Medical schools and student groups are stepping up wellness supports to tackle stressors linked to alcohol abuse. Medical school is stressful and many medical students use alcohol to blow off steam, sometimes in weekend binges. It’s a pattern that schools and student groups are paying more attention to considering high rates of burnout and suicide […]
addiction
Organ donations from overdose deaths on the rise but stigma remains
The increase in overdose deaths from the opioid crisis in the United States has led to a sharp rise in the number of organ donations from people who died from overdose. But the stigma surrounding those organs results in many going unused. Dr. Christine Durand from Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore and her colleagues analysed […]
Outlook: Addiction
Addiction is a chronic disease that can destroy the lives of individuals and their families. Researchers are teasing apart the complex neural, genetic and behavioural factors that drive people to lose the ability to resist damaging substances, and are looking for ways to treat, reverse or even prevent addictions. Read more in this special Outlook supplement […]
Tackling prescription drug abuse
There are signs that strategies to address prescription drug abuse are starting to work but will an increase in illegal drug use be the payoff? Prescription medicines can be a powerful life saving tool, but they carry with them a danger of abuse. The euphoric effects of prescription painkillers, as well as stimulants and drugs […]
How Gamblers Try – And Fail – To Beat The System
Human tendency to seek patterns leads to misperception of randomness. Habitual gamblers are more likely to believe they see patterns in random sequences of events, and to act on that belief, than the general population, according to new research. Wolfgang Gaissmaier, a psychologist at the University of Konstanz in Germany, and his colleagues studied how […]
With pot now legal, therapies sought to blunt high of marijuana
Marijuana is going mainstream in the US. On 1 January, Colorado became the first state in the country to allow recreational use of the drug. Washington is set to do the same within the next few months, and many others are considering similar measures. Critics of these moves say that legalizing marijuana will increase consumption, […]