OBJECTIVE Little is known about the epidemiology of substance use disorders (SUD) among psychiatric inpatients in the Western Cape, South Africa. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the prevalence of SUD among acute adult psychiatric inpatients at Stikland Hospital, one of three state acute psychiatric hospitals in the Western Cape. METHOD A prospective descriptive prevalence surve...

Substance abuse has become an increasingly devastating problem in this country and abroad during the last two decades. Huge amounts of time and money have been devoted to the treatment and eradication of this widespread problem. Increasing media attention, brought about by the premature deaths of celebrated athletes, has served to increase the public's awareness of the problem. Substance abuse ...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the incidence of physical and sexual abuse in a sample of adult and adolescent pregnant women and to determine the relationship between abuse and maternal complications and infant birth weight. METHODS One thousand eight hundred ninety-seven women were screened for abuse during pregnancy. Maternal complications and infant birth weight were obtained by record review. RE...

Neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse (broadly termed, child maltreatment) have profound and long-term effects on a child’s development. The long-term effects of chronic early maltreatment within a care-giving relationship (also called Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) of a child can be seen in higher rates of psychiatric disorders, increased rates of substance abuse, and a variety of...

Substance abuse is a major health and social problem among Hong Kong youth and ketamine is the drug most commonly abused. Ketamine abuse is associated with a series of side-effects that include hallucination, nausea, vomiting, elevation of blood pressure, and urinary bladder dysfunction. Here we report three cases of ketamine abuse in which the abusers presented with recurrent epigastric pain a...

This analysis reviewed five years of a state's substance abuse treatment admissions and discharges in order to identify specific patterns among persons who had a disability. Using a series of group comparisons, Chi-squares, and logistic regressions, specific patterns of violence and abuse to this population were identified. Results indicate that persons who had a disability and abused substance...

THE FACTS In 2013, more than 43,900 Americans died from drug overdose. Prescription drugs contributed to most of those deaths. Opioid pain relievers like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone were involved in more than 16,000 of those deaths (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). Approximately 46 Americans die every day from drug overdoses (Jones, Mack, & Paulozzi, 2013). Opi...

Practitioners who view intimate partner violence as a set of strategies aimed at maintaining positions of power and privilege often face an engagement dilemma when men at their first contact talk of themselves as disempowered by circumstances such as separation, loss of access to children, legal problems, substance abuse issues, and their own history of being abused. This paper explores how a l...

Alcohol (ethanol) has been reported to be the most harmful legal substance to individuals and societies [1], and one of the frequently abused agents worldwide [2]. Furthermore, alcohol drinking is frequently associated with many violations and crimes, such as drunken driving, violent fighting, sexual assaults, arson, and suicides or homicides [3]. Therefore, physiological research on alcohol me...