UB Addiction News

CRIA faculty members comprise a dynamic research community at UB who make news with their breakthroughs in studying the causes, consequences and biology of addiction.

  • Harm reduction historic shift in illegal drug policies
    10/21/22

    UB historian David Herzberg says the new approach could save thousands of lives if political opposition doesn’t derail it.

     

  • Opioids, tranquilizers still often prescribed for alcohol use disorder in NY
    10/12/22

    The prescribing rates remain high, despite efforts to curb the practice, a UB-led study has found.

  • Binge drinking has powerful impact on adolescent brain
    5/23/22

    UB preclinical study also demonstrates that low-to-moderate levels of drinking negatively affect the adolescent brain.

  • Study explores pandemic-related shifts in alcohol sales
    1/10/22

    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.

  •  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.”

  • Expanding UB’s alcoholism research training program
    6/28/21

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

  • Leonard COVID-19 Alcohol Use Insight
    7/21/20
    CRIA Director has been busy offering insight into alcohol use and abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic to various local and national media.
  • Grant could change approach to treating alcohol addiction
    7/6/20

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

  • Treating substance use disorder amid the pandemic
    5/29/20

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

  • Cannabis users overestimate cannabinoids
    4/16/20

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

  • Study: Substance use in high schoolers linked to insufficient sleep
    3/25/20

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

  • Smoke two of these and call me in the morning?
    1/31/20

    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.

  • Contributing to CDC report on vaping-related lung injuries
    1/15/20

    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.