A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
According to the 2014 World Drug Report published by the United Nations Office of Drug Control (UNODC), Australia has some of the highest rates of stimulant use in the world. It should be noted that it is problematic to compare one country to another when it comes to illicit drug use as data is collected in different ways and community attitudes and policing methods vary [...]
Shutterstock Images In the US, Electronic cigarette (e-cig) use has now surpassed traditional cigarette use among middle and high school students, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This leaves many parents, public health officials and consumers asking whether e-cigarettes are better or worse for lung health than traditional cigarettes. Now, [...]
I first met alcohol in the late 1980s. It was the morning after one of my parents’ parties. My sister and I, aged nine or ten, were up alone. We trawled the lounge for abandoned cans. I remember being methodical: pick one up, give it a shake to see if there’s anything inside and, if [...]
Paul Enck, a medical psychologist at the University of Tübingen, Germany, agrees. He suggests a method that he calls “placebo-controlled dose reduction”. For example: when someone is prescribed a suitable drug, after two or three weeks of taking it regularly they could switch to a pack in which their pills are interspersed with identical placebos. [...]
While it’s well known that the alcohol industry does everything in its power to influence decision makers and undermine evidence-based alcohol policy reform, FARE Chief Executive Michael Thorn says these documents provide a rare insight into the precise planning and strategies currently being implemented in Queensland, as the alcohol industry scrambles desperately to block proven [...]
It’s a simple but beautiful dream: a fine Burgundy with lunch, a few post-work Belgian beers, some rosé with dinner, then maybe a dram of peaty Scotch to end the night. But while a European lifestyle may appear more elegant than another game of ‘Edward Scrumpy Hands’, drinking in this way isn’t necessarily healthier.“It’s wrong [...]
"Absolut Magic" proclaims a print ad for a popular vodka. "Paradise found," headlines another. "Fairy tales can come true" says a third. All these ads illustrate the major premise of alcohol advertising's mythology: Alcohol is magic, a magic carpet that can take you away. It can make you successful, sophisticated, sexy. Without it, your life [...]
"People with first episodes of psychosis were three times more likely to be smokers," said a statement from King's College London's Department of Psychosis Studies, which took part in the meta-analysis. "The researchers also found that daily smokers developed psychotic illness around a year earlier than non-smokers. "It has long been hypothesised that higher smoking [...]
A team of European researchers has found evidence that suggests that human consciousness is a state where the neural network that makes up the brain operates at an optimal degree of connectedness. In their paper published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the team describes their study of the human brain using volunteers undergoing fMRI [...]
Young adults who regularly binge drink have elevated blood pressure compared to those who drink occasionally, and could wind up with high blood pressure, researchers warn in a new study. Among binge-drinking young adults, investigators found that systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) is 2.6 to 4 points higher compared to those who [...]
