Drugs & Addiction | News, Articles

Can a Brain Scan Tell You What Drugs to Take and Choices to Make?

The hunt for personality genes could lead to a screening test that reveals what treatments will work best for each individual's psychological makeup. 04.18.2012

Juicers, Trippers, and Crocodiles: The Dangerous World of Underground Chemistry

Steroids, narcotics, and psychedelics are flowing freely from underground labs around the world. 04.16.2012

Of Mice and Men and Medicines

Drugs that alleviate symptoms of psychological illness in mice often wind up producing human treatments. There is just one small problem: Their mental breakdowns look nothing like ours. 02.24.2012

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Alcohol

You can stash it in your muscles, you can make it in your intestines, and you can find it in space. 01.10.2012

How Pot, Cocaine, and Hunger Intersect in the Brain

Researchers are studying the role that the endocannabinoid system plays in cravings, and using their findings to try to control our excesses. 12.01.2011

Why Bacteria, But Not Humans, Can Live on Caffeine

It's all in the rings. 06.14.2011

The 100 Top Science Stories of 2010

Every year DISCOVER sorts through the scientific accomplishments of the past 12 months, and assembles a list of the coolest experiments, most brilliant discoveries, and most world-changing events. As you page through the countdown to the #1 science story, we think you'll come to the same conclusion we did: 2010 was quite a year. 12.16.2010

Vital Signs: A Sleepy Secret

A healthy young man falls into a coma, but there are few other signs that anything else is wrong. Then comes the real surprise. 12.11.2010

Vital Signs: Cruising Into Trouble

Travelers can come down with life-threatening diseases—even when the trouble begins at home. 09.20.2010

Are You Living in a Former Meth Lab?

Houses once used as meth labs dot the country, and pose health risks to their new residents. 04.28.2010

Can an Injection Break a Cocaine Addiction?

The drug "vaccination" takes away the high, so users have little reason to use. 02.05.2010

Treating Agony With Ecstasy

In the first FDA-approved trial evaluating the street drug's therapeutic applications, it proved phenomenally successful at treating PTSD. 01.13.2010

Why Does the Vaccine/Autism Controversy Live On?

Research has soundly disproved the alleged connection, yet fears about vaccines continue to be a major risk to public health. 05.06.2009

Are Smart Drugs the Answer to Bad Moods—and a Bad Economy?

Today’s mind-altering chemicals can improve your memory, alertness, and mood. Just wait until you see what tomorrow’s crop can do. 04.02.2009

Could a Dose of Ether Contain the Secret to Consciousness?

Researchers may soon be able to measure consciousness as well as we can measure a person's temperature. 03.16.2009

Mind Control?

The CIA's experimentation with LSD led to disastrous results. 08.04.2008

Could an Acid Trip Cure Your OCD?

Researchers are again using mind-bending drugs as a means of treating mental disorders. 05.16.2008

From Haitian Zombie Poison to Inuit Knives Made of Feces

Wade Davis, a real-life Indiana Jones, chronicles cultures at the brink. 03.27.2008

The Good, the Bad, and the Tiny

The oddly oxymoronic effects of steroids on the human body 10.18.2007

Can a Drunk Person Fly the Space Shuttle?

Discover sends an intoxicated investigator to find out... 09.28.2007

Inside the Strange World of Sleep Eaters

Open wide for buttered cigarettes, Brillo pads, and lots of gooey junk food. 08.02.2007

This is Your Brain on Video Games

Gaming sharpens thinking, social skills, and perception. 07.09.2007

This Is Your Brain on Ecstasy

MDMA really is like love in a pill. 06.18.2007

Smoking and Ethnicity

Scientists try to pin down why African Americans are statistically less successful at quitting smoking. 07.07.2006

Italians Find Drugs in River Sewage

Italians Find Drugs in River Sewage 11.22.2005

Agony of Parkinson's Eased by Ecstasy?

Agony of Parkinson's Eased by Ecstasy? 11.22.2005

Vital Signs

Benign but irritating skin eruptions signal much more serious internal troubles 11.22.2005

54: R-Rated Films Tempt Teenagers to Smoke

01.03.2005

59: Your Brain on Meth: Forest Fire of Carnage

01.03.2005

Win Some, Lose More

08.02.2004

The Biology of . . . Addiction

A controversial new drug seems to stop addiction cold 05.01.2003

Peyote on the Brain

Is the secret to alcoholism and other addictions locked up in hallucinogenic drugs? 02.01.2003

What You can learn from drunk monkeys

A remarkable NIH study says you're just as likely to become an alcoholic from a bad childhood as from bad genes 07.01.2002

Monkey Users Are Losers

06.01.2002

Driving Simulator

Four hours' sleep last night, a glass of wine at the office party, an antihistamine for a stuffy nose, and here comes a car full of teens, head-on, drifting into your lane.(Be glad you're in the National Driving Simulator.) 04.01.2002

Sex, Drugs, and PMS

11.01.2001

Molecular Psychiatrist Eric Nestler It's a Hard Habit to Break

10.01.2001

Is Overeating an Addiction?

05.01.2001

Nic Fix Sticks Quick

04.01.2001

Getting Stupid

New research indicates that teenagers who drink too much may lose as much as 10 percent of their brainpower— the difference between passing and failing in school . . . and in life 03.01.2001