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Summit attendees listen to Dr. Nora Volkow's presentation

The 2015 Prescription Drug Abuse Summit

April 2015
This event, which is the brainchild of Kentucky Congressman and House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, has grown in attendance each year, successfully shining a light on this terrible public health problem in our nation. Read More.

4 Comments

HHS Announces Actions to Attack the Opioid Abuse Crisis

March 2015
Deaths from opioid painkillers now exceed all other drug overdose deaths, and we are seeing increases in heroin use and increased deaths from heroin as people addicted to painkillers transition to this cheaper, more potent street drug. More must be done to confront the opioid crisis head-on Read More.

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Knowns and Unknowns about e-Cigarettes and Teens

February 2015
When asked in early 2014, 17.1 percent of high school seniors and 16.2 percent of 10th graders reported using e-cigarettes in the previous month. We are still wrestling with whether or not e-cigarettes pose a danger, but their popularity among youth combined with society’s past experiences with tobacco and other addictive substances demands that we urge caution around these products. Read More.

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Brain in Progress: Why Teens Can’t Always Resist Temptation

January 2015
The changes in the brain common to obesity and drug addiction are especially pertinent to the struggles teens face to resist drugs, because adolescence is a crucial period both of susceptibility to the rewards of drugs and of vulnerability to the long-term effects of drug exposure Read More.

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Good News from Monitoring the Future 2014

December 2014
At the end of a year that has seen further tragic deaths from addiction and new designer drugs that put young people at risk, today's results from the 2014 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey of drug use among adolescents provide a dose of welcome optimism. Read More.

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Image of brain scans of control and Obese subjects showing reduced DA D2 receptor activity from control

Reproducibility Issues May Be Science’s Growing Pains

November 2014
I have written before about the reproducibility crisis in the health sciences. High percentages of published findings are failing to be reproduced, and this has prompted NIH Institutes and other funding agencies, as well as scientific journals and universities, to take measures to improve how science is taught, funded, conducted, and published. Read More.

2 Comments

Illustration of a billboard with a question mark in it

Marijuana Advertising and the Power of Conditioning

October 2014
As social acceptance and public policy around marijuana shift, and especially if legalized recreational use becomes more widespread, we will need to consider the influence and potential regulation of its marketing. Read More.

12 Comments

Opioids and Chronic Pain—A Gap in Our Knowledge

September 2014
Opioid prescriptions have increased three-fold over the past two decades, and we have seen how this skyrocketing availability of medications has helped create a new drug abusing population, some of whom suffer severe health consequences Read More.

8 Comments

Graph showing increased use of drugs in most categories by American Indian/Alaskan Native students - see text

Substance Use in American Indian Youth is Worse than We Thought

September 2014
We have long known that American Indian communities are particularly vulnerable to problems with substance use, which are tied in part to limited socioeconomic opportunity. But because national surveys fail to fully capture drug use patterns on or near reservations, the true scope of the problem has been elusive. Read More.

3 Comments

Science Should Guide Marijuana Policy

August 2014
In a series of recent articles, The New York Times’ editors presented a case for repealing the federal ban on marijuana, including the disproportionate impact of current marijuana laws on minorities. While there is no question that we should rectify any injustices associated with such policies, we also need to consider and prepare for the escalation in social and health costs that could result from creating a third legal drug in this country. We should be thoughtfully examining all policy and regulatory options available to minimize harms to society and promote Americans’ safety, well-being, and competitiveness Read More.

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About This Blog

Here I highlight important work being done at NIDA and other news related to the science of drug abuse and addiction.
—Dr. Nora Volkow, Director

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Dr. Nora Volkow: Video Highlights

NIDA Director, Dr. Nora D. Volkow Videos

National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA): Quality Talks, October 2016
Treating Addiction Within the Health Care System
Watch video (18:51)
APA TV, May 2016
APA TV chats with Dr. Nora Volkow, the Director of NIDA to hear about her lecture on drug abuse and the opioid epidemic.
Watch video (3:20)
Kentucky Educational Television, May 2016
One to One with Bill Goodman: Dr. Nora Volkow
Watch video (27:41)
TEDMED, January 2015
Why do our brains get addicted?
Watch video (16:23)
The World Science Festival, April 2014
The Moth: The Brain's Addiction - Nora Volkow
Watch video (17:01)
Rockburn Presents, November 2012
Dr. Nora Volkow
Watch video (29:32)
Brookhaven National Laboratory WBNL Video, October 2012
Chemistry celebration: FDG: Contribution to Our Understanding of Addiction
Watch video (43:05)
CBS 60 Minutes, April 2012
Hooked: Why Bad Habits Are Hard to Break
Watch video (13:31)
Science Times, June 2011
Dr. Nora Volkow
Watch video (8:19)

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