BACKGROUND Adolescent substance use is associated with both earlier childhood behavioural problems and serious lifetime addiction problems later in life. AIMS To examine whether, and through which mechanisms, targeting risk factors in early childhood prevents substance use across adolescence. METHOD Disruptive kindergarten boys (n = 172) living in Montreal were randomly allocated to a preve...

Addictive drugs have in common that they target the mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) system. This system originates in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and projects mainly to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Here, we review the effects that such drugs leave on glutamatergic and GABAergic synaptic transmission in these three brain areas. We refer to these changes as drug-e...

There are hints, that online-gambling has a higher addictive potential than offline-gambling. In this study prevalence and sociodemographic distribution of online- vs. offline-gambling in Austria are gathered and possible relations discussed. Problematic gambling-behavior was assessed via Lie-and-Bet questionnaire from Johnson. The results indicate a tendency of younger gamblers and particularl...

The majority of addictive disorders have a significant heritability-roughly around 50%. Surprisingly, the most convincing association (a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor CHRNA5-A3-B4 gene cluster in nicotine dependence), with a unique attributable risk of 14%, was detected through a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on lung cancer, although lung cancer has a low heritability. We propose some...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have identified reinforcing properties associated with tanning and suggest a possible physiologic mechanism and addiction driving tanning behavior. OBJECTIVE This article attempts to synthesize the existing literature on tanning and addiction to investigate possible associations. METHODS We investigated a variety of substance dependence models to define what consti...

Drug addictions are often viewed as compulsive behaviors, not sensitive to the typical rules of self-discipline or market forces. Nonetheless, many governments try to discourage consumption of addictive substances through macro policy tools, such as taxation, regulation and prohibition, in an effort to reduce the harmful consequences that result from their consumption. The government's ability ...

Alcohol consumption is an integral part of daily life in many societies. The benefits associated with the production, sale, and use of alcoholic beverages come at an enormous cost to these societies. The World Health Organization ranks alcohol as one of the primary causes of the global burden of disease in industrialized countries. Alcohol-related diseases, especially alcoholism, are the result...