Drug and Alcohol Services, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, NSW. Stephen M Jurd, MB BS, FRANZCP, FAChAM, Medical Director, Area Drug and Alcohol Services, Northern Sydney Health; and Clinical Senior Lecturer, University of Sydney. Reprints: Dr S M Jurd, Drug and Alcohol Services, Royal North Shore Hospital, Herbert St, St Leonards, NSW 2065. [email protected] The Medical Journal of...

ERIC J. NESTLER and ROBERT C. MALENKA study the molecular basis of drug addiction. Nestler, professor in and chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1998. Malenka, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine, joined the faculty there after...

By attempting to quit and seeking help from others, you've already taken a remarkable first step in the direction of change. For those who may be unfamiliar, methadone is a synthetic opioid drug that is commonly used to treat narcotic or opiate addiction (such as heroin). Regardless of whether you started taking methadone to treat a drug addiction, pain, or for recreational purposes, it can be ...

The present study aims to develop an integrative model that links neighborhood behavioral opportunities and social resources (neighborhood cohesion, neighborhood friendship and neighborhood attachment) to prosocial (sharing, helping, empathic) behavior in early adolescence, taking into account the potential mediating role of perceived support of friends. Path analysis was used to test the propo...

Research on women and depression has neglected to explore how the factors that put women at risk for depression apply to lesbians. The present study examined four of the risk factors consistently cited in the women and depression literature (relationship status, relationship satisfaction, social support from friends, and social support from family), and two unique factors (outness and relations...

By our mistakes we shall learn. If I had a nickel for each time I’ve tried to put this across to a student .... It seems as if academic courses aren’t always designed to foster making mistakes. Too often the emphasis is on getting the best grade possible, as opposed to simply learning something new. But, in the real world, there are no tests to take, no quizzes or exams to struggle through. The...

Units of dendritic branches called dendritic spines represent more than simply decorative appendages of the neuron and actively participate in integrative functions of "spinous" nerve cells thereby contributing to the general phenomenon of synaptic plasticity. In animal models of drug addiction, spines are profoundly affected by treatments with drugs of abuse and represent important sub cellula...

Challenges of pain management after orthopedic surgery in drug-addicted patients from the patient's perspective