Japanese Journal of Alcohol Studies & Drug Dependence

The Serigaya Methamphetamine Relapse Prevention Program (SMARPP) cognitive behavioral therapy was implemented among 38 substance. abusers in 12-Step Program Treatment Centers operated by:the Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Center (DARC). Tochigi DARC members (20 patients) started SMARPP after attending daily programs in the treatment centers for an extended time (mean period, 17.4 months). Chiba and Tateyama DARC members (18 patients) started SMARPP soon after initiation of treatment (mean period, 1.2 months)...

Chronic alcohol consumption can cause dysbiosis, but it is difficult to determine the effect of alcohol on the structure and activity of gastrointestinal tract microbiota. We therefore designed a noninvasive hydrogen breath test (HBT) to investigate the alteration in the chemical profile of gut microbiota in ethanol-fed rats. Thirteen F344/DuCri rats were fed on a commercial mash food with 16% ethanol solution drinking fluid from 4 weeks of age. HBTs were carried out on six 8-week-old and seven 24-week-old ethanol-fed rats...

This study focused on patients receiving specialized outpatient (n=26) care to improve addiction behavior (mainly patients with alcohol dependency) and investigated their preferences for terms that describe the relationship between a patient and the object of his or her addiction and how those preferences correlated with the patient's current stage of recovery. The results showed a correlation between a preference for the term "dependence" and a stagnated recovery and a correlation between a preference for the term "overindulgence" and recovery progress (p<0...

e-Health is the use of information and communication technologies for health, such as in patient-treatment programs, education for health care professionals, and monitoring public health. Web-/Internet-based programs, mobile applications, and wearable devices have been developed and adapted to various diseases and are now increasingly used to promote individual self-care of health. In the field of addiction, there has been a gap between potential treatment needs and available treatment services, and as such, it is necessary to develop new treatments that- are flexible and accessible...

It-is well known that dopamine is necessary for motor function, reward-motivated behaviors. The principal target of dopamine is medium spiny neurons (MSNs), which are a special type of GABAergic inhibitory cell that represents,90% of the neurons within the striatum, including the nucleus accumbens (NAc). There is a distinct class of spatially intermixed MSNs that express dopamine type 1 or 2 receptors (DlR-MSNs or D2R-MSNs, respectively). The D1R-MSN and D2R-MSN pathways control the dynamic balance in the basal ganglia circuit...

A large body of literature indicates that neural adaptations induced by cocaine in the mesocorticolibic system cause addictive behaviors. Emerging evidence suggests that the laterdorsal tegmental nucleus (LDT), which contains cholinergic, glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons and innervates the ventral tegmental area (VTA), might also contribute to the development of cocaine addiction. In this review, we summarize our recent findings showing that neuroplasticity elicited by cocaine administration in LDT cholinergic neurons is involved in the expression of addictive behaviors...

PURPOSE: . In the last-decade, the treatment of drug offenders in Japanese prisons has changed from severe punishment to a therapeutic approach. This study aimed to review studies that evaluated the effectiveness of relapse prevention guidance for drug- dependent inmates in Japan. METHODS: We searched three databases: Ichushi; the Japanese correctional library database; and- PubMed. The inclusion criteria were: 1) the guidance was conducted in prisons in Japan; 2) the participants were Japanese adult inmates; 3) the evaluations were reported in quanti- tative investigations and original articles in Ichushi and PubMed; and, 4) the evaluations were reported in quantitative investigations in the Japanese correctional library database...

Chronic alcohol consumption is a major public health problem that frequently leads to the development of liver steatosis, fibrosis, and eventually cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Hyperhomocysteinemia is a pathological consequence of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and is attributed to hepatic endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and insulin resistance. However, the regulatory function of nuclear receptors in ALD associated with dysregulation of homocysteine metabolism remains largely unknown. Nuclear receptor small heterodimer partner (SHP, NROB2) is a pleiotropic transcriptional repressor involved in regulating various metabolic path-ways in the liver...

This study sought to ascertain the association between alcohol consumption by Japanese high school students and their reasons for drinking. Monitoring the Future is a U.S. survey of substance abuse that features a core question that asks about reasons for drinking. This study translated that question into Japanese to survey 2,283 students (1,404 males and 879 females; 1,142 freshmen and 1,141 sophomores) at 3 Japanese high schools from November to December 2014. The original question had 15 possible answers, but 2 were eliminated and the answer "I don't drink" was added...

It is important to screen for alcohol consumption and drinking customs by using a stan- dardized method. The aim of this study was to investigate whether standardized questionnaire was useful for predicting alcohol consumption. A cross-sectional study using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was conducted in 334 outpatients who consulted the Internal Medicine Department of Osaka City Juso Hospital. The patients completed self-reported questionnaires and underwent a diagnostic interview, physical examination, and laboratory testing...

Forensic pathologists.frequently encounter sudden natural.death of alcoholic in which fatty liver is the only pathological finding detected at autopsy, however, characteristics of postmortem CT (PMCT) of sudden death of alcoholic have not been reported so far. In this study, we investigated radiographic measurements of PMCT of the cases diagnosed as sudden death of alcoholic (ALC), and compared them with those of other causes of death (IHD; ischemic heart disease, SV; starvation), with reference to autopsy findings...

PURPOSE: The Internet was originally designed to facilitate communication and research activities.'However, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of the Internet in recent years for commerce, education, and entertainment, including video games. Internet addiction as.a phenomena has been described by researchers as excessive or compulsive use of computers that interferes with daily life. Hikikomori (social withdrawal) -has increasingly become a problem in Japan and has been hypothesized to be ,related to internet, addiction...

In this review, current progress of neurobehavioral research using animal model of dependence and/or addiction is described in light of DSM-5. Although the terms "dependence" and "abuse" are deleted in DSM-5, the concept of dependence and the related animal experiments, drug self-administration, conditioned place preference, and drug discrimination are still useful to predict abuse liability of chemical substances. At the same time, it is necessary to model addictive nature of behavior in animals...

This study sought (1) to determine the significant associations between measures of drug abuse and lifestyle variables in high school students in Japan, and (2) to ascertain common lifestyle variables in relation to associations between lifestyle and eight measures of drug abuse. Four measures were use of an inhalant, marijuana, an amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS), or MDMA (ecstasy) over the past year, and four measures were use of those drugs over one's lifetime. Data were from a combined sample (aggregate sample) from the Japanese School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (JSPAD)...

Alcohol hangover is an unpleasant state caused by acetaldehyde, which is produced by partial oxidation of ethanol. Treating hangover is important from the viewpoint of preventing excessive drinking. In the present study, we attempted to produce mouse model of alcohol hangover by intraperitoneal pretreatment with cyanamide at 12.5 mg/kg followed by oral ethanol at 1.6 g/kg. The mice showed decrease of spontaneous locomotor activity and food intake. Thus, it is suggested that the hangover model was successively established by co-administration of cyanamide and ethanol...

One of the alcohol-related goals in Japan's health promotion campaign called Health Japan 21 (secondary term) is to reduce the number of high-risk drinkers (20 years old or above) who consume 40g or more pure alcohol/day in men and 20g or more in women by year 2022. To achieve this goal, it is important for both the government and clinicians to understand the cost-of-illness associated with harmful drinking in Japan and .effectively reflect it into related poli- cies. In this study, direct and indirect costs attributable to alcohol based on conventional cost-of-illness study methodologies were estimated to be approximately 9...

Neurofeedback is a therapeutic learning process that provides visual and auditory feedback to an individual about his or her brainwaves in order to teach self-regulation of brain func- tion. Currently, neurofeedback therapy has been attempted to apply to various psychiatric disorders and certain therapeutic effects have been shown. The advantage of incorporating neurofeedback therapy to the conventional treatments is 1) the action on the central nervous-system can be expected. by directly reinforcing EEG, 2) on the premise of neural plasticity, without ongoing intervention, long-term therapeutic effect can be expected, 3) except rare temporary headache, no significant side effects are reported, 4) compared to other psychotherapies, neurofeedback is expected to have a therapeutic effect within a relatively short period of time...

Alcoholism results in an estimated 3.3 million deaths annually worldwide, accounting for 5.9% of all mortality. Although per capita alcohol consumption in Japan, had been gradually decreasing since 1999, it has plateaued in the past 5 years. Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is the most prevalent cause of advanced liver disease, and includes alcoholic fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis (AH), alcoholic fibrosis, alcoholic liver cirrhosis (ALC), and alcoholic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCQ. Although alcohol consumption is the predominant etiological factor in the pathogenesis of ALD, there is marked variation in liver mortality rates among...

This article is an extension of a presentation with the same title given at the Japanese Alcohol, Nicotine & Drug Addiction Conference in Kobe on October 13th 2015: Firstly, a brief overview of support activities and services within Proyecto Hombre is given outlining the advanced assistance programs for supporting and treating addiction. problems. Secondly, it lays out the profile of persons with alcohol and drug problems as taken from "Proyecto Hombre Observatory Report 2014" vhich has informed the reality of adult users' life situation based on a series of indicators from the EuropASI, while they were being treated at Proyecto Hombre 27 Centers in Spain between 1 January, 2014 and 31 December, 2014...

A 48-year-old Japanese woman with >10 years history of alcoholic had been falling repeatedly during 1 week before her death. She complained of nausea and did not eat or drink for 2 days. Thereafter, she became drowsy and she was transferred to the hospital. On arrival at the hospital, she had cardiopulmonary arrest and died soon after. Although blood tests showed metabolic ketoacidosis, a hemorrhagic lesion was also found in the brain by computed tomography. To determine the cause of death,. a forensic autopsy was performed on the next day...