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AACAP Debuts Online CME Course On Substance Abuse
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) launched an online Substance Use Disorders Curriculum on its Web site, http://www.www.aacap.org. The curriculum is an 11-lecture series, created by the AACAP Task Force on Strategic Planning for Substance Abuse Education and Research that provides the latest knowledge on substance dependence, diagnosis, and treatment.

New Report Considers Role Of Pharmacy In Alcohol Misuse Services
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain's Policy Development Unit has commissioned a report, titled Community pharmacy and alcohol-misuse services: a review of policy and practice, to assess the feasibility of community pharmacy-based services for alcohol misuse, and to identify how such services would fit with government alcohol policies in England, Scotland and Wales.

A Gene Variant May Make Women More Prone To Alcoholism
A particular gene variant might make women more susceptible to alcoholism. At least, a study carried out by the Universities of Bonn and Sweden's Karolinska Institute makes this a plausible conclusion. According to this, a gene in the endorphin metabolism is altered in a typical fashion more often in women alcoholics than in healthy women. In mice too, endorphins seem to play an important role in the amount of alcohol consumed, particularly among females.

Alcoholism-Associated Molecular Adaptations In Brain Neurocognitive Circuits
After many years of heavy drinking, alcohol produces pathological alterations in the brain. In many alcoholics these changes culminate in massive social deterioration and disorders of memory and learning. Severe cognitive impairments occur in approximately 10% of heavy drinkers. Alcoholic dementia is the second leading course of adult dementia in the Western countries, accounting for 10% of the cases, and still represents an unresolved problem.