All posts tagged: Drugs

Nearly 13% of Americans use drugs or marijuana to fall asleep

Nearly 13% of Americans use drugs or marijuana to fall asleep

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Nearly 13 percent of Americans are using medications or marijuana to help them fall asleep at night, new federal data reveals. Some 5.2 percent use prescription sleep medications, 5.7 percent use over-the-counter medications or supplements like melatonin and 3.7 percent use marijuana or CBD products, according to new reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The percentages are up markedly from the agency’s first estimate of prescription sleep aid use in 2013, which showed that about 4 percent of adults aged 20 and older had used prescription sleep aids in the past month. That research did not include cannabis products, which have gained popularity and legality in recent years. The researchers did not suggest reasons why more people were using these products, but reflect data showing Americans are struggling to get the federally-recommended seven hours of shut-eye for …

Thought-provoking photographs capture what it feels like to have ADHD

Thought-provoking photographs capture what it feels like to have ADHD

Published by skeptic

This self-portrait is one of the Polaroids that artist Daniel Regan submerged in his ADHD medication and water to create this effect Daniel Regan These dreamlike images offer a view into one person’s experience with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Last year, one week before visual artist Daniel Regan turned 40, he received a diagnosis of ADHD. Soon after, he started taking the ADHD medication lisdexamfetamine. The drug transformed his experience of the world, helping to ease his symptoms, such as being easily distracted. “I tend to describe [ADHD] like you’re watching five projected films in your mind, all over the top of each other, and they all have their own soundtrack, and they all have their own subtitles,” says Regan. “The medication is like turning down the volume on that, so it’s like you’re just watching one film or two films at the same time,” he says. “It means that I’m much calmer and more present.” As Regan experienced these changes, he used a Polaroid camera to photograph himself and his surroundings while hiking …

The Drugs Meant to Induce Madness, a Review

The Drugs Meant to Induce Madness, a Review

Published by Jenni Sidey

In the spring of 1965, notes Justin Garson in The Madness Pill: One Doctor’s Quest to Understand Schizophrenia, published today by St Martin’s Press, several leading researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health set up an experiment with a small colony of squirrel monkeys, then with a slightly larger group of humans. Giving high doses of hallucinogens like LSD to each, they hoped to induce schizophrenia in their subjects, the better to study its underlying mechanism. Two and three years later, before Institutional Review Boards in the 1970s would have stopped the experiments, they ran a similar one with STP, a street drug popular in the Bay Area. Later, they did the same with a cluster of amphetamines given to volunteers, including postdocs and lab workers. This time, hoping to cause amphetamine psychosis, they looked to confirm a causal relationship between dopamine flooding and a “schizophrenic reaction,” the phrase appearing in DSM-II, the field’s diagnostic manual, recently updated in 1968. The researchers included scientists such as Bellevue psychiatrist Burton Angrist and Johns Hopkins professor …

Police seize suspected £4m drugs haul at Northern Ireland port | UK News

Police seize suspected £4m drugs haul at Northern Ireland port | UK News

Published by Sam Flores

A suspected £4m cannabis haul has been seized in a cross-border police operation. The discovery was made following the stop and search of a lorry travelling from Scotland to Larne Harbour, Northern Ireland, on Monday. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and An Garda Siochana, Ireland’s police and security service, were behind the joint operation. PSNI said the suspected drugs were concealed within a large number of boxes. “We believe the drugs in this consignment were intended to supply various organised crime groups across the island of Ireland,” a force spokesperson added. A 53-year-old man has been charged with possession of a Class B controlled drug, and possession of a Class B controlled drug with intent to supply. He has also been charged with having no driving licence and using a motor vehicle without insurance. Read more from Sky News:Gunman opens fire in AthensDances With Wolves actor jailed for sexual assaults The man is due to appear before Antrim Magistrates’ Court, sitting at Ballymena Magistrates’ Court, on Tuesday. Source link

Mexico’s Jalisco drug cartel commander ‘El Jardinero’ found hiding in ditch | Crime News

Mexico’s Jalisco drug cartel commander ‘El Jardinero’ found hiding in ditch | Crime News

Published by Sam Flores

Mexican special forces have arrested Audias Flores, known as “El Jardinero”, one of the top commanders of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), as well as his chief financial operator, Mexico’s Security of Security ⁠Omar Garcia Harfuch said. Videos shared by ‌Garcia Harfuch on social media on Monday showed aerial footage of the arrest of Flores as helicopters hovered overhead during the arrest operation, which the Mexican Navy said followed months of surveillance and involved more than 500 troops, six helicopters and several planes. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “Audias Flores Silva, alias ‘El Jardinero’, was detained in Nayarit. He has an arrest warrant in Mexico and is also sought by United States authorities for extradition purposes. For his capture, the US government offered a reward of 5 million dollars,” Garcia Harfuch said in a post on social media. Flores, a regional commander in control of swaths of CJNG territory along Mexico’s Pacific coast, was considered a potential successor to Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho”, who ran the feared cartel and …

Repurposed drugs could improve treatment for rare infant leukaemia

Repurposed drugs could improve treatment for rare infant leukaemia

Published by skeptic

A research team identified three genes connected to a rare form of childhood leukaemia and found that clinically available drugs had a positive influence on these genes in tests on mice, increasing rates of survival. KMT2A::AFF1 positive B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (BCP-ALL) is a rare but severe form of infant leukaemia, caused by changes in the KMT2A::AFF1 gene. Characterised by rapid disease progression, a high risk of relapse and limited treatment options, BCP-ALL requires equally aggressive chemotherapy, although this can in turn cause serious side effects. BCP-ALL is also the most common genetic driver of leukaemia in infants, occurring in the majority of cases diagnosed in children aged one and under. Acetazolamide and tacrolimus could be alternatives to intense chemotherapy drugs However, research from the University of Edinburgh has shown promise for developing more effective treatments. In studies on mice, three microRNA molecules (miR-194, miR-99b and miR-125a-5p) that are found at unusually low levels in BCP-ALL sufferers, were restored and consequently displayed slowed growth and survival of cancer cells. Three genes linked to this …

Dozens of MPs oppose Streeting’s new power to say what NHS pays for drugs

Dozens of MPs oppose Streeting’s new power to say what NHS pays for drugs

Published by Sam Flores

Dozens of MPs are opposing Wes Streeting’s decision to award himself power to dictate what the NHS pays for drugs amid growing concern the move may be illegal. Thirty-one MPs have signed a House of Commons motion voicing their disapproval of the health secretary being handed the power to override the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (Nice) judgment on how much the NHS should spend on individual medicines. They fear that the change is a “power grab” that undermines the role Nice has played since its creation in 1999 as the arbiter of which medicines constitute value for money for the NHS to buy – and thus which patients can receive – in England and Wales. Nice is widely viewed internationally as a model of how to protect against drug companies charging excessive prices. Labour, Green, Liberal Democrat, Independent, Scottish Nationalist and Plaid Cymru MPs have backed a “prayer”, tabled by the Labour ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell. MPs can use a “prayer” as a way of showing they disagree with a statutory instrument …

GLP-1 Drugs Linked to Cognitive Impairment

GLP-1 Drugs Linked to Cognitive Impairment

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Extensive research has shown that glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist drugs like semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, appear to have a constellation of different health benefits beyond the treatment of diabetes and weight loss. In addition to cutting the progression kidney disease, lowering the risk of opiate addiction and prolonging life expectancy, studies have shown that the drugs even seem to reduce the risk of cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. At a first glance, that’s why it’s surprising that a new retrospective study — meaning research that further analyzes existing data — presented at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting in Chicago, just found that the use of GLP-1 agonists may increase the risk of developing cognitive impairment. The study was led by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine epidemiology researcher Isaac Thorman, and analyzed data from a massive dataset of patients from over 100 healthcare organizations across five countries called TriNetX. The team tracked nearly 65,000 type 2 …

The asylum seeker that was ‘unable to work’ but could run a drugs line

The asylum seeker that was ‘unable to work’ but could run a drugs line

Published by Sam Flores

This is the first photograph of an asylum seeker caught operating a drugs line in a Midlands town. Mariglen Malaj was spotted by undercover officers supplying another man with drugs in Fernwood Drive, in Rugeley, Staffordshire, a court heard. The 26-year-old was found to be carrying two wraps of cocaine, £1,000 in cash and two mobile phones. READ MORE: HMP Oakwood inmate ‘high on spice’ attacked female guard after getting him new TV Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp, click the link to join The defendant refused to provide the pin numbers to the phones when asked by police during the incident on December 3 last year. Crown prosecutor Mr Adam Watkins said officers also discovered Malaj in possession of a key to a property on Fernwood Drive. Upon inspection, police discovered a further 27 wraps of cocaine, an Albanian driving license, £1,500 in cash and a Barclays bank card. It’s believed the drugs had an estimated street value of up to £1,500. Mr Watkins added: “The telephone operating the snizz drugs line was never …

AI-Designed Drugs by a DeepMind Spinoff Are Headed to Human Trials

AI-Designed Drugs by a DeepMind Spinoff Are Headed to Human Trials

Published by skeptic

Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold has already revolutionized scientists’ understanding of proteins. Now, the ability of the platform to design safe and effective drugs is about to be put to the test. Isomorphic Labs, the UK-based biotech spinoff of Google DeepMind, will soon begin human trials of drugs designed by its Nobel Prize–winning AI technology. “We’re gearing up to go into the clinic,” Isomorphic Labs president Max Jaderberg said on April 16 at WIRED Health in London. “It’s going to be a very exciting moment as we go into clinical trials and start seeing the efficacy of these molecules.” Jaderberg did not elaborate on the timeline, but it’s later than the company had planned to initiate human studies. Last year, CEO Demis Hassabis said it would have AI-designed drugs in clinical trials by the end of 2025. Isomorphic Labs was founded in 2021 as a spinoff from Alphabet’s AI research subsidiary, Google DeepMind. The company uses DeepMind’s AlphaFold, a groundbreaking AI platform that predicts protein structures, for drug discovery. Built from 20 different amino acids, proteins are …