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NIDA Notes

A photo of a teen talking with her therapist

Brief Intervention Helps Curb Teen Substance Use

B-lymphocytes transform into plasmocytes that clone, produce identical antibodies, and release them into the blood stream.

Animation: Building an Anti-Drug Vaccine

Photo of a mouse standing on the end of an elevated beam

Receptor Mediates Lifelong Results of Early Trauma

In This Section

Keep up to date on research advances in the prevention and treatment of drug abuse and AIDS with NIDA’s newsletter NIDA Notes.

NIDA Notes Staff & Editorial Board

Featured Articles

  • 1/2/13 – NIDA-funded researchers have gathered evidence that brief interventions can help adolescents move away from drug use. In a clinical trial, middle and high school students markedly reduced their substance use following two 60-minute sessions that combined motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy.
  • 11/29/12 – NIDA-supported research suggests that glucocorticoid receptor levels during early brain development affect the hard wiring of neural circuits that shape an individual’s basic emotional makeup. In mice, overexpression of the glucocorticoid gene in the first weeks after birth increased anxiety and response to cocaine in adulthood. These findings may help researchers understand the genetic background and the developmental trajectory of addiction.

Updates

  • 1/10/13 – Clinical trials of N-acetylcysteine to help people recovering from drug abuse avoid relapse have demonstrated only moderate efficacy. New NIDA-supported research shows that while a low dose of the medication activates receptors associated with lowered drug-seeking behavior, a higher dose appears to activate receptors associated with increased drug-seeking behavior. The result suggests that a medication or combination of medications that stimulate the receptor GluR2/3 and block mGluR5 may work better than N-acetylcysteine alone.

Director's Perspective

  • 2/5/13 – Despite the advances in treatment and prevention, roughly 50,000 new HIV infections still occur annually in the Nation. Research, in large part supported by NIDA, has produced a strategy to address this circumstance and break the epidemiological impasse: seek out HIV-infected individuals, particularly those in “hard-to-reach” groups that have minimal contact with the health care system; offer them HIV testing and treatment; and provide support to help them stay in treatment.

Graphic Evidence

  • B-lymphocytes transform into plasmocytes that clone, produce identical antibodies, and release them into the blood stream.
    12/17/12 – The immune system has an extraordinary ability to recognize compounds foreign to the body and eliminate them. NIDA-sponsored scientists are working to harness this ability to create vaccines that will protect individuals against the psychogenic and addictive effects of abused drugs. This animation shows one of the most promising strategies, which has already yielded partial success in producing effective vaccines against nicotine, cocaine, and other drugs.

NIDA at Work

  • 11/9/12 – NIDA Program Officer Dr. David Thomas speaks about the intertwined problems of pain and prescription opioid abuse, as well as the research supported by NIDA and the National Institutes of Health to address these problems.

Bulletin Board

  • 11/15/12 – The NIDA-supported Good Behavior Game recently was honored with the 2012 Mentor International Best Practice Award. The game, which focuses on reducing disruptive behaviors in elementary school classrooms, has been shown to prevent drug abuse and other problems in adolescence and young adulthood.

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    An Anti-Drug Vaccine at Work

    Anti-drug Vaccine Animation

    Scientists see great promise in the idea of combining vaccines with other interventions to improve patient outcomes in addiction therapy.

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