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* Certain genetic factors may both increase and protect against the risk of developing alcoholism.
* The aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2*2) allele is considered protective against alcoholism.
* Intravenous administration of an anti-Aldh2 antisense gene can curtail long-term drinking among rodents.
Just as the risk of developing alcoholism is strongly influenced by genetic factors, mutations in gene coding - [...]

It’s hard to stay on the wagon when you’re depressed, according to a new study of problem drinkers.
Researchers from the Minneapolis VA Medical Center documented the quitting success of 462 people who tried to simultaneously give up alcohol and cigarettes. The study appears in the January edition of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
At [...]

Women who have miscarried or had an abortion run three times the normal risk of having a subsequent low birthweight baby, suggests research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
The more miscarriages or abortions a woman has, the greater are her chances of giving birth to a child that is underweight or premature in [...]

The British Army is losing the equivalent of one battalion a year as a result of illegal drug-use, more than the number of fatalities and serious casualties in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Research into Compulsory Drugs Testing (CDT) of UK service personnel has identified a rise in positive tests for illegal substances in the British Army [...]

Recently, national media has created widespread exposure for the increased use of replacement drug treatment methods such as Methadone and Suboxone. The “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” and USA Today have both touched upon some of the dangers these replacement methods present, which include new dependencies and death due to overdose. With prescription drug [...]

The nation’s eighth graders took center stage in this year’s Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey, showing a significant decline in both smoking and illicit drug use in the past year, part of a downward trend for all measured age groups in the last decade. In addition, eighth graders showed a substantial long-term decline in past-year [...]

Alcohol triggers the activation of a variety of genes that can influence the health and activity of brain cells, and new research from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City sheds light on how that process occurs.
The findings, published in the Nov. 21 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, may also edge scientists closer [...]

A variant of a gene involved in communication among brain cells has a direct influence on alcohol consumption in mice, according to a new study by scientists supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. Army.
Scientists do not know yet whether [...]

* Alcoholics in early recovery tend to have impaired cognitive functioning.
* Nicotine is known to have beneficial effects under certain circumstances.
* New findings show that nicotine patches may enhance cognitive functioning among newly recovering alcoholics with a history of smoking.
Detoxified alcoholics in the early stages of recovery tend to have impaired cognitive functioning. Many alcoholics [...]

Mexican Americans make up 66 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population and, when compared to other ethnic groups, show high rates of heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems. First-of-its-kind research that examines haplotypes — clusters of genetic polymorphisms — of the CYP2E1 gene among a Mexican-American population has found that carrying haplotype H6 may enhance susceptibility [...]