UB Addiction News

Trends examined with machine-learning analysis could help inform public health policies.

“Gray area” drinking is the realm between healthy levels of alcohol consumption and a diagnosed alcohol use disorder.

Gray area drinking is not an official medical diagnosis. But experts say any level of alcohol consumption that negatively impacts your personal or work life, your own health, or the health of others around you is cause for concern.

A number of recent surveys found that people living in the United States say they’ve begun drinking more heavily during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Healthline reported on new simulation-based programs designed to help college students better navigate issues they may encounter such as substance misuse and sexual assault and violence. The story quotes Ken Leonard, executive director of UB’s Clinical and Research Institute on Addictions, who said that education with skills training geared to reducing risky drinking behaviors can be effective. He noted that the “vast majority” of alcohol education programs, for example, usually “provide classroom instruction about how alcohol is metabolized, the amount of ethanol, or alcohol, in usual alcohol beverages, and the consequences of excessive drinking.” He added that there is “no evidence” that this kind of education “has any influence on drinking.”

A $1.7 million grant from the NIAAA will allow UB to train pre-doctoral students in addition to postdocs.

Reliably measuring recovery capital is the first step to advancing the science of better understanding how different sources of capital facilitate recovery.

While volunteering in New York City, UB addiction medicine physician Tildabeth Doscher sees its effects up close

In UB-led study at Hash Bash, frequent users reported low knowledge of, and substantially overestimated, cannabinoid content and effective dosages.

The association between marijuana use and insufficient sleep is especially strong for male and younger students.

Not quite, says a new study that highlights the discrepancy between cannabis enthusiasts’ beliefs about the medicinal and health uses of marijuana and the empirical evidence.

A UB professor and two alums are co-authors of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that identified vitamin E acetate as a likely culprit.

UB historian David Herzberg says the government has tried to harness a profit-driven drug industry to serve public health before.

Tracey A. Ignatowski, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences, has developed a treatment for chronic pain that could have an impact in dealing with the opioid crisis.

David Dietz, PhD, associate professor and chair of pharmacology and toxicology, is senior author on a pair of papers dealing with the study of drug relapse.

The nation’s first Opioid Intervention Court (OIC) was established in Buffalo in 2017 after — in a single week — three traditional drug-treatment court defendants fatally overdosed on opioids before their second court appearance.