Addictive Behavior News

Noted Addictive Behaviors Professor Addresses High Risk Drinking

June 27, 2000

Professor G. Alan Marlatt, professor of psychology and director of the University of Washington's Addictive Behaviors Research Center, addressed CU-Boulder's Standing Committee on Substance Abuse (SCOSA) today at Regent Hall.

SCOSA invited Professor Marlatt to CU-Boulder to share his insights about brief intervention strategies for reducing the harmful consequences of heavy drinking among high-risk college students. The focus of his work has been on the behavior of high school students before they enroll at the University of Washington, and his work has been reported in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

"Dr. Marlatt has been recognized nationally as one of the leaders in the field of addictive behavior, especially among college students," said Robert Maust, director of CU-Boulder's "A Matter of Degree" program.

"We're very pleased that Dr. Marlatt was able to speak with us because we're looking at ways to respond to the fact that CU-Boulder has a large number of high school students enrolling each fall who report practices of high-risk use of alcohol before they enroll in the university. We clearly need to address this problem before these students continue these practices" at CU, which can cause local disturbances and health risks for students, he said.

As a longtime professor of psychology and psychiatry at a number of universities in the United States, England and Australia, Marlatt speaks from more than 30 years of experience teaching and working with college students. His list of recent publications includes nine currently in press and more than 25 others published since 1992.

The mission of the SCOSA committee is to monitor the use and abuse of drugs and other substances by members of the university and larger community, and when appropriate, seek positive responses to such behaviors.

SCOSA is chaired by Maust and is composed of members from the CU and Boulder police departments, the Hill Task Force, the Parents Association, the Greek system, CU Student Housing and Wardenburg Student Health Center and other CU and community organizations.

CU-Boulder is one of 10 campuses participating in a grant-supported research project to address drinking problems at American colleges and universities.

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the program applies a cooperative, public health approach to reducing campus binge drinking by addressing the total social environment that influences drinking behavior.

The Robert Wood Johnson program at CU-Boulder, in conjunction with SCOSA, has adopted a number of approaches or techniques suggested by Harvard University to reduce the problem of high-risk drinking among university students.

Addictve Behavior Cause Linked to Lower Parkinsons Disease

ScienceDaily (May 8, 2000) — SAN DIEGO, CA – Amidst the mountain of evidence that smoking is harmful, there has been one bit of contrary evidence over the past few years. Studies have consistently found that smokers have lower rates of Parkinson's disease. However, the first explanation that comes to mind – that some ingredient in cigarettes helps prevent Parkinson's – may not be correct.

Researchers in the Netherlands have found evidence that higher consumption of coffee and alcohol is also associated with a lower incidence of Parkinson's. This, say the authors, suggests that smoking and other addictive behaviors may be a result of the same brain chemistry that helps prevent Parkinson's. Results of the study were presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 52nd Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, April 29 – May 6, 2000.

The theory investigated in this study suggests that smokers smoke because their brains have high levels of dopamine, a brain chemical implicated in so-called "novelty-seeking" behavior and addiction. People with lower levels of brain dopamine are not as likely to become addicted, but they may be more likely to develop Parkinson's disease, which results from drastic reductions in dopamine in the brain.

If this theory is correct, then intake of other addictive substances should also be associated with a reduced incidence of Parkinson's. This is what the Dutch team sought to prove with data from the large Rotterdam Study, an ongoing study of almost 8,000 subjects, aged 55 and older, who have been followed for up to ten years.

As with previous studies, this one found that cigarette smokers had lower levels of Parkinson's, by almost 50 percent, than did nonsmokers. "Moreover, there was a dose-effect relationship between the amount smoked over a lifetime and the risk of Parkinson's disease," said study author Patricia Willems-Giesbergen, MD, a researcher at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. "The risk of Parkinson's decreased with an increase in the amount smoked."

As for coffee, people who drank high amounts had a lower incidence of Parkinson's. The beverage also had a dose-effect relationship with the disease whereby the risk for the disease rose as the amount of coffee consumed decreased. For alcohol, the researchers found that high consumption was related to a lower risk of Parkinson's. However, there was no dose-effect relationship noted.

The results support the hypothesis that patients predisposed to Parkinson's disease by their brain dopamine levels are more likely to restrict the use of addictive agents, said Willems-Giesbergen. But she cautions that the Rotterdam subjects need to be followed for a longer time to confirm the data.

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 16,500 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to improving patient care through education and research.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit its Web site at http://www.aan.com. For online neurological health and wellness information, visit NeuroVista at http://www.aan.com/neurovista.

Adapted from materials provided by American Academy Of Neurology.