On April 22, 2010, the movie Crazy Heart was honored as the top feature film to portray substance abuse issues for its impressive representation of a self-destructive country singer who struggles with alcoholism. Actors Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal were also bestowed accolades for their performances in the film. The Soloist, the story of a supremely talented schizophrenic street musician, won for top feature film to accurately portray mental health issues. The Prism Awards recognize those works of art dealing with substance abuse or mental health issues that promote education and knowledge to their viewing audiences. Through their portrayals of the realities of substance addiction and mental disorders, these works of art are delivering a hopeful message that underlines the value of treatment and recovery.

Other Prism awards were received by such television shows as NBC’s “Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit,” “Law and Order,” and “Celebrity Apprentice,” AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother,” HBO’s “The Alzheimer’s Project,” a special episode called “Kids in Rehab” on Nickelodeon’s “Nick News with Linda Ellerbee,” and PBS’s “Betty Ford: The Real Deal.” The television movies on Lifetime called “Natalee Holloway” and “Prayers for Bobby” also took home awards. Actors Rosie O’Donnell for her performance in Lifetime’s television movie “America,” Kevin McKidd from the television show “Grey’s Anatomy,” and Tony Shalhoub and Hector Elizondo for their performances in the television show “Monk.”

EIC was founded in 1983 by leaders in the entertainment industry and continues to connect science and art via the recognition of media forms that support mental health awareness. The Prism Awards began in 1997 and have developed into a celebrated annual event among the Hollywood scene. To learn more, visit EIC’s website at eiconline.org or prismawards.com.

PRISM Awards Acknowledge Substance Abuse Portrayals in Cinema is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

"About one in 10 parents/caregivers think that their toddlers, preschoolers, and children have a sleep problem," said Maria M. Wong, associate professor in the department of psychology at, Idaho State University, citing several studies. "The prevalence of problem sleepiness among adolescents and young adults, ages 12 to 25 years, is not only high but also increasing. Some serious consequences include increased risk of unintentional injuries or death, such as car accidents, low academic performance, negative moods, and increased use of alcohol and drugs."

"Sleep and sleepiness problems are important issues in childhood and adolescence," added Tim Roehrs, director of research at the Sleep Disorders and Research Center at the Henry Ford Hospital. "There are emerging data that the prevalence of chronic insomnia in children and adolescents is not that different than that seen in adults. There also are emerging data that there is morbidity associated with insomnia and sleepiness in childhood and adolescence — school and social problems and the data of the present study now add substance problems."

Wong explained that her group’s previous work had shown an association between childhood sleep problems and the early onset of substance use in adolescence. "In those studies, overtiredness and having trouble sleeping predicted onset of alcohol, cigarette, and illicit drug use among boys and onset of alcohol use only among girls," she said.

"Most of our participants are young adults right now. So we wanted to test for the association between sleep problems and substance problems now that they are older."
For this family study, researchers had secured the participation of 386 adolescents (292 boys, 94 girls). Data on sleep problems and substance use were gathered in six regular waves — at three to five, six to eight, nine to 11, 12 to 14, 15 to 17, and 18 to 20 years of age — as well as in seven annual waves, from ages 11 to 17.

"We found that ‘having trouble sleeping’ in early childhood, ages three to five, predicted a higher probability of ‘having trouble sleeping’ in adolescence, ages 11 to 17, which in turn predicted the presence of drug-related problems in young adulthood ages 18 to 21," said Wong. "Overtiredness in early childhood predicted lower response inhibition — that is, having problems inhibiting impulses and behavior — in adolescence, which predicted higher numbers of illicit drugs used. Overtiredness in childhood also directly predicted the presence of binge drinking, blackouts, driving after drinking alcohol, and the number of lifetime alcohol problems in young adulthood."
"As a specialist in sleep and sleep-disorders medicine and also alcoholism and drug abuse," said Roehrs, "I was not surprised by this report. However, I suspect the pediatrician or family-care physician and the lay person may be surprised. Despite some design issues, this study is an important first step in understanding the relation between sleep problems and substance use problems, particularly among adolescents. Previous studies that have reported such a relation are cross-sectional. This is the first prospective study and it is important from that perspective. Secondly, possible mediators of this relation have been identified."

Wong noted that her study does not directly explain why this relationship exists. "Childhood sleep problems appear to have both direct and indirect effects — via sleep trouble and response inhibition in adolescence — on subsequent substance-related outcomes," she said. "Additionally, our previous work showed childhood sleep problems were associated with early onset of alcohol and drug use, which was a well-established risk factor for subsequent alcohol and drug related problems. This suggests a marker of alcohol problems that may be detectable very early in the life course."

"The bottom line is, sleep is important," said Roehrs. "Even if it is not causal for this relation, improving sleep will modify and minimize the risks. In the addicted adult, at least the alcoholic, sleep problems that remain after the initial acute withdrawal are predictive of relapse."

Wong suggested several steps. "First, it is important to increase public awareness of the significance of sleep problems in children, and their potential effect on self-control and later substance use and abuse," she said. "Second, substance abuse prevention and intervention programs need to consider the relationships among sleep problems, self-control, and the increased risk for substance abuse. Third, health care providers may need to become more aware of the potential serious consequences of childhood sleep problems, and provide treatment when sleep disturbances are clinically indicated."

Childhood Sleep Problems Linked to Later Drug and Alcohol Use is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

The research, sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Aging, and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, has been published in the journal PloS ONE.

Poor sleep patterns and drug habits are two habits that may spread easily in an adolescent’s social group, and one may influence the other. According to lead researcher Sara C. Mednick, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the VA San Diego Healthcare System, this is the first investigation of the spread of illegal drug use in social networks. It is also the first study in age population on the spread of sleep behaviors through social networks.

Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were analyzed to determine how sleep deprivation and the spread of drug use within social groups are related. About 8,349 teens in grades 7 through 12 were studied for a period of eight years. Each of these participants was asked to name five friends who also participated in the study.

The findings of the study revealed that participants belonging to the same large social group with poor sleep had tried marijuana. It was also found that teens’ sleep and drug habits are influenced by their friends and even the friends of their friends.

"Our behaviors are all connected to each other and we need to start thinking about how one behavior affects our lives on many levels. Therefore, when parents, schools, and law enforcement want to look for ways to influence one outcome, such as drug use, our research suggests that targeting another behavior, like sleep, may have a positive influence," says Mednick.

It is difficult to predict which teenager would take up drugs but will quit and who will progress to dependency. Instilling good habits like limiting hours of watching television and spending time in front of the computer, using the phone only during daytime and early evening hours, and promoting getting a good night’s sleep may help.

Sleep-Deprived Teens More Likely to Abuse Drugs is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

“I wanted fame, but I thought it would be incremental, and I became afraid of the overnight-sensation thing,” Bentley said, speaking to a reporter about his life since “American Beauty.” He continued, “I started walking into rooms, and everyone would look at me, and I would freeze up. People kept saying, ‘You have to find your next movie,’ and that didn’t make life any better.”

The son of two United Methodist ministers in Arkansas, Bentley said he abandoned the spirituality of his youth and turned to partying in a group house that he shared with the actors Brad Rowe and Chad Lindberg, among others. Soon his recreational use of marijuana and alcohol, which began as a teenager, branched out into cocaine, Ecstasy, and eventually heroin.

One of Bentley’s housemates at the time, Tony Zierra, a budding movie director, caught some of this chaos on tape for a film about his friends trying to make names for themselves.

“The house became completely swept up in the Hollywood machine, and for Wes it was very overwhelming,” said Zierra, whose first attempt at the film fell apart but is now trying to finish a new edit, with the title “My Big Break.” “It happened too fast, Wes was too young, and there was money and free time and this sense among Wes and others that once they got their break, the jobs and scripts would just keep coming.”

But when Bentley wasn’t working, his drug use escalated. He would spend nights doing cocaine at clubs and then sleep until 5 p.m. Eventually his friends, concerned about him, refused to join in, and he would drive around the city alone in search of heroin. He said he spent days in drug dens. At the same time, he said he had “stacks of scripts, great scripts with great offers attached” that he would never read because of his addiction.

From 2002 to 2009, Bentley said he stopped caring about acting, and only did the occasional film for money to pay bills or buy drugs. In 2001 he married Jennifer Quanz, an aspiring actress he met at the group house two years earlier, but their relationship frayed as he hid his drug use and disappeared for hours or days. He moved out of their home in 2006 and holed up in a new apartment, doing drugs pretty much full time. (He and Quanz are in the process of divorcing.)

In 2008 Bentley was arrested and pleaded guilty to heroin possession and to trying to pass a counterfeit $100 bill. He was mandated to community service and counseling and 12-step programs, but he relapsed. He continued using heroin until he was broke, he said, and began trying to get sober until finally, back in Los Angeles after a vacation, he hit his bottom last July.

“I had come back to L.A. for something, and I drank a whole bottle of Scotch, and I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to die in this hotel room with this bottle of Scotch,’” he said. “It was after that I told a friend for the first time: ‘I’m a drug addict, and an alcoholic, and I need help. I need help or I’m going to die.’”

Bentley briefly entered a rehabilitation program and began attending 12-step program meetings on his own, which he said he still does.

Bentley is now seven months sober and wants to share his story in the hope that he might help other young actors who are overwhelmed by success. He also readily acknowledged that there is a self-serving aspect to disclosing his story.

“I want to earn more work because I’m doing good work,” he said, “but people were questioning if I was even in shape to do auditions. Telling my story is a way to say, ‘I’m O.K., things are better.’”

Bentley is now starring in a new play called “Venus in Fur,” which opened last month to mostly positive reviews and was recently extended through March 7th.

Walter Bobbie, the director of “Venus in Fur,” said that he was pleased with Bentley’s performance. Bobbie said he had heard inklings about Bentley’s personal problems before his audition but was impressed with his enthusiasm for the play, which some other actors had been leery of because of the unflattering turns that the character takes.

“We needed a man of genuine effortless sexuality and confidence, and Wes delivered that,” Bobbie said. “As for Wes’s personal life, I’ve always believed that you never make a decision based on rumor. You meet a person and make your own history with them.”

Bentley said he wanted to be in “Venus in Fur” as soon as he read the script, but he was also just as eager to get any work, even if it paid pennies compared with film. As for sobriety, he emphasized that he was still at an early stage, and that he knew his own story might not be enough to sway a full-blown addict. Still, he said, he wished that when he was in his early 20s he had heard a story like his own.

“This would have helped me, at least, if someone would have made me realize that you don’t need to do drugs to be artistic and express yourself,” Bentley said. “If you want to be artistic, if you want to be creative, if you want to express yourself, you can’t let things get in your way, and drugs are included in that.”

Actor Wes Bentley Rebuilds Career after Beating Addiction is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Suluguic writes that the band’s quick rise to stardom with such hits as “Paranoid” and “Iron Man” propelled Osbourne into drug and alcohol abuse that lead to infidelity, neglectful parenting, abusive episodes with two wives, and a few near-death experiences over four decades.

“I should’ve been dead a thousand times,” Osbourne says in a telephone interview with Sulugiuc. “I’m not boasting about that. I don’t want people to read my book and think, ‘If he can do it then I can.’ I’m a very lucky guy to be alive. Drugs and alcohol were fun but there is also a very bad side about it. I don’t do it anymore.”

“Whatever I did, I did,” he says. “Everybody wants to take the road with the pot of gold at the end, but sometimes to get to that you’ve got to go across a few swamps and a few bad things. Would I do it again now? I don’t think so. But I’ve already done it, so I’ve got to accept it.”

Cocaine, hash, LSD, antidepressants and alcohol are recurring themes throughout the book, which was written with Chris Ayres.

“Drugs nearly killed me,” Osbourne says. “What I was doing was self-medicate, because I suffered from dyslexia and attention deficit disorder. I didn’t like the way I felt because of the stigma that I had, so when I drank I thought that was the way I wanted to feel. I wanted to be carefree.”

He says he also regrets marrying his first wife, Thelma Mayfair, at the age of 20 and having two children by the age of 25. “I got married way too early and I got children way too early,” he says. “My parents never told me it’s not a good idea to get married early. I thought that’s what you do. What I do with my children, which I wish my parents had done with me, is talk to them. If they ever ask me questions I give them an honest answer.”

After numerous stints in rehab, Osbourne, who is working on a new solo record before headlining his Ozzfest festival later this year, says he has been clean “for about six or seven years now.”

“When I first tried to stop drinking I used to think, ‘How will I enjoy my life anymore?’” he says. “Then it shifted to, ‘At the end of the day where will I be?’ If I get off the phone now, smoke a joint, have

Ozzy Osbourne Talks Addiction is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Among addictive drugs, heroin is the major cause of death, and the majority of fatalities occur in Istanbul, Gaziantep, Van, Elazig, and Antalya, in that order.

The report also says that synthetic drugs, especially Ecstasy, are a major threat for Turkey and the surrounding region. But the main drug that is bought and used in the country is marijuana.

Among the students surveyed, 80 percent said they do not know where they can find drugs; among the 20 percent who do, however, the percentage is higher for girls than boys. Twelve percent of girls say they know where to find drugs—generally at bars and discos. Students also say they can easily find drugs on the street, in parks, at the house of a drug dealer, and in front of schools.

According to data from the Health Ministry, there was an increase in applications for treatment among heroin addicts in 2009. Slightly more than 50 percent of addicts received treatment for use of opium and its derivatives, while 30 percent sought help for marijuana use, 3 percent for cocaine, and 2 percent for other stimulants.

Slightly more than 50 percent of addicts under treatment were seeking it for the first time, while 45 percent had requested treatment before. The report found that most people seeking treatment for drug use are unemployed.

Study Examines Drug Abuse in Turkey is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

“You hear stories about you can’t get someone through the Internet,” said Maryland’s Howard County Sheriff’s Department deputy Matt Roberson. “Guess what??You can. I just did. Here you are, playing World of Warcraft, and you never know who you’re playing with.”

In this case, online gamers were playing alongside Alfred Hightower, a man wanted on charges of dealing in a schedule III controlled substance and dealing a schedule IV controlled substance, and two charges of dealing in marijuana. A warrant was issued for his arrest in 2007.

The sheriff’s department enlisted the aid of the U.S. Marshals this summer to track down a number of fugitives as part of Operation: Falcon, and Hightower was among those targeted. Unfortunately, authorities were unable to locate him. Roberson soon found out that he had left the country.

“I received information from a childhood friend, who tells me the guy is in Canada,” said Roberson. “I held onto the information in the back of my head. I spoke to the marshals and asked if we could confirm the guy’s location, would they help us get him? They indicated that they would.”

With the help of sheriff’s major Steve Rogers, Roberson began gathering information on Hightower through a number of sources, and discovered that their suspect was a World of Warcraft fan.

“We received information that this guy was a regular player of an online game, which was referred to as ‘some warlock and witches’ game,” said Roberson. “None of that information was sound enough to pursue on its own, but putting everything we had together gave me enough evidence to send a subpoena to Blizzard Entertainment. I knew exactly what he was playing—World of Warcraft. I used to play it. It’s one of the largest online games in the world.”

Roberson’s subpoena was nothing more than a politely worded request, considering the limits of his law enforcement jurisdiction and the ambiguity of the online world.

“They don’t have to respond to us, and I was under the assumption that they wouldn’t,” said Roberson. “It had been three or four months since I had sent the subpoena. I just put it in the back of my mind and went on to do other things. Then I finally got a response from them. They sent me a package of information. They were very cooperative. It was nice that they were that willing to provide information.”

Blizzard gave Roberson everything he needed to track down Hightower, including his IP address, his account information and history, his billing address, and even his online screen name and preferred server.

“I did a search off the IP?address to locate him,” said Roberson. “I got a longitude and latitude. Then I went to Google Earth. It works wonders. It uses longitude and latitude. Boom! I had an address. I was not able to go streetside at the location, but I had him.”

Roberson and Rogers contacted the U.S. Marshals, who immediately notified the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Border Services Agency. According to Rogers, Canadian authorities located Hightower in Ottawa, Ontario, and arranged to have him deported. The marshals picked up the suspect in Minneapolis, and Howard County has until Jan. 5 to bring him back here to face charges.

“Roberson did some great work on this deal,” said sheriff Marty Talbert. “This is the first time in my seven years as sheriff that a fugitive was located in Canada. Rogers and Roberson did an outstanding job coordinating this…Suspects cannot be allowed to escape facing criminal charges by simply moving and relocating.”

Man’s Video Game Addiction Gets Him Caught on Drug Charges is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Science Daily reports that Jennifer L. Temple, PhD, a neurobiologist, assistant professor of exercise and nutrition sciences at the University at Buffalo, and director of its Nutrition and Health Research Laboratory, is looking for answers to these questions through a 4-year, $800,000 study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Her paper addressing the first question appears in the December 2009 issue of Behavioural Pharmacology, and is considered the first study to show a gender effect in the appeal of caffeinated soda in young people.

Given the effects of caffeine in adults, the researchers expected to see a difference between those who habitually consumed a lot of soft drinks and those who consumed few. However, results showed that the difference was between boys and girls: The boys in the study worked harder and longer on a computer-based exercise to obtain caffeinated drinks.

Temple and colleagues have now completed the second part of the study a double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-response study of the effects of caffeine on the teenagers’ blood pressure, heart rate and hand tremor. Two papers currently are being written reporting the results.

The third, and perhaps the most important question in the study, focusing on the effect of caffeine consumption during adolescence on later use of legal or illegal drugs, is getting underway.

Temple’s primary research interest is a behavior called food reinforcement. She became intrigued with caffeine consumption in children after conducting a small study in 8-12-year-olds.

“We had a lot of kids who were drinking not only soda, but coffee,” she relates. “I had 12-year-old girls who said that all they had that morning was a cup of coffee. I started thinking, ‘This can’t be good.’”

These findings led her to study how hard a person will work to obtain a particular food, or in this case, a caffeine drink—and how food reinforcement mimics drug addiction. She is trying to understand the mechanisms that underlie such reinforcement, and if it can be redirected to a more healthy habit.

The just-published study on the reinforcing value of caffeine involved 26 boys and 23 girls ages 12-17. The participants, who were not aware the study was testing caffeine’s reinforcement effects, were placed into groups based on their reported caffeine consumption, in any form.

Participants underwent a baseline test to determine if they could taste caffeine in the study drinks (they couldn’t), and a run-through to familiarize them with the computer-based program they would be using in the experiment.

To give participants experience with the study drinks, they were sent home with a week’s supply of test soda, randomized to be caffeinated or non-caffeinated, and were instructed to drink a 32-ounce bottle every day, for seven days, and no other soda or caffeinated products. During the second week, they obtained a week’s supply of the opposite drink.

Participants then returned to a laboratory equipped with two computers, one on which participants played a computer game to earn caffeinated drinks and on the other, non-caffeinated drinks, although the drinks’ caffeine status was blinded. The longer they played, the more difficult the game became.

Temple said the difference in the reinforcing potential of caffeine between males and females, but not between high and low consumers, was surprising. “These data are novel and they add to the small, but growing, body of literature on caffeine use in children and adolescents.”

She speculates these sex differences could be based on the effect of circulating hormones at the time of the test, although this was not measured, and the possibility that females are less sensitive to the effects of caffeine.

Alison M. Bulkley, Laura Briatico and Amber M. Dewey, all former or current undergraduate students in Temple’s lab, also contributed to the study.

Researchers Studying Addictive Effects of Caffeine on Young People is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

The study, led by Dr. Celia Morgan and Professor Valerie Curran at UCL, surveyed 1,500 UK drug users via a website. Drug users were asked to rate 20 psychoactive substances on a “rational” scale previously developed by Professor David Nutt, Imperial College London, who collaborated on this study. Heroin, crack, and cocaine topped the list in terms of harm, but alcohol was rated fifth, solvents seventh, and tobacco ninth. Ecstasy was 13th in the harm rating, LSD 16th, and cannabis 18th. Thus, the survey found no relationship between the drug’s legal status, based on the current classification system, and users’ ratings of harm. In the UK, the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) currently classifies psychoactive drugs as A, B, or C, though alcohol and tobacco remain unclassified.

“Given that the Misuse of Drugs Act aims to signal to young people the harmfulness of drugs, this suggests a flaw with the current classification of drugs. We found that drug users rated legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco as more harmful than Class A substances like LSD and ecstasy. We found a high correlation between harm ratings by users and those made previously by scientific experts across all substances, suggesting users are well informed about the harms of drugs,” said Dr. Celia Morgan, UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit.

“The reported prevalence of use of each substance also suggests that the classification of drugs has little bearing on the choice of whether to use substances or not. For example ecstasy, a Class A substance, was the fourth most regularly used psychoactive drug, according to our survey,” she continued.

“We also asked drug users about their perceived benefits of taking psychoactive substances, as this is clearly important in a person’s decision of whether to take a drug or not. Psychoactive substances LSD, cannabis and ecstasy were consistently rated as having the highest short and long-term benefits. These findings add to the debate on the validity of the current classification of drugs in the UK.

“Worldwide, there are an estimated two billion alcohol users, 1.3 billion smokers, and 185 million users of other drugs. Despite public health campaigns, levels of substance misuse continue to rise. One of the reasons for this may be the public’s confusion about the actual risks of different drugs as they often receive conflicting messages from the legal system, the media and health campaigns. We recommend that future health campaigns consider whether to include the benefits of some drugs. By only citing harms, such campaigns likely represent—from a user’s perspective—an unbalanced view and may mean that the overall message is more likely to be ignored,” she added.

The authors are following up the study with the launch of a new larger survey, in collaboration with the Beckley Foundation, hosted at www.internationaldrugsurvey.org.

The 20 substances surveyed in the 2009 study were alcohol, alkyl nitrates, amphetamines, anabolic steroids, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, buprenorphine, cannabis, cocaine, crack, ecstasy, GHB, heroin, LSD, ketamine, khat, 4-MTA, methylphenidate, solvents, street methadone, and tobacco.

Participants were asked to rate them according to physical (acute or chronic) harm, psychological or physical dependence, intensity of pleasure, intoxication, and social effects, including costs to the health service.

A similar survey of experts including psychiatrists and pharmacologists led by Professor Nutt in 2007 found that, of the same 20 psychoactive substances rated on a ‘rational’ scale, experts rated alcohol as the fifth most dangerous drug, whereas MDMA/ecstasy was rated 18th out of 20, despite its Class A status. Overall, there was no relationship between a drug’s legal status and its rated harmfulness.

Drug Users are Well Informed About the Harms of Drug Abuse is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Tyler has been estranged from the rest of the group—despite a recent onstage appearance with guitarist Joe Perry—since August, when he fell from a stage in South Dakota and forced the group to cancel the rest of its summer tour.

"This guy has a tremendous history of drug abuse, and you have to be suspicious that this is something that is probably going on with him," Whitford told rockradio.com. "I think that’s got to be a part of this irrational behavior. People in recovery and stuff, if you’re really doing it, it takes a lot of work.”

"Historically or statistically, the majority of people in that situation don’t make it. I have a feeling we might be looking at, you know, someone who’s just really struggling very badly with this,” Whitford continued.

The band also revealed that despite Tyler’s recent onstage appearance where he declared he was not quitting the band, none of the other bandmates have had any contact with Tyler in months.

Drummer Joey Kramer also admitted that the band is unsure how to carry on, but they all want to continue playing with Tyler.

"You know, getting someone else is one of the questions," Kramer explained. "We all know that there’s really no way to replace Steven, but we want to continue touring together.”

"We even have a 40-year anniversary coming up and it’s a milestone. We want to be able to celebrate it together and there’s millions of fans out there that are dedicated to us."

Kramer’s comments come alongside Joe Perry’s recent comments that the band will carry on without Tyler if they have to.

Aerosmith Frontman Steven Tyler May Be Abusing Drugs is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment