Posted on February 28th, 2008 by ixcel
J Trauma Stress. 2008 Feb 26; 21(1): 58-65Miller MW, Fogler JM, Wolf EJ, Kaloupek DG, Keane TMThis study examined the latent structure of psychiatric disorders in a sample with a high prevalence of PTSD. A series of confirmatory factor analyses tested competing models for the covariation between Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R diagnoses among 1,325 Vietnam veterans. The best-fitting solution was a 3-factor model that included two correlated internalizing factors: anxious-misery, defined by PTSD and major depression, and fear, defined by panic disorder/agoraphobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The third factor, externalizing, was defined by antisocial personality disorder, alcohol abuse/dependence, and drug abuse/dependence. Both substance-related disorders also showed significant, albeit smaller, cross-loadings on the anxious-misery factor. These findings shed new light on the structure of psychiatric comorbidity in a treatment-seeking sample characterized by high rates of PTSD.
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Filed under: Alcoholism
Posted on February 28th, 2008 by ixcel
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2008 Mar; 32(3): 414-26Heitzeg MM, Nigg JT, Yau WY, Zubieta JK, Zucker RABACKGROUND: Children of alcoholics (COAs) are at elevated risk for alcohol use disorders (AUD), yet not all COAs will develop AUD. The 2 primary aims of this study were to identify neural activation mechanisms that may mark protection or vulnerability to AUD in COAs and to map the same activation patterns in relation to risk behavior (externalizing or internalizing behavior). METHODS: Twenty-two adolescent COAs were recruited from an ongoing community longitudinal study of alcoholic and matched control families. They were categorized as either vulnerable (n = 11) or resilient (n = 11) based on the level of problem drinking over the course of adolescence. Six other adolescents with no parental history of alcoholism, and no evidence of their own problem drinking were recruited from the same study and labeled as low-risk controls. Valenced words were presented to the participants in a passive viewing task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Activation to negative versus neutral words and positive versus neutral words were compared between groups. Behavior problems were assessed with the Youth Self-Report (YSR). RESULTS: The resilient COA group had more activation of the orbital frontal gyrus (OFG), bilaterally, and left insula/putamen than the control and vulnerable groups, in response to emotional stimuli. In contrast, the vulnerable group had more activation of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and less activation of the ventral striatum and extended amygdala, bilaterally, to emotional stimuli than the control and resilient groups. The vulnerable group had more externalizing behaviors which correlated with increased dorsomedial prefrontal activation and decreased ventral striatal and extended amygdala activation. CONCLUSIONS: These results are consistent with dissociable patterns of neural activation underlying risk and resiliency in COAs. We propose that the pattern observed in the resilient COAs represents an active emotional monitoring function, which may be a protective factor in this group. On the other hand, the vulnerable group displayed a pattern consistent with active suppression of affective responses, perhaps resulting in the inability to engage adaptively with emotional stimuli.
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Filed under: Alcoholism
Posted on February 28th, 2008 by ixcel
Prev Med. 2008 Jan 26; Bewick BM, Trusler K, Barkham M, Hill AJ, Cahill J, Mulhern BOBJECTIVE: To review the published literature on the effectiveness of web-based interventions designed to decrease consumption of alcohol and/or prevent alcohol abuse. METHOD: Relevant articles published up to, and including, May 2006 were identified through electronic searches of Medline, PsycInfo, Embase, Cochrane Library, ASSIA, Web of Science and Science Direct. Reference lists of all articles identified for inclusion were checked for articles of relevance. An article was included if its stated or implied purpose was to evaluate a web-based intervention designed to decrease consumption of alcohol and/or to prevent alcohol abuse. Studies were reliably selected and quality-assessed, and data were independently extracted and interpreted by two authors. RESULTS: Initial searches identified 191 articles of which 10 were eligible for inclusion. Of these, five provided a process evaluation only, with the remaining five providing some pre- to post-intervention measure of effectiveness. In general the percentage quality criteria met was relatively low and only one of the 10 articles selected was a randomized control trial. CONCLUSION: The current review provides inconsistent evidence on the effectiveness of eIectronic screening and brief intervention (eSBI) for alcohol use. Process research suggests that web-based interventions are generally well received. However further controlled trials are needed to fully investigate their efficacy, to determine which elements are keys to outcome and to understand if different elements are required in order to engage low- and high-risk drinkers.
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Filed under: Alcoholism
Posted on February 26th, 2008 by ixcel
CNS Spectr. 2000 Feb; 5(2): 49-57Swift RMThe increasing evidence for a neurobiologic basis for alcoholism has spurred the search for pharmacologic agents to treat alcohol abuse. The complex set of symptoms and behaviors that characterizes alcoholism has been linked to dopaminergic and opioid neurotransmitter systems, suggesting that opioid antagonists, such as naltrexone, may alter the positive reinforcement effects and craving involved in alcoholism. Laboratory and clinical investigations of naltrexone have demonstrated the potential for this agent to reduce craving, increase the aversive effects of alcohol, decrease drinking days, and increase abstinence. While naltrexone and other opioid antagonists, such as nalmefene, may be effective components of an alcohol-treatment program, they should only be used in combination with psychosocial interventions, such as support groups and psychotherapy.
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Filed under: Alcoholism
Posted on February 26th, 2008 by ixcel
CNS Spectr. 2000 Feb; 5(2): 70-6Farren CK, Rezvani AH, Overstreet D, O’Malley SCombination pharmacotherapy has proven effective in a number of psychiatric disorders, including depression and schizophrenia. However, compared with other affective disorders, few studies have explored the use of combination therapy in alcoholism, and the majority have been limited to animal models. There is evidence to support a role for combination therapy in alcoholism. For example, several neurochemical systems, including the dopaminergic, serotonergic, and opioidergic, appear to affect alcohol intake. Studies in several different types of alcohol-preferring rats have suggested that coadministration of agents to target more than one of these systems simultaneously may produce beneficial effects on alcohol intake, while avoiding problematic effects, such as alterations in food or water intake. Data from preliminary clinical studies have shown trends toward combination therapy reducing alcohol intake in humans. While such findings are encouraging, they must be explored further in larger, randomized, double-blind trials.
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Filed under: Alcoholism
Posted on February 26th, 2008 by ixcel
Ann Clin Psychiatry. 2008 Jan-Mar; 20(1): 39-46Krystal AD, Thakur M, Roth TIntroduction. While the precise role of sleep in maintaining optimal health and function remains unknown, it is clear that disturbances of sleep have a profound impact on the lives of affected individuals. In psychiatric disorders, not only is there a relationship between sleep disturbances and impaired function, problems with sleep also appear to affect the course of the disorder. Methods. We carried out a literature review of sleep studies in mood disorders, alcoholism and schizophrenia to determine how associated alterations in sleep architecture and disturbances of sleep are related to patient function and quality of life, and the course of these disorders. Results. The literature speaks to the need to address sleep problems in the overall management of mood disorders, alcoholism and schizophrenia. The support for this viewpoint is best established for mood disorders. There is also relatively strong support for treatment in alcoholism. Schizophrenia, however, has received scant attention and the literature suggests a need for more studies in this area. Conclusions. Further research is needed into the treatment of co-morbid insomnia and psychiatric disorders. Successful therapy is more likely to be achieved if the sleep difficulty and co-morbid disorder are simultaneously targeted for treatment.
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Filed under: Alcoholism
Posted on February 22nd, 2008 by ixcel
Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2008 Feb; 62(1): 84-92Okasaka Y, Morita N, Nakatani Y, Fujisawa KAims: The present study aims to clarify the relationships of addictive behaviors and addiction overlap to stress, acceptance from others and purpose in life. Methods: A survey was conducted on 691 students at eight universities. The Eating Attitude Test-20 was used to identify students with food addiction or food addictive tendencies. The Kurihama Alcoholism Screening Test was used to identify students with alcohol addiction or alcohol addictive tendencies. The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence was used to identify students with nicotine addictive tendencies or nicotine addiction. The Visual Analog Scale was used to assess stress and acceptance from others. The Purpose in Life Test was used to measure meaning and purpose in life. Results were compared between students with addictive behaviors, with addictive tendencies and without addictive behaviors. Results: Significant differences among the three groups were observed for stress, acceptance from others, and Purpose in Life scores for students with food and nicotine addiction, but no significant differences existed in relation to alcohol addiction. In addition, 28.8% of students displayed addictive behaviors in one of the three areas (food, alcohol or nicotine), 8.5% displayed addictive behaviors in two of the three areas, and 0.4% had addictive behaviors in all three areas. Significant differences existed in stress and acceptance from others among students with one addictive behavior, >/=two addictive behaviors and no addictive behaviors. However, no significant differences existed in Purpose in Life scores with respect to overlapping addictions. Conclusion: The results suggest a relationship between mental health, addictive behaviors and overlapping addiction among university students.
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Filed under: Alcoholism
Posted on February 22nd, 2008 by ixcel
Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2008 Feb; 62(1): 123-5Matsumoto T, Imamura FThe present study examined the prevalence of self-injury and its association with substance abuse in 2974 junior and senior high-school students, by self-reporting questionnaires. Consequently, 9.9% of students (boys, 7.5%; girls, 12.1%) reported an experience of self-injury at least once. Significant differences were found in substance use-related problems including alcohol abuse, smoking, and illicit drug use (P < 0.001) between students with and without an experience of self-injury. The results also suggest that self-injuring students may more easily gain access to illicit drugs even if they had not yet experienced the use of illicit drugs. Self-injury in adolescence may be associated with substance use and is considered to be a risk factor predicting future illicit drug use.
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Filed under: Alcoholism
Posted on February 22nd, 2008 by ixcel
Toxicology. 2008 Jan 18; Tykhomyrov AA, Nedzvetsky VS, Klochkov VK, Andrievsky GVIt is well known that chronic ethyl alcohol (EtOH) consumption is capable to injure brain cells and to cause essential abnormalities in behavioral characteristics of animals addicted to alcohol. In this work we for the first time have shown that administration of aqueous solutions of hydrated C(60) fullerenes (C(60)HyFn) with C(60) concentration of 30nM as a drinking water during chronic alcoholization of rats (a) protects the tissues of central nervous system (CNS) from damage caused by oxidative stress with high efficacy, (b) prevents the pathological loss of both astrocytes (the main cells of CNS) and astrocytic marker, glial fibrillary acidic proteins (GFAP) and, as consequence, (c) due to their adaptogenic effects, C(60)HyFn significantly improves behavioral response and eliminates emotional deficits induced by chronic alcohol uptake. The wide range of beneficial biological effects, zero-toxicity, and efficacy even in super-small doses provide a rationale for the possible application of C(60)HyFn for the treatment of alcohol-induced encephalopathy as well as alcoholism prophylaxis.
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Filed under: Alcoholism
Posted on January 29th, 2008 by ixcel
The alcoholism research literature on alcohol test info reveals that many U.S. employers are developing and implementing alcohol testing programs. Why are they doing this? Mainly to substantially cut down on alcohol-related accidents, injuries, and fatalities; to improve work performance; to increase safety; to reduce their workers compensation premiums; and to make progress in establishing a drug-free workplace. In sum, from a pragmatic, nuts-and-bolts perspective, employee alcohol testing will not only continue but it will probably increase and become even more sophisticated in the near future.
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Filed under: alcohol test info, alcohol abuse, alcohol tests, alcohol testing
