Highlights of recently published NIDA-supported studies

Studies Focus on Acculturation and Hispanic Youth

U.S.-Born Hispanic Women Have More Drug Problems Than Immigrants: Among 19- to 21-year-old Hispanic women in South Florida, those born in the United States face a higher risk of drug addiction than immigrants, according to a recent study by Dr. R. Jay Turner and colleagues. The U.S.-born women reported more acculturation, measured as preference for English over Spanish, and greater exposure to stressful events, both of which were associated with increased risk for addiction. The gap in acculturation between the two groups accounted for 40 percent of the risk difference; a high score on either acculturation or stress exposure was associated with a nearly three-fold increase in the odds of addiction, compared with low scores on those measures (evaluated at one standard deviation above and below average). The investigators speculate that cultural influences help protect foreign-born Hispanic young women from stress. Native-born and immigrant young men reported similar levels of stress exposure and had similar rates of addiction.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence 83(1):79-89, 2006. [Abstract]

Latino Parent Training: Men and women who completed a parent-training program adapted for Latino culture reported improvements in effective parenting practices and their children's (aged 13 years, on average) behavior compared with those who did not receive the intervention. Children whose parents received the program also reported that they were less likely to abuse tobacco, marijuana, and other drugs in the future. The parents also said their children's behavior improved.

Drs. Charles R. Martinez and J. Mark Eddy of the Oregon Social Learning Center randomly assigned 73 Spanish-speaking Latino parents (90 percent were of Mexican heritage) to participate in Nuestras Familias: Andando Entre Culturas (Our Families: Moving Between Cultures) or to receive no intervention. During each of 12 weekly 2.5-hour sessions, participants in the intervention group discussed developing effective family communication, bridging cultures, being positive, and encouraging success using appropriate discipline and limit setting, and practiced parenting techniques in role-play.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 73(5):841-851, 2005. [Abstract]

Medical Care During Addiction Treatment Reduces Hospital Use

On-site delivery of primary care reduces emergency department (ED) visits and inpatient hospital stays over the next 12 months among adult patients in methadone maintenance or in long-term residential treatment programs, according to a recent article by Dr. Peter D. Friedmann and colleagues. Their longitudinal analysis showed that offsite referrals reduced hospitalizations, but not ED visits, among those in long-term residential programs. Neither on-site care nor offsite referral curbed health service use by outpatients in nonmethadone treatment programs. In all three types of programs, health care use declined after substance abuse treatment. Overall, ED visits decreased from 47 percent to 23 percent, and hospitalizations from 42 percent to 13 percent; the greatest reductions were observed among patients with the longest stays in treatment. The National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study included six methadone maintenance programs, 14 long-term residential programs, and 24 outpatient nonmethadone programs with over 2,000 patients. The investigators advocate future studies of the cost-effectiveness of integrating primary care into addiction treatment.
Medical Care 44(1):8-15, 2006. [Abstract]

Brain Changes Accompany Cocaine Withdrawal

Rats repeatedly exposed to cocaine and then withdrawn from it exhibit neural changes in the lateral amygdala, a part of the brain involved in responding to pleasurable and aversive stimuli. Such changes may mediate the negative emotional effects that accompany drug withdrawal, say the researchers who documented the effect in a recent study. Dr. Vadim Bolshakov and colleagues at Harvard Medical School have shown that longterm potentiation (LTP), a process underlying learning and memory, occurs in the lateral amygdala when cocaine-exposed rats no longer have access to the drug. They found a clear link between LTP and enhanced levels of the neurotransmitter glutamate in the lateral amygdala and signs of withdrawal in the rats. The findings suggest that amygdala circuits might contribute to drug modulation of motivational states and influence addictive behaviors.
European Journal of Neuroscience 23(1):239-250, 2006. [Abstract]

Volume 21, Number 2 (February 2007)