INTRODUCTION Cannabis use is strongly associated with the use and abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs. Gateway and common liabilities models have been employed to explain this relationship. We sought to examine this association using a combination of the discordant twin design and modeling methods. METHOD We assess the relationship between early cannabis use and the subsequent use and abu...

BACKGROUND Use of illicit drugs induces multiple nutrient deficiencies. Drug habit, sexual practice and socioeconomic factors influence the nutrient profile of drug dependent subjects. The literature on this issue is still insufficient. This study has tested the hypothesis that illicit drug use and lifestyle impair mineral status. To test this hypothesis, 253 men multiple drug users of age 18-4...

Drug use by people is on the rise and is of great interest to public health agencies and law enforcement agencies. As found by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 20 million Americans aged 12 years or older consumed illicit drugs in the past few 30 days. Given their ubiquity in everyday life, drug abuse related studies have received much and constant attention. However, most of the exis...

BACKGROUND Illicit drug use has become an increasing public health and social concern in the past decades worldwide. Intravenous injection has an elevated risk of infection. Needle embolism is a rare complication of intravenous drug users, Retained broken needles can lead to local complications, such as infection, but they also have the potential to embolize to heart or lung, and lead to seriou...

OBJECTIVE To identify emergency department patients who are ready to change their illicit drug use behavior. METHODS A cross-sectional study of 198 Emergency Department patients at least 18 years old, seeking emergency department services, using at least one illicit drug, and scoring positive for alcohol problem based on CAGE score ≥ 1. RESULTS Of the patients, 46% were "not ready" to chang...

BACKGROUND A number of studies indicate that 10.8%-34% of patients with chronic pain use illicit drugs. One hypothesis for this occurrence is that some patients may be supplementing their prescription medications with illicit drugs. OBJECTIVE The primary purpose of this retrospective data analysis was to test the hypothesis that people whose urine specimens are positive for the medications th...

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to determine the prevalence of drug use among institutionalized children and adolescents; to assess the degree of associated use of illicit drugs with alcohol and tobacco; and to determine which is the gateway drug to illicit drug use. METHODS A cross-sectional study was carried out in the Fundação Estadual do Bem-Estar do Menor, in Porto Alegre (FEBEM) Southern Bra...

OBJECTIVE Illicit drug and heavy alcohol use is more common among sexual minorities compared with heterosexuals. This difference has sometimes been attributed to more tolerant substance use norms within the gay community, although evidence is sparse. The current study investigated the role of perceived drug availability and tolerant injunctive norms in mediating the linkage between minority sex...

AIMS Limited data are available about whether rural-urban migration, often characterized by exposure to urban life stress and a reduction in social network and support, can affect the prevalence of illicit drug use and hazardous/harmful drinking. The purpose of our study was to examine the prevalence of these risky behaviours among Thai young adults and to describe their association between the...

OBJECTIVE Recent studies show an alarming rate of alcohol and drug use among university students. The objective of this study was to assess the level of association between lifestyle and socioeconomic status and the prevalence of alcohol, tobacco, medicine, and "illicit drug" use in the last 12 months among university students. METHODS The sample included 926 undergraduate students in the Bio...