Edmonton — No matter how much Lana Marie Christophersen tried to get clean, the world of drugs kept dragging her back down.

The 26-year-old found herself in a vicious cycle that may have eventually took her life, a friend suggested.

“She had been involved with drugs before, and it was an uphill battle. She’d kick it, then she was back on it. Then when she got pregnant, she kicked it again. It was a hard struggle,” said her friend Sherry Reinhart.

Last Saturday, the Beaumont-raised Christophersen was killed in an East Vancouver apartment explosion. She had just moved in after answering an ad from her new roommate, a 21-year-old man who is now in critical condition after the explosion.

Vancouver police on Wednesday charged Jamie Cliff, 34, with second-degree murder and attempted murder. Cliff was Christophersen’s ex-boyfriend.

Her friends are trying to piece together what happened.

Reinhart, who has known Christophersen for the past nine years, says her friend was a wonderful person who would bend over backwards for you.

“She was really strong and felt she could do everything on her own. Even though people would give her a helping hand, she would say, ‘No. I can handle it,’” she said.

Another friend who didn’t want to be identified said she was a sweet girl and a good mom to her son, Chase, who is now with his grandparents.

Reinhart said Christophersen moved to Vancouver a year ago so her son could grow up near his grandparents, and when Reinhart went out west to visit her last year, Christophersen was clean. But in the past few months she started getting involved with a guy and became difficult to get ahold of.

Reinhart doesn’t believe Christophersen was doing drugs again but got caught up in that world.

“If your boyfriend is in a gang, even if you’re not in a gang you get dragged down with it,” she said.

A Facebook site has been set up in memory of Christophersen. One post by Shannon Wilck said she was a beautiful, free-spirited soul who had an impact on so many lives.

Research suggests that alcoholics are more likely to experience emotions such as annoyances, frustrations and anger compared to non-alcoholics.

A new study at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) will investigate these anger emotions and how they might be addressed in outpatient alcoholism treatment. In this study, researchers will develop a treatment specifically focused on anger management for use with individuals with drinking problems and will then examine the effects of the new treatment protocol in a pilot clinical trial.

The study is funded by a $1.8 million grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and will run through 2013.

"We have seen that alcoholics score higher on various measures of anger emotions than non-alcoholics," explained Kimberly S. Walitzer, Ph.D., lead investigator on the study. "Furthermore, anger emotions can play a role in relapse to drinking following a period of abstinence from alcohol use. If we can help individuals to manage anger emotions differently, we should be able to help them cope in different ways other than drinking."

Walitzer is a senior research scientist and deputy director of RIA, as well as research associate professor in the Department of Psychology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences.

Walitzer's research team includes two senior research scientists at RIA. Paul R. Stasiewicz, Ph.D. is director of RIA's Clinical Research Center and research associate professor in UB's Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Gerard J. Connors, Ph.D. is RIA's director, professor in the Department of Psychology and research professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The Research Institute on Addictions has been a national leader in the study of addictions since 1970 and a research center of the University at Buffalo since 1999.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.

University at Buffalo

Scientists at The University of Nottingham are to use MRI technology to discover whether abnormalities in the decision-making part of the brain could make some people more likely to become addicted to drugs.

In a three-year study, funded with £360,000 from the Medical Research Council, Dr Lee Hogarth in the University's School of Psychology will study the impact that an abnormal frontal cortex can have in people's risk of becoming dependant upon drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, cannabis or heroin.

Dr Hogarth said: "Evidence suggests that a large percentage of the population try drugs but only a small proportion of experimental users - roughly about 15 per cent - will make the transition to full-blown addiction.

"Our study will move us a step closer to understanding why some people can use drugs recreationally without becoming hooked, while others will go on to develop clinical dependence."

The research will focus on the frontal cortex, the area of the brain which is involved in decision-making and which allows us to weigh up short term gain with potential long term negative consequences. The researchers believe that some people may have a biological predisposition to becoming addicted because this portion of their brain is malfunctioning, preventing them from appreciating risks adequately, leading them to make poor choices in relation to drug abuse.

Young people may be particularly affected by this as the frontal cortex is not yet fully developed, which may explain many risk-taking behaviours in adolescents.

The research will compare students who report social versus daily smoking, and adult smokers who are dependant on nicotine versus those who are not. These four groups will allow researchers to trace the transition to dependence across the lifetime of drug use.

In the experiments, volunteers will first learn to earn cigarettes before this behaviour is punished with an unpleasant noise. The question is whether nicotine dependence is associated with a persistence in cigarette seeking despite the negative consequence of this behaviour, which is the clinical hallmark of addiction.

In addition, researchers will use MRI technology to measure abnormal brain activity in participants who persist in drug seeking, despite this behaviour being punished.

Dr Hogarth commented: "The risk of becoming addicted is due to a failure to offset the anticipated pleasure from drug use with knowledge of the long term negative consequences. The frontal cortex carries signals for anticipated pleasure and pain, so we expect to see an abnormality in the integration of these signals in dependent addicts who persist in punished drug seeking behaviour.

"There is currently a debate as to whether addicts are responsible for their addictive behaviour, which has implications for the funding of their healthcare and treatment. If our hypothesis proves correct, we would argue that addicts are intentionally choosing to take drugs, rather than being controlled, like robots, by urges beyond their control. However, this does not mean that addicts are morally culpable for their choices, because they cannot help being vulnerable to a distortion of the neural system that computes their choices.

"If we identify those who possess this vulnerability, perhaps more can be done to prevent them from making the transition to pathological addiction."

Children and adolescents who abuse alcohol or are sexually active are more likely to take methamphetamines (MA), also known as 'meth' or 'speed'. Research published in the open access journal BMC Pediatrics reveals the risk factors associated with MA use, in both low-risk children (those who don't take drugs) and high-risk children (those who have taken other drugs or who have ever attended juvenile detention centers).

MA is a stimulant, usually smoked, snorted or injected. It produces sensations of euphoria, lowered inhibitions, feelings of invincibility, increased wakefulness, heightened sexual experiences, and hyperactivity resulting from increased energy for extended periods of time. According to the lead author of this study, Terry P. Klassen of the University of Alberta, Canada, "MA is produced, or 'cooked', quickly, reasonably simply, and cheaply by using legal and readily available ingredients with recipes that can be found on the internet".

Because of the low cost, ready availability and legal status of the drug, long-term use can be a serious problem. In order to assess the risk factors that are associated with people using MA, Klassen and his team carried out an analysis of twelve different medical studies, combining their results to get a bigger picture of the MA problem. They said, "Within the low-risk group, there were some clear patterns of risk factors associated with MA use. A history of engaging in behaviors such as sexual activity, alcohol consumption and smoking was significantly associated with MA use among low-risk youth. Engaging in these kinds of behaviors may be a gateway for MA use or vice versa. A homosexual or bisexual lifestyle is also a risk factor."

Amongst high-risk youth, the risk factors the authors identified were, "growing up in an unstable family environment (e.g., family history of crime, alcohol use and drug use) and having received treatment for psychiatric conditions. Among high-risk youth, being female was also a risk factor".