COCAINE'S EFFECT ON BRAIN BRINGS NEARLY INSTANT ADDICTION

The reason some people become addicted to cocaine after a brief exposure is
that the narcotic has an uncanny ability to alter brain- cell connections,
according to researchers at the University of California at San Francisco.

The pattern of activity produced by a single injection of cocaine lasts 5
to 10 days and is similar to the kinds of changes involved in learning and
memory, Dr. Antonello Bonci reported in the British journal Nature. The
experiments were conducted in rodents.

"The significance of this finding is that a single dose of cocaine usurped
a cellular mechanism involved in a normally adaptive learning process,
which may help to explain cocaine's ability to take control of
incentive-motivational systems in the brain and produce compulsive
drug-seeking behavior," he said.

Pollutants Trigger Heart Attacks

Small particles from automobile exhaust, power plants, refineries, smelters
and other industry can increase the risk of a heart attack.

A study of 772 Boston-area residents who suffered heart attacks found that
the attacks were up to 48 percent more frequent when levels of the small
particles increased in the air, said Dr. Murray A. Mittleman of the Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

The particles, which measure less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, can
penetrate deep into the lungs, making it harder to breathe and creating a
bigger stress on the heart, he reported in Circulation: Journal of the
American Heart Association.

An Attitude For Suicide

People who are the most unhappy with life are 25 times more likely to
commit suicide than people with a high degree of satisfaction, a 20- year
study of nearly 30,000 Finnish twins has found.

Four items were used to determine dissatisfaction with life: interest in
life, happiness, general ease of living and feeling of loneliness, said Dr.
Heli Koivumaa-Honkanen of the University of Turka, Finland.

Screening people for life satisfaction could help detect those who are at
risk of suicide, he reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry.