Addiction

Vanderbilt’s Carrie K. Jones and the University of Glasgow’s Andrew Tobin have received a prestigious £5 million ($6.2 million) Wellcome Trust Discovery Award to study how blocking the M5 muscarinic receptor in the brain could reduce opioid addiction while preserving pain relief. This groundbreaking international collaboration, supported by the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, aims to advance new treatments in the critical global health crisis of opioid use disorder. Read More

An $8.9 million grant from the NIH will establish the Vanderbilt AUD Research and Education Center, enhancing Vanderbilt University’s national leadership in neuroscience and addiction research. This initiative aims to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, advance understanding and treatment of alcohol use disorder, and engage the public through education and outreach efforts. Read More

Join the next Lab-to-Table conversation, “Beyond Addiction: Therapeutic Developments and Societal Impact” on Jan. 24 at 11:30 a.m. CT. Read More

Erin Calipari works to understand how drugs like opioids and cocaine alter learning circuits and neurochemistry in one of the country's epicenters of substance use disorder and addiction. Read More

The Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, led by Erin Calipari, advances research to understand how addiction and substance use disorder develops in the brain. VCAR’s goals are to develop new pharmaceutical strategies and to destigmatize addiction as a personal failing. Read More

VRS is set to host a sober tailgate and football watch party on Oct. 14. The program also connects students who are in recovery from addiction with resources such as individual coaching, social events, campus-wide prevention programming, and fentanyl testing strip and NARCAN distribution. Read More

Histamine — commonly associated with allergies — also has a signaling role in the brain’s reward center and may offer a novel target for treating addiction. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have identified and characterized inhibitors of an enzyme that synthesizes lipid signaling molecules with roles in energy balance, inflammation and addiction. Read More

Danny Winder and colleagues are teasing apart the actions of neurotransmitter receptors in a brain region linked to anxiety and addiction, with a goal of finding treatments for substance use disorders. Read More

New study from neuroscientists at Vanderbilt provides initial answers to long-standing scientific questions on what causes the transition from moderate to compulsive alcohol consumption – and what makes some drinkers particularly vulnerable to developing alcohol use disorders. Read More

But long before female-specific medications are available, treatment centers could use the information in this study to educate women about their stronger mental connections to places and objects. Read More

There’s promise in specific immune system peptides—amino acid compounds that signal cells how to function. In this case, they may be affecting brain activity and, by extension, drug cravings. Read More

The discovery that high levels of bile acids appear to blunt cravings for cocaine could lead to new treatments for addiction. Read More

In areas of the country disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis, treatment programs are less likely to accept patients paying through insurance of any type or accept pregnant women, a new Vanderbilt study found. Read More

The 2016 Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs and Health, “Facing Addiction in America,” leaves little question about the growing problem of addiction. Read More

Fatal drug overdoses in Davidson County more than doubled in the past four years and now exceed the death rates for homicides and motor vehicle accidents, yet few people with addiction can obtain the treatment they need, Nashville Mayor Megan Barry said Tuesday. Read More

Although drug addiction is classically studied in a neuron-centric way, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered that the immune system also plays a critical role. Read More

Complications related to opioid abuse occur in 54,000 pregnancies annually in the United States, and Tennessee ranks among the top 10 states in the number of opioid-dependent pregnant women. Read More

Drugs that are being used clinically to treat obesity and diabetes may also have a role in treating drug abuse. Read More

Collybolide – a natural product isolated from a mushroom – is a promising candidate for the development of non-addictive pain medicines. Read More