The misuse of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications resulted in an estimated 358,000 trips to U.S. emergency departments in 2016 — and almost half of those cases involved young people ages 15 to 34, according to a new study based on a national public health surveillance system.

A new survey found that 23 percent of respondents have used drugs or alcohol on the job.

'The level of processing is a large, positive predictor of whether a food is associated with being addictive,' says one researcher

As an opioid epidemic spreads across the western world, researchers believe they’re close to developing a non-addictive painkiller. Figures from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) estimate that about 115 people in the country are overdosing on opioids every single day. Aside from the financial costs such an addiction brings to a national healthcare system, it can be hugely traumatic for the person addicted to these drugs, and for their families.

Millions of Americans struggle with substance abuse and tens of thousands die each year, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine. Though treating addiction has become a vast (and at times abusive) industry, the underlying causes of drug or alcohol dependency—and how to successfully treat these debilitating conditions—are still poorly understood by science. Now, researchers think they’ve found the germ of an answer in our genetic past.

Public health experts say they see reason to be optimistic but warned against drawing firm conclusions based on a half-year’s worth of data.

The long read: When high doses of painkillers led to widespread addiction, it was called one of the biggest mistakes in modern medicine. But this was no accident

Opening up to past trauma is difficult but self-awareness is key to addressing issues that leave us vulnerable, says Gabor Maté

For most people, prison is a place to escape from. For South Koreans in need of a break from the demands of everyday life, a day in a faux jail is the escape.

Fentanyl is now the drug most frequently involved in overdose deaths in the U.S., according to a National Vital Statistics System report published Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report sheds a bright light on the changing nature of America's drug landscape — and the devastating number of overdose deaths that have occurred in the U.S. in recent years.

We are all in the throes of an Amazon addiction, but some of us are in deep. Some 71 percent of Americans are Amazon Prime...

In a lawsuit, the state targets eight members of the Sackler family.

The World Health Organization (WHO) received a lot of attention recently for adding a new and controversial diagnosis called gaming disorder to the latest revision of its global diagnostic system, the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). Gaming disorder, a diagnosis for individuals who excessively play video games, is now included in the substance use and addictive behavior disorders section of the manual. However, gamers and the gaming industry have strongly objected to this new disorder and have asked WHO to reconsider including gaming disorder in ICD-11.

Listen up for the good, the bad and the ugly story of opiates - with some insight you've likely never heard before.

“Show me the bodies!” someone demanded at the end of my lecture a few years ago. As a scholar of public health ethics, law and policy, I had just warned an audience of professors and university administrators about the perils of partnering with, or taking money from, corporations – a common practice in public health research and policymaking.

A short documentary about my family's sordid past with Beanie Babies. Made for my Documentary Production class at The University of Arizona.

When “Breaking Bad” debuted in 2008, I was 27 years removed from a methamphetamine addiction. But if I thought about the drug, I could still smell it exactly: Medicinal and metallic and crude and burning. I know fans will be sad when the show ends its sixth and final season later this year, but not me. For me, the show can’t end soon enough.

Drug-harm experts to rank 20 drugs (legal and illegal) on 16 measures of harm to the user and to wider society

Electronic cigarettes could save the lives of millions of smokers, or they could set millions of non-smokers on the path to nicotine addiction, revolutionizing the tobacco industry into the bargain. So the question on the lips of health experts, policy-makers and consumers alike is, are the devices a health problem that needs tight regulation, or a welcome aid to smokers trying to quit?

The show developed legions of fans thanks to deft writing, superb acting and the miracles of binge-watching

Oreos are as addictive as cocaine, at least for lab rats, and just like us, they like the creamy center best. Eating the sugary treats activates more neurons in the brain’s “pleasure center” than drugs such as cocaine, the team at Connecticut College found.

The addicts stalk the streets of this border post like hollowed-out skeletons, hair matted by filth and eyes glassy. The villages that hug the roads are veritable zombie towns, where families of men, women and children hide their addiction within barren mud compounds.

The cigarettes of the future could be safer, cheaper and less taboo than the smokes of the past. But they also threaten to upend decades of anti-smoking efforts.

Scientists say that if all smokers in the world switched from cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, it could save millions of lives.

It’s not easy to export the American recovery movement — even to a nation that needs it.

Cigarette use among middle school and high school students is on the decline, but public health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are concerned about other ways that tobacco and nicotine use is rising among kids.

Indonesia’s chain-smoking baby has kicked the habit. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he’s a junk-food junkie, packing on some serious pounds!

After decades of prohibition, research is illuminating new uses for some illegal drugs.

All new behaviours raise complex questions of etiquette. The sudden ubiquity of e-cigarettes – electronic substitutes for the cancer sticks of old – is challenging our assumptions about where it is appropriate to "smoke". More than a million people are using them in the UK and, according to Bloomberg, on present trends they will outsell conventional cigarettes by 2047. So is it OK to "fire up" in an office? In a restaurant? In a hospital bed?

The industry is warning countries that their tobacco laws violate an expanding web of treaties, raising the prospect of costly, prolonged legal battles.

It wrecks lives – but it has also inspired art from the poetry of Baudelaire to the music of Lou Reed. Andrew Hussey traces the path of heroin through modern European culture

After a long career treating patients complaining of such problems as short attention spans and an inability to focus, neurologist Richard Saul is convinced that ADHD is a collection of symptoms, not a disease, and shouldn’t be listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

In Seoul, where I live, there’s a PC Bang (gaming cafe) on every block, and two TV networks dedicated to Starcraft. To young Koreans, pro gaming offers the same appeal professional sports offer in many other countries. Elite gamers, who often practice up to 12 hours a day, are treated like rock stars, drawing massive audiences to their matches and earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

You may laugh at this video, but her life is no laughing matter.

Fifty years ago, smoking was linked to cancer in the first surgeon general's report on tobacco. On Friday, Dr. Boris Lushniak, the acting surgeon general, issued the 32nd report on tobacco, saying "enough is enough." His goal: eliminating the use of cigarettes and tobacco.