Paul Frenger, MD is a senior member of IEEE, life member of ACM and a practicing physician who has been professionally involved with computers since 1976. He has published about 200 articles in the bioengineering and computer literature, was editor of the ACM SIGForth Newsletter (5 years), Associate Editor for ACM Sigplan Notices (13 years), and has three computer patents. He is active in artificial intelligence, robotics, bioengineering, space science and green industrial design.

The author merged his human narcotic use emulator presented at OMICS International Conference on Addiction Research & Therapy, August 2012, Las Vegas, with his game-playing A.I. robot “ANNIE” (Android with Neural Network, Intellect and Emotions) to create an artificial entity which can exhibit the symptoms of electronic game addiction disorder (American Psychiatric Association). The author wrote a simple first person shooter test game program inspired by the 1993 PC game Doom. Program parameters were tuned to adjust game-play difficulty, i.e.: number and location of opponents, health restoration packs, ammunition and armor; the aiming accuracy of enemies and their speed of movement; placement of obstacles, windows and crossfire shooters. ANNIE, too, has internal variables which affect her game play: her dexterity and shooting accuracy, her frustration with missed shots or with hits on her by enemies, her navigation of the maze, her sensitivity to outside distractions, and her tolerance to game losses. ANNIE’s desire to continue playing when faced with increasing (simulated) hunger, thirst, fatigue, need for bathroom services or other distractions can be adjusted: resistance to body discomfort, pleasure responses to game success and prevailing mood. Results: by changing variables (of the game and the A.I.), ANNIE played the game safely, limiting her playing time and showing no signs of addictive behavior; or she succumbed to uncontrolled, habitual gameplay activity.

Yuko Takahashi has done MD and PhD and is a Professor of Nara Women’s University. He is a Smoking Control Consultant certified by Japanese Association of Smoking Control Science. He is President of Quit Smoking Marathon and President of Japanese Association of Smoking Control Science.

Since 1996 we have been providing a quit smoking support program using the Internet named Quit Smoking Marathon (QSM). It was the first health support program using the Internet in Japan. The participants who want to quit are provided knowledge about smoking hazards and the method of quitting smoking, but the most characteristic features of QSM is that it has been community based support containing training systems for quitters. The QMS is composed of three consecutive stages; STEP1, STEP2, STEP3. In STEP1, participants were supported interactively by the quitters in earlier programs through mailing lists and bulletin boards. In STEP 2 new quitters joined to the QSM community and were provided additional training programs to be supporters. In STEP3, quitters were educated to be supporters of new quitters to send supportive emails to new participants. We investigate the quitting status in each step. Quitting rate at the final day of STEP1 was reported to be 97.4%. In STEP2 (1 year after participating) quit smoking rate was reported 75.7%. In STEP3 (over 12 years since participated) the rate was 76.0%. Long term quit smoking support program is necessary and QMS is suggested to provide long-long terms support.

Cervo L, PhD is the Head of the Experimental Psychopharmacology Laboratory at IRCCS - “Mario Negri” Institute for Pharmacological Research since 2006. From 1978 to 2001 he was a research fellow and then Chief of the Behavioural Pharmacology Unit in the Laboratory of Neuropharmacology at “Mario Negri” Institute. Between 1981 and 1983 he spent his post-doc training in the Department of Psychiatry at the Chicago University, Illinois, U.S.A (Prof. Charles Robert Schuster). From 1995 he was appointed “Student Supervisor” from the Cardiff University School of Biosciences and “Graduate Students Teacher” of the Pharmacological Research Specialist training program at the “Mario Negri” Institute. His research interests span the areas of behavioral neuroscience and psychopharmacology. His research mainly focuses on experimental animal models and their translational application to complex human disorders such as drug abuse, anxiety and depression. He is the author and co-author of several peer-review articles, communications in international meetings and is reviewer of several international scientific journals.

Tobacco smoking is a chronic relapsing disorder and resumption is recurrent after abstinence. Although some pharmacological and psychosocial support can help smokers to quit, the high relapse rates indicate a need for more efficacious treatments. A large body of evidence indicates that the cysteine pro-drug N-acetylcysteine (N-AC) may have beneficial therapeutic effects in the treatment of drug addiction. In humans, pilot studies have shown that N-AC decreases cues-induced cocaine-craving, number of cigarettes smoked, marijuana use and craving. Pre-clinically N-AC reduced conditioned cues-induced cocaine- and heroin-seeking by restoring cystine-glutamate exchange, which normalizes extracellular glutamate (Glu), restoring tone on pre-synaptic inhibitory mGluR2/3 auto-receptors in the nucleus accumbens, thus blunting the increased Glu release associated with drug cues-induced reinstatement. Although nicotine-cues reinstate drug-seeking and increase extracellular Glu in the nucleus accumbens, it is still unclear whether N-AC would inhibit cue-induced nicotine-seeking. Moreover, it is unknown whether restoring Glu homeostasis by chronic N-AC treatment would enhance the outcome of cue-exposure therapy for smoking cessation. To gain such information, we used an animal model of cue-induced robust and lasting nicotine-seeking in abstinent rats after nicotine self-administration. We found that a single dose of N-AC (100 mg/kg) increased Glu extracellular release in the nucleus accumbens and induced a short-term reduction of cues-induced nicotine-seeking without altering cues-induced saccharin-seeking and rats’ locomotor activity. Pre-treatment with LY341495 (1mg/kg), a selective mGluR2/3 antagonist, completely prevented N-AC from reducing cues-induced nicotine-seeking behavior. When N-AC (100mg/kg) was given chronically before daily lever-presses extinction, during abstinence or in combination with nicotine-associated cues induced reinstatement, it was found that only in the latter condition N-AC showed efficacy when bio-available during testing; furthermore N-AC also produced a long-lasting anti-relapse activity that was still present 2 weeks later. These results suggest that N-AC might offer a therapeutic opportunity in promoting extinction of nicotine-cue conditioned responding.

Adeela Saba has completed advance Diploma in Clinical Psychology from University of Sargodha, Pakistan. She is working as Psychologist at Global Welfare Organization, Pakistan.

The present study explored the Effectiveness of rational emotive behavior therapy in disputing irrational beliefs of persons with substance used disorders. It was hypothesized that there is likely to be a decrease in irrational beliefs of persons with substance used disorders after the treatment (REBT). Repeated measure design was used. Sample consisted of (N=12) persons with substance use disorder. It was carried out on in door patients of Drug Addiction at Punjab Institute of Mental Health (PIMH), Fountain House Lahore. Demographic information sheet and MSE was used to rule out others psychiatric illness. The Shortened General Attitude and Belief Scale was used to assess pre and post assessment of irrational beliefs. Wilcoxon signed rank test indicated that there were significantly lower scores in irrationality post test compare to pre test. The present study contributes to resolve patient’s emotional turmoil that may put an individual at risk of psychological illness caused by irrational beliefs.

Manpreet Gill is working in Stanford University. His research interest includes opoid addiction,illicit drug users, marijuana addiction.

Over the past two decades, opioid medication abuse among the U.S. population has expanded to a scourge extent. While the U.S. only accommodates 4% of the world’s population, Americans consume 86% of the world’s opioids, 99% of the worldwide hydrocodone supply, and 66% of the world’s illegal drugs. Results of the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) showed that a predicted 22.6 million people aged 12 or older were current or past month illicit drug users. Nearly 7 million among these used marijuana and 5.1 million used painkillers. Only 17.3% of users of non-therapeutic opioids indicated that they received the drugs through a prescription from a physician. Th e widely growing use of therapeutic opioids shows hydrocodone topping all prescriptions with 136.7 million prescriptions in 2011.with all narcotic analgesics reaching more than 238 million prescriptions. Opioid analgesics are now accountable for a higher mortality rate than suicide and motor vehicle accidents. The majority deaths (60%) occur in patients who received prescriptions based on prescribing guidelines by medical boards, whether small or higher doses of morphine. In comparison, 40% of deaths occur in individuals abusing the drugs obtained through illegal means. Th e objective of this Poster is to review the available evidence concerning misuse and diff erentiate a legitimate user from a drug-seeking addict. We would also discuss various aspects of drug abuse in clinical practice, mainly dealing with these patients in Emergency and Psychiatric settings.