Receptors for steroid hormones (e.g., hydrocortisones and estrogens) differ in being located in the cell nucleus and therefore being accessible only to molecules that can enter the cell across the membrane. The structure-activity relationship describes the connection between chemical structure and biological effect. Such a relationship explains the efficacies of various drugs and has led to the development of newer drugs with specific mechanisms of action.
Treatment gap for substance use disorders
The value of oxytocin for various indications, including the prevention and treatment of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) in obstetric practice, is well… “Antimicrobial resistance jeopardizes our ability to effectively treat high burden infections, such as tuberculosis, leading to severe illness and increased mortality rates,” said Dr Jérôme Salomon, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Universal Health Coverage, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases. The first edition was published in 2013 and summarized the evidence of drug use prevention at the global level. The highest proportion (13%) of alcohol-attributable deaths in 2019 were among young people aged 20–39 years.
The World Health Organization (WHO) today released its updated Bacterial Priority Pathogens List (BPPL) 2024, featuring 15 families of antibiotic-resistant bacteria grouped into critical, high and medium categories for prioritization. The list provides guidance on the development of new and necessary treatments to stop the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). These guidelines contain recommendations on the identification and management of substance use and substance use disorders for health care services which…
- The highest proportion (13%) of alcohol-attributable deaths in 2019 were among young people aged 20–39 years.
- Cannabis is globally the most commonly used psychoactive substance under international control.
- The highest levels of per capita consumption in 2019 were observed in the WHO European Region (9.2 litres) and the Region of Americas (7.5 litres).
- Many receptor-mediated events show the phenomenon of desensitization, which means that continued or repeated administration of a drug produces a progressively smaller effect.
Drugs (psychoactive): WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence review of cannabis
In the third type of mechanism, which is peculiar to steroid hormones and related drugs, the steroid binds to a receptor that consists primarily of nuclear proteins. Because this interaction occurs inside the cell, agonists for this receptor must be able to cross the cell membrane. The drug-receptor complex acts on specific regions of the genetic material deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in the cell nucleus, resulting in an increased rate of synthesis for some proteins and a decreased rate for others. Steroids generally act much more slowly (hours to days) than agents that act by either of the two other mechanisms. The BPPL 2024 saw the removal of five pathogen-antibiotic combinations that were included in BPPL 2017, and the addition of four new combinations. The fact that third-generation cephalosporin-resistant Enterobacterales are listed as a standalone item within the critical priority category emphasizes their burden and need for targeted interventions, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
Guidance on the WHO review of psychoactive substances for international control
A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights that 2.6 million deaths per year were attributable to alcohol consumption, accounting for 4.7% of all deaths, and 0.6 million deaths to psychoactive drug use. WHO Drug Information provides an overview of topics relating to drug development and regulation that are of current relevance and importance, and includes the lists of proposed and recommended International Nonproprietary Names for Pharmaceutical Substances (INN). WHO Drug Information is a quarterly journal providing an overview of topics relating to medicines development and regulation which is targeted to a wide audience of health professionals and policy makers. WHO drug information provides an overview of topics of current relevance relating to drug development and regulation.
Access to safe, effective and quality-assured health products and technologies
Above-mentioned decisions were announced at the 68th regular session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, taking place in Vienna, Austria, on March 2025. A substance can be placed on WHO ECDDs Surveillance List to enable the ongoing monitoring of data relating to a new psychoactive substance (NPS) that has the potential to cause public health harm. The death rates due to alcohol consumption per litre of alcohol consumed are highest in low-income countries and lowest in high-income countries. The report highlights that despite some reduction in the alcohol-related death rates since 2010, the overall number of deaths due to alcohol consumption remains unacceptably high and amounts to 2.6 million in 2019, with the highest numbers in the European Region and the African region. This thinking changed when the mechanism of drug action began to be analyzed in physiological terms and when some of the first chemical analyses of naturally occurring drugs were performed. The end of the 19th century signaled the growth of the pharmaceutical industry and the production of the first synthetic drugs.
International Standards for the Treatment of Drug Use Disorders
The critical priority pathogens, such as gram-negative bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotics, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to the antibiotic rifampicin, present major global threats due to their high burden, and ability to resist treatment and spread resistance to other bacteria. Gram-negative bacteria have built-in abilities to find new ways to resist treatment and can pass along genetic material that allows other bacteria to become drug-resistant as well. In the first type of mechanism, the ion channel is part of the same protein complex as the receptor, and no biochemical intermediates are involved.
Good Policy and Practice in Health Education: Education sector responses to the use of alcohol, tobacco…
Equal access and the reliable supply drug rehab for pregnant women specialized prenatal treatment of medicines is anongoing goal of WHO and global health delivery systems, the achievement ofwhich is hampered by several factors. The first is regulatory issues, which canaffect how medicines are bought to market, create lag times and cause thesupply of medicines in some areas of the globe to be delayed long after theyare available elsewhere. Price has long been a barrier in poorcountries, but because of sharp increases in recent years, this issue isspreading to some wealthy countries as well. At its forty-fifth meeting, the ECDD critically reviewed nine new psychoactive substances, comprising one synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist (ADB-BUTINACA),… The ECDD Information Repository is an open access database containing publications and information on psychoactive substances reviewed by the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD).
WHO recommends that essential medicines, including those that are controlled, be available to all patients at all times at a price that the individual… Boarding is a considerable issue for Medicaid-enrolled youths seeking mental health care in emergency departments (EDs), according to a research letter… Joint UNESCO, UNODC and WHO publication on education sector responses to substance use in 2017 UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural… The publication was invited by resolution 58/5 of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs entitled “Supporting the collaboration of public health and justice…
- It is crucial that people with opioid dependence and those at risk of opioid overdose have access to prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and care, which are of good quality, affordable, ethical and evidence based.
- Access to appropriate medications is shown to have substantial impacts on community health and the related economic indicators.
- This list beganwith 208 identified medicines and has grown to include 460 differentpharmaceuticals.
- Building on the value of the BPPL as a global tool, tailoring the list to country and regional contexts can account for regional variations in pathogen distribution and the AMR burden.
- Other high priority pathogens, such as antibiotic-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Enterococcus faecium, present unique public health challenges, including persistent infections and resistance to multiple antibiotics, necessitating targeted research and public health interventions.
- The value of oxytocin for various indications, including the prevention and treatment of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) in obstetric practice, is well…
Rates of current drinking were highest among 15–19-year-olds in the European region (45.9%) followed by the Americas (43.9%).
Stigma, discrimination and misconceptions about the efficacy of treatment contribute to these critical gaps in treatment provision, as well as the continued low prioritization of substance use disorders by health and development agencies. Receptors for many hormones and neurotransmitters have been isolated and biochemically characterized. All these receptors are proteins, and most are incorporated into the cell membrane in such a way that the binding region faces the exterior of the cell.