Treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Alcohol Abuse Together Won't Increase Drinking

"PTSD and alcohol dependence often go hand and hand, but evidence of effectively treating this group in tandem has been missing because many feared prolonged exposure therapy would derail alcohol treatments," said Edna B. Foa, PhD, a professor of Clinical Psychology in the department of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and developer of prolonged exposure therapy, the type of therapy where patients face the distressing memories, situations, places, and people they have been avoiding. "It appears this is not the case, given these promising results. In fact, patients who received prolonged exposure therapy with or without naltrexone retained their low drinking level more than those who did not receive this therapy.

"This is a critical study that has implications for the hundreds of thousands of people suffering from both disorders."

Prolonged exposure therapy is thought to reduce drinking via improvement of PTSD symptoms that can lead to self-medication with alcohol. Today, 65 percent of patients with PTSD are also battling substance abuse.

For the eight-year study (2001 to 2009), 165 patients with PTSD and alcohol dependence were divided into four groups: prolonged exposure therapy plus naltrexone; prolonged exposure therapy plus placebo pill; supportive counseling plus naltrexone; and supportive counseling plus placebo. Prolonged exposure therapy was composed of 12-weekly 90-minute sessions followed by six bi-weekly sessions. (All patients received supportive counseling).

All patients in the trial had a lower percentage of drinking days and a reduction in cravings during treatment. However, those treated with naltrexone had a lower percentage of drinking days compared to those on a placebo.

In post treatment (a six-month follow up), PTSD patients with an alcohol dependence treated with prolonged exposure therapy and naltrexone had a lower rate of relapse (5.4 percent) compared to those on a placebo (13.3 percent) and received supportive counseling.

"This finding suggests that receiving prolonged exposure therapy plus naltrexone protects patients with alcohol dependence and PTSD from relapse in drinking after treatment discontinuation," the authors write.

All patients in the trial also had a reduction in PTSD symptoms, but the main effect of prolonged exposure therapy at post treatment was not significant.

This is inconsistent with a large body of evidence that prolonged exposure therapy is an effective treatment for PTSD. Such results may be explained by the fact that all patients received supportive counseling-perhaps the nonspecific factors involve in this type masked some of the unique effects of prolonged exposure therapy. Or, they posit, it may have something to do with the fact that attendance to prolonged exposure therapy session by trial participants was very low compared to other trials.

"Importantly, our findings indicated that prolonged exposure therapy was not associated with increased drinking or alcohol craving," they write. "This finding contradicts the common view that trauma-focused therapy is contraindicated for individuals with alcohol dependence and PTSD because it may exacerbate PTSD symptoms and thereby lead to increased alcohol use."

This is the first clinical trial to investigate the effects of an evidence-based medication (naltrexone) and an evidence-based therapy (prolonged exposure therapy) on PTSD patients with comorbid dependence on alcohol.

Other Penn Medicine authors in the study include David A. Yusko, Carmen P. Mclean, Charles O'Brien, David Oslin and Patricia Imms, and researchers from the University of Suffolk, Montefiore Medical Center, Uniformed Services University, Institute of Addiction Medicine, and Temple University.

This research was supported with a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (RO1AA012428).

Source-Newswise

View the original article here

Children Ill After Drinking Water in Bihar School

The Friday incident took place at the government middle school in Runnisaidpur of Sitamarhi, a district police officer said.

The sick children were first admitted to a primary health centre (PHC) in Runnisaidpur and later over a dozen, who were critically ill, were shifted to the district hospital for treatment.

The children complained of pain in the stomach and started vomiting after drinking the water.

"It appears to be the handiwork of some anti-social elements as the handpump might have been poisoned," education department officials said.

After the news spread, hundreds of villagers thronged the PHC where the children had been admitted.

Expressing concern over the incidents, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said: "I am really worried as after the contaminated mid-day meal tragedy, now reports of poison in handpumps at schools are coming in from various places."

The chief minister added that state Director General of Police Abhayanand had been directed to initiate a probe into the incidents.

As many as 23 children lost their lives July 16 after consuming contaminated mid-day meal at the government primary school in Dahrmasati Gandawan village at Mashrakh block of Saran district, 60 km from Patna.

The mid-day meal scheme is running in 72,000 schools across the state with 1.60 crore students availing hot, freshly cooked meals.

Source-IANS

View the original article here

Safe Drinking Water in Colombia Tackled By American Chemical Society Global Program

by Rukmani Krishna on? June 24, 2013 at 11:42 PM General Health News A white paper outlining possible solutions for increasing access to safe drinking water in the rural areas of the world was issued by the Global Innovation Imperatives (Gii) program, administered by the American Chemical Society (ACS) Office of International Activities. Although focused on the community of Chocont?, in Colombia, the suggested solutions have broader application.
Chocont? residents rely on rural aqueducts for their water, but supplies are vulnerable to pollution from nearby agriculture and largely go untreated. City officials asked ACS, the world's largest scientific society, to help solve the problem, noting that the solutions likely would apply to other areas of the country and possibly the world.

"The recommendations in this report should solve local problems but could be easily replicated elsewhere," said Francisco Gomez, assistant director of the ACS Office of International Activities. "If other areas in the region have this same problem, there is a good probability that the recommendations will offer solutions."

Gii's mission is to solve global challenges such as increasing access to safe drinking water and ensuring food security, Gomez explained. The approach involves bringing together experts within ACS, as well as other scientific societies and nongovernmental organizations, to share knowledge and expertise and propose innovative solutions ? essentially building a community around a problem.

To produce the Chocont? report, ACS partnered with the Colombian Society of Chemical Sciences (SOCOLQUIM), the Brazilian Chemical Society and the Latin American Federation of Chemical Associations, along with experts from the U.S. Geological Survey and Conservaci?n Internacional. The team conducted field visits to work toward the goal of providing clean water for all residents of the community.

The recommendations in the new report came out of discussions at the International Forum on Sustainable Conservation of Water Sources & Basins & Operation of Sidewalk Aqueducts of Chocont?, which was held in Bogot?, Colombia, in October 2012.

This is the second report issued by Gii. Its first white paper outlined recommendations for sustainable and cost-effective solutions to water quality challenges in India.

Gii's next forum, scheduled to take place later this year, will address water scarcity in a community in the south of Brazil. A white paper with recommendations will follow.

Source-Eurekalert

var xmlHttpvar imgpath,imagefunction RefreshImage(ImageId){image=document.getElementById(ImageId);//alert(ImageId);xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!"); return; } var url="http://www.medindia.net/captcha/captcha.asp";url=url+"?x="+Math.random();imgpath=url;xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedReg;xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);xmlHttp.send(null);} function stateChangedReg(){if (xmlHttp.readyState==4){image.src = imgpath;}}function RequestCode(){xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!"); return; } var url="http://www.medindia.net/captcha/reqimgvalue.asp";url=url+"?x="+Math.random();xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedReq;xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);xmlHttp.send(null);} function stateChangedReq(){if (xmlHttp.readyState==4){var seccode=xmlHttp.responseText;if(seccode==document.getElementById("scode").value){//alert(seccode + "same value");}else{document.getElementById("scode").value=xmlHttp.responseText;}}}function GetXmlHttpObject(){var xmlHttpNew=null;try { // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari xmlHttpNew=new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e) { // Internet Explorer try { xmlHttpNew=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) { xmlHttpNew=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } }return xmlHttpNew;}function GetXmlHttpObject(){var xmlHttp=null;try { // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e) { // Internet Explorer try { xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) { xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } }return xmlHttp;} function fnsearch(){day1 = document.search.SelDay.value;month1 = document.search.SelMonth.value;year1 = document.search.SelYear.value;tmpdate=month1+"/"+day1+"/"+year1 fromdate=new Date(year1,month1-1,day1)if (!((fromdate.getDate()==day1)&&(fromdate.getMonth()+1==month1)&&(fromdate.getFullYear()==year1))){alert("Please Select a valid Date")document.search.SelDay.focus();return false;}tmpcatid=document.search.ncategoryid.value;tmpkeyword=document.search.keyword.value;document.search.action="http://www.medindia.net/news/newsday_list.asp?ddate="+tmpdate+"&ncategoryid=" +tmpcatid +"&keyword=" +tmpkeywordreturn true;}News Categories:?? Latest Health News Popular News AIDS/HIV News Alcohol & Drug Abuse News Alternative Medicine News Anti-Aging News Bird Flu News Cancer News Celebrity Health News Chikungunya News Child Health News Cholesterol News Clinical Trials News Corporate News Dengue News Dental News Diabetes News Diet & Nutrition News Drug News Education News Environmental Health General News Genetics & Stem Cells News Health Insurance News Heart Disease News Hospital News Hypertension News Indian Health News Lifestyle News Medical Gadgets Medical PDA News Medico Legal News Men?s Health News Mental Health News News on IT in Healthcare Nursing Profession News Obesity News Organ Donation News Research News Respiratory Disease News Senior Health News Sexual Health News Tropical Disease News Weight Loss Women Health News

View the original article here

Risk of Problem Drinking High Among Youth Who Have Their First Drink During Puberty

Research shows that the earlier the age at which youth take their first alcoholic drink, the greater the risk of developing alcohol problems. Thus, age at first drink (AFD) is generally considered a powerful predictor of progression to alcohol-related harm. A new study shows that individuals who have their first drink during puberty subsequently have higher drinking levels than do individuals with a post-pubertal drinking onset.

Results will be published in the October 2013 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

"Most teenagers have their first alcoholic drink during puberty, however, most research on the risks of early-onset alcohol use up to now has not focused on the pubertal stage during which the first alcoholic drink is consumed," said Miriam Schneider, leader of the Research Group Developmental Neuropsychopharmacology at the Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, as well as corresponding author for the study. "Common thinking in alcohol research was that the earlier adolescents begin, the more deleterious become their drinking habits. However, a closer look at the statistics revealed a peak risk of alcohol use disorders for those beginning at 12 to 14 years of age, while even earlier beginners seemed to have a slightly lower risk. Since timing of puberty is not a simple function of chronological age, and also greatly differs between the sexes, the pubertal phase at first drink may therefore represent a stronger and better indicator for subsequent alcohol-related problems than simply the age."

"Usually this type of research has to be done retrospectively, and those studies are not very reliable," added Rainer Spanagel, head of the Institute of Psychopharmacology at the University of Heidelberg. "Prospective longitudinal studies like the one here ? are able to provide reliable conclusions on such a clinically and highly relevant research question. Alternatively, animal studies can be very informative - and which the researchers have also provided."

"Adolescents have their first drink at very different ages," explained Schneider. "It would be unethical to make adolescents have their first drink in the course of a study, so this variable requires a longitudinal epidemiological study or experimental animal research to assess drinking behavior. Also, the determination of the pubertal stage at AFD is not trivial; even our study had to rely on estimations. Third, it takes longitudinal studies to assess drinking data in early adulthood. Fourth, both drinking behavior and pubertal development can be traced back to common factors such as psychosocial adversity. Finally, while puberty and adolescence are overlapping time periods, with puberty being a part of adolescence, the terms cannot be used interchangeably. 'Puberty' refers to the time period during which sexual maturity is achieved. 'Adolescence' refers to the gradual period of behavioral and cognitive transition from childhood to adulthood, where adult behavioral abilities are acquired, and the boundaries of this period are not precisely defined. Girls complete puberty much earlier than boys, indicating a difference in timing of neurodevelopmental processes."

Schneider and her colleagues determined pubertal age at first drink in 283 young adults (152 females, 131 males) that were part of a larger epidemiological study. In addition, the participants' drinking behavior - number of drinking days, amount of alcohol consumed, and hazardous drinking - was assessed at ages 19, 22, and 23 years via interviews and questionnaires. Furthermore, a rodent study concurrently examined the effects of mid-puberty or adult alcohol exposure on voluntary alcohol consumption in later life by 20 male Wistar rats.

"Both studies revealed that those individuals that initiated alcohol consumption during puberty tended to drink more and also more frequently than those starting after puberty," said Schneider.

"In other words," said Spanagel, "this study indicates that the period of puberty might serve as a risk window for AFD. Results also show a higher Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) score later in life in those individuals who had their AFD in puberty. A higher AUDIT score is indicative of a high likelihood of hazardous or harmful alcohol consumption. This information is of great relevance for intervention programs. Even more interesting, neither pre-pubertal nor post-pubertal periods seem to serve as risk-time windows. Therefore, intervention programs should be directed selectively towards young people in puberty."

Both Schneider and Spanagel noted the influence of a high degree of brain development that occurs during puberty.

"Numerous neurodevelopmental alterations are taking place during puberty, such as maturational processes in cortical and limbic regions, which are characterized by both progressive and regressive changes such as myelination and synaptic pruning," said Schneider. "Typically, an overproduction of axons and synapses can be found during early puberty, followed by rapid pruning during later puberty, indicating that connections and communication between subcortical and cortical regions are in a highly transitional state during this period."

"Puberty is a phase in which the brain reward system undergoes major functional changes," said Spanagel. "For example, the endocannabinoid and dopamine systems are at their peak and these major neurobiological changes are reflected on the behavioral level; reward sensitivity is highest during puberty. Therefore, during puberty the brain is in a highly vulnerable state for any kind of reward, and drug rewards in particular. This high vulnerability might also affect reward seeking, or in this particular case, alcohol seeking and drinking behavior later in life."

"In summary," said Schneider, "puberty is a very critical developmental period due to ongoing neurodevelopmental processes in the brain. It is exactly during puberty that substances like drugs of abuse - alcohol, cannabis, etc. - may induce the most destructive and also persistent effects on the still developing brain, which may in some cases even result in neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia or addictive disorders. Prevention work therefore needs to increase awareness of specific risks and vulnerability related to puberty."

Source-Eurekalert

View the original article here

NIAAA Drinking Guidelines Flouted More Frequently by College Women Than College Men

by Kathy Jones on? May 19, 2013 at 3:07 PM Alcohol & Drug Abuse News Female college student drinkers exceed National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) guidelines for weekly drinking more frequently than their male counterparts, new research has indicated.
In order to avoid harms associated with alcohol consumption, in 2009 the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism issued guidelines that define low-risk drinking. These guidelines differ for men and women: no more than four drinks per day, and 14 drinks per week for men, and no more than three drinks per day, and seven drinks per week for women. A study of how well college students adhere to these limits has found that female college student drinkers exceed national drinking guidelines for weekly drinking more frequently than their male counterparts.

Results will be published in the October 2013 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

"Recommended drinking limits are lower for women than for men because research to date has found that women experience alcohol-related problems at lower levels of alcohol consumption than men," explained Bettina B. Hoeppner of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Addiction Medicine, an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School as well as corresponding author for the study.

"It is always important to take gender into account when studying health or risk behaviors," added Melissa A. Lewis, associate professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington. "Even if you hold weight constant, there are differences in terms of how alcohol affects men and women. For example, men have more of an enzyme in the stomach - a gastric alcohol dehydrogenase - that lowers the amount of alcohol that makes it into the bloodstream. Also, women have less blood going through the bloodstream than a man at the same weight, so alcohol gets more concentrated in the bloodstream."

For this study, Hoeppner and her colleagues asked 992 college students (575 females, 417 males) to report their daily drinking habits on a biweekly basis, using web-based surveys throughout their first year of college.

"We found that female college-student drinkers exceeded national drinking guidelines for weekly drinking more frequently than their male counterparts," said Hoeppner. "Weekly cut-offs are recommended to prevent long-term harmful effects due to alcohol, such as liver disease and breast cancer. By exceeding weekly limits more often than men, women are putting themselves at increased risk for experiencing such long-term effects."

"In addition," said Lewis, "men's weekly drinking declined over time whereas women's weekly drinking did not. This finding is concerning. If women continue to exceed weekly drinking recommendations over time, it puts them at greater risk for health issues, such as liver or heart disease and certain forms of cancer."

"These findings contribute to our understanding of how populations adhere to national drinking guidelines," said Hoeppner. "Specifically, it examines college student drinkers, where adherence to weekly drinking limits has not been examined before. Generally, 'binge drinking' receives more attention when examining college student drinking, however, for long-term health, it is also important to examine the establishment of drinking patterns that may lead to long-term harmful effects, not just short-term effects."

"These findings highlight the need for prevention efforts to focus on both daily and weekly limits to reduce harm from short- and long-term negative consequences related to alcohol use," said Lewis. "Current preventative interventions often do not focus on weekly drinking recommendations, which is important and a warranted area of future research.

Hoeppner agreed. "Our results might motivate clinicians to address weekly drinking limits and the potential for long-term alcohol related harm with their patients," she said. "The reasons that many college students exceed these weekly limits are unclear. It is possible that lack of awareness of the guidelines and possible consequences of exceeding them contributes to these high rates. If so, clinicians might reduce harm by educating their college-student patients about the guidelines and the harm they seek to prevent, especially their female patients. Similarly, researchers and clinicians designing prevention/intervention programs might find it useful to address weekly drinking limits in their programs, both to reduce incidence rates thereof, and to identify the reasons for exceeding these guidelines."

Source-Eurekalert

var xmlHttpvar imgpath,imagefunction RefreshImage(ImageId){image=document.getElementById(ImageId);//alert(ImageId);xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!"); return; } var url="http://www.medindia.net/captcha/captcha.asp";url=url+"?x="+Math.random();imgpath=url;xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedReg;xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);xmlHttp.send(null);} function stateChangedReg(){if (xmlHttp.readyState==4){image.src = imgpath;}}function RequestCode(){xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!"); return; } var url="http://www.medindia.net/captcha/reqimgvalue.asp";url=url+"?x="+Math.random();xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedReq;xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);xmlHttp.send(null);} function stateChangedReq(){if (xmlHttp.readyState==4){var seccode=xmlHttp.responseText;if(seccode==document.getElementById("scode").value){//alert(seccode + "same value");}else{document.getElementById("scode").value=xmlHttp.responseText;}}}function GetXmlHttpObject(){var xmlHttpNew=null;try { // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari xmlHttpNew=new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e) { // Internet Explorer try { xmlHttpNew=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) { xmlHttpNew=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } }return xmlHttpNew;}function GetXmlHttpObject(){var xmlHttp=null;try { // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e) { // Internet Explorer try { xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) { xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } }return xmlHttp;} function fnsearch(){day1 = document.search.SelDay.value;month1 = document.search.SelMonth.value;year1 = document.search.SelYear.value;tmpdate=month1+"/"+day1+"/"+year1 fromdate=new Date(year1,month1-1,day1)if (!((fromdate.getDate()==day1)&&(fromdate.getMonth()+1==month1)&&(fromdate.getFullYear()==year1))){alert("Please Select a valid Date")document.search.SelDay.focus();return false;}tmpcatid=document.search.ncategoryid.value;tmpkeyword=document.search.keyword.value;document.search.action="http://www.medindia.net/news/newsday_list.asp?ddate="+tmpdate+"&ncategoryid=" +tmpcatid +"&keyword=" +tmpkeywordreturn true;}News Categories:?? Latest Health News Popular News AIDS/HIV News Alcohol & Drug Abuse News Alternative Medicine News Anti-Aging News Bird Flu News Cancer News Celebrity Health News Chikungunya News Child Health News Cholesterol News Clinical Trials News Corporate News Dengue News Dental News Diabetes News Diet & Nutrition News Drug News Education News Environmental Health General News Genetics & Stem Cells News Health Insurance News Heart Disease News Hospital News Hypertension News Indian Health News Lifestyle News Medical Gadgets Medical PDA News Medico Legal News Men?s Health News Mental Health News News on IT in Healthcare Nursing Profession News Obesity News Organ Donation News Research News Respiratory Disease News Senior Health News Sexual Health News Tropical Disease News Weight Loss Women Health News

View the original article here