Synthetic drugs are attempts to create the high of marijuana, cocaine or even heroin in a synthetic formula. The goal is to get a drug high without being detected, so that one will not go to jail for possession or can keep their job if it requires drug testing. The products are sold legally as […]
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on average 100 people die every day in the United States from drug overdoses. Most involve prescription drugs. This is a huge number of preventable deaths that unfortunately affects close friends and family members, including many children. Prescription drug abuse is a major growing public […]
Do we always learn from our mistakes? New research suggests that alcoholics may not. University of Utah neuroscientists recently published a study that can help us understand behaviors that can influence alcohol addiction. Research in rats suggests that a region in the brain called the lateral habenula controls the ability to learn from an experience. […]
Scientists using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have discovered impaired neuronal activity in occasional users of stimulant drugs. An internal hard wiring of the brain may be the reason some people become prone to drug addiction. The implication of the study is the possibility of using brain pattern activity to identify people who are at […]
The majority of people who use pain medication do not become addicted, indicating that the drugs themselves are not necessarily the cause of addiction. One becomes addicted to opioids not so much because the drugs are addictive, but because they “work” for the user who has other issues in addition to the physical pain […]
Not since the 1960s and Harvard Professor Timothy Leary, has there been such interest in the medical and scientific study of entheogenic substances. Entheogens, hallucinogenic substances traditionally used in shamanic rituals or to facilitate spiritual experiences, have long been used by folk healers to treat psychiatric problems. Later this year, researchers at Alabama University at […]