with less harm.
