Drug Addiction Treatment Studies in New Haven Might Spearhead Progress

NORTH HAVEN, Conn. - April 26, 2018 - PRLog -- A group of New Haven researchers hope that new research centering gender differences may be able to spearhead a brighter future for addiction treatment practices.
Numerous risk factors related to gender and addictions have been the priorities of a team from the Women's Health Research at Yale, an interdisciplinary research center founded 20 years ago within the Yale School of Medicine (https://medicine.yale.edu/). The Founder and Director of Women's Research at Yale, Dr. Carolyn M. Mazure explained that in order to improve substance use disorder treatment and prevention efforts as well as public health outcomes, it is important to understand how addictions affect men and women differently. She also said that research surrounding addiction treatment practices has been historically centered on men, (https://www.drugaddictionnow.com/2017/01/15/susceptibility-addiction-sex-gender/) even though substance use disorders are increasingly more prominent among women.

Almost two decades ago, the Women and Addictive Behaviors Core was instituted within the Women's Research at Yale and, since then, it has released a several significant of medical findings and investigations related to gender and dependencies.

Some of the recent collaborations of the researchers focus on neuroscientific elements that determine how mind-altering substances, including marijuana, can have a contrasting impact on men and on women.

Members of the Women and Addictive Behaviors Core have stated that they feel positive these new studies will be able to improve the methods used by medical professionals to treat men and women who have a substance use disorder in the area and elsewhere.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health revealed that the highest per-capita rates of drug overdoses in the state were seen in New Haven County in the first two months of this year. The federal department also revealed that while drug overdoses led to more than 1,000 emergency department visits in Connecticut this year, more than 400 of those occurred in New Haven County.

Another team of investigators from Yale University has been promoting an expansion in opioid addiction treatment services among emergency departments since last year (https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-08-opioid-addiction-t...).

They claim that emergency doctors to have a supply of buprenorphine and offer the medication to patients who are experiencing opioid withdrawals or strong cravings.

And they mentioned that they led a study where three opioid addiction treatment methods were compared.
Results showed that when a buprenorphine regime is started in the emergency room, following an opioid addiction screening, and then the patient is referred to proper treatment, that individual is more likely to succeed in the rehabilitation program than those who did not receive any medication in the emergency department.

The strategy of starting opioid addiction treatment with medications such as buprenorphine in the emergency department is also the most cost-effective for patients, the researchers reported.

Mazure is working on a research paper that specifically examines gender discrepancies in relation to opioid use disorders at the moment in hopes that she will be able to shine more light into elements of the national opioid epidemic that remain unfamiliar.

https://www.drugaddictionnow.com/2018/04/25/new-haven-add...