Quitting alcohol may improve mental well-being, health-related quality of life

Quitting alcohol may improve health-related quality of life for women, especially their mental well-being, according to a study from Hong Kong published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

“More evidence suggests caution in recommending moderate drinking as part of a healthy diet,” says Dr. Michael Ni, School of Public Health and The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, University of Hong Kong (HKU).

The study carried out by Dr. Xiaoxin Yao, Dr. Michael Ni, Dr. Herbert Pang and colleagues at HKU included 10 386 people from the FAMILY Cohort in Hong Kong who were nondrinkers or moderate drinkers (14 drinks or less per week for men and 7 drinks or less per week for women) between 2009 and 2013. The researchers compared their findings with data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, a representative survey of 31 079 people conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the United States.

The mean age of participants in the FAMILY Cohort was 49 years and 56% were women. About 64% of men were nondrinkers (abstainers and former drinkers) and almost 88% of women were nondrinkers. Men and women who were lifetime abstainers had the highest level of mental well-being at the start of the study (baseline). For women who were moderate drinkers and quit drinking, quitting was linked to a favourable change in mental well-being in both Chinese and American study populations. These results were apparent after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, body mass index, smoking status, and other factors.

“Global alcohol consumption is expected to continue to increase unless effective strategies are employed,” says Dr. Ni. “Our findings suggest caution in recommendations that moderate drinking could improve health-related quality of life. Instead, quitting drinking may be associated with a more favourable change in mental well-being, approaching the level of lifetime abstainers.”

“Change in moderate alcohol consumption and quality of life: evidence from 2 population-based cohorts” is published July 8, 2019.

Read the complete article at MedicalExpress.com here.

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There’s “no safe level of alcohol,” major new study concludes

 

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Why are intelligent people more likely to abuse drugs?

The downsides of drug abuse are so clear that one would imagine smarter folks would stay away from them. The research suggests otherwise.

• Numerous studies have confirmed the link between intelligence and substance abuse.
• However, the mechanism for this correlation has been difficult to pin down.
• Why would more intelligent people who should ostensibly know better practice such a risky habit?

No mathematician has ever published more papers than Paul Erdos. The 20^thcentury mathematician was brilliant, eccentric, and prolific, publishing a record 1,525 papers. By the age of four, Erdos could calculate the number of seconds someone had lived if they gave him their age. He contributed to a wide variety of mathematical disciplines, including discrete mathematics, probability theory, Ramsey theory, graph theory, and others. He worked 19-hour days. And he loved amphetamines.

When Ronald Graham, a concerned friend and fellow mathematician, bet him $500 that he couldn’t stay off his drug of choice for a month, Erdos accepted and easily won the challenge. When the 30 days was up, Erdos said to Graham, “You’ve showed me I’m not an addict. But I didn’t get any work done. I’d get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I’d have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You’ve set mathematics back a month.” Erdos resumed taking amphetamines and did so for every day of his life until his death 17 years later.

Numerous studies have documented the relationship between intelligence and substance abuse. This relationship should be a negative one. After all, recreational drugs can damage your health, addiction costs huge amounts of money, and the legal consequences can be dire. But in fact, intelligence and substance abuse have a positive relationship: intelligent individuals are more likely to abuse drugs than less intelligent individuals.

Read the complete article here … 

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Sober Living in Mission Viejo, CA

We provide Sober Living for patients at our Intensive Outpatient Program.

Since 2007 Turing Point Treatment Center, located in beautiful Orange County, California, has been a leader in providing Detox, Residential Treatment (RTC),Transitional Housing Solutions (IOP) and Sober Living home environments for those recovering from alcohol and/or drug addiction.

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Helpful Links:

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• From Samsha.gov: Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Addiction – Facts for Families and Friends
• From Nursingworld.org: Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for Opiate Dependence—It’s Not “Giving Drugs to Drug Addicts”
• From VA.org: From VA.org Understanding PTSD and Treatments
• From PsychiatryOnline.org: Anticraving medications for relapse prevention

More Helpful Links Here

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Meth In The Morning, Heroin At Night: Inside The Seesaw Struggle of Dual Addiction

First successful prosecution of top pharmaceutical executives for crimes related to the illicit marketing and prescribing of opioids

CEO founder and four other top administrators were discovered guilty on Thursday in a plan including fixes and kickbacks to doctors who recommended a lot of a fentanyl splash to patients who didn’t require the painkiller.

Following 15 days of considerations, a jury in Boston administrative court achieved a first-since forever conviction of a medication organization CEO in the central government’s battle to battle the narcotic emergency, finding the Arizona-based organization’s originator and previous administrator John Kapoor liable of racketeering intrigue charges.
Additionally discovered liable were: Richard M. Simon, the organization’s previous national chief of offers; Sunrise Lee and Joseph A. Rowan, both onetime territorial deals executives; and previous Vice President of Managed Markets, Michael J. Gurry.

Racketeering charges convey a most extreme punishment of 20 years in jail.

The milestone conviction in the U.S. Area Court for the District of Massachusetts – in which the Justice Department previously made prosecutions in 2016 – marks a triumph on the legitimate front in the administration’s endeavors to battle the rising number of narcotic overdoses. Kapoor’s 2017 capture went ahead that day that President Donald Trump proclaimed the pandemic an open crisis.

The case fixated on a fentanyl-based agony medicine called Subsys, an amazing, exceedingly addictive and conceivably risky opiate that is expected to treat patients with malignant growth experiencing extraordinary torment.

Government investigators contended that specialists somewhere in the range of 2012 and 2015 gave patients extensive quantities of Subsys solutions – including to non-malignant growth patients – in return for kickbacks and influences from the Insys officials. A portion of the specialists, as of now sentenced for wrongdoings the states where they rehearsed, affirmed against the Insys officials amid preliminary.

Read more here .. 

 

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FDA approves first generic naloxone nasal spray to treat opioid overdose

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today granted final approval of the first generic naloxone hydrochloride nasal spray, commonly known as Narcan, a life-saving medication that can stop or reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. The agency is also planning new steps to prioritize the review of additional generic drug applications for products intended to treat opioid overdose, along with the previously announced action to help facilitate an over-the-counter naloxone product.

“In the wake of the opioid crisis, a number of efforts are underway to make this emergency overdose reversal treatment more readily available and more accessible. In addition to this approval of the first generic naloxone nasal spray, moving forward we will prioritize our review of generic drug applications for naloxone. The FDA has also taken the unprecedented step of helping to assist manufacturers to pursue approval of an over-the-counter naloxone product and is exploring other ways to increase the availability of naloxone products intended for use in the community, including whether naloxone should be co-prescribed with all or some opioid prescriptions to reduce the risk of overdose death,” said Douglas Throckmorton, M.D., deputy center director for regulatory programs in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “All together, these efforts have the potential to put a vital tool for combatting opioid overdose in the hands of those who need it most – friends and families of opioid users, as well as first responders and community-based organizations. We’re taking many steps to improve availability of naloxone products, and we’re committed to working with other federal, state and local officials as well as health care providers, patients and communities across the country to combat the staggering human and economic toll created by opioid abuse and addiction.”

Read the full article here .. 

Medication Assisted Treatment ( MAT ) gets a big expansion in California

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