Certain personality traits, demographic and work related factors increase the likelihood that
doctors will develop mental illness or hazardous alcohol habits according to a study
published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Dr Louise Nash, from the New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry and University of Sydney
and co-authors conducted a study to identify factors associated with psychiatric morbidity
and hazardous alcohol use in Australian doctors. A total of 2999 doctors participated in the
study.

Dr Nash said that the mental health of medical practitioners is crucial to the quality of care
their patients receive.

“Factors significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity in doctors included having a
current medicolegal matter, not taking a holiday in the previous year, working long hours,
type of specialty, and having the personality traits of neuroticism or introversion,” Dr Nash
said.

“Factors significantly associated with potentially hazardous alcohol use were being male,
being Australian-trained, being aged between 40 and 59 years, having the personality traits of
neuroticism or extroversion, failing to meet Continuing Medical Education requirements, and
being a solo practitioner.”

Dr Nash said that, although personality traits contributed highly to doctors developing a
mental illness and hazardous alcohol habits, she highlighted that the work related factors
could not be ignored.

“Unlike personality traits, the work-related and lifestyle factors associated with psychiatric
morbidity and hazardous alcohol use are more easily addressed,” Dr Nash said.

“Doctors should reflect on their hours of work and need for holidays.

“Doctors need to be educated about medicolegal processes and understand how the
experience may affect their health, their work and their loved ones.”

The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.

Source:
Dr Louise Nash
Australian Medical Association

According to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), the best way to detect cocaine in the body of a human drug courier, known as a mule, is through computed tomography (CT).

“Cocaine from South America is making its way to Europe through Africa,” said Patricia Flach, M.D., a radiologist at University Hospital of Berne and Institute of Forensic Medicine of Berne in Switzerland. “From Africa, drug mules most commonly try to enter the European Union and Switzerland.”

When legal authorities suspect an individual of being a drug mule, they often turn to radiologists to help quickly detect the presence of cocaine concealed in the body. Cocaine containers, which may be swallowed or inserted in the vagina or rectum, can be as large as a banana or as small as a blueberry.

“In these cases it is important for us to know that we have identified all the drug containers in a body, both for legal purposes and for the health of the patient,” Dr. Flach said. “However, there was no research telling us which imaging modality was best in detecting cocaine containers in the stomach, intestines or other body orifices.”

Dr. Flach and colleagues analyzed images from 89 exams performed on 50 suspected drug mules over a three-year period at University Hospital. The study group included 45 men and five women between the ages of 16 and 45. Forty-three of the suspects were ultimately identified as drug mules.

Of the imaging exams conducted, 27 were CT, 50 were digital x-ray and 12 were low-dose linear slit digital radiography (LSDR), an extremely fast, high-resolution, full-body x-ray system primarily used for trauma patients. The radiologic findings were compared with a written record of the drug containers recovered from the feces of suspects.

“As we expected, CT imaging allowed us to see all the drug containers, especially when we knew what to look for,” Dr. Flach said.

The results showed that the coating and manufacture of the containers changed their appearance, especially on CT images. Rubber coated condoms filled with cocaine appeared very hyper-dense, or white, on CT, while other containers of similar size with plastic foil wrapping appeared iso- to hypo-dense, or gray to black. This contradicts some previous reports that have suggested image density may correlate with the drug content.

The sensitivity of CT was 100 percent, meaning CT was able to find all cocaine containers that were present in the drug mules’ bodies. LSDR had a sensitivity rate of 85 percent, and digital x-ray was able to identify the presence of cocaine containers only 70 percent of the time.

“There were positive findings on CT that were clearly not detectable on x-rays due to overlap of intestinal air, feces or other dense structures,” Dr. Flach said.

While CT was clearly the most accurate imaging modality in detecting the drug containers, the increased ionizing radiation associated with the exam is a concern when imaging people who are presumably healthy.

“CT is the way to go,” Dr. Flach said. “But low-dose protocols need to be implemented to ensure the safety of the people undergoing the procedure.”

Coauthors are Steffen Ross, M.D., Gary Hatch, M.D., Ulrich Preiss, M.D., Thomas Ruder, M.D., Michael Thali, M.D., and Michael Patak, M.D.

Source:

Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)

Results of recent research suggest that combining the antiseizure medication topiramate with one form of behavioral therapy may effectively treat cocaine addiction.

Researchers with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia enrolled 40 people in a 13- week, placebo-controlled, double-blind study. Participants received placebo or an escalating daily dose of topiramate for 8 weeks (they initially received a dose of 25 mg daily, which was increased by 25 mg per week until the maximum dose of 200 mg per day was reached during the 8th week of the study). This maximum once-daily dose was maintained through week 12. During week 13, the dose of the drug was decreased daily until participants were weaned from it.

All study participants also received twice-weekly, individual, cognitive-behavioral relapse prevention therapy. In cognitive-behavioral therapy, patients learn to confront the consequences of their drug use by recognizing the environmental cues and potentially stressful situations that trigger strong drug cravings, and develop avoidance strategies.

The scientists reported that participants who received topiramate were more likely than those who received a placebo to be cocaine-abstinent after the 8th week of the study. In addition, data from the 36 people who returned for at least one evaluation visit after starting medications showed that those who received topiramate and counseling were significantly more likely to achieve 3 or more weeks of continuous cocaine abstinence compared with those who received placebo and counseling (59 percent vs. 26 percent, respectively).

WHAT IT MEANS: A recognized treatment for seizure disorders, topiramate also has been studied for treatment of alcoholism and opiate dependence. This study, however, is one of the first to explore its usefulness as a potential treatment for cocaine addiction. This study is important because it demonstrates that topiramate can successfully produce a stable period of cocaine abstinence. Previous research indicates that achieving a stable period of continuous cocaine abstinence is a predictor of long-term abstinence.

Dr. Kyle Kampman led this NIDA-funded study, which was published online in May, 2004 in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

This article comes from this PDF file

National Institute of Drug Abuse Addiction Research News

For more information contact:

Reporters, call Michelle Person at 301-443-6245.

Congressional staffers, call Mary Mayhew at 301-443-6071.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports more than 85 percent of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to ensure the rapid dissemination of research information and its implementation in policy and practice. Fact sheets on the health effects of drugs of abuse and other topics are available in English and Spanish. These fact sheets and further information on NIDA research and other activities can be found on the NIDA home page at drugabuse.

Numerous studies have shown that highly impulsive behavior – defined as the tendency to choose small, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards – is more prevalent in drug addicts and alcoholics compared to individuals without addictions. A new study using mice has found that genes influence impulsivity, which may then contribute to the risk for developing alcoholism.

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

“There is increasing evidence that the character trait of impulsivity predisposes towards addiction in all its forms, such as drugs, alcohol, gambling,” said Nicholas J. Grahame, associate professor of psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. “Data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcoholism and Related Conditions suggest that a variety of disorders that increase impulsivity – from bipolar disorder, to conduct disorder, and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) – are associated with an increase in risk for alcoholism.”

“The relationship between high impulsivity and drug use raises many questions,” added Suzanne H. Mitchell, associate professor in behavioral neuroscience at Oregon Health & Science University. “For example, is an impulsive individual more likely to experiment with drugs, and then develop a problem? If such a relationship was found, identifying children or adolescents with high levels of impulsivity might, in theory, allow us to identify individuals at risk for developing a substance-use disorder like alcoholism.”

Grahame and his colleagues tested several selected lines of alcohol-na??ve mice: offspring of High Alcohol Preferring (HAP) mice, HAP1 and HAP2; offspring of Low Alcohol Preferring (LAP) mice, LAP2; as well as offspring of low-drinking progenitor (HS/Ibg) mice. All of the mice were tested on a delay-discounting task, which employs two levers to provide subjects with a choice between a small, immediate or a large, delayed saccharin reward.

“We first used selective breeding to obtain mice genetically predisposed to drink alcohol,” said Grahame. “The experiment was to create lines of animals that differ in genes related to alcohol drinking, and the central question was: ‘Are any of the genes affected by this manipulation related to impulsivity?’ To study this, we used a task that is widely used in both human and animal studies, which was to give a choice between an immediate but small reward and a delayed but large reward. The mice that had the genes to drink, the HAP1 and HAP2 mice, were more impulsive than their low-drinking counterparts, the LAP2 and HS/IBG mice.”

“Given that these differences in impulsivity were present in alcohol-na??ve animals,” added Mitchell, “neural changes brought about by alcohol consumption could not be responsible for the differences between the two groups of mice.”

“I think these data can clearly be extrapolated to humans,” said Grahame, “because the same task can be used in a variety of species, including humans, to assess ability to plan for the future. The data suggest that if humans are like mice, their differences in impulsive behavior may also be affected by their genes, and these differences in impulsivity could confer some of the familial risk for alcoholism that we already know about.”

Mitchell agreed. “The results imply that a subset of individuals who are ‘family-history-positive’ for alcoholism behave more impulsively,” she said. “However, the results do not mean that individuals with high levels of impulsivity are doomed to a life of substance use, just as having genes associated with alcoholism does not destine you for a life of alcoholism. The interaction between genes and environment is critical. However, the study supports other work indicating that there is a genetic component to impulsivity. Future work could shed light on which genes are important in impulsive decision making, and which genes are shared with the propensity to develop a substance-use disorder.”

“I think that the quality of impulsivity we are assessing here resonates with many folk stories about “fools” and their poor decision making,” said Grahame. “I think of Jack of beanstalk fame who trades his cow for three magic beans, the grasshopper who has fun now while the ant plans for the future, and the pig that works hard to build the brick house that can survive the wolf. We try to inculcate low impulsivity in our children, because it is such an important survival trait for many reasons.”

While the natural impulsivity of children tends to diminish as they mature, added Grahame, a decrease in heavy drinking that occurs for many during their teen years may be absent for those who have other problems, causing them to remain impulsive well into their adult years.

“Our data suggest that impulsivity contributes to high alcohol drinking and, consequently, the diagnosis of any disorder associated with life-long impulsivity – for example, ASPD, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and attention-deficit disorder – is grounds for serious concern about later problems with alcoholism and drug abuse, which can aggravate the severity of the disorders I just mentioned,” said Grahame. “We already know this from human studies, but I think that the mouse data make us more certain about the causal direction, and genetic mediation, of some of these associations.”

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER) is the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. The co-author of the ACER paper, “High Alcohol Preferring Mice Are More Impulsive than Low Alcohol Preferring Mice as Measured in the Delay Discounting Task,” was Brandon Gregg Oberlin of the Program in Medical Neuroscience at Indiana University School of Medicine. The study was funded by the Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis School of Science, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Source:

Nicholas J. Grahame, Ph.D.

Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis

Suzanne H. Mitchell, Ph.D.

Oregon Health & Science University

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research

Moderate drinkers who occasionally drink heavily are more likely to suffer an alcohol-related injury than chronic heavy drinkers, a Swiss study has found, and the risk is greatest during a bout of binge drinking.

“It’s not only the amount of alcohol consumed that shapes the risk for injury, but also the usual consumption pattern,” said lead researcher Gerhard Gmel. “At highest risk are those who usually consume moderately but sometimes binge drink. This is true for both sexes.”

Gmel, of the Alcohol Treatment Center at the Lausanne University Hospital and the Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Problems, and colleagues screened 8,736 emergency department patients who had been admitted to the hospital’s surgical ward during an 18-month period.

Their study, in the current issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, examines how the interaction among three aspects of drinking behavior — average weekly consumption, binge-drinking episodes and the amount of alcohol consumed before hospital admission — affects risk of injury.

Among all types of drinkers, the risk of injury increased with higher alcohol consumption in the 24 hours before hospital admission. But the greatest risk was among moderate drinkers who sometimes drank heavily and who had done so in the previous 24 hours.

During a bout of heavy drinking, moderate-drinking women were more than seven times as likely to be injured than women who never drank. Among moderate-drinking men who sometimes binged on alcohol, the odds of injury were more than six times greater during a binge compared to male non-drinkers.

“This study confirms what a lot of us think happens with risky drinking behavior,” said Linda Degutis, associate professor of surgery and public health at Yale University.

Degutis said about 20 percent of adults in the United States fall into the category of hazardous and harmful drinkers. “These are people who are not physically dependent on alcohol, but they binge drink or have health or social consequences because of their drinking,” she said.

According to Gmel, interventions that target only chronic high-volume drinkers will not be very effective in reducing injuries, because the majority of injuries occur in the much larger population of moderate drinkers.

“There are many effective preventive measures, including strict enforcement of drinking driving policies and responsible beverage serving,” he said. “The most effective strategy would be a combined effort at the individual and societal levels. This would include targeting happy hours and other environments that encourage rapid consumption of large quantities of alcohol and changing social norms of what is acceptable drinking behavior.”

By Kelly Griffin, Contributing Writer
Health Behavior News Service

Gmel G, et al. Alcohol-attributable injuries in admissions to a Swiss emergency room–an analysis of the link between volume of drinking, drinking patterns and pre-attendance drinking. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 30(3), 2006.

Contact: Gerhard Gmel
Center for the Advancement of Health

Researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital have produced the first evidence that the opioid blocker extended-release injectable naltrexone (XR-NTX) is able to reduce the brain’s response to cues that may cause alcoholics to relapse.

In data presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, Scott Lukas, PhD, director of the Neuroimaging Center at McLean, located in Belmont, Mass., said the findings help in the understanding of how XR-NTX works in reducing the craving for alcohol and may potentially help predict which people will respond best to the drug.

“These data are quite important since relapse remains a significant challenge in treating patients with alcohol dependence,” Lukas said. “It looks to us that XR-NTX can help people remain abstinent by reducing the importance of these cues so they are less likely to relapse.”

XR-NTX works by blocking opioid receptors in the brain and was approved for the treatment of alcohol dependence in 2006. XR-NTX is commercially available as Vivitrol®.

“We were trying to better understand the biological basis of how XR-NTX reduces alcohol consumption,” Lukas said. “These data clearly demonstrate that XR-NTX reduced craving response in the brain when patients were presented with alcohol cues.”

In the study, which has not yet been published, the researchers used brain imaging as a tool to document how XR-NTX works when a person is placed in a situation deemed risky for alcohol relapse.

A total of 28 alcohol-dependent individuals were tested with a BOLD (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent) fMRI scan while shown pictures of bottles or glasses of alcoholic beverages and exposed to odors of their particular alcoholic beverage of choice.

Under double-blind conditions, fifteen of the subjects were given an injection of a XR-NTX and thirteen subjects were given a placebo injection. The study did not test the older form of naltrexone, which is taken daily in pill form.

Initially, the subjects were asked to self-report their cravings for alcohol after being exposed to the alcohol cues. All subjects reported that their cravings increased in the first few minutes after exposure to the cues.

However, those on XR-NTX reported that their cravings started to diminish after a few minutes, while those on placebo injection reported no such decrease in craving levels.

fMRI images also revealed that the pictures and odors induced sharply contrasting brain blood flow activation patterns. Scans were taken at baseline and again two weeks after the injection. Scans of subjects on placebo were virtually unchanged after two weeks. But those subjects on XR-NTX showed significant reductions in activation patterns in areas of the brain having to do with cognitive and emotional processing and reward circuitry on the second scan following exposure to the alcohol cues.

“The areas in the brain associated with craving did not light up nearly as much in patients treated with XR-NTX compared to patients on placebo,” Lukas said. “These data suggest that those patients on XR-NTX were responding less strongly to the alcohol cues after being on the drug for only two weeks,” he added.

Lukas cautioned, “There is no single magic bullet, but having a choice of medications at our disposal gives physicians an increased chance to better treat a wide range of addictions.”

Understanding cravings and how medication can play a role in controlling them will help to improve treatment for patients with alcohol dependence.

Source:
Adriana Bobinchock
McLean Hospital

View drug information on Naltrexone Hydrochloride Tablets.

Tests carried out on mice indicate that the consumption of two alcoholic drinks a day may double the growth rate of existing breast cancer tumors, say researchers from the University of Mississippi, USA, in a presentation made to the American Physiology Society. This new study may change the advice doctors give cancer patients, who are sometimes told to ‘drink moderately’.

The researchers worked on two groups of mice, half were given the equivalent of two alcoholic drinks each day, while the other half received no alcoholic drinks. Breast cancer cells were injected into all the mice. A month later it was found that the mice which had consumed alcohol had tumors weighing 1.4 kilograms (average), about twice as heavy as the mice which did not consume any alcohol.

The scientists also found that alcohol caused the blood vessels in the cancer to grow faster.

According to Jian-Wei Gu, team leader, we produce lots of cancer cells each day, but they rarely grow. However, if the cells establish blood vessels, the tumor grows and thrives (angiogenesis). Jian-Wei Gu said patients receiving treatment for cancer should abstain from consuming alcohol altogether.

American Physiology Society
University of Mississippi Medical Center

Drug abusers who used a computer-assisted training program in addition to receiving traditional counseling stayed abstinent significantly longer than those who received counseling alone, a Yale University study has found.

The findings were reported in the May 1 edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Seventy-seven people who sought treatment for drug and alcohol abuse were randomly assigned to receive traditional counseling or to get computer-assisted training based on principles of cognitive behavioral therapy as well as sessions with a therapist.

The subjects who received computer-assisted training had significantly fewer positive drug tests at the conclusion of the study, reported Kathleen M. Carroll, professor of psychiatry and lead author of the study.

“We think this is a very exciting way of reaching more people who may have substance use problems and providing a means of helping them learn effective ways to change their behavior,” Carroll said.

Cognitive behavioral therapy concentrates on teaching skills and strategies to help people change behavior patterns and has been proven to be effective way to treat a wide variety of psychiatric disorders. However, such therapy is not widely available for people with substance use problems, Carroll said.

Also, many counselors lack the time or training to fully implement cognitive behavioral therapies for their patients, she said. She and her team at the Yale School of Medicine developed a software program to help supplement counseling in drug addiction as well as other psychiatric disorders.

The computer-assisted therapy program consists of text, audio, and videotaped examples designed to help the user learn new ways of avoiding the use of drugs and changing other problem behaviors. The study volunteers had sought treatment at a substance abuse clinic in Bridgeport, Ct. and met diagnostic criteria for a substance use problem, with alcohol, cocaine, opioids or marijuana. Those assigned to computer-assisted training were exposed to six lessons, or modules, that they accessed from a computer located at the treatment program. Each module included a brief movie that presented a particular challenge to the subjects’ ability to resist substance use – such as the offer of drugs from a dealer.

The narrator of the module then presented different skills and strategies to avoid drug use and also show videotapes of individuals employing those strategies.

“I am immensely proud of Dr. Carroll and her colleagues’ work,” said William Sledge, MD, interim chair and George D and Esther S Gross professor of psychiatry. “At first glance one might conclude that this computer-based training in some way threatens the conventionally perceived value of the relationship between the therapist and the patient, however, I do not see it as so. Rather, they have demonstrated how a low cost but carefully conceived procedure can enhance conventional treatment and add additional element of richness and effectiveness to its power.”

Carroll is one of 20 Yale School of Medicine faculty members who have been designated ISI HighlyCited researcher, a listing of the most highly influential scientists in the world. The Yale drug and alcohol program received top ranking among graduate programs in 2008 from the US News and World Report.

The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Kathleen Carroll

Yale School of Medicine

Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. Roughly eight to 12 percent of marijuana users are considered “dependent” and, just like alcohol, the severity of symptoms increases with heavier use. A new study has found that use and misuse of alcohol and marijuana are influenced by a common set of genes.

Results will be published in the March 2010 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

“Results from a large annual survey of high-school students show that in 2008, 41.8 percent of 12th graders reported having used marijuana,” explained Carolyn E. Sartor, a research instructor at Washington University School of Medicine and corresponding author for the study. “Although many may have used the drug on only a few occasions, 5.4 percent of 12th graders reported using it daily within the preceding month.”

“The active ingredient in marijuana is THC, which mimics natural cannabinoids that the brain produces,” added Christian Hopfer, associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “The cannabinoid system is critical for learning, memory, appetite, and pain perception. Most users of marijuana will not develop an ‘addiction’ to it, but perhaps one in 12 will. What is not commonly appreciated about marijuana use is that strong evidence has emerged that it increases the risk of developing mental illnesses and possibly exacerbates pre-existing mental illnesses.”

“Like any drug, marijuana can be used in a way that negatively impacts quality of life, interfering with functioning at school or work or leading to problems with family and friends,” said Sartor. “Although at least three of six symptoms listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) are needed to meet full criteria for cannabis (marijuana) dependence ??¦ the presence of even one or two of these symptoms could create distress or interfere with day-to-day functioning. There is strong evidence for a genetic component to use and dependence on marijuana as well as alcohol, and the use (and misuse) of these substances frequently occur together.”

Researchers examined 6,257 individuals (2,761 complete twin pairs and 735 singletons) listed in the Australian Twin Registry, 24 to 36 years of age. Alcohol and marijuana use histories were gathered in telephone diagnostic interviews and used to derive levels of alcohol consumption, frequency of marijuana use, and DSM-IV alcohol and cannabis dependence symptoms.

“Our findings indicate that ??¦ many of the same genetic factors that contribute to alcohol use also contribute to marijuana use,” said Sartor. “Likewise, alcohol dependence symptoms and cannabis dependence symptoms can be traced to some of the same genetic influences. For both alcohol and marijuana, the majority of genetic factors that contribute to use also contribute to dependence symptoms.”

“In other words,” said Hopfer, “the genetic influences on drug use are not specific to individual drugs, but seem to influence a general tendency to engage in drug use. This is important to note because there is a tendency to study drugs in isolation – alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, etc. These findings add support to the notion of common mechanisms underlying all addictions.”

“The fact that very little of the environmental influences on alcohol and marijuana use, or on alcohol and cannabis dependence symptoms, could be traced to common sources indicates that there may be important distinctions between those environmental factors that influence alcohol-related outcomes and those that influence marijuana-related outcomes,” said Sartor. “Identifying alcohol- and marijuana-specific risk factors is an important next step in this line of research.”

“Marijuana research is relatively sparse compared to alcohol or nicotine research,” added Hopfer. “However, if you look at reports of at least adolescents and young people using, it becomes clear that marijuana use, including daily marijuana use, is quite common and the effects of this are not well understood. The mental illness/marijuana connection has not received much press, although I think the evidence has grown substantially that marijuana is a causal risk factor for the development of mental illness.”

Source: Carolyn E. Sartor, Ph.D.

Washington University School of Medicine

Christian Hopfer, M.D.

University of Colorado Denver

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research

Researchers at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center have completed a study that compared the age of first-time drug users across the nation to the age of first-time drug users on and near two different American Indian reservations. Overall, American Indian adolescents were found to be at higher risk for trying marijuana than their peers across the country. The study, published in the July 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, is being published May 30 online under ‘First Look’ at ajph.

Researchers at the American Indian and Alaska Native Programs located in UCDHSC’s Nighthorse Campbell Native Health Building divided drug users into two groups those born before 1960 and those born after 1960. For the population born before 1960, the potential risk for drug use peaked at age 18 with a greater risk in the overall national population group. After 1960, the risk for trying marijuana was highest at age 16 and is now higher among reservation-dwelling youth than the general population.

“The overall age for drug use and experimentation has moved to a younger age group all across the nation,” said Nancy Whitesell, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry in the American Indian and Alaska Native Programs at the UCDHSC School of Medicine. “The numbers show the Native American samples are catching up and even surpassing the national population samples for the youngest populations that are at risk for drug use.”

Marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug among adolescents and adults in the United States. Some studies have linked early marijuana use with later dependence on the drug and use of additional drugs and substances.

Whitesell added, “The earlier the exposure to drugs, the more likely the child is to develop other drug problems or dependency disorders. This research tells us that greater attention needs to be paid to prevention strategies targeted at younger children. Since the risk of use is sliding toward younger and younger children, it would be best to start the education and prevention methods in late elementary school-aged children, especially in Native American communities.”

The University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center is one of three universities in the University of Colorado system. Located in Denver and at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo., the center includes schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and dentistry, a graduate school and a teaching hospital. For more information, visit the Web site at uchsc.

University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center
Mail Stop F-413 PO Box 6508
Aurora, CO 80045-0508
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uchsc