Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol, Drugs and Tobbaco Affects Brain Into Adolescence

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and Boston Medical Center have found that the effects of fetal exposure to alcohol, drugs and tobacco persist into early adolescence. The study used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans to the effects on brain structure into early adolescence. Participants of the study included 35 young adolescents, with an average…

Long-term Benefits Found for Women-only Substance Abuse Treatment

The Betty Ford Center‘s recent newsletter, Findings (Winter 2008), included an article on a study about women-focused substance abuse treatment. The study found that women-focused and women-only treatment groups have long-term, positive outcomes. Researchers took patients with substance use disorders and randomly assigned them to either a women-focused treatment group, called the Women’s Recovery Group,…

Advice from Addicted Women to Nurses, Doctors, Medical Staff

Teresa Valliere, Crossroads for Women’s director of inpatient services, recently did a presentation on treating women with addictions. The audience was largely made up of nurses, physicians and other medical staff. For her presentation, women in recovery were asked to share their wisdom about how medical staff might interact with them in medical encounters –…

Party, post, regret.

CNN.com has an interesting article in their Health section today. “Young women drink, party, post” talks about a Facebook page called “Thirty Reasons Girls Should Call it a Night.” The page features drunk photos of young women, posted (mostly) by the women themselves. According to the article, pictures on the page include a young woman…