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The research, published recently online ahead of print in the journal  Biological Psychiatry , shows that blocking hypocretin may reduce compulsive drug-seeking behavior in rat models of cocaine addiction. "Cocaine addiction is a disorder that affects millions of people worldwide," said Marisa Roberto, professor in TSRI's Committee on the Neurobiology of Addictive Disorders (CNAD) and co-author of the study with Brooke Schmeichel, a former TSRI researcher now at NIDA, George Koob, the CNAD chairman currently on a leave of absence to direct the NIAAA, and Melissa Herman, a senior research associate at TSRI. "Understanding the mechanisms underlying cocaine addiction is important for identifying potential new targets for therapeutic use." "The results of this study would suggest that the hypocretin system could be considered a pharmacological target, with the hopes that such a medication could be used in combination with cognitive b ehavioral therapies

New research from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine shows that just over two-thirds (66.9 percent) of college-aged women engaged in unprotected sex during their last sexual encounter involving alcohol. The study, published online in the  Journal of Behavioral Medicine , set out to understand how one's beliefs about alcohol and sex affect condom use during sexual encounters involving alcohol. Based on participants surveyed, sex without a condom was significantly and positively related to both one's motivation for sexual activity to satisfy personal physical needs and stronger beliefs that alcohol promotes sexual risk-taking. "Understanding the factors that may underlie the association between alcohol and condomless sex among young women is of considerable public health importance," says Jennifer Brown, PhD, lead author and associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the UC College of Medicine. "Particula

The proposed guidelines include a new definition of documented prenatal alcohol exposure, guides to evaluating facial and physical deformities characteristic of FASD, and updated information about the cognitive and/or behavioral impairments seen in different FASD subtypes. "These new guidelines will be a valuable resource for clinicians to accurately diagnose infants and children who were affected by alcohol exposure before birth," said NIAAA Director George F. Koob, PhD. "They represent the most data-driven diagnostic criteria for fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder produced to date." The updated guidelines were developed and accepted by the Collaboration on FASD Prevalence (CoFASP), which studies the prevalence of FASD among U.S. school children, and NIAAA's Collaborative Initiative on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (CIFASD), which investigates data-driven methods for diagnosing FASD. The paper currently appears online in  Pedi