The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

The WAGER, Vol. 15(7) – Disordered Gambling Linked with Treatment for Parkinson Disease

Patients being treated for Parkinson disease (PD) have been reported to have a disproportionately high prevalence of disordered gambling and other impulse control disorders (ICDs) such as compulsive shopping, binge-eating, and hypersexuality (e.g., Bostwick, Hecksel, Stevens, Bower, & Ahlskog, 2009; Evans, Strafella, Weintraub, & Stacy, 2009). The development of these disorders appears to be most associated with dopamine agonists, a type of medication commonly used to treat PD, but estimates of the effect have varied. This week’s WAGER reviews a large cross-sectional study designed to obtain more accurate data about ICD prevalence among those with PD and the association of... Read more →

STASH, Vol. 6(7) – I Can’t Focus: Self-Medication Implications behind ADHD Prescription Drug Misuse

As described in a previous BASIS, US college students report taking unprescribed ADHD medications, such as Ritalin, Concerta, and Adderall, to improve their academic performance. An open question is whether some use these prescription medications to manage undiagnosed ADHD. This week the STASH reviews a recent article by Peterkin and colleagues (2010) that explores the potential association between the misuse of ADHD medications and undiagnosed ADHD among college students. Methods A convenience sample of college students (n=190) volunteered to participate in an anonymous survey regarding cognitive performance enhancement. The survey asked whether participants had ever been diagnosed with ADHD and... Read more →

Addiction & the Humanities Vol. 6(7) – The Force of Intervention

Ethically, healthcare professionals are bound to respect participants’ addiction treatment-seeking decisions, and therefore cannot force treatment onto unwilling participants unless they represent a threat to themselves or others. But, what would happen if such a restriction did not exist? A previous Humanities review (Vol 5-8) of A&E’s “The Cleaner” revealed the inaccuracies in the show’s depiction of addiction recovery following an intervention. Similarly, this week’s Addiction & the Humanities examines another A&E show related to addiction recovery, “Intervention.” Within the context of the show, we discuss the efficacy and ethical ramifications of intervention as an attempt to change the substance... Read more →

The ASHES, Vol 6(7) – What’s more important for predicting smoking behavior: How unpleasant you say smoking is or how closely smoking and unpleasant are associated in your mind?

Social psychologists often demonstrate that explicit measures of attitudes (i.e., direct inquiries about one’s thoughts and opinions) are biased and unreliable (Holtgraves, 2004). Therefore, researchers have developed various implicit methods for measuring attitudes. This week’s ASHES reviews a study that examined how implicit and explicit attitudes about smoking predict the probability of being a smoker (Perugini, 2005). Methods Perugini recruited 35 women and 13 men on campus; of these participants, 25 were smokers and 23 non-smokers. Participants completed: Implicit Association Test (IAT) measuring response times to associations between the concepts, smoking and exercise, and the attributes, pleasant and non-pleasant. An... Read more →