According to an estimate, almost 5million Americans (over 12 years of age) take part in different self-help groups to get rid of alcohol and drug abuse every year. It also includes 2.3 million those who are abstaining from these substances at present.

These are the results of a report that the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released on Monday.

This report includes data from nationwide surveys conducted during 2006 and 2007 and it also reveals that: for alcohol use 45.3 percent joined a self-help group, while 21.8 percent for illicit drug use and 33 percent for alcohol as well as for illicit drug use.

Similarly, 45.1 percent people who joined self-help group a year back didn’t use illicit drugs or alcohol during the past month and 32.7 percent people, who joined a self-help group for drug or alcohol abuse, also got special treatment for their drug abuse and it includes attending a mental health center or admittance at a rehabilitation facility as an inpatient or outpatient.

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MONDAY, Oct. 13– A new study says that higher alcohol intake can hurt or shrink your brain.

Rajesh Miranda, who is an associate professor of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, says: “Though we known about that, it’s huge study which quantifies that.”

Miranda added, “It is not surprising that higher alcohol intake lead to the brain shrinkage, as such sort of things have also been observed in many other smaller studies and animal models. However, the astonishing thing is that the current study shows that even lower levels of alcohol intake are not protective.”

Their findings will be published in the Archives of Neurology in the October issue. …Click here to read more

There is a dramatic rise in deaths from accidental medication mistakes at home in the last two decades, the researchers analyzed the death certificates of the American dead people to prepare that report.

The researchers blamed increasing use of prescription painkillers and other drugs at homes which were mostly used mainly in hospitals 25 years back. …Click here to read more