Even as our troops are leaving Iraq, there are still many military personnel serving overseas in dangerous situations. So it’s timely that a new study on combat related substance use and abuse will be undertaken to look at what’s become a growing problem. The new study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), marks an innovative federal partnership that will look at returning military personnel.

Money for the Military

More than $6 million in federal funding will be spread out among 11 research institutions in 11 states to support research on substance abuse and associated problems among U.S. military personnel, veterans and their families. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, is collaborating with the Department of Veterans Affairs, to award grants that will examine substance abuse related to deployment and combat related trauma. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are also NIH partners in this endeavor.

Most of the research is directed at substance abuse and related conditions experienced by veterans returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is a growing awareness that military personnel returning from these prolonged conflicts have a variety of serious problems, including depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances and substance abuse. Some face these and other diverse symptoms as a result of traumatic brain injury or post traumatic stress disorder related to battle experiences. Many of these conditions are interconnected, and contribute to individual health and family relationship crises.

Despite the growing problem of substance use and abuse among military personnel in combat situations, there has been little research on how to prevent and treat unique characteristics of these wartime-related issues. Experts hope studies like these can shed light on the best way to treat or prevent the problem in the future.

PTSD Treatment

If you or someone you love is has served in the military has suffers from substance abuse or PTSD, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Experts have long believed that the brain holds clues to the root causes of addiction. A new National Institutes of Health (NIH) has uncovered an early step in the cascade of brain events leading up to addiction.

Proteins and Addiction

A report released Aug. 15, 2010 claimed that the study’s findings represent additional clues to help predict vulnerability to drug abuse. A regulatory protein best known for its role in a rare genetic brain disorder also may play a critical role in cocaine addiction, according to a recent study in rats, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The study was published Aug. 15 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla. found that cocaine consumption increased levels of a regulatory protein called MeCP2 that shuttles back to the nucleus to influence gene expression in the brains of rats. As levels of MeCP2 increased in the brain, so did the animals’ motivation to self-administer cocaine. This suggests that MeCP2 plays a crucial role in regulating cocaine intake in rats and perhaps in determining vulnerability to addiction.

“This discovery, using an animal model of addiction, has exposed an important effect of cocaine at the molecular level that could prove key to understanding compulsive drug taking,” said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of NIDA. “It should open up new avenues of research on the causes and ways to counter the behavioral changes linked to addiction in humans.”

“This study represents another piece in the puzzle of determining vulnerability to cocaine addiction,” said Paul J. Kenny, senior author on the study and an associate professor at Scripps. “If we can continue putting the pieces together, we may be able to determine whether there are viable treatments for this condition.”

Drug Treatment at La Paloma

If you or someone you love is battling an addiction, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

The benefits of meditation have long been espoused, but some need to see concrete research before they accept these types of assertions. Fortunately, there is plenty of research to draw on, including a new study that shows that meditation can help people find peace by rewiring the brain.

A technique called integrative mind-body training (IBMT) has been shown to produce dramatic changes in the brains of volunteers just hours after learning the method, according to Behavioral Health Central. Scans revealed that neuron connectivity was boosted in a part of the brain important for regulating emotions and behavior, the report said.

“The pathway that has the largest change due to IBMT is one that previously was shown to relate to individual differences in the person’s ability to regulate conflict,” according to Michael Posner, a psychologist and professor who co-led the research. His team had previously proven that meditation reduces levels of anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue.

This latest study was conducted on students at the University of Oregon, with half given IBMT training while the others were taught more traditional relaxation techniques. MRIs were used to examine brain connectivity in order to determine the results.

Various types of meditation are already used in the treatment of substance abuse and alcohol abuse, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Relaxation techniques are also used to lower stress levels during the treatment process.

Meditation in Treatment

If you or someone you love is in need of treatment involving meditation, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

So often, when we hear about an overdose, it’s by someone who is battling a substance abuse problem. Often times those overdoses are accidental, merely the result of an addicted person taking too much of a substance that was stronger than anticipated or laced with something they were unaware of. Other overdoses by addicted persons are a desperate effort to escape the pain of their disease through death.

Overdose isn’t always a sign of drug use, though. Reports recently surfaced that the wife of TV personality Larry King attempted suicide in May 2010 by overdosing on prescription drugs as a result of a purported bout of depression.

King’s Prescription Overdose

According to police reports that were recently made public on the celeb website TMZ, an officer with the Provo, Utah police entered 50 year-old Shawn King’s residence on May 2. Paramedics were in her bedroom treating her, and there were “multiple pill bottles, all of which were empty on the bed.”

“The report noted ‘scriptures, a purse, other various books’ and a letter ‘which appeared to be a note left by the victim,’ according to Reuters.” All of this led the officer to label the incident an attempted suicide in his report.

Medications involved in the incident included Ambien, Klonopin and Clonazepam, according to the report, but there is no reason to believe that a prescription addiction played any role in this.

As unconfirmed reports of the drug overdose began surfacing in the media, CNN talk show host Larry King issued a statement saying, “I am extremely supportive of Shawn. Reports that we have fought are absolutely false. I love her dearly. Our marriage is still together and I am staying very close to our children, who we love immensely. We shall go through this difficult time intact as a family.”

Overdose Prevention

Don’t let addiction lead to overdose. If you or someone you love is battling an addiction, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Amid a growing violence problem in Mexico, due in large part to drug-related gangs, the country’s former president, Vicente Fox, has spoken out in favor of legalizing drugs. In the proposal, published recently on his website, the former Mexican leader argued that legalization would help disrupt the illegal markets responsible for so much violence and death, a trend that has cast a pall over the sunny nation’s travel industry and left more than 28,000 dead.

“So, drug consumption is the responsibility of the person who consumes; of the family who is responsible for educating; and of the education system and the socioeconomic context,” Fox said in his online statement.

Serving as president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006, Fox advocated for the legalization of production, sale and distribution of drugs. It’s not a view shared by current president, Felipe Calderon, who has waged an all-out war on the drug cartels. Government reports estimate that the death toll has passed 28,000 since Calderon replaced Fox in 2006.

Fox went on to say that the Mexican army was not designed or trained to fight organized crime, and suggested other options for keeping the peace. Despite his controversial remarks, Fox was careful to clarify that he was not pro-drugs.

“Legalizing in this sense doesn’t mean that drugs are good or don’t hurt those who consume. Rather, we have to see it as a strategy to strike and break the economic structure that allows the mafias to generate huge profits in their business.”

Drug Addiction Help at La Paloma

If you or someone you love is battling an addiction, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

For anyone who has watched a loved one struggle with addiction, it can seem at times like the addicted person has a split personality. Of course, it’s not a clinical split (they’re not schizophrenic), but even experts recognize the duality of thoughts, emotions and behaviors that plague someone in the midst of substance abuse.

Ironically, this battle between these two selves – often referred to as the “healthy self” and the “addict self” — can become the most pronounced during the treatment or recovery process. Why is this? Once an individual is no longer dealing with the physical aspects of addiction and reacting to the chemicals impact on the body, the residual addict feelings and emotions are easier to see. These two sides of a recovering addict fight against each other and are a threat to long-term sobriety.

Healthy Self vs. Addict Self

So what does this struggle look like? While hard to combat, it’s easy to see. For example, while the healthy self might say, “I can have healthy, sober fun” or “I can’t control my alcohol use,” the addict self insists, “I can’t have any fun unless I’m high” or “I can control my alcohol intake and just drink a little.” So while the actual substance use has stopped, the thinking that allowed the substance use to continue in the first place is still there.

To achieve long-term sobriety, it’s important to not just stop the physical act of getting high but to deal with the negative and erroneous thoughts that made it possible. An addict can’t be expected to recognize his or her own unhealthy thought processes. That’s why counseling is an important part of the treatment process. Treating the entire individual and not just the addiction definitely improves the rate of long-term sobriety.

Drug Treatment

If you or someone you love is battling an addiction, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Many in the pro-pot movement claim that marijuana has no harmful lasting effects, but scientists have long claimed there was a connection between pot and psychosis. Some new science calls this into question.

Studies have repeatedly shown that people with schizophrenia are about twice as likely to smoke pot as those who are unaffected, CNN reports. The data also suggests that those who smoke cannabis are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia as nonsmokers. There was even an alarming research review published in 2007 that seemed to conclude that trying marijuana just once was associated with a 40 percent increase in risk of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. The problem with that is, while marijuana use has become much more widespread, rates of schizophrenia have remained the same, affecting approximately one percent of the population.

A Study on Marijuana and Schizophrenia

One new study seems to add to the voices saying there is not a correlation. CNN reports that Dr. Serge Sevy, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, looked at 100 patients between the ages of 16 and 40 with schizophrenia, half of whom smoked marijuana. Sevy and colleagues found that among the marijuana users, 75 percent had begun smoking before the onset of schizophrenia and that their disease appeared about two years earlier than in those who did not use the drug. But when the researchers controlled for other factors known to influence schizophrenia risk, including gender, education and socioeconomic status, the association between disease onset and marijuana disappeared.

The facts aren’t quite that cut and dried, though. Confusing the matter is the affinity many schizophrenics seem to have for marijuana, seeming to point to some sort of connection, however tenuous. Then there are other issues to consider. Some studies have found better cognitive functioning in schizophrenics who smoke pot compared to those who don’t. That’s the opposite result found in the normal population following pot use. It just goes to prove that where schizophrenia and marijuana use are concerned, there’s still plenty to learn.

Marijuana Rehab

If you or someone you love is battling a marijuana addiction, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Despite all the attention the problem has received, prescription addiction continues to be a growing problem in the U.S. The Louisville Police Department Prescription Drug Diversion Squad says that the number of investigations the unit initiates is up 148 percent from 2009.

The detectives in that unit will make between 500 and 600 arrests this year, and they say that while it’s a lucrative business, most of the individuals they arrest are procuring the pills to support their own habit. Kentucky has the dubious distinction of being one of the worst in the nation when it comes to prescription pill abuse, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

The problem is a complex one. Responsible doctors don’t want to enable addictions, but they also don’t want to refuse to help someone who is legitimately in pain. The problem is, there isn’t a concrete way for doctors to know who, out of those with legitimate pain, might become addicted. Some doctors find the dilemmas associated with prescription addiction so troubling that they no longer prescribe them.

Prescription Drug Addiction Help

If you or someone you love is battling a prescription drug addiction, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

The same impulses that can make an individual susceptible to one addiction can make them open to other types of addictions as well. Co-addictions can sometimes also be referred to as co-occurring disorders and the term simply means having two or more overlapping addictions, for example opiate addiction and workaholism or alcoholism and compulsive gambling.

This is not the same as an addicted individual who trades one disorder for another. The most common example of this in recent years is when food addicts who undergo weight-loss surgery find themselves at risk for new addictions. Since their bodies will no longer let them abuse food, they may find themselves turning to alcohol abuse, shopping addiction or compulsive gambling to get that “fix” that food used to give them.

Mental Health and Addiction

Co-occurring disorders also refer to someone who is battling an addiction combined with a personality disorder such as schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Co-addictions occur for the same reasons as primary addictions. These secondary addictions pose a new problem, though, because they aren’t seen as dangerous by the user because they aren’t the primary addiction. Ironically, the secondary addiction feeds the primary addiction, often leading back to increased abuse of that primary substance.

Get Help for Co-addictions

It’s important to be aware of the different types of abuse and addiction so we can spot it in those we love or even ourselves and get help. If you or someone you love is battling an addiction, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

The experts know that those in pain turn to illegal drugs because they work – at least initially. Despite their harmful effects ranging from addiction to overdose to other health hazards, some are successful at numbing the pain from mental disorders including depression, bi-polar and trauma. The trick is to only use drugs as necessary, under a doctor’s care, and in conjunction with alternative methods including therapy to treat these problems.

The study looked at 20 individuals suffering from PTSD related to traumas ranging from sexual assault to combat stress and found that MDMA paired with ongoing counseling was more effective than counseling and a placebo. According to the Journal of Psychopharmacology, five out of six who took the drug improved to the point where they no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, compared to one in four in the placebo group.

Why does MDMA work in this situation? Ecstasy raises levels of serotonin and oxytocin, producing a feeling of euphoria and emotional warmth that helps patients connect with their therapists and process their trauma without “numbing out,” according to Michael Mithoefer, M.D., the lead author of the study.

Despite these promising results, experts warn against self-medicating with MDMA. In addition to the dangers of street drugs’ unreliability, Ecstasy carries the risk of depression, severe anxiety, and potential cognitive problems, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and was outlawed in 1985.

The study was funded by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a California-based nonprofit organization that also sponsors research on medical marijuana and psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin.

PTSD Help at La Paloma

If you or someone you love is suffering from PTSD and addiction, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.