The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

The STASH Vol. 3(6) - Sufferin’ Succulents!? Lack of Residual Psychological Effects from Peyote Use

Peyote is a small, spineless cactus containing the hallucinogen mescaline. The Native American Church (NAC) expects members to abstain from any drug or alcohol use except peyote, which is taken only during religious ceremonies (Stewart, 1987). This circumstance creates a unique opportunity to study the psychological effects of long-term peyote use, without confounding effects from additional drug use. This week’s STASH reviews just such a study conducted on a sample of Navajo Native Americans. Halpern, Sherwood, Hudson, Yurgelun-Todd, and Pope (2005) recruited 61 Navajo NAC members with a history of extensive ritual use of peyote (i.e., ingested peyote at least... Read more →

Op-Ed/Editorials - Gambling and the Law®: The U.S. Gets An “F” From The WTO

The United States has failed again in trying to overturn the ruling that it is discriminating against Antigua’s Internet gambling. Worse, by failing to admit defeat, the Department of Justice has now turned a minor legal problem, limited to the issue of interstate horseracing, into a major headache for the U.S. on all aspects of remote wagering, including purely intrastate betting on horseracing, dogracing, sports, jai alai and maybe even poker. I would have given a law student a grade of “D” if he or she had done what the D.O.J. did. And that’s only because I do not like... Read more →

Addiction & the Humanities Vol. 3(6)- Vodka & Lighter Fluid: Russian Mortality Rates on the Rocks?

Russia is famous for ballet, Romanovs, Dostoevsky, and communism among many other things. Many people think Russian vodka is the best in the world. However, this particular cultural strength also might be associated with a high rate of alcoholism and alcohol-related deaths. For example, research indicates that nearly half of all deaths among men 25-54 in an average Russian city were related to hazardous drinking behavior (Leon et al., 2007). This week’s Addiction and the Humanities examines a related phenomenon: surrogate alcohol consumption in Russia (McKee et al., 2005). In Russia, the consumption of surrogate alcohols (i.e., products not sold... Read more →

ASHES Vol. 3(6) - Nicotine Gum, Patches, and Lozenges: Do They Work for Real-World Smokers?

Clinicians have identified nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), such as nicotine gum, patches, and lozenges, as one of the most cost-effective, life-preserving interventions available to medical science (National Institute for Clinical Excellence, 2002; Silagy, 2004). However, many smokers might use NRT sub-optimally, leading to a lower level of efficacy outside of clinical trials. This week’s ASHES reports on a multinational cohort study testing the effectiveness of NRT as a smoking cessation tool in the ‘real world’. West & Zhou (2007) used the Internet to recruit participants who smoked five or more cigarettes per day, were 35 to 65 years old, and... Read more →

The DRAM Vol. 3(6) Unlocking the mind: Study uncovers a possible neural pathway to explain how talk therapy works.

There are various forms of therapy, but for many people help revolves around talking over past experiences. Researchers are working to uncover the mechanisms by which talk therapy operates. Recently, Lieberman et al. (2007) utilized functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), to examine how affect labeling (i.e., putting feelings to words) diminishes activity in areas of the brain associated with emotional response. Thirty subjects completed 10 trials each of 6 experimental tasks: (a) labeling emotional facial expressions; (b) matching emotional facial expressions; (c) observing emotional facial expressions; (d) labeling the gender of facial images; (e) matching the gender of facial images;... Read more →