Medical Consequences

Summarizes research suggesting a physiological difference as the explanation for African-Americans' reported low tolerance for pain.

Reports on an animal study finding that links anabolic steroids to brain changes in adolescent female mice, changes that can potentially lead to steroid abuse.

Summarizes research on the effects of long-term regular cocaine abuse on the cardiovascular system in African Americans.

Reports on research showing that newborns whose mothers abused methamphetamine during pregnancy showed lower rates of fetal growth as compared with unexposed newborns.

Reviews the changing lifespan of heroin abusers as compared with that of the general U.S. population based on 1962-1997 data.

Reports on scientists who pinpointed the biochemical trigger from morphine that sets off a chain reaction that inhibits an immune cell that is key in fighting viruses and cancer.

Reports on evidence that toluene abuse can harm the nervous system and body, although scientists know relatively little about its specific actions.

Reports on a series of animal experiments indicating that nicotine exposure during prenatal fetal development damages a set of receptors in the brain's auditory processing center.

Presents highlights of a symposium sponsored by NIDA in October 2008 to discuss adolescent brain and cognitive development and consider the impact of drug abuse on young people.

Reports an animal study presenting evidence that cocaine causes cognitive deficits that can persist well into abstinence.