Maia Szalavitz

Nature just revealed the results of an informal internet poll of its readers, finding that a full one-fifth have used or currently take drugs or supplements for "cognitive enhancement."

2/3 report taking Ritalin for this "non medical" purpose; 44% have taken the newer stimulant modafinil.

But the most interesting finding is that 80% believe healthy adults should be permitted to take these drugs if they wish to do so.

Now, this is just an internet poll and we all know the self-selection issues that mar these. However, if 80% of those who care enough to write into Nature on this issue believe that essentially recreational drug use should be legal, the war on drugs has lost a great deal of its legitimacy.

A new meta-analysis of research on modern antidepressants-- some of it unpublished by the drug companies-- suggests that the drugs have little advantage over placebos.

Why then do so many people consider drugs like Prozac to be miracle drugs for depression-- many putting up with serious sexual side effects in order to take them? Are they simply being duped by a placebo effect or avoiding withdrawal symptoms? And how could drugs which are little different from placebo also produce suicidal or even homicidal thoughts in some patients?

Continue reading 'What the media misses about antidepressants' >

New York Magazine has a fascinating first-person account of one man's experience with Chantix, the new anti-smoking medication which is currently generating reports of bizarre side effects like creepy dreams and suicidal or homicidal thoughts.

The author describes a series of experiences that are eerily reminiscent of accounts of schizophrenia. There is paranoia and difficulty determining what is real: "I tried to shake a weird, paranoid sense that I’d just been psychically raped by a household appliance," the author writes.

There are delusions of reference, the idea that particular experiences are being aimed specifically at you: "Mundane details began to strike me as having deep, hidden significance. The neon arch above McDonald’s: The lights blinked on and off in some sort of pattern, and I needed to crack the code. One of my co-workers was messing with some papers: What is he trying to imply with all that damned crinkling?"

Continue reading 'New antismoking drug Chantix: a true psychotomimetic?' >

The news on painkillers like morphine and Oxycontin just keeps getting more exciting. A new study highlighted here suggests that when pain is caused by inflammation, tolerance to opioids is less likely to develop. In a model of inflammatory pain in rats, researchers found that the same dose of morphine continued to provide consistent relief.

The rats had pain from chronic inflammation in their paws. However, when opioid receptors in the paws were blocked, tolerance did later develop, showing that inflammation itself somehow prevents the development of tolerance, at least in the peripheral nerves.

This means that patients with conditions like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer don't have to worry so much that opioid drugs will "stop working" and that they will constantly have to chase tolerance. As long as the underlying pain itself doesn't get worse, the drugs should continue to work.

Continue reading 'Opioids: No Tolerance for Inflammation!' >

Research published in Current Biology suggests that one reason we don't get hooked on on our endogenous "heroin" (endorphins and enkephalins) is that these natural ligands for the opioid receptor activate what can be seen as an "on/off" switch for the system, while morphine does not.

Consequently, the scientists engineered mice in which morphine does produce this effect-- and lo and behold, the mice were able to get pain relief from morphine, but developed less tolerance and fewer symptoms of withdrawal.

Continue reading 'Another crack at non-addictive opioids? Why we don't get hooked on our own endorphins' >

Some neat new research published in PNAS (though not online yet) offers a unique way of attacking chronic pain: gene therapy via spinal tap.

Continue reading 'Insert opioid gene here' >

Want to create a cure for addiction with an 80-98% success rate? Easy-peasy. Just don’t count treatment drop-outs in your statistics-- a fact that numerous programs have capitalized on to sell themselves over the last 50 years. Alternatively, you can only admit addicted doctors to your treatment: but this severely limits your market.

Continue reading 'How to lie with statistics: drug treatment version 100.8' >

The New York Times reports:

Federal officials say that even the smallest amounts of heroin — a 10-gram “deck,” which can cost as little as $7 on the street — are nearly twice as potent in some cities in the region as they were four years ago.

Ok, way back when in the 80's when I used heroin, it went for $600 a gram if you were buying pretty pure stuff sold out of someone's apartment, not on the street. If 10 grams now go for $7 on the street, something is very, very, wrong.

I think the word you wanted was milligrams, NYT... and it's a shame that the only Americans who seem to know the metric system are scientists and drug users.

New research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry-- one of the most exhaustive studies yet-- should put a nail in the coffin of the hypothesis that vaccines cause autism. Cleverly sub-titled Mercury in Retrograde, the study looked at all the diagnoses of autism in the state of California reported to the Department of Developmental Services. It is especially informative because prior analyses of earlier data in that system had suggested some correlation.

Continue reading 'Mercury in retrograde? Autism authors can only hope' >

Will alcohol binges on New Year’s really destroy your ability to think flexibly? That’s what this peculiar op-ed in last week’s New York Times suggests.

Citing rat research, psychiatrist Paul Steinberg writes:

…just as the news is not so great for former cigarette smokers, there is equally bad news for recovering binge-drinkers who have achieved a sobriety that has lasted years. The more we have binged — and the younger we have started to binge — the more we experience significant, though often subtle, effects on the brain and cognition.

Much of the evidence for the impact of frequent binge-drinking comes from some simple but elegant studies done on lab rats by Fulton T. Crews and his former student Jennifer Obernier. Dr. Crews, the director of the University of North Carolina Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, and Dr. Obernier have shown that after a longstanding abstinence following heavy binge-drinking, adult rats can learn effectively — but they cannot relearn.

Continue reading 'Still hungover? Don't read last week's New York Times..' >

I am a huge fan of randomized controlled trials and about as hard-core as it gets in supporting evidence-based interventions whenever possible. But I was nonetheless troubled by the study Science published last week, in which Romanian orphans were randomized to receive either foster care or to stay in an orphanage.

Unsurprisingly, the research found a large 8 point difference in IQ between those given foster parents and those left behind and confirmed all the results from animal research and unfortunate “natural experiments” which show that the longer a baby languishes without specific parental care, the more damaged he is likely to be.

Continue reading 'Disturbing research on orphans from Science' >

What does it take to shut down an abusive school? Perhaps the fact that it has just replicated an experiment notorious both for being ethically problematic and showing how easy it is to get normal people to "just follow orders" to hurt others? Remember Milgram from Psych 101?

Continue reading ''Shock school' inadvertently replicates Milgram's obedience study' >

The AP is reporting on controversy in California over the way treatment for addicted doctors is handled by the state medical board.

California recently scrapped its system for anonymously treating addicted doctors without informing patients of their physicians’ condition-- following outrage over botched surgery by an addicted plastic surgeon. But its new cure for the problem may be worse than the disease.

For one, what the AP doesn’t mention is that treatment for addicted doctors is one of the shining successes in the addiction world: virtually all treatment (even programs known to contain elements that are ineffective or harmful) produces impressive outcomes.

Continue reading 'The only thing worse than letting addicted docs practice is banning them...' >

Wanna partner with a hot immune system? The Scientist has a bizarre interview with the founder of a new website promising-- for just under $2000-- to match you with the immunological sexpot of your dreams, using your DNA sequences for the major histocompatibility complex (MHC).

Matching by MHC isn’t as weird as it sounds-- people apparently find the body odors of those who have MHC alleles which are different from their own to be more attractive than those whose are similar and women, according to one study, have more orgasms with men who are different from them in this fashion.

Continue reading 'Your immune system drives me wild' >

60 Minutes highlighted an expensive new addiction treatment called Prometa on Sunday-- the first half primarily consisting of “miracle cure” testimonials, the second exposing the fact that scientific studies don’t actually back the incredible claims being made for it.

A little context would have helped enormously. Although 60 Minutes made much of the idea that this is the first time a medical addiction cure had been sold without getting FDA approval, a “miracle” heroin detox has been sold virtually identically since the late 90’s.

Continue reading 'Take addiction cure reporting with large grain of salt' >