Stimulating Science
Remember all the noise about the bad economy and how Congress was passing a “Stimulus Act” to help? The name of this bill is the “American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA)”. The idea is to give stimulus money to government agencies, who can then send it out around the country to save jobs or create new ones.
As a government agency, NIDA got more than $260 million through ARRA to support more research projects on drug abuse and addiction. Some of that money has already been used to support students who are working this summer in science labs around the country. Here are some other projects that ARRA money is helping with:
In Cincinnati, 250 teenage girls will participate in a study that looks at how stress, depression, and smoking could affect bone health. Results could help educate girls about how smoking affects their bones, so that fewer girls will start.
In New York, scientists will use NIDA’s ARRA money to see if parents can be trained with online programs to help them communicate better with their teens.
In Seattle, Washington, researchers will use ARRA money to figure out better ways to help college students hooked on marijuana to stop using the drug and focus on a healthy lifestyle instead.
And in Augusta, Georgia, scientists like Dr. Beth NeSmith (see photo) will be looking at liver damage caused by cocaine use.
These are just a few examples of thousands of projects that NIDA will support around the country using ARRA money. Since NIDA is just one of the 27 Institutes and Offices at the National Institutes of Health, you can imagine how many people in the U.S. are benefiting–both people working in the labs, and patients who will hopefully end up a little closer to a cure. The Sara Bellum Blog thinks that’s a really “stimulating” idea.
![stimulating-science-research-lab_1 Researcher Dr. Beth NeSmith in the midst of an experiment in the laboratory.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20090814080114im_/http://teens.drugabuse.gov/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/stimulating-science-research-lab_1.jpg)
Dr. Beth NeSmith, assistant professor at the Medical College of Georgia School of Nursing, is among the first in the nation to receive NIDA's stimulus funding and will study kidney damage in local cocaine users.
Comorbidity, a Word for Thought…
This is a guest SBB post from NIDA intern Giselle.
“Comorbidity” is a strange word, right? Well, at least for me it was. I have to admit it that it was the first scientific word I learned during my internship here at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)–my Spanish accent still gives me a hard time pronouncing it. On the first day of my internship I had to read and get acquainted with the extensive research that NIDA has done and published. Comorbidity was featured in NIDA’s Research Report Series.
So, what’s co-mor-bi-di-ty? Here’s what NIDA scientists say: “When two disorders or illnesses occur in the same person, together or one after the other, they are called comorbid.” Having two disorders together can also cause them to interact in ways that make both of them worse.
So what does all of that really mean? It means that sometimes two illnesses go together. For example, people who have depression or other mental illness are often addicted to drugs as well, and vice versa-so that’s why scientists say depression is often “comorbid with” drug abuse.
NIDA scientists aren’t completely sure why depressed people are more likely to have a drug abuse problem. But here’s my take on it. Everyone has had the so-called ‘mood swings.’ If someone feels really bad, they may want to ‘ease their mind’ with drugs. Unfortunately, that can lead to a second disease - addiction to drugs - and then they feel even worse than they did before.
That’s what’s really bad about comorbid diseases: they can make each other worse! If someone is depressed, it’s harder to be motivated to quit using drugs. And if someone is using drugs, it can interfere with their treatment for depression.
What other diseases could you think could be comorbid? And why? It’s food for thought.