Last of U.S. dry towns loosening up to alcohol sales
Seneca, N.Y., is among the last municipalities to drain the last drop of Prohibition, nearly 80 years after it ended nationally.
The rural Upstate New York town of Seneca largely lives and dies by income from its landfill. Yet that county landfill is due to close in 2028, so the town — about halfway between Syracuse and Rochester — had to start thinking about other ways to pay for government operations, town Supervisor John Sheppard says. Instead of trash, Seneca is turning its eye to alcohol. Residents in November voted to reverse the town's prohibition against the sale of alcohol for on-premises consumption that dated to the early 1800s. Seneca is among the last municipalities to end Prohibition, nearly 80 years after it ended nationally. Though numerous communities across the USA still have local laws banning or partially banning alcohol, those numbers are shrinking. Rest of the story is here.Overdose Prevention and Treatment Program Can Save Lives, Study Suggests
A program that teaches people to recognize and respond to overdoses of opioids can significantly decrease the number of overdose deaths, researchers at Boston Medical Center have found. Massachusetts instituted the program to combat the problem of opioid-related overdose deaths. The program trains people who use opioids, as well as their families and friends, to prevent, recognize and respond to drug overdoses. Participants learn to recognize the signs of overdose, to seek help, to stay with the victims, and to use the opioid overdose antidote naloxone. The new study included 19 communities with high opioid overdose levels. Those communities that implemented the Overdose Education and Nasal Naloxone Distribution (OEND) program had a larger reduction in overdose deaths, compared with those without such programs, HealthDay reports. The more people enrolled in the program, the greater the decrease in death rates. In the British Medical Journal, the researchers conclude that OEND is an effective intervention to reduce opioid overdose deaths. In February 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that naloxone has successfully reversed more than 10,000 opioid overdoses since 1996.
Energy Drinks and Alcohol: A
Dangerous Mix for Teens
Energy
drinks can be dangerous for teenagers, according to a new report published in a
pediatrics journal. The drinks are particularly dangerous when they are
combined with alcohol, CBS News reports. The drinks can cause rapid heartbeat,
insomnia, high blood pressure, anxiety and obesity, researchers write in
Pediatrics in Review. “They contain too much caffeine and other additives that
we don’t know enough about. Healthy eating, exercise and adequate sleep are
better ways to get energy,” said lead author Dr. Kwabena Blankson, a U.S. Air
Force major and an adolescent medicine specialist at the Naval Medical Center
in Portsmouth, Virginia. Many teens are not aware that mixing alcohol and
energy drinks can make them feel less drunk than they actually are, the researchers
noted. They wrote that drinking just one caffeinated beverage mixed with
alcohol can be equivalent to drinking a bottle of wine and several cups of
coffee. A 16-ounce energy drink has about 160 milligrams of caffeine, compared
with 100 milligrams for an average cup of coffee. Dr. Blankson said teens
should not have more than 100 milligrams of caffeine daily. He added that other
additives found in energy drinks, such as sugar, ginseng and guarana, increase
caffeine’s effects in energy drinks. A government report released last month found the number of
emergency room visits involving energy drinks doubled from 2007 to 2011,
reaching more than 20,000. The report, from the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), found most cases involved teens or
young adults. SAMHSA calls consumption of energy drinks a “rising public health
problem.” About 42 percent of emergency room cases in 2011 involved energy
drinks combined with alcohol or drugs such as Adderall or Ritalin.
Drowned in a Stream of Prescriptions
Every
morning on her way to work, Kathy Fee holds her breath as she drives past the
squat brick building that houses Dominion Psychiatric Associates. Young
people submitted personal accounts of their experiences with prescription drugs
in high schools. Mental Health Clinic, Dominion Psychiatric
Associates in Virginia Beach, where Richard Fee was treated by Dr. Waldo M.
Ellison. After observing Richard and hearing his complaints about
concentration, Dr. Ellison diagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
and prescribed the stimulant Adderall. It was there that her son, Richard,
visited a doctor and received prescriptions for Adderall, an amphetamine-based
medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It was in the parking
lot that she insisted to Richard that he did not have A.D.H.D., not as a child
and not now as a 24-year-old college graduate, and that he was getting
dangerously addicted to the medication. It was inside the building that her
husband, Rick, implored Richard’s doctor to stop prescribing him Adderall,
warning, “You’re going to kill him.” It was where, after becoming
violently delusional and spending a week in a psychiatric hospital in 2011,
Richard met with his doctor and received prescriptions for 90 more days of
Adderall. He hanged himself in his bedroom closet two weeks after they expired.
Rest
of the story is here.The deadly mix of drugs and raves
Struggling local governments welcome large music events staged by L.A.-based promoters, but a review of coroner’s and law enforcement reports reveal a tragic pattern of drug overdoses. Read the full report: A fatal toll on concertgoers as raves boost cities’ income
Addiction Expert: Treatment
Providers Can Perpetuate Media Stereotypes of Patients
Stereotypes about addiction, perpetuated by the media, can be unintentionally reinforced by addiction professionals, according to a New York addiction expert. Read the rest of this story here.
Doctors Often Don’t Ask Teen Patients About Drinking
Many doctors don’t ask their teenage patients about their drinking, a new study finds. A survey of 10th graders found that while more than 80 percent had seen a doctor in the past year, only 54 percent of them were asked about drinking, and 40 percent were advised about the dangers of alcohol. The survey of more than 2,500 teenagers was conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), MedicalXpress reports. Researchers found 34 percent of the teens said they drank alcohol in the past month. In the journal Pediatrics, lead author Ralph W. Hingson, ScD, MPH, reported 26 percent said they had binged, defined as five or more drinks in one sitting for males, and four or more for females. “Alcohol is by far the drug of choice among youth,” NIAAA Acting Director Kenneth R. Warren, PhD, said in a news release. “The findings reported by Dr. Hingson and his colleagues indicate that we must redouble our efforts to help clinicians make alcohol screening a routine part of patient care for young people in the United States.” In 2011, NIAAA and the American Academy of Pediatrics released a two-question alcohol screening tool designed to help pediatricians spot children and adolescents at risk for alcohol-related problems. The doctor asks about the patient’s own drinking, as well as his or her friends’ alcohol use. The tool walks the doctor through the steps to take when patients say they or their friends drink, and helps them assess the level of risk for current and future alcohol problems.Feeling Shame About Past Alcohol Abuse Linked With Increased Risk of Relapse
Recovering alcoholics who feel shame about past alcohol abuse may have an increased risk of a relapse, a new study suggests. The study included newly recovering alcoholics. To gauge participants’ feelings of shame, the researchers asked them to describe the last time they drank and felt badly about it, and also took their body language into account. They considered a narrowed chest and slumped shoulders to be “shame-related behaviors,” Live Science reports. Four months later, participants were asked whether they were still sober. Those who had displayed more shame-related behaviors in the first session were more likely to start drinking again. Participants’ own assessment of whether they felt shame about drinking did not predict whether they relapsed, the researchers report in the journal Clinical Psychological Science. “How much shame participants displayed strongly predicted not only whether they relapsed, but how bad that relapse was — that is, how many drinks they had if they did relapse,” study authors Jessica Tracy and Daniel Randles of the University of British Columbia said in a journal news release. They added, “Our research suggests that shaming people for difficult-to-curb behaviors may be exactly the wrong approach to take. Rather than prevent future occurrences of such behaviors, shaming may lead to an increase in these behaviors.”Prescription Opioid Overdoses Rose Seven-Fold in New York City in 16 Years
Prescription opioid overdoses rose seven-fold in New York City from 1990 to 2006, according to researchers at Columbia University. They found the increase in drug overdoses was due to painkillers. Methadone overdoses remained stable, and heroin overdoses decreased during the same period. While most studies on recreational use of opioids have focused on rural areas, the new study suggests urban areas are also being hard hit by opioid use, the article notes. Whites were much more likely than blacks or Hispanics to overdose on painkillers, PsychCentral reports. In 2006, the death rate among white males was almost double that of Latinos, and three times higher than blacks, the researchers report in Drug and Alcohol Dependence. “A possible reason for the concentration of fatalities among whites is that this group is more likely to have access to a doctor who can write prescriptions,” lead researcher Magdalena Cerdá, DrPH, of Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, said in a news release. “However, more often than not, those who get addicted have begun using the drug through illicit channels rather than through a prescription.”The diet mixers that make you more drunk: Sugar-free versions save calories but get you tipsy quicker than full fat alternatives
They
are popular with revellers watching their waistlines. But diet mixers make you
more drunk than sugary alternatives, scientists have warned. Women are most at
risk, as they are likely to order diet mixers to save on calories, researchers
said. When men and women were given vodka mixed with either a soft drink or its
sugar-free version, they became intoxicated more quickly on the diet option. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2274119/The-diet-mixers-make-drunk-Sugar-free-versions-save-calories-drunk-quicker-fat-alternatives.html#ixzz2K7hH11QL
Provigil Medication Helps Some Control Impulsivity
New research suggests a medication originally designed to increase wakefulness may help some people reduce drinking by improving their impulse control. Poor impulse control can lead to a person’s inability to moderate consumption of substances such as food, alcohol and other drugs. This behavioral flaw can lead to the development of addiction. Read the rest of the story here.Spouses’ Different Drinking Habits Can Endanger Marriage, Study Suggests
Marriages in which one spouse drinks more than the other are more likely to end in divorce than unions in which both spouses drink a similar amount, Norwegian researchers have found. A couple’s risk of divorce could triple when the husband does not drink much, but the wife drinks heavily, HealthDay reports. “The risk of divorce is lowered if the spouses drink approximately the same amount of alcohol,” said researcher Fartein Ask Torvik of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. “This is not only true for those who drink excessively, there is also a reduced risk of divorce if both spouses abstain totally from alcohol.” Torvik noted that on average, divorced people tend to consume more alcohol than married people. “To some extent, this is due to increased drinking after a divorce, but people who drink heavily also have a higher risk of experiencing a divorce, so heavy drinking likely interferes fundamentally with the quality of marriage.” The link between heavy drinking and divorce is stronger in women than in men, according to the study of almost 20,000 married couples. The researchers reported their findings in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Co-researcher Ellinor F. Major added, “Someone with a light or moderate alcohol use who has a spouse who drinks heavily should encourage that spouse to change their drinking pattern into a light or moderate level if the main concern is a lasting marriage of good quality. Good advice probably would be to encourage a similar pattern of moderate or light drinking in both spouses.”Study Links Lower Drinking Age With Increased Risk of Binge Drinking
The
ability to legally buy alcohol before age 21 is associated with an increased
risk of binge drinking later in life, a new study suggests. The study included
more than 39,000 people who started drinking in the 1970s, when some states
allowed people as young as 18 to purchase alcohol. People who lived in states
with lower minimum drinking ages were not more likely to consume more alcohol
overall, or to drink more frequently, compared with those in states with a
legal drinking age of 21. However, when they did consume alcohol, they were
more likely to drink heavily, Science Daily reports. “It wasn’t just that lower
minimum drinking ages had a negative impact on people when they were young,”
lead author Andrew D. Plunk, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine
in St. Louis, said in a news release. “Even decades later, the ability to
legally purchase alcohol before age 21 was associated with more frequent binge
drinking.” Plunk found the effect of the minimum legal drinking age was
greatest among men who did not attend college. “Binge drinking on college
campuses is a very serious problem,” he said. “But it’s also important not to
completely forget about young people who aren’t on college campuses. In our
study, they had the greatest risk of suffering the long-term consequences
linked to lower drinking ages.” Even decades later, men who grew up in states
with a legal drinking age less than 21 were 19 percent more likely to binge
drink more than once a month. Among those who did not attend college, the risk
of binge drinking more than once a month rose by 31 percent. The study appears
in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
One in 10 Mentally Ill Teens Frequently Use Alcohol, Cigarettes and Marijuana
About 10 percent of young teens with mental illness frequently use alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana, a new Australian study suggests. This substance abuse pattern becomes more common as teenagers grow older. Researchers at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Research Institute said substance abuse among teens with mental illness is likely to contribute to increased risk of poor physical and mental health outcomes. The study included more than 2,000 participants ages 12 to 30, who were involved in a national mental health program. They submitted information on their weekly use of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, Red Orbit reports. The study found 12 percent of participants ages 12 to 17 consumed alcohol at least once a week, compared with 39 percent of those ages 18 and 19, and almost half of those ages 20 to 30. The youngest teens were twice as likely to say they drank alcohol every week as their peers in the general population. About 7 percent of teens used marijuana at least once a week, compared with 14 percent of those ages 18 and 19, and 18 percent of those between ages 20 to 30. An estimated 23 percent of teens smoked cigarettes daily, compared with 36 percent of older teens, and 41 percent of those between 20 and 30. The findings are published in the British Medical Journal Open. “Traditionally there have been mental health services, and substance abuse services, but both have been quite separate. Our study shows that we need to integrate mental health interventions with substance use interventions in order to help at-risk young people,” lead researcher Dr. Daniel Hermens said in a news release. “There is a lot of evidence for the co-morbidity of mental health problems and substance misuse. More people have both mental health and substance use problems than either alone – in other words, it’s the rule rather than the exception.”NIH Study Finds Missed Opportunities For Underage Alcohol Screening
In
a random survey of more than 2,500 10th grade students with an average age of
16 years, researchers from NIAAA and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development found that 34 percent reported
drinking alcohol in the past month. Twenty-six percent said they had binged,
defined as five or more drinks per occasion for males, and four or more for
females. Physicians often fail to ask high school-aged patients about alcohol
use and to advise young people to reduce or stop drinking, according to a study
led by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of
the National Institutes of Health.
Please click here to read the rest of this story.
Alcohol Consumption Hits Record Low Among College Freshmen
Since
its inception, University of California, Santa Barbara has gained the
reputation of being a wild party school where, within the one square mile of
Isla Vista, students polish off copious amounts of alcohol while crammed into
ocean-front houses with the rest of the student body population. It is no
wonder the school has inherited the idiom “U Can Study Buzzed.” In 2010, both
Playboy Magazine and the Huffington Post named UCSB the number eight party
school in the nation, and the Princeton Review named it the number one party
school in California. However, for the first time ever, a major annual survey
provided statistics that indicate a growing trend among college freshmen toward
more focus on future job prospects and less emphasis on drinking. The “2012
Freshman Norms report,” administered by University of California, Los Angeles’
Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP), revealed that while 73.7
percent of college freshmen were reported consuming alcoholic beverages in
1982, the number dropped significantly to 35.4 percent in 2011, and only 33
percent of first-year students were reported drinking in 2012. Rest
of the story is here.
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