‘No Doubt’ Kratom Is an Opioid With High Abuse Potential

One of the two major psychoactive constituents in kratom has high abuse potential and may also increase the intake of other opiates, new research shows.

The finding contradicts claims by kratom makers that the substance has no abuse potential and supports the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) view that kratom is an opioid.

Derived from the plant Mitragyna speciosa, kratom is receiving increased attention as an alternative to traditional opiates and as a replacement therapy for opiate dependence. Mitragynine (MG) and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-HMG) are the two major psychoactive constituents of kratom. Although MG and 7-HMG share behavioral and analgesic effects with morphine, their reinforcing effects have not been fully established.

Results of a series of experiments with rats show that MG does not have abuse or addiction potential and reduces morphine intake, “desired characteristics of candidate pharmacotherapies for opiate addiction and withdrawal,” Scott Hemby, PhD, Department of Basic Pharmacological Sciences, High Point University, High Point, North Carolina, and colleagues report.

In contrast, 7-HMG should be considered a kratom constituent with “high abuse potential that may also increase the intake of other opiates,” the investigators note.

The study was published online June 27 in Addiction Biology.

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Experts Warn of Emerging ‘Stimulant Epidemic’

 

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Got the ‘drunchies’? New study shows how heavy drinking affects diet

They’re called the “drunchies,” or drunk munchies. It’s the desire one has to eat salty, fatty, unhealthy foods during or after a night of heavy drinking.

With obesity continuing to rise in America, researchers decided to look at a sample of college students to better understand how drinking affects what they eat, both that night and for their first meal the next day when, most likely, they’re hungover. It should come as no surprise that they’re not eating kale smoothies and fresh oranges at 4 a.m.

“Given the obesity epidemic and the rates of alcohol consumption on college campuses, we need to be aware of not only the negative effect of alcohol consumption, but also the impact it has on what people are eating while they are drinking,” says Jessica Kruger, clinical assistant professor of community health and health behavior in the University at Buffalo’s School of Public Health and Health Professions.

Kruger, PhD, is the lead author on a newly published paper that examines heavy episodic drinking and dietary choices while drinking and on the following day.

Kruger and her colleagues from the University of Michigan, University of Toledo, and Bowling Green State University, conducted their study on a sample of 286 students at a large public university in the Midwest. (The study, published in the Californian Journal of Health Promotion,Download pdfdid not receive any federal funding.)

Research on the effects of drinking and diet is scarce, Kruger said, adding that eating more unhealthy foods following alcohol consumption is an often overlooked behavior in traditional addiction research.

Read the complete article here .. 

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Demi Lovato experiencing ‘complications’ from apparent overdose

Demi Lovato is experiencing “complications” and remains hospitalized following her apparent drug overdose, two sources close to the singer tell CNN.

Those complications include “nausea, vomiting and a high fever,” the sources say.
Although she’s expected to “make a full recovery,” there is “no estimate” as to when she will be released from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
“[We are] taking it day by day,” one of the sources said.
No information has been released regarding what led to her hospitalization.

There had been reports Lovato overdosed on heroin, but a source close to the singer denied that.
Last week, a source with knowledge of the matter told CNN that Lovato plans to seek drug abuse treatment following her release from hospital care.
CNN previously reported that Lovato’s family and her former boyfriend, Wilmer Valderrama, have been by her side since her hospitalization one week ago.

Lovato has been open about her struggles with an addiction to cocaine and alcohol, as well as mental health issues and an eating disorder. She also sought professional help for substance abuse and entered rehab in 2010.
“You just have to take it one day at a time; some days are easier than others and some days you forget about drinking and using, but for me, I work on my physical health, which is important, but my mental health as well,” Lovato said, adding that she was seeing her therapist twice a week. “I make sure I stay on my medications. I go to AA meetings. I do what I can physically in the gym. I make it a priority.”
In the hours after news of her hospitalization broke, fans of the singer took to social media with the hashtag, #HowDemiHasHelpedMe to talk about how she and her music have helped them with their own struggles.

Read the complete article at CNN.com 

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Intensive Outpatient Program

Information about Intensive Outpatient Program

Please use this free resource to better understand our Intensive Outpatient Program. If you have additional questions you would like addressed, please contact us using the easy Contact Us form. To schedule an appointment or arrange for an individual assessment, please call us.

Q: WHAT IS AN INTENSIVE OUTPATIENT PROGRAM?

Intensive Outpatient Treatment (also known as IOP for “Intensive Outpatient Program”) is a primary treatment program recommended in some circumstances by a clinical and medical assessment.  IOP might be suggested for the individuals who don’t require therapeutically regulated detox. IOP can likewise empower individuals in recuperation to proceed with their recuperation treatments following effective detox, on low maintenance yet escalated plan, intended to oblige work and family life.

Begin reconstructing your own life and patching your critical family ties immediately, when you inhabit home and partake in concentrated outpatient treatment. With the Intensive Outpatient Treatment program you can set up an establishment for long haul recuperation bolster in your neighborhood network ideal from the beginning of your treatment, rather than holding up until the point when you come back from living without end in a recovery focus.

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Drug users on probation can be required to remain drug-free, court rules

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that it was not cruel and unusual punishment to put a person who is on probation in jail after one positive test for drugs.  Experts have been watching the case closely, as thousands of people who struggle with substance use disorder find themselves caught up in the nation’s judicial system amid the country’s opioid epidemic.

“The decision is a massive blow, and I believe, on the wrong side of history,” Lisa Newman-Polk, the attorney who represented the defendant in the case, said on Monday.

Substance use disorder occurs when a person’s use of drugs or alcohol leads to health issues or problems at work, school or home, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the guide mental health professionals use to label patient behavior. Relapse is often a part of the recovery process, studies show.

As a lawyer and a certified social worker with clinical experience treating addiction and other mental health disorders, Newman-Polk said before the decision she was “so frustrated, in effect, by what I saw was a misunderstanding by the judges that I was going before, who have this mistaken idea about the nature of substance use disorder and what actually helped someone get into recovery.

Read the complete article here .. 

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Deaths from liver disease are surging, and drinking is to blame

It doesn’t take many years of drinking to permanently damage the liver, doctors say.

Deaths from liver disease have risen sharply in the U.S., and doctors say the biggest factor is drinking —especially among young adults.

A study published Wednesday found a 65 percent increase in deaths from cirrhosis of the liver since 1999. The biggest increase is among millennials: the team found that deaths from cirrhosis are rising 10 percent a year among people aged 25 to 34.

People so young might not even realize that they can drink themselves to death so quickly, but they can, said liver specialist Dr. Haripriya Maddur of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

“Surprisingly, it only takes about 10 years of heavy drinking to actually lead to cirrhosis,” said Maddur, who was not involved in the study.

“So when people start drinking in college and they start binge drinking, that can actually lead to end-stage liver disease at a much earlier age,” Maddur told NBC News.

For the study, Dr. Elliot Tapper and Dr. Neehar Parikh at the University of Michigan and the Veterans Affairs hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, looked at federal data taken from death certificates and the U.S. Census Bureau.

“From 1999 to 2016 in the U.S., annual deaths from cirrhosis increased by 65 percent, to 34,174, while annual deaths from hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) doubled to 11,073,” they wrote in their report, published in the British Medical Journal.

Earlier this week, the National Center for Health Statistics reported a 43 percent increase in death rates from liver cancer between 2000 and 2015. The increase made liver cancer the sixth-leading cause of cancer death in 2016, up from the ninth-leading cause in 2000.

Read the complete article here at NBCNews.com

How Many Drinks Are In Common Containers ?

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Opioid addiction is keeping a high percentage of people out of the workforce

America’s opioid epidemic is exacting a massive human tool that also is impacting the economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday. One of the Fed’s primary goals is achieving maximum employment, or making sure every potential worker who wants a job has one. Lost somewhere in that mix, though, is the portion of the working-age population that can’t work because of their addictions.

Speaking to the issue during an appearance before a Senate committee, Powell called the crisis “a terrible human tragedy” that is having a direct impact on how labor progress is measured.

“From an economic standpoint, some high percentage of prime-age people who are not in the labor force, particularly prime-age males who are not in the labor force, are taking painkillers of some kind,” he said.

Powell cited research from Princeton economist Alan Krueger, who conducted a survey and found that 44 percent of men reported that they had taken some form of pain medication the previous day.

“It’s a big number,” Powell said. “It’s having a terrible human toll on our communities and also it matters a lot for the labor force participation rate and economic activity in our country.”

The labor force participation rate plays a significant role in calculating the government’s headline unemployment rate. Those not considered in the workforce are not counted in the jobless rate, holding the number down and potentially presenting a skewed picture of the employment situation.

Read the full article at CNBC.com here .. 

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