There are currently effective, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved therapies for alcohol, nicotine, and opioid addiction. In some cases these therapeutics were rationally designed and tested using a combination of various animal models of addiction. In many cases, however, effective drug therapies for addiction were derived from the testing of compounds developed for other CNS diso...

While food addiction has no formally-recognized definition, it is typically operationalized according to the diagnostic principles established by the Yale Food Addiction Scale-an inventory based on the symptom criteria for substance dependence in the DSM-IV. Currently, there is little biologically-based research investigating the risk factors for food addiction. What does exist has focused almo...

Tremendous growth in opioid prescribing over two decades in the USA has correlated with proportional increases in diversion, addiction, and overdose deaths. Pseudoaddiction, a concept coined in 1989, has frequently been cited to indicate that under-treatment of pain, rather than addiction, is the more pressing and authentic clinical problem in opioid-seeking patients. This investigative review ...

INTRODUCTION Smoking rates among individuals in treatment for opioid addiction are close to five times that of the general public. Moreover, drug-addicted smokers have a premature mortality rate four times greater than drug-addicted non-smokers. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate whether contingency management (CM) can be successfully added to evidence-based stop smoking treatment i...

Prescription opioid misuse and addiction among chronic pain patients are emerging public health concerns of considerable significance. Estimates suggest that more than 10% of chronic pain patients misuse opioid analgesics, and the number of fatalities related to nonmedical or inappropriate use of prescription opioids is climbing. Because the prevalence and adverse consequences of this threat ar...

Many new and existing cases of viral hepatitis infections are related to injection drug use. Transmission of these infections can result directly from the use of injection equipment that is contaminated with blood containing the hepatitis B or C virus or through sexual contact with an infected individual. In the latter case, drug use can indirectly contribute to hepatitis transmission through t...

Opioid Treatment Programs in Indiana – The Use of Medication in Addiction Treatment Addiction to opioids (e.g., heroin, morphine, prescription pain relievers) is a serious health problem with wide-ranging social and economic implications. In 2010, more than 2 million Americans were affected, with 1.9 million U.S. residents addicted to prescription opioids and 359,000 addicted to heroin. Abuse o...

The College in New Brunswick was reluctant to arbitrarily select one approach over the other, even granting the similarities. It was felt appropriate to allow physicians to adopt one of these established approaches to guide them. They could then modify their approach as they gain experience. That said, for the sake of some consistency, the College can point to the most recent guidelines from No...

Novel drug delivery systems for controlled-release of opioid agonists as a long time painkillers or opioid antagonists for opium, heroin, and alcohol addiction are under development or in clinical use today. In this article, the field of "new drug delivery systems" is momentarily reviewed from the viewpoint of the marketed opioid agonists/antagonists dosage forms today.

Introduction: Genes often have multiple polymorphisms that interact with each other and the environment in different individuals. Variability in the opioid receptors can influence opiate withdrawal and dependence. In humans, A118G Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) on μ-Opioid Receptor (MOR), 36 G>T in κ-Opioid Receptor (KOR), and T921C in the δ-Opioid Receptor (DOR) have been...