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This site is dedicated to advancing drug abuse research around the globe by fostering international cooperative research and supporting the exchange of scientific information. Investigators can network and form workgroups in The Exchange, access international drug abuse survey data, clinical trials information and statistical training inThe Toolkit . Read more about the network.


A new study funded by NIDA has used brain-imaging technology to show that during a decision game, chronic marijuana users show less activity in an error-processing part of their brains than peers who do not use marijuana. These results provide preliminary evidence in the debate on whether substance abusers willfully ignore their problem or whether cognitive deficits prevent them from fully understanding their addiction and its potential consequences.
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To understand whether the molecule CREB is required for environmental associations with smoking, researchers funded by NIDA performed a series of conditioned place preference (CPP) experiments using mice. CPP occurs when an animal is exposed to a pleasurable drug in a specific environment, and learns to prefer that environment over others when given a choice. The researchers exposed mice to either nicotine or a control injection for three days and immediately placed the mice in one of two visually distinct environments, to allow a CPP to develop. Mice that received nicotine injections and developed a CPP showed increased CREB activity in the NAc shell when placed their preferred environment, even without exposure to nicotine. Mice who had received the control injections did not show an increase in CREB activity in the same test.
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Researchers have identified a key epigenetic mechanism in the brain that helps explain cocaine's addictiveness, according to research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.
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According to a report from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a recent survey shows a "dramatic" increase in the number of older adults using illicit drugs, which "may require the doubling of substance abuse treatment services" for this population by 2020. And that survey didn't even include the legal drug — alcohol — which is the major substance-abuse problem for those 60 and older.
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