We Restore Hope -

A hug is a great gift – one size fits all, and it’s easy to exchange. ~Author Unknown

Methamphetamine is a synthetic stimulant drug used for both medicinal and recreational purposes. It is sometimes presented for ADHD and narcolepsy. It causes euphoria and excitement by acting directly on the brain’s reward mechanisms, this making it highly addictive.

Methamphetamine rapidly enters the brain and causes a cascading release of norepinephrine and dopamine (and to a lesser extent, serotonin).

Users may become obsessed or perform repetitive tasks such as cleaning, hand-washing or assembling or disassembling things.

Withdrawal is characterized by increased sleeping and eating, and depression-like symptoms, often accompanied by anxiety and drug craving.

Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases and it pleases wherever it goes. ~Author Unknown

To hit “rock bottom” is a phrase commonly used in Alcoholics Anonymous. It describes a loss so extraordinary, so painful, that it becomes a turning point.

As the recession continues, a typical “rock bottom” loss has become all too ordinary: a lost job, lost savings or a lost home. At the same time, alcohol treatment centers are reporting an uneasy lull – for now.

“The industry as a whole has seen a decline in people getting treatment,” said Franklin Lisnow, an addiction counselor and the executive director of the Center for Dependency, Addiction and Rehabilitation in Aurora, Colorado.

“It only means that we’re going to see sicker people when they do get in [treatment],” Lisnow said.

By accounts of the liquor industry, Lisnow’s expected patients are likely now drinking quietly at home.

Frank Coleman, spokesman for the Distilled Spirits Council, said that while sales of liquor are still on the rise, they are growing at a slower rate than before the recession began. Coleman said decreases in restaurant sales are primarily to blame.

Even in good times, experts said 8 to 10 percent of those people who have an alcohol addiction are properly recognized and get into treatment. More often than not, though, they are the lucky ones who have jobs, families, and most important, money and health insurance to cover counseling.

There are so many men who can figure costs, and so few who can measure values. ~Author Unknown

The state of the economy may be out of people’s control, but their happiness isn’t, according to a group of researchers meeting in Sydney, Australia this past week.

Experts from fields ranging from neuroscience and philosophy to psychology and theology attended the conference. The pursuit of happiness has been considered through time, but interest has grown in recent years amid a growing number or studies that suggest it is possible to improve your state of mind.

Over the past decade, studies have proven that people who think optimistically and have strong relationships, tend to happier. While there are no estimates on its size, the self-help market – which encompasses wellness programs, books and holistic training – exceeds
$11 billion dollars and estimated to grown an average of 6 percent over the next three years.

The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side. ~Margaret Carty

In treating alcohol abuse and alcoholism, “we haven’t yet reached the Prozac moment,” said Dr. Mark Willenbring, referring to the drugs that radically changed the treatment of depression. But, Dr. Willenbring, an expert on treating alcohol addiction, predicts that the day is not far off when giving a pill and five minutes of advice to an alcoholic will be all that is needed to keep drinking under control.

Two such medications are already available, though they are not as effective as modern antidepressants have been for depression.

“We’re at the same place with alcohol abuse that the treatment of depression was at 40 years ago, when only psychiatrists treated it and most people with depression were never treated at all,” said Dr. Willenbring, the director of the Division of Treatment and Recovery Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Then came Prozac, followed by similar antidepressants that took the treatment of depression out of mental hospital and psychiatric offices and put it in homes and in the offices of primary care doctors.

“Now almost all of depression is treated in primary care, and two-thirds to three-fourths of depression is getting treated.”

But with alcohol dependence, only one in eight receives professional treatment. “Those who get into treatment programs are the most severe alcoholics,” Dr. Willenbring said. But the bulk of alcohol abusers have a more moderate form, with a better prognosis. Most could get well in primary care settings and not have to wait until they are at the end of their rope.”

What is needed for controlling alcohol abuse early in the disease are drugs that can be easily prescribed by primary care physicians to help those with moderate alcohol abuse. Several such drugs are now in development.

Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible. ~Doug Larson
Young men who are impulsive thrill-seekers are more likely to admit to driving while high on marijuana, Canadian researchers reported in a recent study.

Men who drove under the influence of marijuana were also more likely to report certain risky driving behaviors, and tend to get in more accidents, according to Dr. Isabelle Richer and Dr. Jacques Bergeron of the University of Montreal.

Based on the findings, any public health messages intended to discourage people from driving while high “should include an arousing and unconventional format” so they won’t be “redundant and boring” for their intended audience. After alcohol, marijuana is the drug most often found in the urine or blood of drivers after a crash. Studies have proven that people’s driving skills are impaired within the first hour of smoking pot. And it is possible, according to Richer and Bergeron, that people who get behind the wheel after smoking marijuana are also by nature more likely to be dangerous drivers.

For the study, Richer and Bergeron looked at 83 men ranging in age from 17 to 49. Thirty of the 83 admitted to being pot smokers. Among the 83, 30 percent said they had driven under the influence of marijuana in the past 12 months. Thirty-five percent had been involved in at least one car crash in the past 3 years.

“Media campaigns promoting traffic safety tend to emphasize rational decision-making approaches involved in driving,” Richer and Bergeron said. Such strategies might not work for this demographic of men who drive after using marijuana. “It is therefore important to strike a balance between arousing and educational messages.”

Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much. ~Oscar Wilde

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found that the risk of being a victim of gun violence increases with higher alcohol consumption and the proximity to places that sell “alcohol-to-go.”

Charles Branas, an Epidemiology professor in the School of Medicine and the author of the study, said he was interested in finding the risk factors that result in becoming a victim of a shooting in Philadelphia. He said he wanted to answer the question, “what puts you at a greater risk: what you do or where you are?”

The study examined 677 shootings in Philadelphia from 2003 to 2006. It found that light drinkers were not at an increased risk of being shot in an assault when compared to non-drinkers. Heavy drinkers, however, were 2.67 times likely to be shot.

“Heavily consuming alcohol can greatly lower inhibitions, increase confidence and potentially release violent impulses,” the study said. “Light drinkers likely retained enough clear judgement and perception to keep their risk in check.”

The study also proved that being near off-premise alcohol outlets, such as take-out places and delis, made people as likely or more likely than heavy drinkers to be the victim of gun violence. People at bars and taverns were not as likely to be involved in gun violence.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~Marcel Proust

Chronic marijuana abuse may cause a distinct medical condition characterized mainly by severe recurrent vomiting. In the World Journal of Gastroenterology, Dr. Siva P. Sontineni and colleagues from Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska describe a 22-year-old man who had been using marijuana for six years.

“He suffered severe vomiting episodes with visits to the emergency room requiring expensive investigations and hospitalizations,” Sontineni said. “Each episode would occur periodically and there was a peculiar phenomenon of hot showers helping to relieve his symptoms transiently.” When the patient abstained from smoking marijuana, the vomiting and abdominal pain stopped.

The precise mechanisms leading to the vomiting syndrome and the questions of why it appears only after several years of marijuana use and why hot showers help relieve the symptoms are being studied.

Since the publication of this case report, Sontineni has had several e-mails and phone calls from people recounting similar symptoms they have experienced while using marijuana. “It clearly shows that ‘cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome’ is more prevalent than the medical community currently recognizes.”

The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”

-Allan K. Chalmers

The drug taken in large doses by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The drug that nearly killed “Friends” star Matthew Perry. Vicodin is the brand name of an opioid analgesic similar to heroin and morphine. Vicodin is one of the most frequently prescribed medications for moderate to severe pain such as migraines, bak pain and cancer.

Vicodin’s active ingredients are hydrocodone bitartrate and acetaminophen, which work on pain receptors in the brain. It can become physically addictive after only a few weeks of use. It is one of the most abused controlled substances in the United States, according to drug addiction researchers. It is an older drug than OxyContin and is effective for only a 3-4 hour period. Chronic use of opioids can result in tolerance, which means that users must take higher doses to achieve the same effects.

The side effects of Vicodin can include dizziness, drowsiness, lightheadedness, constipation, nausea, vomiting and hearing loss.

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. ~Carl Sandburg

Even a modest amount of alcohol can make the mind prone to wandering, but drinkers may be slow to notice it, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that when they had a group of men read Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” after either an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink, those who’d had the alcohol were markedly more prone to “zoning out” while reading. They were also less likely than their sober counterparts to realize their minds had wandered far from the book.

While most people may not reach for “War and Peace” after a drink, the findings could have implications for behaviors more likely to go hand-in-hand with social drinking, according to the researchers.

Other tasks that require “sustained attention” such as driving a car, could be affected, explained lead researcher Dr. Michael A. Sayette, a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. Sayette said the alcohol zone-out might hinder a person’s ability to resist “impulses and temptations” a task that often requires a great amount of mental effort. For example, studies suggest that when smokers are trying to quit, drinking alcohol makes them more likely to relapse.

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science. Sayette and his colleagues recruited 55 men who were social drinkers and had them slowly drink either a cocktail or a non-alcoholic beverage. The men then began reading “War and Peace” from a computer screen for half an hour.

The men were told to press a certain key any time they found themselves “zoning out” as they read the book. The study found men in the alcohol group let their minds wander twice as much as their sober counterparts. Those in the alcohol group were more likely to say their wandering included thoughts of eating, drinking or smoking.

One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it. ~Sidney Howard

Pregnant women who struggle with drug or alcohol use can achieve healthy outcomes if they receive proper prenatal care and substance abuse treatment early in their pregnancy.

“Integrating substance abuse treatment with prenatal care is cost-effective and significantly decreases negative birth outcomes,” the authors of the study write in the Journal of Perinatology.

The study involved more than 49,000 pregnant women in Kaiser Permanente’s Early Start program. “The study’s big finding was that study participants treated in the Early Start program had outcomes similar to our control group, women who had no evidence of substance abuse,” said study researcher Nancy C. Golder, M.D., regional medical director of Kaiser Permanente’s Early Start program, Northern California operation division.

In the program, women are universally screened for substance use, patients and health care providers are educated about the effects of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes on pregnancy, and appoinments with a licensed substance abuse expert are linked to the prenatal care appointments.