Objective: Drug abuse and addiction are worldwide health problems. However, few studies have used fMRI to investigate the effect of chronic heroin use on brain activation. This is a study along this line.
Method: fMRI positive sites in the brain were recorded during different motor and sensory activities.
Results: Following motor activities, heroin users had more sites globally activated in the brain than in normal volunteers, with ex-heroin users being least reactive. Conversely, a "heroin puffing" movie produced more activation in ongoing-heroin and ex-heroin users than in the normal individuals, whereas a movie with explicit sexual content was less stimulatory in both groups of heroin users compared to normal individuals.
Conclusions: These significant findings relative to the function of specific brain nuclei are discussed.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/PM.47.1.c | DOI Listing |
J Stud Alcohol Drugs
January 2025
Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States.
Objective: Substance use patterns vary considerably in the general population, yet little is known about patterns before and during pregnancy. The purpose of this study was to describe single substance and polysubstance use (PSU) before and during pregnancy among recent births in the United States (US) and compare exposure patterns.
Methods: We used data from the Pregnancy and Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) postpartum survey for 2016-2018 to estimate the prevalence and identify patterns of substance use by participants one to three months before and during pregnancy.
Braz J Psychiatry
January 2025
Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Paulista School of Medicine, UNIFESP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Background: The practice of using drugs to modulate experiences is a well-documented phenomenon worldwide, particularly among men who have sex with men (MSM). This study aims to describe patterns of drug combinations used by Brazilian MSM, embracing a detailed examination of the Brazilian context, which may inspire research elsewhere while enriching the global panorama on MSM drug use. By focusing on Brazilian MSM, the study sheds light on specific drug use combinations, which may help in the development of effective, culturally sensitive public health strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Voice
January 2025
Department of Audio, Video, and Electronic Forensics, Academy of Forensic Science, Shanghai, China; Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, Key Laboratory of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, Shanghai, China.
Drug abuse can cause severe damage to the human speech organs. The vocal folds are one of the important speech organs that produce voice through vibration when airflow passes through. Previous studies have reported the negative effects of drugs on speech organs, including the vocal folds, but there is still limited research on relevant field.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
December 2024
Department of Medicine, St. Paul's Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
In Canada, the ongoing fatal overdose crisis remains driven by the unpredictable potency and content of the illicit drug supply. From August 2022 until October 2023, the Drug User Liberation Front [DULF] operated a drug compassion club [CC], which sells drugs of known composition and purity without medical oversight. The present study is a qualitative evaluation of this project.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Psychiatry
December 2024
Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA; Addiction Institute of Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA. Electronic address:
Background: Identifying neurobiological targets predictive of the molecular neuropathophysiological signature of human opioid use disorder (OUD) could expedite new treatments. OUD is characterized by dysregulated cognition and goal-directed behavior mediated by the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and next-generation sequencing could provide insights regarding novel targets.
Methods: Here, we used machine learning to evaluate human post-mortem OFC RNA-sequencing datasets from heroin-users and controls to identify transcripts predictive of heroin use.
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