Did you miss the presentation given by Dr. Nora Volkow?

This year's Chauncey D. Leake Memorial Lecturer was Nora D. Volkow, M.D., Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The lecture was hosted by the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology and the Center for Addiction Research, and was held on Friday, January 22, 2010.

Dr. Volkow became Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health in May 2003, and her work has been instrumental in demonstrating that drug addiction is a disease of the human brain.  Volkow is a pioneer in the use of PET and MRI imaging to study drug addiction’s effects on the brain.  

Click the link below to view a copy of the presentation given by Dr. Volkow.

mms://medtest.utmb.edu/OUA/Events/Dr.NoraVolkow1-22-10.wmv

 

---

Partying warning for pregnant women: Alcohol and cigarettes hurt the unborn child

Birth defects from drinking and from smoking while pregnant are among the most preventable, yet they are among the most devastating and costly. While it’s one thing to tell women to stop, it’s quite another for some to do it. According to Mahmoud Ahmed, director of UTMB’s laboratory of maternal and fetal pharmacology, once you become a nicotine addict or an alcoholic, “it’s a whole different story.” He says addicted smokers are particularly hard cases. UTMB researcher Tatiana Nanovskaya is trying to find out if drugs like Zyban that help people stop smoking might harm the fetus. At a laboratory located down the hall from the delivery room at UTMB’s John Sealy Hospital, researchers receive a mother’s placenta just moments after birth. The researchers then attach tubes to the placenta, mimicking the flow of blood, and inject the drugs to see how much passes through the placenta, which provides food and oxygen to the fetus. Depending on what they find, doctors might eventually start prescribing the stop-smoking drugs to pregnant women. The video begins at the 3:27 mark.  See Video.

---

Hormones may cause neuro gender variations

UPI.com (United Press International), June 15, 2009 A study by UTMB’s Rebecca Alyea and Cheryl Watson suggests that estrogens affect the body’s dopamine transporter, thereby explaining women’s susceptibility to some neurological diseases. The study originally was published in BMC Neuroscience. Read more

---

$3.4 million boosts addiction recovery research
New therapies also may benefit compulsive eaters

OCT. 25, 2007--Men and women addicted to alcohol or drugs who want to recover but struggle with relapses may have help on the way following this month’s $3.4 million boost to support recovery-focused studies at the UTMB Center for Addiction Research. Funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse will advance ongoing research into brain serotonin systems and new therapies that may improve the long-term prospects of patient recovery.

The new research focuses on how brain serotonin systems contribute to the development of addiction and relapse. The results will provide the foundation for “personalized” therapies in addictive disorders. There may also be benefits for compulsive overeaters.  “We believe that neuronal recovery in serotonin systems will lead to behavioral recovery in addiction, and jump start a new generation of discovery for anti-addiction and potentially, anti-obesity therapeutics,” said Kathryn A. Cunningham who directs the center and is the principal investigator.  Read more

---

NIH Institute Supports National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month Free Educational Materials on Substance Abuse Available The holiday season often brings thoughts of festive times with friends and family, but the last few weeks of the year are not always happy—they also can be dangerous. The number of alcohol-related traffic crashes increases during this period, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, offers FREE information on substance abuse to consumers and educators.            to get free information

---