The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

The WAGER, Vol. 14(4) - Pay Attention: Does Persistent ADHD Lead to Gambling Problems in Young Adults?

A number of studies (Carlton & Manowitz, 1992; Carlton et al., 1987; Rugle & Melamed, 1993) have shown an association between symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in childhood and pathological gambling behavior during adulthood. The majority of these studies have retrospective designs, and examine past ADHD symptoms after the development of pathological gambling behavior. These study designs are susceptible to considerable recall bias and leave the causal relationship between ADHD and problem gambling unclear. This week’s WAGER reviews a prospective study (Breyer et al., 2009), which attempts to illuminate the relationship between persistent ADHD and gambling behaviors from... Read more →

STASH, Vol. 5(4) – Risk factors for substance use among women who were teenage mothers

According to the recent Center for Disease Control’s National Vital Statistics Reports, after years of decline, the rates of teenage pregnancy in the U.S. are rising to 41.9 births per 1000 females (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). This week the STASH reviews research by De Genna, Cornelius, and Donovan (2009) who conducted a 10-year follow-up examining the risk factors for substance use among women who were teenage mothers. Method Pregnant teenagers (n=445, mean age 16.32 ± 1.89, range 12-18 years) were recruited from a Pittsburgh, PA prenatal clinic and interviewed about past year substance use related experiences at... Read more →

Addiction & the Humanities, Vol. 5 (4) - On the other hand: An argument against Cognitive Enhancing Drugs

Our last issue of Addiction & the Humanities presented one side of the debate about the use of cognitive-enhancing drugs; Greely and colleagues argued that the use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by healthy individuals is akin to the use of good nutrition and better technology to improve performance and should be accepted by society as part of the next wave of self-improvement methods (Greely et al., 2008). This week we present the other side of this discussion: the argument against the use cognitive-enhancing drugs by healthy individuals. In a column for the website LiveScience.com, Christopher Wanjek argues that Greely and colleagues... Read more →

ASHES, Vol. 5(4) – To Pee or not to Pee? Testing Urine to Predict Lung Cancer.

Some lifelong smokers do not develop lung cancer (Peto et al., 2000). The risk of developing lung cancer might vary as a function of smokers’ uptake and metabolism of carcinogens in tobacco smoke. NNK, a known carcinogen in rodents, is metabolically converted to NNAL, a human carcinogen (Hecht, 1998). Another common tobacco metabolite found in humans is cotinine; researchers often measure cotinine to determine exposure to tobacco smoke. This week’s ASHES reviews a study that examines the relationship between the urine levels of two carcinogen metabolites (NNAL and cotinine) and the risk for developing lung cancer (Yuan et al., 2009).... Read more →