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SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In a noteworthy revelation at the Korean Society of Ginseng conference held in Seoul last October, red ginseng has gained attention for significantly improving dependency caused by drug addiction. Prof. Oh Sei-kwan from Ewha Womans University College of Medicine found that the consumption of red ginseng reduces both physical and psychological dependency induced by drug addiction and greatly improves withdrawal symptoms. With the global issue of drug addiction becoming increasingly serious, this research result garners even more anticipation. Continue Reading Red Ginseng’s Potential as a Natural Treatment for Improving Withdrawal Symptoms and Dependency due to Drug Addiction Proven Scientifically According to the "World Drug Report 2023," the number of drug users worldwide increased by 23.3% from ten years ago, reaching 296 million in 2021. Despite being a medical analgesic, Fentanyl, commonly referred to as "zombie drug," has now infiltrated even among adolescents, which is a worrisome development. In the absence of a clear cure for the escalating harms of drug addiction, the study on the effects of red ginseng in improving drug dependency is noteworthy. Prof. Oh's research team, through experiments on mice, confirmed that the experiment group consuming red ginseng showed a 50% reduction in leap behaviors indicating physical dependency compared to the control group during morphine administration. In the conditioned place preference test for evaluating psychological dependency, the red ginseng group scored about three times lower than the control group, significantly reducing psychological dependency caused by drug addiction. In addition, the study revealed a link between red ginseng and detoxification in the liver. Glutathione in the liver, involved in detoxification, showed recovery in the red ginseng group, which had decreased due to morphine addiction, indicating an approximately 90% effectiveness compared to the control group. The impact of red ginseng on improving liver function has been consistently studied. In October, at the academic conference of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition held in Busan, significant research results on the improvement of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by red ginseng were presented. Human trials with 94 patients confirmed that the consumption of red ginseng regulated gut microbiota, increasing beneficial bacteria and reducing harmful bacteria, thereby improving damaged livers. This study scientifically proves the usefulness of red ginseng in treating drug addiction and confirms its potential as a natural treatment for substance dependency, marking an important milestone. Photo -

In a mouse study designed to explore the impact of marijuana's major psychoactive compound, THC, on teenage brains, researchers say they found changes to the structure of microglia, which are specialized brain immune cells, that may worsen a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia. In a mouse study designed to explore the impact of marijuana's major psychoactive compound, THC, on teenage brains, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they found changes to the structure of microglia, which are specialized brain immune cells, that may worsen a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia. The findings, published Oct. 25 in Nature Communications, add to growing evidence of risk to brain development in adolescents who smoke or eat marijuana products. "Recreational and medical marijuana use is rapidly expanding in the United States and abroad, and teens are especially vulnerable to long-term negative effects of THC," says Atsushi Kamiya, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "We know THC is psychoactive, and its concentration in marijuana plants has increased four times in the last 20 years, posing a particular danger for adolescents who are genetically predisposed to psychoactive disorders including schizophrenia." Microglial cells are a specialized subset of immune cells called brain-resident macrophages that are found in the central nervous system. They play a direct role in neuron-to-neuron communication, immune response and healthy brain development. In adolescence, microglial cells play a critical role in brain maturation related to social and cognitive function by synapse pruning and secreting of chemical transmitters. Structural changes that interfere with them, the Johns Hopkins investigators suspected, may alter the brain's wiring and messaging system in the still developing brains of teens. To test their idea, researchers used genetically engineered mice with a mutation that mimics a genetic risk for psychiatric disorders in humans, along with normal mice as a comparison group. The mice carrying the mutation show changes to the brain with or without THC, specifically to the areas responsible for emotion, learning and memory. During mouse adolescence, animals from both the genetically altered and normal groups were treated either with daily single injections of THC or with benign saline solution. After 30 days of injections, the mice were given three weeks of rest before behavioral tests were performed to assess their psychosocial development. The tests included those involving odor sensing, object recognition, social interaction and memory. The researchers also used fluorescent staining to measure the number and morphology of microglial cells in the animals' brains. Results showed that mice exposed to THC had increased microglial apoptosis (programmed cell death), and the reduction in the number of microglia in mice with the genetic mutation and THC was 33% higher than in the normal mice with THC. Microglial reduction was particularly present in the brain's prefrontal cortex, which is responsible in both mice and people for memory, social behavior, decision making and other executive functions. Because microglia are involved in brain neuronal maturation, a decrease in healthy ones may result in higher instances of abnormal cell signaling and communication, the researchers say. The genetically altered mice given THC in the study scored 40% lower on social memory than their counterparts given saline. "This kind of study is critical right now because marijuana is becoming more mainstream, and we are just beginning to understand how it affects the brain immune cells," says Yuto Hasegawa, Ph.D., research associate of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the study's leading author. Kamiya cautions that study results from genetically engineered mice cannot be applied directly to what happens in a human brain. But "studies in animals suggest there may be long lasting and negative effects of marijuana use during adolescence," Kamiya says. "More research is needed, but we strongly advise caution in marijuana use by teenagers," Kamiya adds. Researchers say the next step for these studies is to pinpoint exactly how microglial abnormality affects neuron function at the molecular level. From a clinical perspective, they hope to use these findings to explore how marijuana exposure contributes to schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. Other scientists who contributed to this research are Solange Brown, Juhyun Kim, Samskruthi Madireddy, Yu Miyahara, Mizuho Obayashi, Akira Sawa, Gianluca Ursini, Feiyi Xiong and Xiaolei Zhu of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Yan Jouroukhin, Beat Lutz and Mikhail Pletnikov of Johannes Gutenberg University. All authors have no conflicts to disclose. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Welfare Foundation, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation and the Korea Brain Research Institute.

Prior authorizations needed for treatments and medications for fee-for-service Medicaid beneficiaries battling substance abuse were highest in 2014 but then decreased in both 2017 and 2021, according to a new study. Access to care for Medicaid fee-for-service beneficiaries with substance use disorder has improved from 2014 until 2021, but much more can be done to improve it further, researchers say. “The findings of this survey study of Medicaid FFS program coverage suggest that there have been substantial improvements in Medicaid benefits for [substance use disorder—SUD] treatment services and [opioid use disorder—OUD] medications since 2014,” according to a study in JAMA Network. “Because 10 states only use Medicaid FFS, and state Medicaid FFS programs set the minimum standard for SUD treatment coverage in Medicaid MCO plans, this finding is highly salient. Nonetheless, there is still progress to be made before all Medicaid enrollees have adequate coverage for SUD treatment," the researchers said. Researchers with the University of Chicago Survey Lab surveyed Medicaid directors in 50 states in 2014, 2017 and 2021. Data were analyzed after each wave of SUDs and OUDs in 2015, 2017 and 2021. Nine states were not included because 100% of their Medicaid beneficiaries younger than 65 who were not on disability were covered by managed Medicaid health plans. They were Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia. The percentage of Medicaid fee-for-service programs that offered outpatient treatment increase to 100% by 2021. In addition, some programs intensified inpatient and outpatient treatment and detoxification, which meant that 90% and 95%, respectively, offered this coverage. Researchers looked at outpatient and inpatient detoxification separately, finding that while 93% covered inpatient detoxification, only 67% covered outpatient detoxification. “In each wave of the survey, information was collected on coverage for various SUD treatment services such as individual and group outpatient, intensive outpatient, short-term and long-term residential, recovery support, inpatient treatment and detoxification, and outpatient detoxification services,” the study said. “The survey also included data on coverage for FDA-approved medications for treating OUD, including methadone, oral and injectable naltrexone, and buprenorphine.” In 2014 and 2017, the percentage of Medicaid fee-for-service programs requiring copayments increased, but there seemed to be a dip in 2021. That’s when copayments decreased for individual and group outpatient services from 27% to 24%, and copayments for intensive treatment decreased from 27% in 2017 to 18% in 2021. On the other hand, copayments increased from 14% to 18% for recovery support and from 20% to 23% for detoxification. Copayment requirements for OUD medications decreased across all programs in 2021. Prior authorizations needed for treatments and medications were highest in 2014 but then decreased in both 2017 and 2021. From 2017 to 2021, the percentage of Medicaid FFS programs requiring prior authorization for individual outpatient treatment decreased from 34% to 22%. For group outpatient treatment, the decrease was from 33% to 22%. “We observed a large increase in coverage for short- and long-term residential treatment for SUD, which had been stagnant at a low level of coverage in 2014 and 2017,” the study said. “The magnitude of this change may be especially important, given [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’] option to allow states to waive the institutions for mental disease exclusion, which limited Medicaid coverage to small residential programs providing care to fewer than 16 persons,” the study states. “Prior to the option to waive the exclusion, states’ decision to cover residential treatment may have had a more limited impact on access to care.”