Objectives: Early maladaptive schemas are valid representations of unpleasant childhood experiences that shape a person’s viewpoints of the world, and lead to clinical symptoms such as depression, personality disorders, and substance abuse. Given the importance of this matter, we conducted a research on early maladaptive schemas in substance-abusers, to allow more appropriate preventive m...

The consolidation of newly acquired memories involves the temporal transition from a recent, less stable trace to a more permanent consolidated form. Opiates possess potent rewarding effects and produce powerful associative memories. The activation of these memories is associated with opiate abuse relapse phenomena and the persistence of compulsive opiate dependence. However, the neuronal, mole...

The persistence of associative memories linked to the rewarding properties of drugs of abuse is a core underlying feature of the addiction process. Opiate class drugs in particular, possess potent euphorigenic effects which, when linked to environmental cues, can produce drug-related "trigger" memories that may persist for lengthy periods of time, even during abstinence, in both humans, and oth...

Background: Whilst several studies have demonstrated poor cardiovascular health in opiate dependence, its role as a cardiovascular risk factor has not been considered. Methods: Pulse wave analysis was undertaken by radial arterial tonometry (SphygmoCor) in female control and opiate-dependent patients and compared to lifetime opiate use. Results: 222 opiate dependent women were compared to 175 c...

Chronic opiate exposure leads to maladaptive changes in brain function. In view of the localization of opiate receptors in mammalian visual system, chronic opiate exposure is likely to affect the visual responses properties of V1 neurons. Using in vivo single-unit recording, we here showed that chronic morphine treatment resulted in the functional abnormality of primary visual cortical cells. W...

Spinophilin, a dendritic spine-enriched scaffold protein, modulates synaptic transmission via multiple functions mediated by distinct domains of the protein. Here, we show that spinophilin is a key modulator of opiate action. Knockout of the spinophilin gene causes reduced sensitivity to the analgesic effects of morphine and early development of tolerance but a higher degree of physical depende...

Statins, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl co-enzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors, are widely used in the management of different diseases beyond their primary indication for lowering cholesterol. Previous studies have demonstrated the neuroprotective effects of simvastatin in different animal models. In the present study, we examined the effects of simvastatin (30, 60, 100 and 300mg/kg, p.o.) on ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to assess tobacco dependence among Cypriot adolescents and examine its association to cigarette consumption and attitudes towards smoking. METHODS The current study used cross-sectional data from the 2011 Cyprus Global Youth Tobacco Survey which adopted multistage cluster sampling methods to select adolescents registered in middle and high schools in Cypru...

This article explores the processes through which dependence on opiates affects parenting capacity and family processes. The findings are based on in-depth interviews with 100 parents (50 drug-using [opiate dependent] and 50 non-drug using) living in Dublin. Qualitative analyses of semi-structured interviews suggest that opiate dependence has a specific impact on parenting processes and particu...