we studied the effect of the selective alha-2 adrenoceptor blocker idazoxan and precursor serotonin (5-htp) on anxiety-related behavior in rats. the conflict drinking test, and evaluator plus-maze were used as model. idazoxan (2 mg/kg) showed an anticonflict effect, having doses dependently increased the number of punished lickes. 5-htp showed that anxiolytic-like effect in both models. this dr...

First, a couple of definitions and distinctions: "abuse" according to the American Psychiatric Association describes a pattern of use that causes impairment of social or occupational functioning. Compare that to "dependence," characterized by either tolerance (a need for increasing amounts of a drug, over time, to achieve the same effect) or withdrawal symptoms. "Addiction" is defined by compul...

To the Editor:—We read with interest the review article Addiction and Substance Abuse in Anesthesiology by Bryson and Silverstein and the companion editorial by Berge et al. While the former is an excellent overview, the authors inaccurately state that “outcomes have not appreciably changed” for anesthesiologists treated for substance abuse and the emergent role of state Physician Health Progra...

OBJECTIVE Although cocaine-dependent patients are frequently referred to 12-step self-help groups, little research has examined the benefits of 12-step group attendance in this population. Moreover, the distinction between attending meetings and actively participating in 12-step activities has not typically been examined. METHOD In the National Institute on Drug Abuse Collaborative Cocaine Tr...

Addiction to drugs is a major contemporary public health issue, characterized by maladaptive behavior to obtain and consume an increasing amount of drugs at the expense of the individual's health and social and personal life. We discovered abnormalities in fronto-striatal brain systems implicated in self-control in both stimulant-dependent individuals and their biological siblings who have no h...

Drug taking by young people has been described and debated almost to saturation point by professional and lay people alike. This is not only because of the many connecting professional links in medicine, the law, the social sciences, moral philosophy, psychology, and education, but also because it has a personal impact on every young family in the country. No parent who has the welfare of his c...

This paper describes the development and implementation of a trial of Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT), an evidence-based drug intervention for adolescents, in eight community substance abuse treatment programs. Researchers and treatment programs collaborated closely to identify and overcome challenges, many of them related to achieving results that were both scientifically rigorous and ap...

Modern imaging techniques enable researchers to observe drug actions and consequences as they occur and persist in the brains of abusing and addicted individuals. This article presents the five most commonly used techniques, explains how each produces images, and describes how researchers interpret them. The authors give examples of key findings illustrating how each technique has extended and ...