Prenatal Cocaine Exposures addresses the timely problem of maternal cocaine abuse and its effects on exposed infants, including growth retardation, learning, cardiovascular effects, and seizures. The impact of substance abuse on this and future generations presents an ongoing challenge to medical science. This comprehensive and authoritative volume reviews both animal and clinical studies to explain implications for treatment and long-term outcomes of early exposure. Prenatal Cocaine Exposures investigates the specific role of cocaine in altering fetal development. Discussions of current studies and state-of-the-art techniques provide a basis for informed clinical decisions. Pediatricians, medical specialists, basic scientists, educators, and policy makers will all benefit from the comprehensive research gathered in this volume.
Children of Addiction reports original research on the biological and psychological effects of addiction in children. The contributions reflect the larger social implications of the research undertaken.
The Neuroscience of Cocaine: Mechanisms and Treatment explores the complex effects of this drug, addressing the neurobiology behind cocaine use and the psychosocial and behavioral factors that impact cocaine use and abuse. This book provides researchers with an up-to-date understanding of the mechanisms behind cocaine use, and aids them in deriving new pharmacological compounds and therapeutic regimens to treat dependency and withdrawal symptoms. Cocaine is one of the most highly abused illicit drugs worldwide and is frequently associated with other forms of drug addiction and misuse, but researchers are still struggling to understand cocaine's neuropharmacological profile and the mechanisms of its effects and manifestations at the cognitive level. Cessation of cocaine use can lead to numerous adverse withdrawal conditions, from the cellular and molecular level to the behavioral level of the individual user. Written by worldwide experts in cocaine addiction, this book assists neuroscientists and other addiction researchers in unraveling the many complex facets of cocaine use and abuse. - Contains in each chapter an abstract, key facts, mini dictionary of terms, and summary points to aid in understanding - Illustrated in full color - Provides unique full coverage of all aspects of cocaine and its related pathology - Provides researchers with an up-to-date understanding of the mechanisms behind cocaine use, and aids them in deriving new pharmacological compounds and therapeutic regimens to treat dependency and withdrawal symptoms
Principles of Addiction provides a solid understanding of the definitional and diagnostic differences between use, abuse, and disorder. It describes in great detail the characteristics of these syndromes and various etiological models. The book's three main sections examine the nature of addiction, including epidemiology, symptoms, and course; alcohol and drug use among adolescents and college students; and detailed descriptions of a wide variety of addictive behaviors and disorders, encompassing not only drugs and alcohol, but caffeine, food, gambling, exercise, sex, work, social networking, and many other areas. This volume is especially important in providing a basic introduction to the field as well as an in-depth review of our current understanding of the nature and process of addictive behaviors. Principles of Addiction is one of three volumes comprising the 2,500-page series, Comprehensive Addictive Behaviors and Disorders. This series provides the most complete collection of current knowledge on addictive behaviors and disorders to date. In short, it is the definitive reference work on addictions. - Each article provides glossary, full references, suggested readings, and a list of web resources - Edited and authored by the leaders in the field around the globe – the broadest, most expert coverage available - Encompasses types of addiction, as well as personality and environmental influences on addiction
This volume is taken from the proceedings of a New York Academy of Sciences conference held on September 16-19, 1997. It discusses and interprets recent controversial clinical, animal and behavioural studies suggesting that particular brain structures, neurotransmitter systems and behaviours may be compromised by gestational cocaine exposure.
Parenting and Substance Abuse is the first book to report on pioneering efforts to move the treatment of substance-abusing parents forward by embracing their roles and experiences as mothers and fathers directly and continually across the course of treatment.
Children With Prenatal Drug Exposure examines new medical approaches for predicting the developmental progress of children who have been exposed to drugs in utero. This book outlines effective methods for intervention and assessment and indicates future directions for investigation. It provides practical and up-to-date information on treatments and research development, while it encourages practitioners to come to their own conclusions through careful documentation and analysis of each case. Children With Prenatal Drug Exposure cuts across many disciplines to provide the reader with a vivid analysis of the complexities and challenges surrounding health care of children who have been prenatally exposed to drugs. This guidebook explores the controversies over treatment and therapy options and the ethics of care. It advocates positive outcome intervention methods that promote the health interests of both mother and unborn child whenever possible, with an emphasis on clinical efforts geared to change maternal behavior. Practical and comprehensive, Children With Prenatal Drug Exposure explores a full range of provoking topics, including: neurological effects and sensory motor delays caused by cocaine exposure foster care and its impact on motor development adolescent pregnancy and the complications of prenatal substance abuse ethical dilemmas multidimensional measurement systems and longitudinal research The book's authors believe that in order to meet the needs of children who have been prenatally exposed to drugs, care providers must know the limitations associated with the process and methodology of assessment and learn to address the shortcomings of evaluation. With this in mind, this book aims to equip psychologists, physical and occupational therapists, researchers, and physicians with the "know-how" they require for optimizing their health care services and contributing valuable research that the field so urgently needs.
Significant changes have taken place in the policy landscape surrounding cannabis legalization, production, and use. During the past 20 years, 25 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis and/or cannabidiol (a component of cannabis) for medical conditions or retail sales at the state level and 4 states have legalized both the medical and recreational use of cannabis. These landmark changes in policy have impacted cannabis use patterns and perceived levels of risk. However, despite this changing landscape, evidence regarding the short- and long-term health effects of cannabis use remains elusive. While a myriad of studies have examined cannabis use in all its various forms, often these research conclusions are not appropriately synthesized, translated for, or communicated to policy makers, health care providers, state health officials, or other stakeholders who have been charged with influencing and enacting policies, procedures, and laws related to cannabis use. Unlike other controlled substances such as alcohol or tobacco, no accepted standards for safe use or appropriate dose are available to help guide individuals as they make choices regarding the issues of if, when, where, and how to use cannabis safely and, in regard to therapeutic uses, effectively. Shifting public sentiment, conflicting and impeded scientific research, and legislative battles have fueled the debate about what, if any, harms or benefits can be attributed to the use of cannabis or its derivatives, and this lack of aggregated knowledge has broad public health implications. The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids provides a comprehensive review of scientific evidence related to the health effects and potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis. This report provides a research agendaâ€"outlining gaps in current knowledge and opportunities for providing additional insight into these issuesâ€"that summarizes and prioritizes pressing research needs.
A comprehensive and critical review of recent literature regarding the relationships between physical illness and drugs of abuse, describing the association between each of the principal classes of illicit drugs (cocaine, marijuana, opioids, and common hallucinogens and stimulants) and the major categories of physical illness.
A tiny African-American baby lies in a hospital incubator, tubes protruding from his nostrils, head, and limbs. "He couldn't take the hit," the caption warns. "If you're pregnant, don't take drugs." Ten years earlier, this billboard would have been largely unintelligible to many of us. But when it appeared in 1991, it immediately conjured up several powerful images: the helpless infant himself; his unseen environment, a newborn intensive care unit filled with babies crying inconsolably; and the mother who did this -- crack-addicted and unrepentant. Misconceiving Mothersis a case study of how public policy about reproduction and crime is made. Laura E. Goacute;mez uses secondary research and first-hand interviews with legislators and prosecutors to examine attitudes toward the criminalization and/or medicalization of drug use during pregnancy by the legislature and criminal justice system in California. She traces how an initial tendency toward criminalization gave way to a trend toward seeing the problem of "crack babies" as an issue of social welfare and public health. It is no surprise that in an atmosphere of mother-blaming, particularly targeted at poor women and women of color, "crack babies" so easily captured the American popular imagination in the late 1980s. What is surprising is the way prenatal drug exposure came to be institutionalized in the state apparatus. Goacute;mez attributes this circumstance to four interrelated causes: the gendered nature of the social problem; the recasting of the problem as fundamentally "medical" rather than "criminal"; the dynamic nature of the process of institutionalization; and the specific features of the legal institutions -- that is, the legislature and prosecutors' offices -- that became prominent in the case. At one levelMisconceiving Motherstells the story of a particular problem at a particular time and place how the California legislature and district attorneys grappled with pregnant women's drug use in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At another level, the book tells a more general story about the political nature of contemporary social problems. The story it tells is political not just because it deals with the character of political institutions but because the process itself and the nature of the claims-making concern the power to control the allocation of state resources. A number of studies have looked at how the initial criminalization of social problems takes place.Misconceiving Motherslooks at the process by which a criminalized social problem is institutionalized through the attitudes and policies of elite decision-makers. Author note: Laura E. Gomezis Acting Professor of Law and Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles.
