BACKGROUND Dependence increases the likelihood of adverse consequences of cannabis use, but its aetiology is poorly understood. AIMS To examine adolescent precursors of young-adult cannabis dependence. METHOD Putative risk factors were measured in a representative sample (n=2032) of secondary students in the State of Victoria, Australia, six times between 1992 and 1995. Cannabis dependence ...

Every variable of an ordered set depends on a number of the preceding variables. Hypotheses on the minimal number of such variables are formulated, likelihood ratio tests obtained for the normal case and these are extended to a simple decision rule. The results can be generalized to several variables at each stage of the order.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether patients with laryngeal hemiplegia (LH) show a frequency-dependent increase in specific airway resistance (sRaw), measured by body plethysmography. In addition to the flow-volume loop, usually considered in the functional evaluation of upper airway obstructions, variations in sRaw at respiratory frequencies of 30+/-5 (=0.5 Hz), 60+/-5 (=1 Hz) and...

Dysregulated metabolism can broadly affect therapy resistance by influencing compensatory signaling and expanding proliferation. Given many BRAF-mutated melanoma patients experience disease progression with targeted BRAF inhibitors, we hypothesized therapeutic response is related to tumor metabolic phenotype, and that altering tumor metabolism could change therapeutic outcome. We demonstrated t...

It is well known that the basal ganglia are involved in switching between movement sequences. Here we test the hypothesis that this contribution is an instance of a more general role of the basal ganglia in selecting actions that deviate from the context defined by the recent motor history, even when there is no sequential structure to learn or implement. We investigated the effect of striatal ...

Our aim was to investigate the association between alcohol dependence and suicidal behavior among adolescent girls and boys suffering from conduct disorder (CD). The original study sample consisted of 387 adolescents (age 12-17) admitted to psychiatric inpatient care between April 2001 and May 2005. DSM-IV-based psychiatric diagnoses and variables measuring suicidal behavior were obtained from ...

Background: New evidence suggests an important role for spinal glial cells in development of opioid dependence. Curcumin, a component of the Curcuma Longa, has shown to act as a suppressor of microglial cells. The main goal of this study was to explore the attenuating effects of curcumin on morphine dependence with a focus on spinal microglial cells and inflammatory cytokines. Methods: In...

Stress plays a key role in addiction etiology and relapse. Rodent models posit that following repeated periods of alcohol and other drug intoxication, compensatory allostatic changes occur in the central nervous system (CNS) circuits involved in behavioral and emotional response to stressors. We examine a predicted manifestation of this neuroadaptation in recently abstinent alcohol-dependent hu...