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Research Highlights

As Some States Implement New Marijuana Laws, Science Should Guide Public Health Policy

December 8, 2016 | After the election on November 8, marijuana is now or will soon be legal for adult recreational use in eight states plus the District of Columbia. Careful thought should be...

Syringe-Exchange Programs Are Part of Effective HIV Prevention

December 1, 2016 | One of the best available strategies for reducing the spread of HIV among drug users is syringe-exchange programs (also called syringe service programs); their effectiveness has been proven through abundant...

The Surgeon General’s Report: Facing Addiction in America

November 16, 2016 | Today marks, I hope, another turning point in our country’s health, as Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health...

Nonmedical Treatment for Cocaine Addiction Shows Promise in Pilot Trial

November 14, 2016 | In this pilot study: Patients who received transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) were more likely to abstain from cocaine than patients who received medications for symptoms associated with abstinence. Researchers concluded...

Rethinking How We Talk About Addiction

October 27, 2016 | People with substance use disorders and other mental health issues face greater stigma than those with other illnesses. Many of the addiction-related terms widely used in our society—even in the...

Messages Shore Up Support for Making Life-Saving Anti-Overdose Medication Widely Available

October 19, 2016 | This research found that: Public health messages can increase public approval for making naloxone legally available to friends and relatives of opioid users to administer if an overdose occurs. The...

Science Highlight

Gene Variant Influences Nicotine-Induced Changes to Brain Circuitry

October 11, 2016 | Researchers at NIDA and the University of Toronto investigated the role of a gene, CYP2A6, which produces an enzyme responsible for metabolizing nicotine; different variants of this gene inactivate nicotine...

Why Do People Lose Control Over Their Cocaine Use?

September 27, 2016 | This animation addresses the question: Why do people lose control over their cocaine use? Researchers monitored the activity of two types of neurons in mice: “urge” neurons, which promote feelings...

Medical Marijuana Might Not Be a Safe Nausea Solution for Pregnant Women

September 22, 2016 | Medical marijuana is becoming more widely accepted and it is being used for a wide range of conditions. Scientific evidence of its effectiveness for most indications is still slim or...

Science Highlight

Virtual Drug Design Yields Opioid Breakthrough

September 21, 2016 | Existing opioid medications have a range of side effects that make them problematic as pain treatments, as has been seen in America’s current opioid crisis and overdose epidemic.

Quinine as a Tracer for Medication Adherence

September 19, 2016 | Patients who don’t take their medications or take them other than as prescribed often put themselves at risk for problems including misdiagnoses, complications, and death. The resulting costs to the...

Participant Recruitment Now Underway for Landmark Study on Adolescents

September 13, 2016 | The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which has been in the planning phase for just under a year, is now recruiting more than 10,000 9- and 10-year-olds at 19...

A Case for Studying Brain Asymmetry in Drug Use

September 6, 2016 | A new study proposes that research into the discrete roles played by the brain’s two hemispheres could yield important and actionable insights into drug use and addiction. Dr. Harold Gordon...

Responsibly and Sensitively Addressing Chronic Pain Amid an Opioid Crisis

September 2, 2016 | Last week, the U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, sent a personal letter to more than 2.3 million health care practitioners and public health leaders, seeking their help to address the...

Science Highlight

Women less sensitive than men to analgesic, but not rewarding effects of cannabis

September 2, 2016 | Animal studies have shown sex differences in cannabis-induced analgesia, but these studies had not previously been done in humans. A new study explored this issue by assessing the analgesic and...

Regular Marijuana Use Is Associated With Differences in Brain Gray Matter and Connectivity

September 1, 2016 | A NIDA-funded brain imaging study has shown that regular users of marijuana have less gray matter than nonusers of the drug in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a brain region that...

Slow-Release Amphetamine Medication Benefits Patients With Comorbid Cocaine Addiction and ADHD

August 25, 2016 | In this clinical trial: Treatment with an extended-release stimulant medication plus cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was associated with reductions in cocaine use and in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in patients...

Study Questions Role for Marijuana in Teen Users’ IQ Decline

August 1, 2016 | In a recent study sponsored by NIDA and the National Institute of Mental Health, teens who used marijuana lost IQ points relative to their nonusing peers. However, the drug appeared...

Narrative of Discovery: Can Magnets Treat Cocaine Addiction? Part 2

July 13, 2016 | In Part 1: A few years ago Dr. Diana Martinez and Dr. Marco Diana decided to investigate a new technology that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate brain cells. Both had...

Psychiatrists Should Take a More Active Role in Treating Pain

June 17, 2016 | The recommendation to move away from opioids as the first line of treating many types of chronic noncancer pain has generated an understandable outcry from some pain patients who fear...

Probuphine: A Game-Changer in Fighting Opioid Dependence

May 26, 2016 | Medications like buprenorphine and methadone have revolutionized the treatment of people with opioid use disorder, including those with severe disorders (addiction).

Study Links Medical Marijuana Dispensaries to Reduced Mortality From Opioid Overdose

May 17, 2016 | During the past 2 decades, nearly half of U.S. states implemented policies that sanction marijuana use for medical purposes. Researchers have been hard put, however, to draw firm conclusions about...

Sensation Seeking Promotes Initiation, Impulsivity Promotes Escalation of Substance Use

May 16, 2016 | Young teens who avidly seek novel and intense sensations are slightly more likely than their more cautious peers to initiate substance use, NIDA-supported researchers report. However, these teens are not...

Dual Regimen Aims To Shorten Medication-Assisted Therapy

May 10, 2016 | Dr. Gerardo Gonzalez of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, and colleagues were prompted to develop the regimen by concerns about the practicality and safety of treating young adults...

New Regulations on Flavored Tobacco Products and e-Cigarettes Will Protect Public Health

May 5, 2016 | Despite great successes in reducing tobacco use over the past five decades, smoking leads to more than 480,000 deaths in the United States annually and remains the number-one preventable cause...

Narrative of Discovery: In Search of a Medication To Treat Methamphetamine Addiction, Part 2

April 12, 2016 | While investigating the potential of a compound called lobeline to treat nicotine addiction, pharmacologist Dr. Linda Dwoskin had an insight. She saw that lobeline is like methamphetamine in one way...

The CDC Provides Crucial New Guidance on Opioids and Pain

April 6, 2016 | Although these medications have a legitimate and important role in the treatment of severe acute pain and some severe chronic pain conditions, it is clear that they are also overprescribed...

A Major Step Forward for Addiction Medicine

March 31, 2016 | A major milestone was reached on March 14, 2016, when the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) formally announced recognition of the field of Addiction Medicine as a medical subspecialty.

Testing a Prospective Medication To Help People Avoid Relapse

March 28, 2016 | This NIDA Notes animation depicts a basic experiment that researchers use to test whether a prospective new medication might help people avoid relapse to an addictive drug. In such experiments...

Gene Variant Is Associated With Reduced HIV Transmission

March 21, 2016 | Researchers have identified a gene variant that appears to partially shield people whose behaviors entail high risk for exposure to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from becoming infected. The finding could...