ScienceDaily for June 29, 2008 reported on the use of marijuana for Neuropathic pain.
The growing body of evidence that marijuana (cannabis) may be effective as a pain reliever has been expanded with publication of a new study in The Journal of Pain reporting that patients with nerve pain showed reduced pain intensity from smoking marijuana.
A study published in the July issue of the Journal Anesthesiology discovered that oral cannabis (a form of medical marijuana) not only failed to alleviate certain types of pain in human volunteers but, surprisingly, it instead caused increased sensitivity to some forms of pain.
An article in ScienceDaily for June 12, 2008 reported on the effect of cocaine on fetal brain development.
Exposure of the developing brain to cocaine can cause neurological and behavioral abnormalities in babies born to mothers who use the drug during pregnancy. In a recent study, Chun-Ting Lee and colleagues at the U.S. National Institutes of Heath-- who note that cocaine use occurs in several hundred thousand pregnancies per year in the United States alone -- investigated the mechanism of cocaine's effect on fetal brain development.
According to an article in ScienceDaily for June 4, 2008
A study from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) supports previous reports that adolescents with bipolar disorder are at increased risk for smoking and substance abuse. The article appearing in the June Drug and Alcohol Dependence -- describing the largest such investigation to date and the first to include a control group -- also indicates that bipolar-associated risk is independent of the risk conferred by other disorders affecting study participants.
ScienceDaily for June 2, 2008 reported on negative effects of giving cold/cough medicine to young children.
Cough and cold medication use in young children has been linked to a significant number of adverse effects and several deaths, leading the FDA to recommend against their use for children less than two years old. Despite these concerns about safety and efficacy, there has been little research on patterns of cough and cold medication use in very young children. Now, a new study from the Emergency Medicine Networkled by Katherine O’Donnell, M.D. of Children’s Hospital Boston reveals important new statistics about medication use in children under the age of two.
World Science for June 2, 2008 reported that
Two important brain structures appear smaller than average in men who are long-time, heavy pot smokers, a study has found.
The findings challenge a popular view that marijuana is harmless, wrote the authors of the study, published in the June issue of the research journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
ScienceDaily for May 15, 2008 reported on the use of marijuana as relaxant.
A qualitative study of 41 Canadians surveyed in 2005-06 by U of A researchers showed that there is no such thing as a 'typical' marijuana user, but that people of all ages are selectively lighting up the drug as a way to enhance activities ranging from watching television and playing sports to having sex, painting or writing.
An article in the May 13, 2008 issue of ScienceDaily reported on a possible link between marijuana use and stroke or heart attacks.
Long-term harmful effects of marijuana (MJ) include risk for heart attacks and strokes in addition to impaired learning and memory. The active chemical in MJ called delta-9-tetrahyrdocannabinol (THC) is believed to exert these effects by binding to cannabinoid (CB) receptors located on several cell types in various organs.
ScienceDaily for May 10, 2008 reported on the effects of marijuana and other drugs on depression and other mental disorders.
Millions of American teens report experiencing weeks of hopelessness and loss of interest in normal daily activities and many of these depressed teens are using marijuana and other drugs, making their situation worse, according to a new White House report released today. The report, from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), reveals that marijuana use can worsen depression and lead to more serious mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, anxiety, and even suicide.
ScienceDaily for May 9, 2008 reported on one reason teens and young adults are drinking and using drugs.
Virtually all of the survey participants had drunk alcohol with most having had their first drink when 14 or 15 years old. Three quarters of the respondents had tried or used cannabis, while around 30 percent had at least tried ecstasy or cocaine.
An article in ScienceDaily for May 1, 2008 reported that
Sold under brand names such as Fosamax, Boniva and Actonel, bisphosphonates are prescribed to millions of patients to combat osteoporosis, a bone-wasting disease that increases the risk of fractures.
An article in ScienceDaily for April 30, 2008 reported that
Young women who took the commonly used epilepsy drug phenytoin for one year showed significant bone loss compared to women taking other epilepsy drugs, according to a study published in the April 29, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
ScienceDaily for April 23, 2008 reported on ADHD and the effect of drugs on the hearts of the children.
Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should get careful cardiac evaluation and monitoring -- including an electrocardiogram (ECG) -- before treatment with stimulant drugs, a new American Heart Association statement recommends.
An article dated April 22, 2008 in ScienceDaily reported on neural damage caused by chemotherapy.
Cancer treatment with chemotherapeutic agents is often associated with delayed adverse neurological consequences - an occurrence often referred to as "chemobrain" - that may compromise the quality of life of a proportion of cancer survivors. Now, new research demonstrates that treatment with a single chemotherapeutic agent, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), by itself is sufficient to cause a syndrome of delayed degeneration in the central nervous system (CNS). 5-FU is a widely used chemotherapeutic agent that is employed, alone or in combination with other agents, in the treatment of cancers of the colon, rectum, breast, stomach, pancreas, ovaries and bladder.
A commonly used chemotherapy drug causes healthy brain cells to die off long after treatment has ended and may be one of the underlying biological causes of the cognitive side effects -- or "chemo brain" -- that many cancer patients experience. That is the conclusion of a study published today in the Journal of Biology.
When the parents of Hannah Poling, a nine-year-old, Athens, Ga., girl who was diagnosed with autism just after the age of two, announced that a federal vaccine injury court had awarded them a settlement, the case reignited a decade-old debate about whether vaccines could potentially trigger the disorder. But what was somewhat lost in much of the coverage of the case was a little-known condition that the court said was aggravated by the vaccine, and which gave Hannah the features of autism.
An article dated April 22, 2008 in ScienceDaily reported that
"Our early findings show breastfeeding during anti-epilepsy drug treatment doesn't appear to have a negative impact on a child's cognitive abilities," said study author Kimford Meador, MD, with the University of Florida at Gainesville, and Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. "However, more research is needed to confirm our findings and women should use caution due to the limitations of our study."
ScienceDaily for April 22, 2008 reported that
Anticholinergic drugs, such as medicines for stomach cramps, ulcers, motion sickness, and urinary incontinence, may cause older people to experience greater decline in their thinking skills than people not taking the drugs, according to new research.
An article in ScienceDaily for April 16 2008 reported that
Elderly patients who use antipsychotic drugs have a 60 percent increased risk of developing pneumonia compared to non-users. This risk is highest in the first week following prescription and decreases gradually thereafter. Antipsychotic drugs are frequently used in elderly patients for the treatment of psychosis and behavioral problems associated with dementia and delirium. This study is the first to show that the development of pneumonia is associated with antipsychotic drug use.
An article in ScienceDaily for April 17, reported on bone loss in older men.
Older men who take loop diuretics, commonly prescribed drugs for heart failure and hypertension, appear to have increased rates of hip bone loss than men who are not taking this medication, according to a new report.
