A new brain imaging study has provided insight into alcohol’s effect on the brain. The study showed that after consuming alcohol, social drinkers had decreased sensitivity in brain regions involved in detecting threats, and increased activity in brain regions involved in reward. This is the first human brain imaging study of alcohol’s effect on the….
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Patients in therapy to overcome addictions have a new arena to test their coping skills—the virtual world. A new study by University of Houston Associate Professor Patrick Bordnick found that a virtual reality (VR) environment can provide the climate necessary to spark an alcohol craving so that patients can practice how to say “no” in….
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Pills that aimed to help people quit smoking, lose weight and kick other tough addictions, have been found to block the body’s pleasure centres, possibly raising the risk of depression and suicide. Margaret Bastian was among patients who reported problems with Chantix, a highly touted quit-smoking pill from Pfizer Inc, which has been linked to….
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Timothy Garon’s face and arms are hauntingly skeletal, but the fluid building up in his abdomen makes the 56-year-old musician look eight months pregnant. His liver, ravaged by hepatitis C, is failing. Without a new one, his doctors tell him, he will be dead in days. But Garon has been refused a spot on the….
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Approximately 4 per cent of the world’s adults – some 162 million people – use cannabis every year, making it the world’s most widely used illicit drug. In some countries, more than half of all young people have tried it. In spite of this high rate of usage, many basic facts about cannabis remain obscure…..
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New, long-term results from a clinical trial presented today at the 1st European Lung Cancer Conference jointly organized by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the International Association of the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) show that MAGE-A3 ASCI (Antigen-Specific Cancer Immunotherapeutic), an immune-boosting treatment for lung cancer patients, reduces the risk of….
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When I attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, I speak of my “experience, strength and hope.” As an alcoholic in recovery, I carry that message to others as part of the 12-step program I work in AA. This week, I listened to other voices, both younger and older, carry the message, too, from as near as….
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Andrew used to be an alcoholic. He’s come a long way in his life. He’s the one person in my life who I can truly say lost it all, and has overcome. Andrew’s tale is both heart breaking and heart warming and I had to share it with all of you. Andrew, at what age….
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A Prevailing image of students has tended to be that of the hard-drinking kind. Boozy Betty is no different. She’s out drinking with friends into the wee hours, she can’t remember how she got home and her grades are beginning to suffer as a result. Boozy Betty is a poster girl to remind Heriot-Watt students in Edinburgh….
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I started needing alcohol in the morning to function “Generally, people don’t have a clear concept of what the treatment for drug addiction is … they come either with no expectations or with various expectations,” said Dan Wolf, psychologist and managing director of The Gap and First Step, two drug rehabilitation centres in Johannesburg. “People….
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