Dirkh

LATEST ARTICLES ( 312 )

• The Summer Olympics and the “War on Doping”

  

  Time for a change in strategy? The Summer Olympics are fast approaching, and that can only mean one thing: drugs. After more than a decade, you might wonder, ho... Read more

  Posted on 18 July 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE, SOCIETY, SPORTS

• Cigarettes: Should the FDA Mandate a National Taper?

  

  Addiction expert calls for reduced-nicotine tobacco. For years now, nicotine researcher Neal Benowitz has been a man on a mission. Dr. Benowitz, a professor of... Read more

  Posted on 15 July 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Drug Links, Various

  

  Pharmacology, Politics, and Recovery * USA Today article on Opana abuse rivalling Oxy abuse. * US Attorneys Crack Down on California Medical Marijuana... Read more

  Posted on 11 July 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Truth About Weight Loss Surgery and Alcohol

  

  Bariatrics and booze don’t always mix. For many people with obesity, bariatric surgery has proven to be a lifesaver. But for a subset of post-operative patients... Read more

  Posted on 08 July 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Supreme Court Decision: A Clear Win For Addiction Treatment?

  

  A roundup of expert opinion. Dr. Tom McLellan, chief executive officer of the Treatment Research Institute, who served on President Obama’s healthcare reform... Read more

  Posted on 02 July 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Screen Time is Melting Our Children’s Brains—Or Something

  

  An ad hoc symposium. Earlier this week, a post at Psychology Today—“Computer, Video Games and Psychosis: Cause for Concern"—by child psychiatrist... Read more

  Posted on 02 July 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The New Highs: Are Bath Salts Addictive?

  

  What we know and don’t know about synthetic speed. Part II. Call bath salts a new trend, if you insist. Do they cause psychosis? Are they “super-LSD?” The... Read more

  Posted on 26 June 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Low Down on the New Highs

  

  Not all bath salts are alike. “You’re 16 hours into your 24-hour shift on the medic unit, and you find yourself responding to an “unknown problem” call....... Read more

  Posted on 21 June 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• NIDA’s Volkow Defends New Medications for Addiction

  

  On Big Data, Big Vaccines, and a Big New Agency. In her Director’s Report to the 2011 meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence in San Diego last... Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Random Notes from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence

  

  Opening day addresses at the annual meeting. (These are notes on research in progress, not findings written in stone). --NIDA director Nora Volkow talked up... Read more

  Posted on 14 June 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Bath Salts and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence

  

  CPDD holds annual meeting. I’ll be out of the office for a few days, attending the annual meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD), the... Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• High-Risk Haplotypes in Smokers

  

  It’s getting harder to interpret genetics studies, and that’s a good thing. Reporting the results of published studies concerned with genetic risk factors has... Read more

  Posted on 04 June 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Science, Academia, and Tobacco

  

  A review of The Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition Part III Academic collaborations come in many flavors. Read more

  Posted on 29 May 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Tobacco Industry as Disease Vector

  

  A review of The Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition Part II The famous Surgeon General’s Report of 1964, officiall... Read more

  Posted on 26 May 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Hidden Story of How Big Tobacco Invented Freebasing

  

  Review of The Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition Part I It’s easy to think of cigarettes, and the machinations... Read more

  Posted on 23 May 2012 HEALTH, SCIENCE

• Energy Drinks: What’s the Big Deal?

  

  The sons of Red Bull are sporting record concentrations of caffeine. Are energy drinks capable of pushing some people into caffeine-induced psychotic states? Read more

  Posted on 20 May 2012 FOOD & DRINK, HEALTH, HEALTHY LIVING

• A Look at the Recent Study of Cannabis and Multiple Sclerosis

  

  Smoked marijuana reduced spasticity in a small trial of MS patients. The leading wedge of the medical marijuana movement has traditionally been centered on... Read more

  Posted on 16 May 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Marijuana Can Make You Vomit, and Other Stories

  

  Short subjects, various. First, a recap of an earlier story, and a very strange story at that. Cannabinoid hyperemesis, as it's known, was not documented in th... Read more

  Posted on 13 May 2012 HEALTH, MEDICINE

• What It Means to Say Alcoholism is Genetic

  

  One woman’s journal. From Insanity to Serenity, by Tommi Lloyd Excerpts: "I was born in 1963 in Toronto, Canada, to a family struggling long before I arrived. M... Read more

  Posted on 08 May 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY

• Gateway to Absurdity

  

  State law criminalizes “gateway sexual activity.” It’s the gateway to hell and perdition, that’s what it is. It doesn’t necessarily lead to drugs but it will... Read more

  Posted on 07 May 2012 HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE