61 posts · 40,302 views
Dirk Hanson is a freelance science reporter and novelist. He is the author of "The Chemical Carousel: What Science Tells Us About Beating Addiction." He has written two previous books—"The New Alchemists: Silicon Valley and the Microlectronics Revolution," and "The Seventh Level: A Novel." He runs the Addiction Inbox blog.
Addiction Inbox
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- May 22, 2013
- 02:01 PM
- 56 views
Marijuana and Diabetes: Does Pot Make You Thin?
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Teasing out the insulin effect.
On the face of it, the study seems to come out of left field: A group of researchers claimed that marijuana smokers showed 16 per cent lower fasting insulin levels than non-smokers. The study, called “The Impact of Marijuana Use on Glucose, Insulin, and Insulin Resistance among US Adults,” is in press for The American Journal of Medicine. The authors are a diverse group of medical researchers from Harvard, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and t........ Read more »
Penner Elizabeth A., Buettner Hannah, & Mittleman Murray A. (2013) The Impact of Marijuana Use on Glucose, Insulin, and Insulin Resistance among US Adults. The American Journal of Medicine. DOI: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2013.03.002
- May 15, 2013
- 06:49 PM
- 92 views
Six Arguments For the Elimination of Cigarettes
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Prohibition and the “tobacco control endgame.”
Despite all our efforts in recent years to reduce the percentage of Americans who smoke cigarettes—currently about one in five—the idea of full-blown cigarette prohibition has not gained much traction. That may be changing, as prominent nicotine researchers and public police officials start thinking about what is widely referred to as the “tobacco control endgame.”
Considering the new regulatory powers given the FDA under the terms ........ Read more »
Proctor R. N. (2013) Why ban the sale of cigarettes? The case for abolition. Tobacco Control, 22(Supplement 1). DOI: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2012-050811
- May 7, 2013
- 08:59 PM
- 22 views
Orexin and Insomnia
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
If Valium makes you groggy, and Ambien makes you sleepwalk…
A compound that blocks a brain receptor you probably have never heard of may hold the key to the next generation of sleeping pills—and there is always a next generation of sleeping pills.
A new class of hypnotic compounds that serve as antagonists for the neurotransmitter orexin may combat insomnia without the “confusional arousals” that have come to plague some users of zolpidem, otherwise known as Ambien. Sleepwalking, s........ Read more »
Uslaner J. M., Tye S. J., Eddins D. M., Wang X., Fox S. V., Savitz A. T., Binns J., Cannon C. E., Garson S. L., & Yao L. (2013) Orexin Receptor Antagonists Differ from Standard Sleep Drugs by Promoting Sleep at Doses That Do Not Disrupt Cognition. Science Translational Medicine, 5(179), 179-179. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3005213
- April 22, 2013
- 05:24 PM
- 58 views
Let the Light Shine In: Addiction and Optogenetics
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Study says laser light can turn cocaine addiction on and off in rats.
Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), had one word for it: “Wow.”
Writing in the director’s blog at the online NIH site, Collins said that a team of researchers from NIH and UC San Francisco had succeeded in delivering “harmless pulses of laser light to the brains of cocaine-addicted rats, blocking their desire for the narcotic.”
Wow, indeed. It didn’t take long for the sc........ Read more »
Chen Billy T., Yau Hau-Jie, Hatch Christina, Kusumoto-Yoshida Ikue, Cho Saemi L., Hopf F. Woodward, & Bonci Antonello. (2013) Rescuing cocaine-induced prefrontal cortex hypoactivity prevents compulsive cocaine seeking. Nature, 496(7445), 359-362. DOI: 10.1038/nature12024
- April 7, 2013
- 06:22 PM
- 198 views
Marijuana and Strokes: Medical Reality or Scare Story?
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Heavy tokers may be at higher risk, but alcohol is the hidden confounder.
Young people don’t suffer from strokes, as a rule. And when they do, at least half the time there is no obvious cardiovascular explanation. So it’s not surprising that drugs are often invoked as the culprit.
A New Zealand study earlier this year once again raised the specter of a possible link between stroke and marijuana smoking. As reported by Maia Szalavitz at Time Healthland, the confounding issue, as is typic........ Read more »
Wolff V., Armspach J.-P., Lauer V., Rouyer O., Bataillard M., Marescaux C., & Geny B. (2013) Cannabis-related Stroke: Myth or Reality?. Stroke, 44(2), 558-563. DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.112.671347
- March 16, 2013
- 03:21 PM
- 41 views
Big Tobacco Easily Evades “Light” Cigarette Ban
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Color coding allows smokers to easily identify their former brands.
The tobacco industry has once again made a mockery of the Food and Drug Administration’s attempts to ban ‘light” cigarettes from the marketplace, by simply eliminated the objectionable wording and substituting an easily-decoded color scheme. In a brochure prepared for cigarette retailers marked “For trade use only: not to be shown or distributed to customers,” tobacco giant Philip Morris wrote that “some cigarett........ Read more »
Connolly Gregory N, & Alpert Hillel R. (2013) Has the tobacco industry evaded the FDA's ban on 'Light' cigarette descriptors?. Tobacco control. PMID: 23485704
- March 7, 2013
- 06:03 PM
- 32 views
Bees Benefit From Caffeine
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Caffeinated plants provide an unforgettable experience.
Honeybees rewarded with caffeine remember the smell of specific flowers longer than bees given only sucrose, according to a study published in Science. “By using a drug to enhance memories of reward,” the study says, “plants secure pollinator fidelity and improve reproductive success.”
Many drugs used by humans come from plants. But what role do the drugs play for the plants themselves? Frequently, they play the role of toxic ave........ Read more »
Wright G. A., Baker D. D., Palmer M. J., Stabler D., Mustard J. A., Power E. F., Borland A. M., & Stevenson P. C. (2013) Caffeine in Floral Nectar Enhances a Pollinator's Memory of Reward. Science, 339(6124), 1202-1204. DOI: 10.1126/science.1228806
- January 6, 2013
- 09:31 PM
- 413 views
Have We Killed Half of our Soldiers with Cigarettes?
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Two long-term studies yield grim stats, and women are no exception.
We know that smoking kills. But until the results of 50 years’ worth of observations on British male smokers was published by Richard Doll and coworkers in the British Journal of Medicine in 2004, we didn’t know how many. Cigarettes will kill at least half of those who smoke them past the age of 30—possibly more. In older, specific populations, possibly as many as 2/3.
It took a prospective study of more ........ Read more »
Pirie, K., Peto, R., Reeves, G., Green, J., & Beral, V. (2012) The 21st century hazards of smoking and benefits of stopping: a prospective study of one million women in the UK. The Lancet. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61720-6
- December 11, 2012
- 04:27 PM
- 192 views
Strokes Only Happen To Older People—Don’t They?
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Meth is a risk factor for hemorrhagic stroke.
When a stroke happens to anyone under the age of 55, a major suspect is drugs, specifically the stimulants—methamphetamine and cocaine. In a recent issue of the journal Stroke, researcher Brett Kissela and his associates provided additional evidence to support that unpleasant truth.
(Stroke death rates by state)------>
........ Read more »
de los Rios F., Kleindorfer D. O., Khoury J., Broderick J. P., Moomaw C. J., Adeoye O., Flaherty M. L., Khatri P., Woo D., & Alwell K. (2012) Trends in Substance Abuse Preceding Stroke Among Young Adults: A Population-Based Study. Stroke, 43(12), 3179-3183. DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.112.667808
- October 19, 2012
- 02:58 PM
- 470 views
Does Marijuana Withdrawal Matter?
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
What happens to some smokers when they cut out the cannabis.
People who say they are addicted to marijuana tend to exhibit a characteristic withdrawal profile. But is cannabis withdrawal, if it actually exists, significant enough to merit clinical attention? Does it lead to relapse, or continued use despite adverse circumstances? Should it be added to the list of addictive disorders in the rewrite of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) currently in progress?
Ma........ Read more »
Allsop, D., Copeland, J., Norberg, M., Fu, S., Molnar, A., Lewis, J., & Budney, A. (2012) Quantifying the Clinical Significance of Cannabis Withdrawal. PLoS ONE, 7(9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044864
- July 18, 2012
- 05:57 PM
- 490 views
The Summer Olympics and the “War on Doping”
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
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, how goes the so-called “War on Doping?”
Not so good, but thanks for asking. The World Anti-Doping Agency, established in 1999 and backed by the UNESCO anti-doping convention, will be operating 24/7 during the games, protecting the “purity” of Sport, trying to ferret out everything from cannabis and cocaine to steroids and ........ Read more »
Kayser B, & Broers B. (2012) The Olympics and harm reduction?. Harm reduction journal, 9(1), 33. PMID: 22788912
- July 15, 2012
- 02:40 PM
- 330 views
Cigarettes: Should the FDA Mandate a National Taper?
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
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 medicine at the University of California in San Francisco, has been pushing a Big Idea about how to eliminate cigarette smoking in America: Reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes.
In essence, Benowitz is calling for a national nicotine taper. Whether the FDA is interested remains an open question. But the result, several years down........ Read more »
Benowitz NL, Dains KM, Hall SM, Stewart S, Wilson M, Dempsey D, & Jacob P 3rd. (2012) Smoking behavior and exposure to tobacco toxicants during 6 months of smoking progressively reduced nicotine content cigarettes. Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers , 21(5), 761-9. PMID: 22354905
- July 8, 2012
- 12:52 PM
- 688 views
The Truth About Weight Loss Surgery and Alcohol
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
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, the price for losing five pounds every time you step on the scale turns out to be an increased appetite for alcohol.
In a study of almost 2,000 patients who underwent surgery for severe obesity, the patients had either gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) in which a portion of the stomach and small intestine are removed, or gastric banding........ Read more »
King WC, Chen JY, Mitchell JE, Kalarchian MA, Steffen KJ, Engel SG, Courcoulas AP, Pories WJ, & Yanovski SZ. (2012) Prevalence of Alcohol Use Disorders Before and After Bariatric SurgeryAlcohol Use Disorders and Bariatric Surgery. JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association, 1-10. PMID: 22710289
- June 26, 2012
- 10:56 AM
- 580 views
The New Highs: Are Bath Salts Addictive?
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
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 truth is, they are a continuation of a 70-year old trend: speed. Lately, we’ve been fretting about the Adderall Generation, but every population cohort has had its own confrontation with the pleasures and perils of speed: Ritalin, ice, Methedrine, crystal meth, IV meth, amphetamine, Dexedrine, Benzedrine… and so it goes. For addi........ Read more »
Huang PK, Aarde SM, Angrish D, Houseknecht KL, Dickerson TJ, & Taffe MA. (2012) Contrasting effects of d-methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone, and 4-methylmethcathinone on wheel activity in rats. Drug and alcohol dependence. PMID: 22664136
Hadlock GC, Webb KM, McFadden LM, Chu PW, Ellis JD, Allen SC, Andrenyak DM, Vieira-Brock PL, German CL, Conrad KM.... (2011) 4-Methylmethcathinone (mephedrone): neuropharmacological effects of a designer stimulant of abuse. The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, 339(2), 530-6. PMID: 21810934
- June 4, 2012
- 09:00 PM
- 448 views
High-Risk Haplotypes in Smokers
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
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 always been a tricky proposition. Beyond the inevitable, and too often ideological nature/nurture split, there has been an unfortunate history of false positives in the rush to make news with a “gene for” alcoholism or schizophrenia or belief in God.
But single gene theories are mostly a thing of the past, and results tend to b........ Read more »
Baker, T. (2012) Interplay of Genetic Risk Factors (CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4) and Cessation Treatments in Smoking Cessation Success. American Journal of Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.11101545
- May 20, 2012
- 03:52 PM
- 524 views
Energy Drinks: What’s the Big Deal?
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
The sons of Red Bull are sporting record concentrations of caffeine.
Are energy drinks capable of pushing some people into caffeine-induced psychotic states? Some medical researchers think so, under the right set of conditions.
Red Bull, for all its iconic ferocity, is pretty tame, weighing in at approximately half a cup of coffee. Drinks like Monster Energy and Full Throttle push it up to 100-150, or the equivalent of a full cuppa joe, according to USDA figures at Talk About Coffee. That does........ Read more »
Rath, M. (2012) Energy drinks: What is all the hype? The dangers of energy drink consumption. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 24(2), 70-76. DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-7599.2011.00689.x
- May 16, 2012
- 03:46 PM
- 545 views
A Look at the Recent Study of Cannabis and Multiple Sclerosis
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Smoked marijuana reduced spasticity in a small trial of MS patients.
The leading wedge of the medical marijuana movement has traditionally been centered on pot as medicine for the effects of chemotherapy, for the treatment of glaucoma, and for certain kinds of neuropathic pain. From there, the evidence for conditions treatable with marijuana quickly becomes either anecdotal or based on limited studies. But pharmacologists have always been intrigued by the notion of treating certain neurologic ........ Read more »
Corey-Bloom, J., Wolfson, T., Gamst, A., Jin, S., Marcotte, T., Bentley, H., & Gouaux, B. (2012) Smoked cannabis for spasticity in multiple sclerosis: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Canadian Medical Association Journal. DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.110837
- April 24, 2012
- 05:40 PM
- 528 views
A Drug For Marijuana Withdrawal?
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Researchers get good results with gabapentin.
Marijuana, as researchers and pundits never tire of pointing out, is the most widely used illegal drug in the world, by a serious margin. And while the argument still rages, for some years now drug researchers have been migrating to the camp that sees marijuana as an addictive drug for a minority of people who exhibit a propensity for addiction. The scientific literature supporting the contention of marijuana as addictive for some users is robust........ Read more »
Mason, B., Crean, R., Goodell, V., Light, J., Quello, S., Shadan, F., Buffkins, K., Kyle, M., Adusumalli, M., Begovic, A.... (2012) A Proof-of-Concept Randomized Controlled Study of Gabapentin: Effects on Cannabis Use, Withdrawal and Executive Function Deficits in Cannabis-Dependent Adults. Neuropsychopharmacology. DOI: 10.1038/npp.2012.14
- March 22, 2012
- 11:37 AM
- 711 views
The Mysteries of the Blunt
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Why do so many smokers combine tobacco with marijuana?
People who smoke a combination of tobacco and marijuana, a common practice overseas for years, and increasingly popular here in the form of “blunts,” may be reacting to some unidentified mechanism that links the two drugs. Researchers believe such smokers would be well advised to consider giving up both drugs at once, rather than one at a time, according to an upcoming study in the journal Addiction.
Clinical trials of adults with ca........ Read more »
Agrawal, A., Budney, A., & Lynskey, M. (2012) The Co-occurring Use and Misuse of Cannabis and Tobacco: A Review. Addiction. DOI: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2012.03837.x
- March 18, 2012
- 06:28 PM
- 580 views
“Bath Salts” and Ecstasy Implicated in Kidney Injuries
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
“A potentially life-threatening situation.”
Earlier this month, state officials became alarmed by a cluster of puzzling health problems that had suddenly popped up in Casper, Wyoming, population 55,000. Three young people had been hospitalized with kidney injuries, and dozens of others were allegedly suffering from vomiting and back pain after smoking or snorting an herbal product sold as “blueberry spice.” The Poison Review reported that the outbreak was presently under investigation b........ Read more »
Adebamiro, A., & Perazella, M. (2012) Recurrent Acute Kidney Injury Following Bath Salts Intoxication. American Journal of Kidney Diseases, 59(2), 273-275. DOI: 10.1053/j.ajkd.2011.10.012
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