Drug and alcohol dependence
-
Drug Alcohol Depend · Oct 2013
The relationship between age and risky injecting behaviours among a sample of Australian people who inject drugs.
Limited evidence suggests that younger people who inject drugs (PWID) engage in high-risk injecting behaviours. This study aims to better understand the relationships between age and risky injecting behaviours. ⋯ Older PWID report significantly lower levels of high-risk injecting practices than younger PWID. Although they make up a small proportion of the current PWID population, younger PWID remain an important group for prevention and harm reduction.
-
Drug Alcohol Depend · Oct 2013
Comparative StudyPolysubstance dependent patients display a more utilitarian profile in moral decision-making than alcohol-dependent patients, depressive patients and controls.
Addiction has been shown to be associated with the endorsement of utilitarian moral judgments. Ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) dysfunction may explain these findings. ⋯ Polysubstance dependent patients made more utilitarian choices when responding to moral dilemmas than depressed patients and normal controls, while alcoholic patients showed intermediate results. The absence of correlation between performance on the Iowa Gambling Task and the number of more utilitarian choices indicates that moral dilemma and decision making under uncertainty tap into separate mechanisms.
-
Drug Alcohol Depend · Oct 2013
Differential effects of methadone and buprenorphine on the response of D2/D3 dopamine receptors in adolescent mice.
There is a lack of studies that examine the effects of opioid maintenance drugs on the developing adolescent brain, limiting the ability of physicians to conduct a science-based risk assessment on the appropriateness of these treatments for that age group. Our recent observations indicate higher potential risks in repeated exposure to morphine during adolescence, specifically to the D2/D3 dopamine receptors' signaling. Disturbances in dopaminergic signaling could have broader implications for long-term mental health. Thus, this study examined whether buprenorphine and methadone differentially alter the responses of the D2/D3 dopamine receptors in adolescents. ⋯ This study suggests that exposure to various opioids carries differential probabilities of altering the highly sensitive neurochemistry of adolescent brains. Methadone exposure disturbs the D2-like receptor's response, indicating a potential risk in administering methadone to adolescents (either for the treatment of opioid dependency/abuse or for pain management). In contrast, buprenorphine appears to have a significantly lower effect on the behavioral sensitivity of D2/D3 dopamine receptors in adolescents.