CAPE CORAL Gas leak closes portion of busy Cape Coral road Police are closing lanes along a busy road in Cape Coral due to a gas leak.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral man accused of raping 15-year-old The Cape Coral Police Department has arrested a man for the alleged rape of a 15-year-old.
fort myers beach Possible red tide appearing in SWFL may impact beachgoers Red tide, a harmful algae bloom that can infect people, animals, and ecosystems, has already begun to appear in Southwest Florida.
NAPLES Naples Water Department announces temporary change in water supply Some people might notice a change in their water beginning next week.
NAPLES Father drowns after trying to rescue 4-year-old son from pond in Collier County A man has drowned after chasing after a child who wandered into a pond at the Everly Apartments in Naples.
Tim Aten Knows: More changes coming to Mercato Tap 42 Craft Kitchen & Bar is shooting to open in the former space of AZN Azian Cuizine at the end of June or beginning of July.
WINK NEWS Honoring fallen soldiers at Memorial Day events across Southwest Florida Memorial Day, a day of remembrance for those who have died in the military, honors those who have served in the armed forces.
Celebrating the final Friday’s Furry Friends For the final Friday’s Furry Friends, WINK News reflects on the two years spent visiting the Gulf Coast Coast Human Society and the Collier County Domestic Animal Services.
WINK NEWS Survey: Florida ranks 3rd in lowest percentage of adult non-swimmers A recent poll by Poolonomics, which surveyed the country, found that Florida has the third-lowest percentage of adult non-swimmers.
THE WEATHER AUTHORITY Hot and mainly dry for your Friday plans The Weather Authority is tracking a hot and dry Friday in Southwest Florida with “feels like” temperatures ranging from 95 – 100°.
MARCO ISLAND Brown pelican found on Marco Beach with possible red tide poisoning A brown pelican was found on a Marco Island beach last week, showing signs of red tide toxicosis.
FORT MYERS Jeep flipped on its side after two-vehicle crash Authorities are responding to a car crash on Ortiz Avenue and Palm Beach Boulevard in Fort Myers.
The future of the Fort Myers Ferris wheel proposal Is the third time the charm? Downtown Fort Myers is buzzing over the idea of a new eye in the sky. On Thursday night, Steve Weathers gave his presentation on the proposed Ferris Wheel plan for the third time in a matter of months. Currently, nothing is set in stone. For the historic preservation committee, […]
LEE COUNTY SCHOOLS Lee County Schools approves new code of conduct The Lee County school board unanimously passed a new code of conduct on Thursday night, and there wasn’t any pushback, not even during public comment.
ALVA ‘I still feel like I’m under the water sometimes,’ Drowning survivor speaks out as community mourns A community mourns the death of three young men who died drowning in the Caloosahachee River on Saturday, May 18.
CAPE CORAL Gas leak closes portion of busy Cape Coral road Police are closing lanes along a busy road in Cape Coral due to a gas leak.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral man accused of raping 15-year-old The Cape Coral Police Department has arrested a man for the alleged rape of a 15-year-old.
fort myers beach Possible red tide appearing in SWFL may impact beachgoers Red tide, a harmful algae bloom that can infect people, animals, and ecosystems, has already begun to appear in Southwest Florida.
NAPLES Naples Water Department announces temporary change in water supply Some people might notice a change in their water beginning next week.
NAPLES Father drowns after trying to rescue 4-year-old son from pond in Collier County A man has drowned after chasing after a child who wandered into a pond at the Everly Apartments in Naples.
Tim Aten Knows: More changes coming to Mercato Tap 42 Craft Kitchen & Bar is shooting to open in the former space of AZN Azian Cuizine at the end of June or beginning of July.
WINK NEWS Honoring fallen soldiers at Memorial Day events across Southwest Florida Memorial Day, a day of remembrance for those who have died in the military, honors those who have served in the armed forces.
Celebrating the final Friday’s Furry Friends For the final Friday’s Furry Friends, WINK News reflects on the two years spent visiting the Gulf Coast Coast Human Society and the Collier County Domestic Animal Services.
WINK NEWS Survey: Florida ranks 3rd in lowest percentage of adult non-swimmers A recent poll by Poolonomics, which surveyed the country, found that Florida has the third-lowest percentage of adult non-swimmers.
THE WEATHER AUTHORITY Hot and mainly dry for your Friday plans The Weather Authority is tracking a hot and dry Friday in Southwest Florida with “feels like” temperatures ranging from 95 – 100°.
MARCO ISLAND Brown pelican found on Marco Beach with possible red tide poisoning A brown pelican was found on a Marco Island beach last week, showing signs of red tide toxicosis.
FORT MYERS Jeep flipped on its side after two-vehicle crash Authorities are responding to a car crash on Ortiz Avenue and Palm Beach Boulevard in Fort Myers.
The future of the Fort Myers Ferris wheel proposal Is the third time the charm? Downtown Fort Myers is buzzing over the idea of a new eye in the sky. On Thursday night, Steve Weathers gave his presentation on the proposed Ferris Wheel plan for the third time in a matter of months. Currently, nothing is set in stone. For the historic preservation committee, […]
LEE COUNTY SCHOOLS Lee County Schools approves new code of conduct The Lee County school board unanimously passed a new code of conduct on Thursday night, and there wasn’t any pushback, not even during public comment.
ALVA ‘I still feel like I’m under the water sometimes,’ Drowning survivor speaks out as community mourns A community mourns the death of three young men who died drowning in the Caloosahachee River on Saturday, May 18.
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.