Search results for " dependence"
showing 10 items of 2018 documents
Combination treatment with nefazodone and cognitive-behavioral therapy for relapse prevention in alcohol-dependent men: a randomized controlled study.
2004
Background This study evaluated the serotonergic antidepressant nefazodone versus placebo and specific cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) versus nondirective group counseling (GC) for relapse prevention in alcohol dependence in a large prospective, randomized, and placebo-controlled double-blind study at 3 German university centers. Method 242 male patients fulfilling at least 5 criteria for alcohol dependence according to DSM-IV and ICD-10 were eligible, after detoxification, for one of the following treatment combinations: nefazodone + CBT, nefazodone + GC, placebo + CBT, and placebo + GC. Either nefazodone or placebo was administered throughout the evaluation period of 15 months. Either …
Reliability and validity of the German version of the European Addiction Severity Index (EuropASI).
2001
This study provides data on the psychometric characteristics of the German version of the European Addiction Severity Index (EuropASI). The ASI is a frequently used clinical and research instrument that measures problem severity among people with substance dependence.The German ASI was used in a sample of 112 consecutively admitted male psychiatric inpatients seeking treatment for severe alcohol problems. The conceptual structure of the German ASI subscales was investigated by analyzing the intercorrelations of the severity ratings and composite scores. Internal consistency, interrater reliability and concurrent validity in terms of correlations with other assessment instruments were evalua…
Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) and HDL cholesterol (HDL) are highly correlated in male alcohol dependent patients.
2000
Background: Serum levels of total HDL cholesterol (HDL) are reportedly influenced by recent alcohol intake. We examined the correlation between HDL cholesterol and widely used markers of excessive alcohol intake, such as carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), γ-glutamyl-transferase (GGT), or mean corpuscular volume of erythrocytes (MCV), of which CDT is thought to be the most specific. Methods: Several serological markers [i.e., CDT, GGT, aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT), alanine aminotransferase (ALAT), MCV, and HDL] were determined in 100 actively drinking male patients with alcohol dependence (DSM-IV) and in 27 non-alcohol-dependent controls, according to routine procedures. Spearman…
Genome-wide Association Study of Alcohol Dependence
2009
Context Alcohol dependence is a serious and common public health problem. It is well established that genetic factors play a major role in the development of this disorder. Identification of genes that contribute to alcohol dependence will improve our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie this disorder. Objective To identify susceptibility genes for alcohol dependence through a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and a follow-up study in a population of German male inpatients with an early age at onset. Design The GWAS tested 524 396 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). All SNPs with P −4 were subjected to the follow-up study. In addition, nominally significant SNPs from genes t…
Association of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit alpha 4 polymorphisms with nicotine dependence in 5500 Germans.
2009
Polymorphisms in the CHRNA4 gene coding the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit alpha 4 have recently been suggested to play a role in the determination of smoking-related phenotypes. To examine this hypothesis, we conducted a genetic association study in three large samples from the German general population (N(1)=1412; N(2)=1855; N(3)=2294). Five single-nucleotide polymorphisms in CHRNA4 were genotyped in 5561 participants, including 2707 heavily smoking cases (regularly smoking at least 20 cigarettes per day) and 2399 never-smoking controls (or=100 cigarettes over lifetime). We examined associations of the polymorphisms with smoking case-control status and with the extent of nicotin…
Altered benzodiazepine receptor sensitivity in alcoholism: a study with fMRI and acute lorazepam challenge.
2007
Previous studies suggested altered sensitivity of the GABA/benzodiazepine receptor system in alcoholic patients. Expanding on these findings, the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study aimed to assess whether a differential modulation of cognitive brain activation by an acute GABAergic drug challenge could be detected in patients with alcoholism. Eight detoxified male patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for alcohol dependence and nine healthy male control subjects were studied with fMRI while performing a 2-back working memory task. The fMRI scans were performed 1 h after intravenous administration of saline and again 1 h after 0.03 mg/kg lorazepam I.V. After saline, a task…
Development and validation of a reliable method for studying the distribution pattern for opiates metabolites in brain
2012
Abstract Brain distribution pattern of “street” heroin metabolites (morphine and codeine) was investigated in two fatalities due to “acute narcotism”. A suitable sample pretreatment prior to solid-phase-extraction was developed to achieve a good recovery of the analytes and to eliminate the interfering species. After derivatization with MSTFA, samples were analyzed by GC/MS. Specificity, accuracy, precision and linearity of the method were evaluated; LOD and LOQ were, respectively, 10 ng/25 ng for morphine and 5 ng/10 ng for codeine. This method was applied to the analysis of six brain areas (hippocampus, frontal lobe, occipital lobe, nuclei, bulb and pons) coming from two cases of heroin-r…
New perspectives on the manipulation of opiate urges and the assessment of cognitive effort associated with opiate urges
2000
Behavioral models of drug urges assume that conditioned urges are strongly associated with drug consumption. An alternative, cognitive model assumes that urges represent the operation of cognitively demanding processes devoted to either supporting or blocking the automatized drug-use behavior. In Study 1, the effect of verbal drug cues and mood induction on self-reported opiate urges were examined. Twenty-four opiate addicts were either instructed to listen to verbal drug cures or neutral cues. Negative mood induction was applied on 12 addicts. Study 2 examined the cognitive processes underlying these urges. In a dual task paradigm, participants responded to a probe stimulus and listened si…
Chronic alcohol intake abolishes the relationship between dopamine synthesis capacity and learning signals in ventral striatum
2014
Drugs of abuse elicit dopamine release in the ventral striatum, possibly biasing dopamine-driven reinforcement learning towards drug-related reward at the expense of non-drug-related reward. Indeed, in alcohol-dependent patients, reactivity in dopaminergic target areas is shifted from non-drug-related stimuli towards drug-related stimuli. Such 'hijacked' dopamine signals may impair flexible learning from non-drug-related rewards, and thus promote craving for the drug of abuse. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure ventral striatal activation by reward prediction errors (RPEs) during a probabilistic reversal learning task in recently detoxified alcohol-dependent pati…
The point prevalence of depression and associated sociodemographic correlates in the general population of Latvia
2013
Abstract Aim To determine the point prevalence of depression in the general Latvian population and to explore the associated sociodemographic characteristics. Methods The study was part of the cross-sectional survey on the general population on substance use in Latvia in 2011. It consisted of face-to-face interviews of a randomised stratified multi-stage probability sample. In total, 4493 persons were included, aged between 15 and 64. To assess depression, the participants were interviewed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9; a score of ≥10 was defined as indicating the presence of a depressive episode. Socio-demographic, subjective health status and alcohol use were assessed using the…