Children of Divorced Parents More Likely to Become Binge Drinkers

A major study conducted recently found that the children whose parents are divorced, before they are five are more likely to become binge drinkers at the age of 16, when compared to the children whose parents stay together.

The experts team analyzed the drinking habits of nearly 32,000 people over three decades. They found that the difference in the upbringing of the child shows a greater impact on the drinking habits of the people.

The study also found that teens of 16 years age, whose parents are divorced are eight times more likely to become binge drinkers when compared to children whose parents are engaged. They also released a shocking data, which says that children who are much pampered at the age of five are less likely to drink excessively at the age of 16.

The study which formed a detailed statistical analysis of two huge sets of data, finally concludes that parenting style is enormously important in shaping a child's views on alcohol. It also mentioned that parents play a major role in shaping the way their children drink in later stage.

They also reported saying that parents who control their children too much by enforcing strict rules and regulations in the house are more likely to adopt bad habits in their future life. Parents need to bring up their children with a combination of discipline and affection, then they will definitely grow up in to brighter teens who spend their entire life with out involving in any bad habits.

Parents should behave like friends with their teen children and at the same time, should be like a teacher who will let them know what is good and what is not. They should clearly explain them about the things which are appreciated by the people in the society, so that they try to adopt them to lead a better life.

Addiction is a Chronic Brain Disease: Study

Addiction is quite common among most of the substance abusers. It takes very less time for a habit to become an addiction. Many think that people get addicted to any habit since they have low will power or might have low resistance power. But they are all not true say the experts group.

The doctors from the American Society for Addiction Medicine, announced that like all other disorders addiction is also a chronic brain disease and not the result of poor will power. They also added that similar to the treatment of all other disorders, addiction is treatable and is a long term endeavor.

The researchers have taken two decades to uncover how addiction hijacks different parts of the brain. They also explained what prompts the highs and lows of addiction and craving. The doctors from the society are firm on their statement that addiction is a brain disease and this behavioral problem is a result of brain dysfunction.

Even though people are not biologically vulnerable to begin alcohol or drug abuse, they might start using them due to stressful and painful environment. The chemical present in these substances named as dopamine conditions the brain to the routine use that are linked to getting something which the addicts found pleasurable. Once a person gets addicted completely, the warped system keeps going back even after the brain gets so used to the high that it is no longer pleasurable.

These researches have proved that getting addicted to certain substances is caused due to the brain's dysfunction and not due to any other psychological disorders.

Rise in Marijuana Use Among Teens: Report

According to the latest survey of Alcohol, Tobacco and other drug use alcohol use by the Indiana states youth is on decline, but use of marijuana and smokeless tobacco is on rise. For many kids alcohol is going out of style, especially for the students in the Indiana high schools. The researchers found that the use of marijuana among seventh graders and 9th graders has increased drastically.

A study was conducted by Indiana Prevention Resource Center and was found that the use of marijuana has increased from the last year, but at the same there is a decrease in case of alcohol use. And the experts in Indiana felt happy about the success they have gained through their alcohol control programs.

The state is still trying to work on the campaigns related to the drugs since there is a drastic increase in the number of drug users especially marijuana. They also found the reason for the increased use of marijuana as legalization of the drug for medicinal purposes. With such kind of things the teens start thinking that if the doctors themselves are prescribing them to use why not to use and this makes them to get addicted to drugs.

The researchers also found that along with marijuana the use of smokeless tobacco is also increasing since 2007. And they are warning that the carcinogenic elements of smokeless tobacco will harm young brains in much wider way.

Government should take enough measures to highlight these reports. So that they can at least create some awareness among the parents of the kids and try to control the habit as early as possible.

Molecular Imaging Shows Chronic Marijuana Smoking Affects Brain Chemistry

A collaborative study between the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) revealed that chronic marijuana smoking affects the brain chemistry. According to the NIDA, marijuana or cannabis is the mostly used illegal drug in America. As per the study, it was found that there was a decrease in the number of the cannabinoid receptors that are important for mental and physical functions like movement coordination, concentration, pleasure, memory, pain tolerance and appetite.

As a part of the study, 30 chronic daily cannabis smokers were monitored for approximately four weeks. These people were subjected to positron emission tomography (PET) to find the changes in the physiological processes in the body. A radioligand, 18F-FMPEP-d2 is a combination of radioactive fluorine isotope and a neurotransmitter analog which binds with CB1 brain receptors. It was found that the number of cannabis receptors in the cannabis smokers decreased about 20 percent when compared to healthy control subjects with limited exposure to cannabis during their lifetime.

When 14 of the 30 subjects were re-scanned after one month of abstinence, there was an increase in the receptor activity in the areas which were deficient at the beginning of the study. It indicates that the chronic cannabis smoking causes down regulation of CB1 receptors and the damage is reversible with abstinence. The information resulted from the study was found to be useful for the development of novel treatments for cannabis abuse. It also revealed that the decreased receptors in people who abuse cannabis return to normal when they stop smoking the drug.

Five Panel Drug Test Kits to Identify Popularly Abused Drugs

National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) are the two prestigious organizations which provide the statistics and drug abusing trends among US citizens of different age groups. Their main focus is to eradicate the evil of drug abuse from the society and hence to make a drug free society as early as possible. For that cause they are conducting many studies and researches to find the trends and are also trying to educate the people especially the youth of the nation in order to prevent them from using drugs.

One such research conducted by both of the organizations, individually found the list of five popularly abused drugs in US. The list of NIDA 5 and SAMHSA 5 includes – Marijuana, Cocaine, Amphetamines, Opiates and Phencyclidine or PCP which are hence termed as the most popularly abused as well as most harmful drugs prevailing in the society. Using the data from the research many companies have designed five panel drug test kits with the above mentioned combination. Hence any five panel drug test strip/cup which is made to detect the above mentioned drugs, became so popular as SAMHSA/NIDA 5 panel test kit.

Using five panel drug test kits became one of the most commonly used drug test kits as they are able to detect the popularly abused drugs. These test kits are mainly used at homes schools and workplaces. These kind of test kits became so popular as they are effective in detecting the drug abuse in a short period of time. However, many combinations are available in 5 panel kits, hence it is better to check whether they are the one's from the SAMHSA 5 and NIDA 5 and then to purchase for better results.

Risk Factors that Rise Teen Drug Abuse

It is at teenage that kids are more interested to try new things such as illicit drugs. Though they experiment with drugs for fun or for any other reason, certain risk factors are considered to increase a person's chances of drug abuse. These risk factors may vary from person to person. They also differ with the age of the individual. For instance, risk factors for teens are different from those of middle aged and older adults.

The risk factors also differ with the domain. At individual domain, teens are prone to early aggressive behavior which may influence them to get addicted to illicit drugs. With immature development of brain at adolescent age, kids are often more aggressive, irritated, emotional and even lack proper judgment skills. Therefore, kids at this stage are more vulnerable to drub abuse and addiction.

Lack of parental supervision at the family level is the other risk factor rising teen drug abuse. It is the duty of parents to check the health and behavior of the kids. Special rules should be implemented to control the drug use. Otherwise, they get trapped into the deadly habit and suffer from unwanted and dangerous consequences in personal, professional as well as social life. Even at schools, they face peer pressure and this is the most common risk factor contributing to teen drug abuse. Apart from the individual, family, peer and school contexts, poverty at community level makes some kids prone to illicit drug use. Under poverty, they feel more stressed with financial conditions and get influenced to start abusing drugs.

Kids can be affected with these risk factors at any stage of their life. Also, these effects can be stopped or avoided by means of timely intervention. But, remember that the risk factors may not make the person addicted. However, be careful to avoid your kids being susceptible to these risk factors.