Karolinska Institutet - Previous studies have shown a link between marijuana smoking while pregnant and cognitive deficits in children, but a new study shows the mechanism by which maternal cannabis use can disrupt brain development in the womb. A critical step in brain development is governed by endogenous cannabinoids, ‘the brain’s own marijuana’. Studies conducted […]

UF Health Science Center - Ritalin is the latest drug of choice among sleep-deprived students struggling to finish term papers and make it through final exams and even the SAT.
Undergraduates, as well as high school SAT-takers, are increasingly turning to prescription stimulants like Ritalin (R) and Adderall (R) to boost concentration during long study sessions […]

Young amphetamine users five times more likely to have a bleeding stroke in brain.
UT Southwestern - Increasing use of amphetamine and cocaine by young adults significantly boosts their risk of stroke, with amphetamine abuse associated with the greatest risk, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center report.
In the study, available online in the Archives of General […]

Chantix anyone? Quitting smoking reduces risk of lung cancer mortality by 70 percent.
Research Australia - Giving up smoking is highly effective in preventing death from lung cancer and can reduce the risk of dying from the disease by up to 70%. In this study of 500,000 adults, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the […]

DukeMedNews - Within the mind of every smoker trying to quit rages a battle between the higher-order functions of the brain wanting to break the habit and the lower-order functions screaming for another cigarette, say researchers at Duke University Medical Center. More often than not, that cigarette gets lit.
Brain scans of smokers studied by […]

Society for Neuroscience - A study of alcohol-dependent animals shows that a newly discovered compound that blocks chemical signals active during the brain’s response to stress effectively stops excessive drinking and prevents relapse into alcohol abuse.
The new, synthetic compound, known as MTIP, also muted the anxiety that typically develops in rats experiencing the equivalent of […]