TO THE EDITOR—We read with interest the recent review by Napierala Mavedzenge et al [1], which highlights human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) self-testing as a possible approach to increase HIV testing and contribute toward universal access to treatment and care. Widespread support among potential end users, across multiple settings, is a factor favoring uptake of HIV self-testing. In a recent s...

BACKGROUND Non-medical/illegal use of prescription stimulants popularly have been referred to as "study drugs". This paper discusses the current prevalence and consequences of misuse of these drugs and implications of this information for drug policy. RESULTS Study drugs are being misused annually by approximately 4% of older teens and emerging adults. Yet, there are numerous consequences of ...

BACKGROUND Suboptimal diet and physical inactivity are prevalent, co-occurring chronic disease risk factors, yet little is known about how to maximize multiple risk behavior change. Make Better Choices, a randomized controlled trial, tests competing hypotheses about the optimal way to promote healthy change in four bundled risk behaviors: high saturated fat intake, low fruit and vegetable intak...

BACKGROUND Research grounded in behavioral economics has previously linked addictive behavior to disrupted decision-making and reward-processing, but these principles have not been examined in prescription opioid addiction, which is currently a major public health problem. This study examined whether pre-treatment drug reinforcement value predicted opioid use during outpatient treatment of pres...

BACKGROUND Substance use-related communication for drug use promotion and its prevention is widely prevalent on social media. Social media big data involve naturally occurring communication phenomena that are observable through social media platforms, which can be used in computational or scalable solutions to generate data-driven inferences. Despite the promising potential to utilize social me...

The pharmaceuticalisation of sleep is a contentious issue. Sleep medicines get a 'bad press' due to their potential for dependence and other side effects, including studies reporting increased mortality risks for long-term users. Yet relatively little qualitative social science research has been conducted into how people understand and negotiate their use/non-use of sleep medicines in the conte...

Two developments pose dilemmas for well established discounting techniques: (1) The extremely long time horizons associated with recently prominent environmental policy problems, such as climate change and nuclear waste storage, have made it important to take seriously both benefits to future generations and extreme uncertainties in projecting the returns to policies and future well being. (2) ...

OBJECTIVE The main objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude among Pharmacy students of the University of Prishtina in regards to the antibiotics. METHODS 144 pharmacy students at the University of Prishtina were recruited in this study to complete a self-administered questionnaire. The total number of questions in this questionnaire was eight (8), covering two (2) majo...

PURPOSE To describe ethnic/racial group differences in prescription drug misuse within a nationally representative sample of US adolescents. Also to identify potential sociocultural influences on this health risk behavior. METHODS A secondary data analysis was conducted on the public-use data of the 2010 National Survey of Drug Use and Health using the records of 12- to 17-year-old African Am...