Topic: General Health

The brains of alcohol-dependent individuals are affected not o­nly by their own heavy drinking, but also by genetic or environmental factors associated with their parents’ drinking, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institute o­n Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Researchers found reduced brain growth among alcohol-dependent individuals with a family history of alcoholism or heavy drinking compared to those with no such family history. Their report has been published o­nline in Biological Psychiatry at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00063223 as an article in press.

The number of admissions to substance abuse treatment for cocaine and heroin abuse declined between 2004 and 2005, but the number of those seeking treatment for narcotic pain medication or methamphetamine/amphetamine increased sharply during that same time period, says a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

A series of low-energy treatments with a "plasma skin regeneration tool" to banish wrinkles seems to be equally effective as a single, high-energy blast but with less healing time for patients.

The study found that for older people mourning a death by natural causes, a yearning or pining for the lost loved o­ne, and an acceptance of their loss, come first in the grieving process.