Manitoba Addictions Knowledge Exchange

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Trauma induces more alcohol craving than stress among veterans with PTSD and co-occurring alcohol dependence

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol dependence (AD) are two of the most common and debilitating disorders diagnosed among American military veterans. AD and PTSD often occur together, and this co-occurrence has a worse prognosis than either disorder alone. Alcohol craving is related to relapse, but the relationship between PTSD symptoms, craving, and relapse is not well understood. This study is the first to explore the effects of trauma-induced and stress-induced imagery on alcohol craving, affect, and cardiovascular and cortisol responses in a laboratory setting. Read more

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Researchers have found alcohol abuse is linked to discrimination

Another negative health outcome linked to discrimination has been uncovered by research: alcohol abuse. Read more

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Study pinpoints behavior type linked to binge drinking in young adults

Binge drinking — almost a rite of passage — peaks during the college years. So this begs the question, “Are there specific characteristics associated with high-level binge drinking habits in college students?” Read more

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Drunkorexia 101: Increasing Alcohol’s Effects Through Diet and Exercise Behaviors

While many people view college drinking as the norm, less understood is that how students drink can place them at a higher risk for multiple problems. Drinking on an empty stomach usually means that someone will get drunk faster, given that food helps to absorb alcohol, slowing down alcohol absorption into the bloodstream. A growing trend among college drinkers is called “drunkorexia,” a non-medical term that refers to a combination of alcohol with diet-related behaviors such as food restriction, excessive exercising, or bingeing and purging. Read more

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Substance user’s social connections: Family, friends, and the forsaken

It’s no secret that social environments can play a role in the development as well as recovery from substance-abuse problems. A new study, designed to uncover how individual relationships respond to substance use and social influences, has found that the links between substance use and social connections are bidirectional and strong. Read more

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Understanding Risk Factors Involved in Initiation of Adolescent Alcohol Use

Underage drinking is a major public health and social problem in the U.S. The ability to identify at-risk children before they initiate heavy alcohol use has immense clinical and public health implications. A new study has found that demographic factors, cognitive functioning, and brain features during the early-adolescence ages of 12 to 14 years can predict which youth eventually initiate alcohol use during later adolescence around the age of 18. Read more

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Adolescent Girls Appear to Prefer Lower Blood Alcohol Concentrations

Gender and a family history of alcoholism (FH) are two genetically determined factors known to affect someone’s risk for developing alcohol-use disorders (AUDs). Adolescence is also a critical period for the development of AUDs; drinking habits can be unstable and environmental factors such as peer pressure may be substantial. This study looked at how gender and FH might affect alcohol use in a sample of 18- to 19-year-olds from the Dresden Longitudinal Study on Alcohol use in Young Adults (D-LAYA). Read more

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Childhood abuse, chronic parental domestic violence linked to later addictions

Adults who have drug or alcohol dependency have experienced very high rates of early adversities, according to a new study. One in five drug dependent Canadian adults and one in six alcohol dependent adults were survivors of childhood sexual abuse. This compares to one in 19 in the general Canadian population. More than one half of substance abusers had been physically abused in childhood compared to one-quarter of those who were not addicted. Read more

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Empowering addiction treatment patients to engage in care may improve overall health

In the first trial of an intervention focused on increasing alcohol and drug treatment patients’ engagement in their own health care, researchers found that patients who received six intervention sessions had greater involvement in managing their health and health care than those receiving fewer sessions. Read more

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Impulsive children raised in caring families less likely to drink during adolescence

Years of research have shown that impulsivity in childhood is among the individual vulnerabilities leading to substance abuse, delinquency, as well as aggressive and antisocial behavior in adolescence and adulthood. However, a new study shows that impulsive children who were raised in less coercive families at the age of 6 actually drank less alcohol than their less impulsive peers at the age of 15. Read more

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