With recent advances of modern medicine more people reach the "elderly age" around the globe and the number of dementia cases are ever increasing. This book is about various aspects of dementia and provides its readers with a wide range of thought-provoking sub-topics in the field of dementia. The ultimate goal of this monograph is to stimulate other physicians' and neuroscientists' interest to carry out more research projects into pathogenesis of this devastating group of diseases.

More people are being treated for substance abuse each year, creating a vital need for a practical, easy-to-use manual for addiction treatment providers. Addiction Medicine: An Introduction for Health Care Professionals, by Dr. Robert D. Lovinger, provides clear, authoritative guidance on current concepts of brain functions associated with substance abuse, early management and long-term treatment protocols, and effective psychiatric co-morbidity drug therapies with the goal to provide improved personalized treatments for patients suffering from addiction. Discusses the physiological effects of substance abuse on the brain and body. Summarizes current and successful addiction management protocols. Examines applications and recommended drug treatments for patients susceptible to long-term relapse. Covers smoking cessation and common substance abuse-linked sexually transmitted diseases. Consolidates today's available information and guidance into a single, convenient resource.

Trying to address the entire field of presynaptic modulation of neurotransmitter release is a rather daunting undertaking, one that is well beyond the scope of this book. In addition, studies of release modulation, particularly from a biochemical standpoint, have been the subjects of several extensive reviews, meetings, and books (Langer, 1978; Chesselet, 1984; Wessler, 1989; Kalsner and Westfall, 1990), which provide an essential introduction to this subject. What we have focused on, however, are several specific aspects of release modulation that perhaps have not been as extensively discussed. First, we felt that it was important to focus on modulation in the central nervous system; much of the work that has been done in the past has emphasized the peripheral nervous system (e. g. , the autonomic nervous system and the neuromuscular junction), in part because such preparations are more amenable to study. However, it is becoming clear that modulation of release is, if anything, more important in the central nervous system than in the periphery, and that virtually every transmitter system that has been studied shows some type of release modulation. The other way in which we have restricted the scope of this volume has been to try to emphasize studies in which functional (primarily electrophysiological) measures of transmitter release have been used rather than direct biochemical measures of release, and to explore the ways in which release modulation affects the normal physiological function at synapses.

This volume gives an overview of new insights to alcohol pharmacology using DREADDs (Designer Receptors and Unraveling the Neuropharmacology of Alcohol). It examines which pharmacological principles should be applied to understanding DREADDs taking into account some very current research. Additionally, this book covers important topics under the heading of "experimental pharmacology" and alcohol.

Electricity is the story of a man, his father, some extraterrestrials, and what happens to them when the Sun enters its most violent period in recorded history. Charlie Swift is a 32-year-old Bostonian who needs direction. His father, Vic, needs healing. Both are about to become central players in a planetary drama. Charlie is chief of staff to an old college friend who is now a Boston city councilor. But a bribery scandal convinces Charlie it's time for a change. His next move is a radical one: He becomes the Aurora Seeker, running excursions for people who want to see the Northern Lights. The Sun has been unleashing increasingly powerful storms, disrupting life on Earth and igniting aurora at latitudes that have never seen them before. Meanwhile, incomprehensible lifeforms may have taken up residence in Earth's outer atmosphere. What will happen when the Sun sends the mother of all solar storms heading our way?