Monthly Archives: November 2007

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2008 for Campus Suicide Prevention Grants. The purpose of this program is to facilitate a comprehensive approach to preventing suicide in institutions of higher education. This program is designed to assist colleges and universities in their efforts to prevent suicide attempts and completions and to enhance services for students with mental and behavioral health problems, such as depression and substance abuse, which put them at risk for suicide and suicide attempts.

Date Added: 11/15/07
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The newest Technical Assistance Publication (TAP), titled Integrating State Administrative Records To Manage Substance Abuse Treatment System Performance, describes the utility and practice of integrating the information available in State agency data sets with information on clients of alcohol and drug abuse services.

Date Added: 11/14/07
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The Multi-Language Initiative (MLI) of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) has released new publications for members of non-English-speaking groups or those with limited English-language abilities.

Date Added: 11/13/07
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New measurements of brain activity confirm that cocaine-addicted individuals have compromised sensitivity to monetary rewards. This altered sensitivity may help explain why some drug-addicted individuals are unable to modify their drug-taking behavior, even in the face of well-understood negative consequences and/or positive incentives for behavioral change. Continue reading →

Researchers have uncovered a key genetic switch that chronic cocaine or stress influences to cause the brain to descend into a pathological state. In studies with mice they showed how chronic cocaine changes gene activity to enhance the addictive reward from the drug. And they showed similarly how chronic stress induces the same kinds of changes that hypersensitizes the brain, causing depression-like symptoms. Continue reading →

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), is accepting applications for cooperative agreements for Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families. The purpose of the cooperative agreements is to develop and expand systems of care for children and youth with serious emotional disturbances and their families, pending the availability of fiscal year 2008 funds.

Date Added: 11/09/07
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New research clarifies the role of drugs of abuse on sleep, why cocaine is so powerful, and the brain changes that occur due to abuse that make addiction so difficult to treat. Studies have found that addictive drugs such as cocaine affect many circadian, or biological clock, genes including two which have been shown to regulate dopamine, a brain chemical that underlies the rewarding effects of cocaine. Continue reading →

Scientists now provide further evidence that a drug known as D-cycloserine could play a role in helping to extinguish the craving behaviors associated with drug addiction. Their study found that mice treated with D-cycloserine were less likely to spend time in an environment where they had previously been trained to expect cocaine than mice treated with a placebo. Continue reading →