Internet and Psychiatry

Koposov RA, Ruchkin VV, Eisemann M, Sidorov PI. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2005 Aug;14(5):254-61.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescent delinquency and alcohol abuse have become a growing concern in Russia. Psychopathology, a dysfunctional family and specific personality factors have all been linked to addictive and antisocial behavior. Since delinquent youth represent a specific risk group, where alcohol misuse tends to be more pronounced than in the general population, the objectives of this study were: 1) to compare differences in personality and parenting factors, and in psychopathology in juvenile delinquents with and without alcohol abuse; and 2) to evaluate the associations between alcohol abuse, personality and parenting factors, after controlling for comorbid psychopathology.

Simons JS, Oliver MN, Gaher RM, Ebel G, Brummels P. Addict Behav. 2005 Aug;30(7):1370-81.

The present study examined associations between impulsivity and affect lability and methamphetamine and alcohol abuse and dependence symptoms in a rural inpatient treatment population (N=235).

Thirty-two percent of participants reported methamphetamine use in the past 90 days prior to admission.

Amphetamine use disorders were found to be more common among younger participants whereas alcohol use disorders were more common among older and Native American participants.

McKowen JW, Frye MA, Altshuler LL, Gitlin MJ. Bipolar Disord. 2005 Aug;7(4):377-81.

OBJECTIVES: Despite a high prevalence rate, patients with bipolar disorder and active alcohol use are routinely excluded from controlled clinical trials leaving clinicians with little evidence-based medicine to guide treatment. This report evaluates preliminary data of alcohol consumption patterns utilizing the Alcohol Timeline Followback (TLFB) method in actively drinking patients with bipolar disorder.

Strakowski SM, DelBello MP, Fleck DE, Adler CM, Anthenelli RM, Keck PE Jr, Arnold LM, Amicone J. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005 Aug;62(8):851-8.

CONTEXT: Alcohol-use disorders are common co-occurring conditions affecting bipolar patients, and this co-occurrence is negatively associated with outcome.

OBJECTIVE: The primary goal of this study was to identify how the relative onsets of alcohol-use and bipolar disorders affect the subsequent courses of illness in patients with both conditions.

Vinod KY, Hungund BL. Life Sci. 2005 Aug 19;77(14):1569-83.

Several natural lipids have emerged as candidate modulators of central nervous system (CNS) functions. Fatty acid amides and their coupled signaling pathways are known to regulate several physiological and behavioral processes.

Recent studies from our laboratory and others also have implicated endogenous marijuana-like brain constituents, endocannabinoids (ECs), and cannabinoid-1 (CB(1)) receptors in the neural circuitry that mediate drug addiction and neuropsychiatric disorders.

Choi IG, Son HG, Yang BH, Kim SH, Lee JS, Chai YG, Son BK, Kee BS, Park BL, Kim LH, Choi YH, Shin HD. Hum Mutat. 2005 Sep;26(3):224-34.

Alcoholism is a multifactorial and polygenic disorder involving complex gene-to-gene and gene-to-environment interactions. Alcohol metabolism is one of the biological determinants that could significantly be influenced by genetic polymorphisms in alcohol-metabolism genes. These genetic polymorphisms are believed to influence drinking behavior and development of alcoholism.