scholarly journals Substance use disorders: leading the road to recovery

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 741-744
Author(s):  
Emily K. Dennis ◽  
Sylvie Garneau-Tsodikova
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
The Road ◽  
On The Road ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Opinion Article

Substance use disorders are diseases of the brain that create a dependency to various drugs. This opinion article provides an overview of the treatments available for these disorders and a perspective of what remains to be done on the road to recovery.

Brain Development and the Risk for Substance Abuse

2013 ◽  
pp. 706-715
Author(s):  
Kristina Caudle ◽  
B.J. Casey
Keyword(s):  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Substance Abuse Problem ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Drug And Alcohol ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Developmental Window

Drug and alcohol dependence affects millions each year. Adolescence is a period of increased risk for substance use disorders. Understanding how the brain is changing during this developmental window relative to childhood and adulthood and how these changes vary across individuals is critical for predicting risk of later substance abuse and dependence. This chapter provides an overview of recent human imaging and animal studies of brain development focusing on changes in corticostriatal circuitry that has been implicated in addiction. Behavioral, clinical, and neurobiological evidence is provided to help elucidate who may be most at risk for developing a substance abuse problem and whenthey may be most vulnerable.

scholarly journals Adenosine A2AReceptors in Substance Use Disorders: A Focus on Cocaine

Cells ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Wydra ◽  
Dawid Gawliński ◽  
Kinga Gawlińska ◽  
Małgorzata Frankowska ◽  
Dasiel O. Borroto-Escuela ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
D2 Receptors ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Receptor Complexes ◽  
Abused Drugs ◽  
The Brain

Several psychoactive drugs can evoke substance use disorders (SUD) in humans and animals, and these include psychostimulants, opioids, cannabinoids (CB), nicotine, and alcohol. The etiology, mechanistic processes, and the therapeutic options to deal with SUD are not well understood. The common feature of all abused drugs is that they increase dopamine (DA) neurotransmission within the mesocorticolimbic circuitry of the brain followed by the activation of DA receptors. D2 receptors were proposed as important molecular targets for SUD. The findings showed that D2 receptors formed heteromeric complexes with other GPCRs, which forced the addiction research area in new directions. In this review, we updated the view on the brain D2 receptor complexes with adenosine (A)2A receptors (A2AR) and discussed the role of A2AR in different aspects of addiction phenotypes in laboratory animal procedures that permit the highly complex syndrome of human drug addiction. We presented the current knowledge on the neurochemical in vivo and ex vivo mechanisms related to cocaine use disorder (CUD) and discussed future research directions for A2AR heteromeric complexes in SUD.

scholarly journals Neuroscience-Informed Psychoeducation for Recovery (NIPER): A Program to Promote Metacognition in People with Substance Use Disorders

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tara Rezapour ◽  
Mohammad Barzegari ◽  
Elham Sharifi ◽  
Nastaran Malmir ◽  
Hamid Reza Ghiasvand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
Addiction Treatment ◽  
Randomized Clinical Trials ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Psychological Wellbeing ◽  
Treatment As Usual ◽  
Recovery Programs ◽  
Control Decision ◽  
The Brain

BackgroundA brief neuroscience-informed psychoeducation program (neuroscience-informed psychoeducation for recovery, NIPER) was developed to promote awareness (metacognition) in the main cognitive domains affected by drug and alcohol use to increase willingness to invest time and effort in the brain and cognition recovery process. The primary aim of this study was to determine the feasibility and acceptability of the NIPER program and its potential effectiveness in terms of increasing metacognition, psychological wellbeing and willingness for the brain and cognition recovery programs among people with substance use disorders (SUDs).Methodology56 individuals with SUDs recruited from four outpatient treatment centres in Tehran, Iran and attended four 90-min sessions delivered weekly adjunct to their treatment as usual. The effectiveness was measured in terms of metacognition, and psychological wellbeing at baseline and at the end of the program. Rate of adherence and participation as well as willingness to continue with brain and cognition recovery programs were measured as feasibility outcomes.ResultsA total of 51 participants completed the study. Compared to the baseline assessments, participants reported significantly higher problems in dimensions of attention, memory, inhibitory control, decision making, motor/speech, interocpetion and insight, as well as higher level of psychological wellbeing (t=4.66. p<0.001). In terms of feasibility outcomes, the adherence and participation rates were found above 85%. The majority of participants expressed their high willingness to continue the brain and cognition recovery programs (86.2%) and introduce NIPER to their peers (98%).ConclusionTaking into account the results in terms of feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of NIPER in clinical context of addiction treatment, we consider NIPER as a potentially beneficial interventions to be offered to people with SUD to increase their awareness and engage them to the brain and cognition recovery process. The clinical efficacy of the intervention should be tested in future randomized clinical trials.

scholarly journals An unusual extra‑axial hypodense lesion mimicking a chronic subdural haematoma

2013 ◽  
Vol 04 (02) ◽  
pp. 216-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Ramnarayan ◽  
T V Anilkumar ◽  
Rani Nayar
Keyword(s):  
Subdural Haematoma ◽  
Mass Effect ◽  
Chronic Subdural Haematoma ◽  
Temporal Region ◽  
Good Recovery ◽  
The Road ◽  
Oncology Treatment ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Dural Lymphoma ◽  
The Brain

ABSTRACTA 59-year-old man was found on the road with multiple injuries. CT scan showed a hypodense extra axial lesion in the left fronto‑temporal region suggestive of chronic subdural haematoma. He was treated conservatively but did not improve. He underwent craniectomy after lesion was shown to be increasing in size, only solid tissue was seen which was not biopsied. Patient made good recovery after steroids were put on. He deteriorated again 6 weeks later and radiology showed the frontal lesion without involvement of the brain and with minimal enhancement and mass effect. He underwent biopsy decompression of the lesion with steroids, post‑operatively he improved well, but deteriorated when the steroids were tapered. Histopathology report was Non‑Hodgkin’s lymphoma. No primary was found and the patient died during oncology treatment. This illustrates manifestation of primary dural lymphoma radiologically mimicking chronic subdural haematoma, another common disorder.

Immunology of Substance Use Disorders

2018 ◽  
pp. 165-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haitham Salem ◽  
Scott D. Lane ◽  
Antonio L. Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Immune System ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
Stress Responses ◽  
Strategy Development ◽  
Drug Seeking ◽  
Reinforcing Effects ◽  
Immune Changes ◽  
The Brain

As in other psychiatric disorders, the role of the immune system is gathering increasing attention as an important mechanism in substance use disorders. Addiction is a complex condition in which a person engages in drug-seeking and drug-taking behaviors to accentuate the reward processes in the brain and avoid negative withdrawal states. Due in part to the activation of stress responses during drug withdrawal, high levels of peripheral pro-inflammatory cytokines are observed in this phase, and these immune changes might contribute to the behavioral negative reinforcing effects of the drug. This and other observations suggest that the immune system might play a role in the development of substance use disorders, also representing a potential target for biomarker and therapeutic strategy development (e.g., vaccines).

scholarly journals Mindfulness-based treatments for co-occurring depression and substance use disorders: what can we learn from the brain?

Addiction ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 105 (10) ◽  
pp. 1698-1706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judson A. Brewer ◽  
Sarah Bowen ◽  
Joseph T. Smith ◽  
G. Alan Marlatt ◽  
Marc N. Potenza
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals The Impact of Head Trauma on Society

1984 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie P. Ivan
Keyword(s):  
Head Trauma ◽  
Head Injuries ◽  
The Road ◽  
Management Problems ◽  
Trauma Victims ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Football Field ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain ◽  
At Home

In this address I shall discuss head trauma from an angle which may be unusual for neuroscientists. Our preoccupations are diagnostic challenges and management problems, but that which we experience at the bedside is only a narrow segment of a continuum which started with trauma somewhere in a war, on the road, at home, on the football field, in the boxing ring, and in many other distinct locations. When our role is over, there are only three places where head trauma victims can be found; in cemeteries, where every year, 5,000 new graves are made to accommodate fatal head injuries in Canada; in chronic hospitals, which are already overloaded with victims of various insults to the brain, and, of course, within society, which accepts the fully recovered or tolerates the subtle and not so subtle consequences of so-called ‘minor’ head injuries.

scholarly journals Neuroimmune Mechanisms as Novel Treatment Targets for Substance Use Disorders and Associated Comorbidities

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark D. Namba ◽  
Jonna M. Leyrer-Jackson ◽  
Erin K. Nagy ◽  
M. Foster Olive ◽  
Janet L. Neisewander
Keyword(s):  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Synaptic Plasticity ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
Immune Signaling ◽  
Treatment Targets ◽  
Novel Treatment ◽  
The Brain

Recent studies examining the neurobiology of substance abuse have revealed a significant role of neuroimmune signaling as a mechanism through which drugs of abuse induce aberrant changes in synaptic plasticity and contribute to substance abuse-related behaviors. Immune signaling within the brain and the periphery critically regulates homeostasis of the nervous system. Perturbations in immune signaling can induce neuroinflammation or immunosuppression, which dysregulate nervous system function including neural processes associated with substance use disorders (SUDs). In this review, we discuss the literature that demonstrates a role of neuroimmune signaling in regulating learning, memory, and synaptic plasticity, emphasizing specific cytokine signaling within the central nervous system. We then highlight recent preclinical studies, within the last 5 years when possible, that have identified immune mechanisms within the brain and the periphery associated with addiction-related behaviors. Findings thus far underscore the need for future investigations into the clinical potential of immunopharmacology as a novel approach toward treating SUDs. Considering the high prevalence rate of comorbidities among those with SUDs, we also discuss neuroimmune mechanisms of common comorbidities associated with SUDs and highlight potentially novel treatment targets for these comorbid conditions. We argue that immunopharmacology represents a novel frontier in the development of new pharmacotherapies that promote long-term abstinence from drug use and minimize the detrimental impact of SUD comorbidities on patient health and treatment outcomes.

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