Heavy Cape Coral police presence on Skyline Boulevard; one person hospitalizedNear-record heat with isolated rain this Thursday afternoon
cape coral Heavy Cape Coral police presence on Skyline Boulevard; one person hospitalized The Cape Coral Police Department is actively investigating a scene located on Skyline Boulevard.
the weather authority Near-record heat with isolated rain this Thursday afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking near-record heat this Thursday, along with isolated rain throughout the afternoon.
Lee County School District sets town hall meeting Spring schedule The Lee County School District has released its Spring town hall schedule, during which parents and community members can voice their opinions regarding their children’s education.
SANIBEL Sanibel teen gearing up to reopen popular food truck The Sanibel Sprout, a beloved local spot, is gearing up for a hopeful reopening in mid-March after two years of rebuilding.
FORT MYERS Man arrested for prowling and enticing a child in Fort Myers A concerned citizen flagged down Florida Highway Patrol state troopers in Fort Myers to report an adult man was harassing his daughter, according to authorities.
PORT CHARLOTTE Port Charlotte Girl Scout earns Gold Award for pet care project A Port Charlotte teenager has earned the prestigious Gold Girl Scout Award.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers couple’s love grows stronger despite Alzheimer’s diagnosis Jeff and Bunny Edwards of Fort Myers celebrated their 41st anniversary, showcasing a love that has grown stronger over the years.
BONITA SPRINGS Harry Chapin Food Bank volunteers deliver food and a smile Food distributions seem so simple but go a long way in changing people’s lives. In Southwest Florida, the need for food is everywhere.
NAPLES Naples man arrested for cocaine trafficking A Naples man is facing a narcotics trafficking charge after deputies say he pitched cocaine out of his vehicle while trying to elude deputies.
SANIBEL Sanibel’s new rangers educate cyclists on path rules and e-bike limits Sanibel is a popular destination for biking enthusiasts, especially during the busy winter season. With over 26 miles of paved paths, the island offers stunning scenery for cyclists.
Cape Coral residents voice concerns over rental noise and rule-breaking Cape Coral is once again buzzing with discussions on short-term rentals.
Exclusive: Collier County law enforcement using tech to fight traffic congestion Naples is turning to technology to tackle traffic troubles.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers charity loses donation pod after complaint from local realtor Doug Miller and Amy Eldridge watched as their storage pod was towed away, marking the end of an era for their charitable efforts.
dunbar Dunbar’s Southward Village set for affordable housing transformation Southward Village is set to become a new hub for affordable housing as companies prepare to build on the now-empty site.
BABCOCK RANCH Babcock Ranch showcases cutting-edge robot in home construction Neighbors, friends, and students gathered Wednesday morning to witness a groundbreaking event in their community.
cape coral Heavy Cape Coral police presence on Skyline Boulevard; one person hospitalized The Cape Coral Police Department is actively investigating a scene located on Skyline Boulevard.
the weather authority Near-record heat with isolated rain this Thursday afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking near-record heat this Thursday, along with isolated rain throughout the afternoon.
Lee County School District sets town hall meeting Spring schedule The Lee County School District has released its Spring town hall schedule, during which parents and community members can voice their opinions regarding their children’s education.
SANIBEL Sanibel teen gearing up to reopen popular food truck The Sanibel Sprout, a beloved local spot, is gearing up for a hopeful reopening in mid-March after two years of rebuilding.
FORT MYERS Man arrested for prowling and enticing a child in Fort Myers A concerned citizen flagged down Florida Highway Patrol state troopers in Fort Myers to report an adult man was harassing his daughter, according to authorities.
PORT CHARLOTTE Port Charlotte Girl Scout earns Gold Award for pet care project A Port Charlotte teenager has earned the prestigious Gold Girl Scout Award.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers couple’s love grows stronger despite Alzheimer’s diagnosis Jeff and Bunny Edwards of Fort Myers celebrated their 41st anniversary, showcasing a love that has grown stronger over the years.
BONITA SPRINGS Harry Chapin Food Bank volunteers deliver food and a smile Food distributions seem so simple but go a long way in changing people’s lives. In Southwest Florida, the need for food is everywhere.
NAPLES Naples man arrested for cocaine trafficking A Naples man is facing a narcotics trafficking charge after deputies say he pitched cocaine out of his vehicle while trying to elude deputies.
SANIBEL Sanibel’s new rangers educate cyclists on path rules and e-bike limits Sanibel is a popular destination for biking enthusiasts, especially during the busy winter season. With over 26 miles of paved paths, the island offers stunning scenery for cyclists.
Cape Coral residents voice concerns over rental noise and rule-breaking Cape Coral is once again buzzing with discussions on short-term rentals.
Exclusive: Collier County law enforcement using tech to fight traffic congestion Naples is turning to technology to tackle traffic troubles.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers charity loses donation pod after complaint from local realtor Doug Miller and Amy Eldridge watched as their storage pod was towed away, marking the end of an era for their charitable efforts.
dunbar Dunbar’s Southward Village set for affordable housing transformation Southward Village is set to become a new hub for affordable housing as companies prepare to build on the now-empty site.
BABCOCK RANCH Babcock Ranch showcases cutting-edge robot in home construction Neighbors, friends, and students gathered Wednesday morning to witness a groundbreaking event in their community.
Ketamine may treat harmful drinking behavior. (Credit: CNN) A single dose of ketamine may be able to curb harmful drinking behavior by “rewriting drinking memories,” according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. The researchers say that, when coupled with an exercise involving beer that pulls memories of alcohol to the foreground, there’s evidence that the drug can disrupt how the brain associates these cues — like the smell or taste of beer — to its perceived “reward,” making relapse less likely. “It’s those kinds of associations that we’re trying to break down,” explained study author Ravi Das, an associate professor at University College London who specializes in psychopharmacology. “We’re not talking about people’s explicit recollection of the fact that they drank in the past.” Ketamine is a powerful medication used in hospitals primarily as an anesthetic, though it has also been used illegally as a club drug, often referred to as Special K. It generates an intense high and dissociative effects. “It’s an intriguing approach that builds on existing literature in a couple of areas,” said Dr. Henry Kranzler, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study. Earlier studies have explored ketamine for alcohol, cocaine and opioid addiction — but many had small sample sizes, limited follow-up and lack of placebo, according to experts. Das said it’s also difficult to blind participants to whether they’ve received ketamine or a placebo because of its “strong effects.” Other research has shown the drug’s potential to counter depression and suicidal ideation. In March, a close relative of ketamine — called esketamine and sold under the name Spravato in the form of a nasal spray — was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for treatment-resistant depression. The new study recruited 90 “beer-preferring” people with potentially harmful drinking patterns from internet ads and separated them into groups: those who underwent an exercise involving alcohol-related cues and received intravenous ketamine in a controlled environment; those who completed the exercise but received a placebo; and those who received ketamine alone. While the authors said participants “showed a clearly harmful and problematic pattern of drinking,” they were not seeking treatment for an alcohol use disorder and had not been formally diagnosed with such. But there was some heterogeneity between the groups. While the first group reduced their drinking to the largest degree, they also happened to drink more to begin with — “and therefore their consumption was more likely to decline, a phenomenon known as regression to the mean,” explained Matt Field, a professor of psychology at the University of Sheffield in the UK, in an emailed statement. After the treatment, there wasn’t a significant difference between the three groups in terms of how much alcohol they drank. Nine months later, average weekly consumption was roughly the same across the board. The authors say this may have been influenced by losing participants to follow-up. Field said the findings are “promising,” but the claim that the full treatment protocol “leads to ‘unprecedented’ long-lasting reductions in alcohol consumption are not justified on the basis of this data.” Das pointed out other layers to the data, however: Those who completed the exercise and received ketamine had less desire to drink, and they drank less frequently. In addition, there was a correlation among that group between concentrations of ketamine and its breakdown products in the blood, and the reduction in how much participants drank. “People all vary in how quickly they metabolize” and excrete ketamine and its byproducts, Das said. “That level of individual variability with ketamine actually predicts drinking outcomes subsequently.” The group that received ketamine alone saw improvements, too, but not to the same degree as those presented with alcohol-related cues, according to the authors. Kranzler said the study is an intriguiguing proof-of-principle that he suspects will spur subsequent studies needed to replicated these findings. But an important question, he added, “is to what degree could combined psychosocial intervention — cognitive behavioral intervention, for example — synergize with or at least augment the pharmacological effect” of ketamine. “That’s the kind of treatment study that I think would make a lot of sense,” he added. “So this wouldn’t be used in isolation.” The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.