web analytics

$2.7 million grant to find new psychedelic-related addiction treatments

[ad_1]
(SACRAMENT)

Evidence from human and animal tests suggests that the brain-altering effects of psychedelics could be repurposed to treat addiction.

Now, researchers at the University of California, Davis and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus plan to screen hundreds of compounds to discover new non-hallucinogenic treatments for substance use disorders. The research is funded by a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Previous work has shown that psychedelic drugs can rewire parts of the brain involved in depression, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder.

David Olson, an associate professor in the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at UC Davis, is looking for similar effects among compounds without the hallucinogenic effects of drugs like LSD. He calls these compounds psychoplastogens, because of their ability to modify the brain.

“I am very excited that NIDA is recognizing the potential that psychoplastogens may have for patients with substance use disorders,” said Olson. “This grant will help us understand the basic mechanisms by which these compounds affect addiction, and we hope to develop more effective and better tolerated treatments.”

Olson’s work is part of a growing focus on psychedelic research at UC Davis and UC Davis Health. His laboratory has synthesized hundreds of molecules related to psychedelics in the search for new pharmacological therapies. One such molecule, tabernanthalog or TBG, produces rapid and sustained anti-addictive effects in rodent models of heroin and alcohol self-administration.

.7 million grant to find new psychedelic-related addiction treatmentsI am very excited that NIDA is recognizing the potential that psychoplastogens can have for patients with substance use disorders. This grant will help us understand the basic mechanisms by which these compounds affect addiction, and we hope to develop more effective and better tolerated treatments.—David Olson

The research will include mechanistic studies to understand how TBG affects addiction and the development of new compounds with psychoplastogenic effects, he said. The team will use high-throughput screening to test efficacy, safety and treatment potential. Promising compounds will undergo additional animal testing at CU Anschutz.

Delix Therapeutics, a startup founded by Olson, is also investigating non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogens to treat depression, anxiety and related disorders, but is not involved in the project.

[ad_2]
Source: $2.7 million grant to find new psychedelic-related addiction treatments

Methadone Clinics Near Me – Methadone Clinic New York City – Methadone Clinics USA

How to Take a Look at Your Drinking, Part 2

Here is the second part of my interview about women and drinking with Jenn Krautsch. If you missed Part 1, you can access it here. 

4. Do you have any tips or advice for people trying to moderate or stop their drinking, especially when many people feel pressure from peers and society as a whole to drink alcohol?

My biggest tip or recommendation is taking a mindful break, to give yourself some space between the habit or the substance. You almost have to get a little out of balance by abstaining or refraining to know where your balance spot is.

I’ve taken many breaks before with my drinking, always alone and never with new information. So every time I took a break, I was using will power and depriving myself just to prove that I really didn’t have that big of a drinking problem. I could go for a month without it. I wasn’t physically dependent. I wasn’t drinking in the morning or having the shakes. I didn’t fit those checkboxes.

I just needed to create a little bit of distance, so I could see, if I apply some new tools, then I can create a new mindset. This is different than just white-knuckling and will power. In that grey area zone, it is important to get new information and new tools for drinking.

I challenged my beliefs about alcohol. I know what society is telling me and what all the Super Bowl commercials are telling me. I know the marketing in the stores, and what rosé all day means. All that input is affecting our subconscious. Challenging our beliefs can help us align with who and what we want to be.

For me, that was the biggest driver, the biggest motivation.

I knew I was living a divided life.

I’m so mindful during the day being into yoga, and a green-juicer. I would juice my kale and then have my Pinot Grigio at night.

I was almost like two different people. Super-healthy and super mindful by day and then I would want to be mindless at night. Mindless sipping. Mindless activity. Chill out and veg at night.  I wanted to take a break from my life because I’d been so good all day. 

A lot of my beliefs around drinking alcohol were misguided. They were wrong. I didn’t know that. I didn’t have anywhere to challenge those beliefs without challenging my whole identity.

I knew who I was, but felt very divided. I just wanted to be in alignment. My biggest goal is being whole-hearted.

I had to challenge my beliefs. To do that, I had to take a break. Not just a break using willpower, but time out to learn. Not just trying to quit, but using that time to learn and then decide where alcohol fit for me. It is such a personal journey and a personal decision. Everyone has a unique “relationship with alcohol”.

For some people, it is a casual acquaintance. For other people, it becomes a best friend. Almost like a person, an entity they lean into and rely on for comfort and support through social anxiety or pressures. It is negotiating that relationship. Just like any relationship that is unhealthy, you need time away. You need space to see it more clearly. I recommend not to be afraid of that space, but to utilize it. Use that space wisely.

drinking

5. Tell us about the SoberSis 21 Day Challenge? What is the program about, who is it for, and why did you decide to create it?

I created it because it is what I wished for myself. Necessity is the mother of invention; we create what we wanted or needed. That is exactly what SoberSis is. It’s a place to take that break and have the tools and the support from other women that get it. It is SoberSis because it is for women only. I do have some great recommendations for groups that involve men as well. They’re similar in their mindset and the language that we use.

This 21-day challenge is a reset. It’s a way to realign, reset, and reignite your personal growth and your personal relationship with alcohol. Every day during the 21 days, we talk about a topic that is relevant to belief systems around alcohol.

We have a closed Facebook group that is highly interactive, with women from all over the country, really all over the world. There are women in their twenties all the way through their seventies. They are willing, ready, and vulnerable to have a conversation about their relationship with drinking without having to fit a category, without having to say forever or always, or be labeled.

It’s really been awesome to have that conversation, with so much understanding and empathy and be able to say, “Me too. I did that too.” Talk about the “Me too” movement. This is a whole separate conversation – women, and wine and drinking.

We’re finding each other and what is so fascinating is I thought I would just start it locally. I live in Fort Worth, Texas. I asked a few friends to read some emails I put together, combining the best information I found.

I’ve read so many books on mindset, habits, addiction, alcohol, women, and marketing. Also, a lot of autobiographies about women and their experiences with alcohol.

There were elements of their stories that resonated.

I started sharing locally. Then I shared on Instagram, some women started finding me from all over the country and all over the world by taking this challenge. What started with sending some emails and has catapulted into this movement.

We call ourselves, the tribe. It’s this sisterhood. It’s this movement of women who are waking up in their own lives, becoming more present for themselves, and their families. Everything that was dulled and dimmed by alcohol is releasing and they are becoming bright again.

They are getting clarity and getting sober-minded, which is different than being sober or sobriety, which is typically complete abstinence for an addict or an alcoholic, a physical addiction. I’m introducing this new term. It’s a Biblical term, a scriptural term where God calls us believers to be sober-minded.

That means being alert, awake and aware of our lives. Who doesn’t want to be sober-minded? I think we all do. How alcohol fits into that is unique and personal. Sober mindedness allows people to be at different points and have the same common goal of being awake, aware and present in our own lives. So how can we encourage each other to do that? We are renegotiating our relationship with alcohol along the way.

It’s been so rewarding, encouraging and humbling to realize how many other women this resonates with. I had no idea. SoberSis started out with dozens of members and now has thousands. It continues to grow each and every month because there are so many women who say “Me too… Things in my life are looking good. I’m happily married or I’m killing it in my career. Things are good”.

But they are not great. There is this one thing that is holding them back.

I’m flipping the conversation around. Is your life good enough? Are you feeling good enough about your own life? Are you present? Do you have the physical energy you want? Are you sleeping well? Are you able to really connect with others?

Is your life great? If not, let’s make it great. Let’s work on that instead of keeping it status quo good enough.

What does that look like? Usually, the relationship with alcohol doesn’t line up. It’s the one piece that’s out of balance.

6. I have several clients who have daughters with alcohol use issues. What advice do you have for parents who are concerned about their daughter’s drinking? Was there any support from family and friends that you found particularly helpful?

I desperately wanted to talk about my conflicting feelings around alcohol. I liked it, but I didn’t like it. Sometimes it was working for me and then other times it wasn’t.

My drinking wasn’t black and white. It wasn’t an all hate relationship, or an all love relationship. It truly was a love-hate relationship.

For parents, just having the freedom to say, “You know what, I’m by no means perfect,” and trying to find common ground. You can connect with your children on an emotional level. Think back to a time when you felt conflicted. Think back to a time when you struggled because you wanted to do both the right thing and the wrong thing. Even as adults we can suffer from anxiety or loneliness or wanting to fit in with the crowd.

Finding common ground by saying, “You know what, I don’t know if you’ve ever felt this way”, and sharing a personal story makes it safe for other people to expose their vulnerabilities and feelings too.

That is a conversation starter.

The goal is to keep people talking openly, honestly and get the ball rolling with real conversations where people can be known and still loved, known and still accepted, not have to posture, not have to perform or say the right thing.

As parents, it’s easy to have a relationship with our kids where they just want to get us off their back or give us the right answer. Instead, taking the time to slow down and say, “I know it sounds weird, but I’ve really struggled with this.”

When an adult shares a challenge with a child or a young person, the respect level goes way up. Oh my gosh, she gets it. She struggles, too. She is not trying to be the perfect parent.

They’re human too, so maybe if they’re human, I can be human. If they’ll share, maybe I can share. Maybe they’re not going to judge me if I say I went to a party and I was trying not to drink, but I did drink and didn’t know what to do. Have you ever felt that way?

Yes, I have. I have felt that way as an adult. Let’s find that common ground, that humanness, that emotion. I started doing that with my kids toward the end of their high school years. I was able to honestly connect with my own children once I was honest with myself.

For several years I was hiding. I was hiding because I felt helpless while raising my kids and dealing with some of the issues they were facing. I didn’t know how to have that conversation, and didn’t know what to do.

That was actually a springboard for starting the conversation. To say, you know what, “I don’t even know what to say right now, but I really want to connect with you. I really want to hear what’s in your heart. I’m nervous and I don’t want to push you away, but I really want to start a conversation. I want you to know you will still be loved no matter what. It is my hope that you want to be known.”

Just let yourself be vulnerable and let it get messy. Kids pick up on your vulnerability when you say you want to have the difficult conversations while admitting you probably won’t do it perfectly. I want to start a conversation with you, and I may not get it just right. Is that okay? I think that makes a child or an adolescent, who is still trying to figure out if they trust you with knowing who they are. I know you love me unconditionally. You say that. You believe that, but I need you to show me. It’s an opportunity to say, let’s practice.

I want to show you, unconditional love. I’m not sure how this is going to work. This is messy, tricky. Let’s get into it together. My intentions are good. That’s a good place to start.

Check out Jenn’s FREE “wine o’clock survival guide” for women.

women and alcoholAbout Jenn: I’m Jenn (aka SoberSis). I’m a new empty-nester and people ask me all the time what I’m going to do in this next season of my life. Well, you’re looking at it. I feel passionate about making it safe for women to have a conversation about alcohol without judgment, labels or rules. I’m a retired “grey area” drinker.

Around the middle of my 40’s, I was tired, feeling stuck on auto-pilot, and ready for a change. I didn’t want to enter the big 5-0 the way I did 40. I took a closer look at my life. My health…mental, physical and spiritual. I began to find out ways to have more energy, better sleep and really stay present in my own life. I began to realize wine wasn’t doing me any real favors. In fact, it was undoing a lot of my hard work during the day (I call it the detox just to retox loop). It had also become like an emotional crutch to lean on during times of anxiety or even boredom!

So, I started the 21-day reset for women because I wanted to share what I have learned and experienced first hand. Currently, over 2,000 women from all over the world have participated. We’re more of a sisterhood and a real community of women pursuing being present and sober-minded. Each person has the opportunity and space to renegotiate their relationship with alcohol. We are not a sobriety club although many of us do choose to enjoy an alcohol-free lifestyle.

 I’ve spent time taking a break from drinking without having to use willpower or feeling deprived. In fact, I’d say it has turned into more of a mindful lifestyle. Learning the science behind what my body/mind was experiencing has empowered me to make different choices. It’s like I was living a somewhat divided life, constantly feeling in conflict and stuck in an internal tug-of-war. God really brought me freedom by bringing together the mind-body-spirit connection so I could live a more wholehearted life. That’s how I want to live as I get closer to my 50’s and beyond.

What are your thoughts on drinking? If you have tips that have helped you, please share it in the comments.

 



By: Cathy Taughinbaugh
Title: How to Take a Look at Your Drinking, Part 2
Sourced From: cathytaughinbaugh.com/how-to-take-a-look-at-your-drinking-part-2/
Published Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2020 19:30:30 +0000

Methadone Clinics Nearby – Methadone Clinics New York – Methadone Clinics USA

As U.S. overdose deaths hit a record high, the Biden administration faced American addiction.

[ad_1]

During the campaign, Biden presented a comprehensive plan to address the opioid epidemic, but its public advocacy on the issue has fallen sharply as it focuses its presidency on its legislative agenda and coronavirus pandemic. Now, in addition to half of Biden’s first year in office, as the National Recovery Month ends, his administration faces calls to do more to avert the crisis.

But experts say more needs to be done to address the impact of the pandemic on addiction.

More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it the deadliest last year for drug overdoses. Alcohol consumption by American adults appears to have also increased during the pandemic, and nearly 1 in 4 adults reported drinking more to cope with stress in a survey by the American Psychological Association.

Regina LaBelle, acting director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, stressed in an interview with CNN that overdose deaths “were already on the rise before the pandemic and worsened during the pandemic.” “.

Covid-19 has caused general complications, including traditional support systems to help people recover from addiction. When the pandemic began, access to treatment and community programs changed dramatically. Meetings from programs like Alcoholics Anonymous were moved to Zoom. Isolated individuals in their home. Capacity at addiction treatment facilities decreased.

The pandemic also sparked a mental health crisis that may have led more people to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, experts say. People changed the way they treated illness and death to prevent the spread of Covid-19, sometimes preventing them from being able to sleep in the hospital of family members or could not personally mourn at funerals. . And many struggled with job insecurity or faced the possibility of health risks in the workplace.

Dr. Stephen Taylor, an Alabama-based doctor who acts as chief physician at Pathway Healthcare, which has outpatient addiction treatment offices across the South, said he sees people responding to the stress of pandemic with an increase in substance use. He also noted that across the country “people who do not even have a substance use disorder have increased their alcohol consumption.”

“What we’re experiencing more in Alabama than perhaps in other parts of the country is just the stress of the pandemic: the anguish of so many people getting sick and being hospitalized and dying hospitalized,” Taylor noted. “A lot of people respond to that with an increase in substance use.”

More work to do

Across the spectrum, experts also say the Biden administration is doing a lot more work, especially in the fight against the spread of fentanyl, an extremely potent synthetic opioid.

Jim Carroll, who was the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Trump administration, expressed concern about the influx of fentanyl seizures on the southern border, comparing the drug with a “weapon of mass destruction.”

“I think that’s one of the ways we have to address this issue,” he said.

“The aspect of prevention is so key, but we just need to know that drugs do not enter our country. We cannot have a porous border for drugs,” he added. “This is really key to what ONDCP wants to achieve … reducing the drugs that are on our streets.”

The administration also continues to face the challenge of an influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl throughout the drug supply, LaBelle said.

“And that’s why we’re seeing rising rates of methamphetamine and cocaine-related overdose deaths. It’s because fentanyl is everywhere. When someone uses illegal drugs, there’s likely to be fentanyl in that drug,” LaBelle said. .

For example, deaths from methamphetamine overdose nearly tripled between 2015 and 2019 in people ages 18 to 64, and many of these involved the use of an opioid at the same time, according to a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

There are areas where observers say the Biden administration is below what the president discussed on the campaign trail.

Maritza Pérez, director of the Office of National Affairs of the Drug Policy Alliance, a non-profit organization that states that it aims to advance policies that best reduce the harms of drug use and drug prohibition, argue that while candidate Biden raised “clemency, the need to re-review our drug laws, that no one should devote time to drug activity, (and) that it would prioritize racial justice” on track of the campaign, his administration has done little to address these concerns.

Some groups have also disagreed with the administration’s proposal to permanently program fentanyl-related substances, known as fentanyl analogs. The substances have been temporarily designated according to Annex I, the same level of drugs that includes heroin and ecstasy, since 2018.

Proponents of permanent fentanyl analogue programming say the ban helps law enforcement build cases against producers and deters individuals from making these potentially harmful substances.

But Perez said the Biden administration’s proposal to definitively schedule analogues, which would not apply mandatory minimum sentences except in cases of death or bodily harm related to substance trafficking, “is not enough.”

“Not all fentanyl analogs have the same effect,” Perez said. “Some are really useful, especially when we talk about opioid addiction and opioid overdoses. So that’s really problematic. It sets … a new standard for drug programming, but also a new standard for opioids. criminalization “.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine, where Taylor is on the board, urges the White House to support various measures in its 2022 National Drug Control Strategy, scheduled for Congress early next year. . Taylor stressed the importance of the proposed funding in the House’s $ 3.5 trillion spending bill. Democrats had originally settled on that front-line figure, but some party Senate moderates have indicated they will not support such a high number.

“We recognize that it would be the most significant legislation for people with substance use disorder, literally since the passage of the (Affordable Care Act),” Taylor said, adding that it is “also an opportunity to really move forward. in equity “.

The spending bill includes a provision to provide Medicaid inmates before they are released from prison, an important step that advocates argue will help an extremely vulnerable population gain access to mental health treatment and consumption. substances, possibly preventing recidivism. The spending proposal would also extend the child tax credit, but its inclusion could be placed on the blog.

LaBelle said, “Poverty puts people at risk for some of the conditions that can lead to early substance use,” arguing that extending credit will help prevent people from developing substance use disorders by reducing conditions that can lead to trauma (and) homelessness “.

Address the addiction epidemic at the federal level

Some aspects of the Biden administration’s approach to the issue of overdose encourage experts from across the political spectrum.

Perez said he credits the Biden administration for using the term “harm reduction” in public statements and said the federal government supports those measures.

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh talks about his sobriety as the nation faces an addiction crisis during the Covid-19 pandemic

“This has never happened before. So the fact that they say we have to support people, get to know them where they are, make sure people use drugs safely. They didn’t say that. But that it’s essentially what hurts the reduction is: it’s making sure people have the tools they need to use drugs safely. And, you know, that’s historic. We haven’t seen anything like it, “Perez said.

Experts praised efforts to exempt health care providers from certification requirements to be able to prescribe buprenorphine, a drug used in combination with behavioral therapy to treat opioid use disorder.

The administration has also lifted a moratorium on a mobile component in opioid treatment programs, making it easier to care for more isolated communities. And the experts stressed the importance of the nearly $ 4 billion in funding available through the American Rescue Plan to expand access to mental health services and substance use disorders, which include $ 30 million for mental health services. damage reduction.

Carroll, in particular, praised Biden’s candidate for head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Dr. Rahul Gupta. Gupta, a former West Virginia public health official, would be the first doctor to take on the role of drug tsar if confirmed.

[ad_2]
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/30/politics/biden-administration-drug-epidemic/index.html

[ad_2]

Methadone Clinics In My Area – Methadone Clinics New York City – Methadone Clinics USA

Click Here To Call Now