A family-based prevention program designed to help adolescents avoid substance use and other risky behavior proved especially effective for a group of young teens with a genetic risk factor contributing toward such behavior, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug...

Data from a recent epidemiologic survey of more than 43,000 U.S. adults show that antisocial syndromes-marked by little concern for the rights of others and violations of age-appropriate societal rules-are more common among people with substance abuse disorders than those without these disorders. The study by researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and National Institute on Alcohol...

The harm caused by alcohol consumption among college students may exceed previous estimates of the problem. Researchers report that unintentional fatal injuries related to alcohol increased from about 1,500 in 1998 to more than 1,700 in 2001 among U.S. college students aged 18-24. Over the same period national surveys indicate the number of students who drove under the influence of...

In an article appearing in the May 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), addiction researchers at the National Institutes of Health compared marijuana use in the U.S. adult population in 1991-92 and 2001-02. They found that the number of people reporting use of the drug remained substantially the same in both time periods, but the...

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), today kicked off a major collaborative study that will investigate ways to screen, identify, and treat patients in hospital emergency departments for alcohol problems. Academic emergency medical departments (EDs) at 14 institutions throughout the U.S. will participate in the study, the...

Laboratory of Neuroimaging (LNI) National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) National Institutes of Health 10 Center Drive, Room B2L124: MSC 1013 Bethesda, MD 20892-1013 Chief of Laboratory Nora D. Volkow, MD Senior Investigator, NIAAA Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Phone: 1 (301) 402-0868 E-mail: [email protected] Dr. Volkow became Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse...

Alcohol-related deaths among U.S. college students rose from 1,440 deaths in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005, along with increases in heavy drinking and drunk driving, according to an article in the July supplement of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. The special issue describes the results of a broad array of research-based programs to reduce and prevent alcohol-related...

Heavy drinking during pregnancy disrupts proper brain development in children and adolescents years after they were exposed to alcohol in the womb, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health. The study is the first to track children over several years to examine how heavy exposure to alcohol in utero affects brain growth over time. Using magnetic...

Barbara Foley, R.N., Executive Director and Co-Founder of Emergency Nurses CARE (EN CARE) of Alexandria, Virginia, today was named the fourth recipient of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s annual Senator Harold Hughes Memorial Award. The award is made annually to a nonresearcher who has used alcohol research findings to foster research, prevention, or treatment, thereby translating research...

A study reported in the November 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (Volume 284, Number 18) shows that communities that undertake comprehensive prevention strategies can effectively reduce alcohol-related traffic crashes and injuries from crashes and assaults. Relative to matched comparison sites, intervention communities (two in California and one in South Carolina) experienced marked reductions in alcohol-related...

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism today released the first report from its National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey (NLAES), including the most precise estimates to date of alcohol abuse and dependence among U.S. adults. The figures are reported by Bridget F. Grant, Ph.D., Ph.D., and colleagues in the current issue (Vol. 18, No. 3) of Alcohol Health &...

Thirteen grants awarded to look at cognitive and social development in ~10,000 children The National Institutes of Health today awarded 13 grants to research institutions around the country as part of a landmark study about the effects of adolescent substance use on the developing brain. The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study will follow approximately 10,000 children beginning at ages...

Prenatal exposure to even low doses of alcohol may lead to severe and highly variable deficits in the brain of a fetus, according to a new study conducted in mice. Researchers report that the unpredictable nature of the deficits may be due to inconsistencies in how fetal brain cells activate a protective response to alcohol and other harmful compounds. The...

Community-based and individual-level prevention strategies are effective ways to reduce alcohol use among American Indian and other youth living in rural communities, according to a new study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The National Institute on Drug Abuse also provided support for the study. “This important study...

Children born to mothers who both drank and smoked beyond the first trimester of pregnancy have a 12-fold increased risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) compared to those unexposed or only exposed in the first trimester of pregnancy, according to a new study supported by the National Institutes of Health. SIDS is the sudden, unexplained, death of an infant...

75 percent report not receiving any form of treatment A survey of American adults revealed that drug use disorder is common, co-occurs with a range of mental health disorders and often goes untreated. The study, funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, found that about 4 percent of Americans...

Survey shows marijuana use disorder linked to substance use/mental disorders and disability Marijuana use disorder is common in the United States, is often associated with other substance use disorders, behavioral problems, and disability, and goes largely untreated, according to a new study conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health...

Patients with a certain gene variant drank less and experienced better overall clinical outcomes than patients without the variant while taking the medication naltrexone, according to an analysis of participants in the National Institutes of Health's 2001-2004 COMBINE (Combined Pharmacotherapies and Behavioral Interventions for Alcohol Dependence) Study. About 87 percent of patients with the variant who received naltrexone. experienced good...

Pretreating transplanted livers with the immune molecule interleukin-6 (IL-6) dramatically increased survival of rats receiving organs with fatty degeneration—a common condition in humans that typically reduces transplant viability. The results suggest a means of making it possible to use a higher percentage of available donor livers for transplantation in humans. With over three times as many Americans needing transplants as...

Based on just two questions from a newly released guide, health care professionals could spot children and teenagers at risk for alcohol-related problems. Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner’s Guide is now available from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. Developed in collaboration with the American Academy...