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Popular Prescription Drugs Pulled from Market

In November 2010,  the FDA recommended pulling propoxyphene products after new studies found they can create abnormal heart rhythms even at normal doses. As a result one of the makers of the pain medication Darvon and Darvocet said they will stop marketing the prescription drugs.

Darvon (with active ingredient propoxyphene) was first marketed in 1957. Darvocet contains propoxyphene and acetaminophen. Both drugs are popular with more than 10 million prescriptions written for them in 2009. Safety concerns have been raised about propoxyphene for decades, but studies have only linked them to episodes in which a patient exceeded the recommended dose.

The FDA issued the following statements: “Using propoxyphene causes significant changes to the electrical activity of the heart. These changes are linked to potentially deadly abnormal heart rhythms. It is not possible to monitor for, or mitigate, the risk of a fatal cardiac arrhythmia that may occur within the recommended dosing range for propoxyphene.

The drug was kept on the market 2009 with the FDA issuing its toughest warning label “taking too much of the drug could be fatal,” despite a panel having voted to have it removed from the market.

The drugs were developed by the Eli Lilly & Company, who no longer makes them. Companies that continue to produce them are generic drug companies like Xanodyne, who agreed to remove the drugs from the market. The FDA asked other companies to do the same.

The Dangers of Mixing Alcohol and Energy Drinks

The FDA has issued strict warnings against caffeinated alcohol drinks; mixing alcohol and energy drinks can lead to "wide-awake drunkenness".The FDA has issued strict warnings against mixing alcohol and energy drinks, which they believe pose significant health and safety risks to consumers. These drinks, which are often consumed by young and inexperienced drinkers, have been labeled a public health concern with caffeine being an “unsafe food additive” to malt alcoholic drinks. Read more

Prescribing Suboxone for Ex-Prisoners

New York will give certain state prisoners Suboxone upon release as treatment/prevention from heroin use. The new plan created under the “Medication Support Recovery Project” hopes to help released inmates, who have been drug-free since arrest, stay off of heroin.

Suboxone is a treatment drug created for opioid dependence. It contains buprenorphine (an opioid) and naloxone, which blocks the opioid. When used correctly, Suboxone can minimize a person’s cravings, while prohibiting a high. However, studies have found the drug in and of itself to be addictive and often sold illegally on the street. (NYPD saw illegal Suboxone sales grow from 59 to 287 from 2007 to 2009.)

A member of the Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services stated that research shows the brain to still suffer from cravings after the use of opiates has been discontinued. And that inmates who were opiate-dependent prior to incarceration have a higher risk of overdosing once released due to the combination of cravings with a lowered tolerance. (JoinTogether.org)

However, many feel that putting someone who has already detoxed and had a period of abstinence from opioids on another potentially addictive opiate drug is a bad idea. Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan also added, “It’s asking for trouble to put a drug that people want to buy into the hands of prisoners reentering society.” Some are concerned that it’s a situation in which the state is giving the tools without the skills, and that Suboxone without the combination of psychosocial/behavioral treatment and close monitoring is ineffective. In addition, further treatment may then be necessary to discontinue the use of Suboxone.

Scientists Create Dopamine-Brain Model

Through interdisciplinary collaboration, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have created a model of the way the brain releases dopamine. This model will be an important tool in helping scientists better understand how humans learn and how the brain perceives reward. Because of dopamine’s involvement in these activities, the researchers hope that the model can assist in further understanding drug and alcohol addiction and necessary treatment and rehabilitation options.

Dopamine is involved in a number of the brain’s processes that control the way we behave. It plays an important role plays in our ability to handle stress, be motivated, and create an overall sense of well-being. It is a key neurotransmitter in the reward center of the brain.

Certain actions that exceed expectation will cause the brain to temporarily release more dopamine. Actions that are worse than expected will cause the brain to momentarily stop releasing dopamine. This ultimately makes dopamine a “learning signal” that causes us to repeat the actions that give us higher levels of dopamine and avoid those that result in lower dopamine levels. This action also applies to food, sex and competition. The use of drugs and alcohol also raises the level of dopamine.

Some scientists have argued that the dopamine system doesn’t react quick enough to be a part of the human learning process. However, they focused primarily on the slow feedback time when experiencing something negative. Whereas, this new model shows that “the collective signal from many cells provides a rapid enough reaction to influence learning.” (Medical News Today)

The new dopamine model was created in a collaborative effort among physicists, mathematicians and neurobiologists, and its predictions are supported by observations made in animal models. The researches are hoping that it will help overcome some of the challenges faced by neurologists that are often unable to study active brains in living humans. Once the researches are certain the model is correct, then they will begin applying it to dopamine-related illness such as drug and alcohol addiction.

The researchers’ dopamine model will soon be described in the cover article of Journal of Neuroscience.

Why Men Are Often More Susceptible to Alcoholism

Studies show that men are twice as likely to develop alcoholism than women; however, the underlying biological factors contributing to this difference has been, for the most part, unclear. A new study published in Biological Psychiatry, points to dopamine being an important factor in this difference.

Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter in the reward center of the brain that plays an important role in our ability to handle stress, be motivated, and create an overall sense of well-being. The use of drugs or alcohol raises the level of dopamine and confuses the brain into thinking that the action was positive and should be repeated.

Researchers from Columbia and Yale University studied alcohol consumption amongst male and female social drinkers. After consuming alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks, each participant underwent a PET scan that measured the amount of alcohol-induced dopamine released.

Despite similar consumption of alcohol, the study found men to have greater amounts of dopamine released than the women. The increase was found in an area of the brain (ventral striatum) strongly associated with pleasure, reinforcement and addiction. Because of the increased release of dopamine, men had a stronger positive association with the effects of alcohol intoxication. This initial positive reinforcement may contribute to the risk for habit formation.

The study also found that episodes of repeated heavy drinking resulted in a decline in alcohol-induced dopamine release. This observation supports one of the hallmarks of developing tolerance or transitioning into a more chronic dependence on alcohol.

Understanding Impulse and Neurological Involvement: Addiction Insight

A recent study published in the Journal of Neuroscience found how a rat brain triggers and suppresses impulsive behavior. Canadian researchers hope that this will lead to new methods for diagnosing and treating addiction in humans.

How the brain deals with impulse control, or poor impulse control, is known to be involved in a number of complex mental health problems including addiction. In order to understand how the brain mediates impulsive behavior, the researchers examined the synaptic changes in the brains of rats that were trained to control their impulsive response to a given signal.

The research found that behavioral training was effective with impulsive response in the rats, and showed changes in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. The research further suggests neuronal involvement behind impulsiveness that maybe be amenable to new therapies.

“A clear-cut case of an addiction is choosing the pleasure of the immediate sensation of the drug over the long-term damage and problems that it causes,” said Scott Hayton, a doctoral candidate in neuroscience at Queen’s University in Ontario and lead author of the study.

Understanding the neurological mechanism behind such impulses may aid in the development of new drugs to inhibit them, he concluded.

The findings were published in the August 25 2011 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

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