TL;DR: In 159 young adults, people whose eyes were drawn to reward cues rather than to the rewards themselves glanced first at alcohol images slightly more often than one comparison group, but not the other. They did not drink more, contrary to an earlier study. Key Findings 159 volunteers aged 18 to 35: All at …
TL;DR: Eleven Indian children whose parents had addiction or serious mental illness all completed 8 sessions of brain-activity feedback training with no side effects. Their brain signals and thinking scores did not change clearly, and there was no comparison group. Key Findings 11 children, aged 6 to 12: 9 had a parent with a substance …
TL;DR: A meta-analysis pooling 63 studies and 265,079 people found that cannabis users had about twice the odds of committing violence as non-users (2.05 times in the general population, 2.49 times among psychiatric patients). The gap shrank to 1.17 times in studies that followed people over time. The design shows an association, not that cannabis …
TL;DR: A 2026 randomized trial in Journal of Medical Internet Research tested the web-based Health Check-Up for Expectant Moms program in 176 pregnant women at risk for substance use or sexually transmitted infection risk, but reductions in alcohol, cannabis, and condomless sex did not differ clearly from an attention-matched control condition. Key Findings 176 pregnant …
TL;DR: A 2026 qualitative study in the Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment found that syringe service programs helped people receive buprenorphine quickly, but participants said precipitated withdrawal and limited at-home initiation guidance made treatment harder to start and continue. Key Findings 12 exit interviews: Researchers interviewed people after a randomized trial of buprenorphine …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Translational Psychiatry combined positron emission tomography (PET) and functional MRI (fMRI) in alcohol use disorder and linked cerebellar hypermetabolism to disrupted fronto-cerebellar connectivity and poorer inhibition performance. Key Findings AUD-control sample: Researchers compared 27 people with severe alcohol use disorder (AUD) and 25 healthy controls. Multimodal imaging used: The study …
TL;DR: A 2026 observational study in International Journal of Legal Medicine found that cocaine dominated analytically confirmed recreational drug toxicity cases in one Bologna emergency department, while ketamine was common and all new-psychoactive-substance-positive patients had psychomotor agitation. Key Findings 110 ED patients: The observational study enrolled 110 patients with suspected acute recreational drug toxicity between …
TL;DR: A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis in Bipolar Disorders found that poor medication adherence in bipolar disorder was linked to substance use, psychotic features, lower insight, poorer functioning, and several markers of more severe illness, but most evidence was graded low or very low quality. Key Findings 19 studies included: Researchers pooled observational studies …
TL;DR: A 2026 secondary analysis in Addiction found that adults switched to very-low-nicotine cigarettes often used alternative nicotine products and maintained much higher nicotine intake than cigarette-only users. Key Findings 438 smokers: The parent randomized clinical trial enrolled adults who smoked 5 to 40 cigarettes per day. 0.4 mg/g cigarettes: The very-low-nicotine-content group received Spectrum …
TL;DR: A 2026 medRxiv preprint found that one session of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) reduced cigarette craving in adults with tobacco use disorder, and the people who responded had heavier baseline smoking, craving, and withdrawal. Key Findings DLPFC craving test: The randomized crossover study included 60 adults …
