Illegal drug use by young people has been decreasing since the mid 1990’s, but the rate of decline for marijuana use, specifically, has been very slow. In the past, research studies have demonstrated the short term effects of cannabis but examining the long term effects were at a disadvantage as the longitudinal studies lasted 10 [...] Read more »
According to the United Nations, marijuana is the world’s most commonly used illegal drug. In 2004, the United Nations also reported that there were more than 162 million users worldwide (4% of the population) and 22.5 million people who use it on a daily basis (.6 % of the population). There are 16.7 million active [...] Read more »
If you are the type of person who can’t function in the morning without your daily fix of nicotine washed down with a strong cup coffee, you might be wondering if your drugs of choice have the potential to cause psychosis in the long term—indeed, without your daily fix of nicotine and caffeine, you might [...] Read more »
Ritalin is normally prescribed to treat the symptoms of ADHD, but because it contains methylphenidate and is related to the amphetamine family of drugs, some people abuse Ritalin for the euphoric affect it is capable of producing. In some circles, Ritalin is used by students as a “study aid” because it can help to focus [...] Read more »
Most of us are probably familiar with the unpleasant sensation of waking up the morning after the night before and having no recollection of what sordid things we got up to, but can alcoholism cause memory loss on a more permanent basis and how exactly does excessive alcohol consumption affect the memory centres of the [...] Read more »
What is a delirium? A delirium is also known as an acute confusional state and can arise due to a number of different conditions, both medical and psychological. Delirium is described as a severe neuropsychiatric syndrome, but it is a set of symptoms rather than a disease and is basically the manifestation of a mental [...] Read more »
Drinking alcohol might be socially acceptable in many cultures, but alcohol is a drug, and like any drug, it has an effect on the body. One or two drinks is unlikely to do you much harm, but drinking alcohol on a regular basis will begin to take its toll on the body, often causing irreparable [...] Read more »
Alcohol can be enormously addictive, and although most of us are able to enjoy a few social drinks once a week with no ill effects, for those who have a serious alcohol problem, abstaining from liquor is almost impossible without suffering from nasty side effects. So what are typical alcohol withdrawal symptoms and how long [...] Read more »
What is alcohol induced dementia? Alcoholic dementia, also known as Alcohol Dementia or Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, is the result of many years heavy drinking. Alcohol is a drug, and like any drug, it affects the brain and nervous system. In the short term, a heavy drinker may suffer from poor judgment and memory problems, but if [...] Read more »
What is the Standard Korsakoff’s syndrome treatment and what exactly is the disorder? Korsakoff’s syndrome is a type of brain disorder caused by excessive alcohol consumption over a long period of time. The disorder is common amongst long-term alcoholics and one of the characteristics is short term memory loss, which is why Korsakoff’s syndrome is [...] Read more »