Schizophrenia is currently conceptualized as an illness that is caused by both genetic predispositions and exposure to stressors or environmental factors, particularly during early childhood and adolescence. This article focuses on one such environmental factor, cannabis use, especially use occurring prior to the onset of clinically evident psychiatric symptoms. Cannabis is commonly abused by a...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to determine, in the context of a hospital addiction unit, which benzodiazepines were abused and to look for correlations with the characteristics of detoxified patients. METHODS A retrospective study was carried out using the database of hospital admissions to the addiction unit for detoxification from 2003 to 2010. RESULTS Of 879 admissions to the ...

OBJECTIVE The present study examined whether physical abuse functions as an additional risk factor for adolescent psychopathology after other important known risk factors are controlled for. METHOD The authors recruited 99 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years directly from the New York State Department of Social Services after official documentation of physical abuse. The abused adolescents were c...

Advocacy intervention has been shown to be efficacious at reducing depressive symptoms in women who suffer from intimate partner violence (IPV). However, the intervention effect among abused immigrant women has not been well studied. This study compares the demographic and psychosocial characteristics between abused immigrant and nonimmigrant women, and evaluates the impact of immigration statu...

Child abuse and neglect affect the development of social cognition in children and inhibit social adjustment. The purpose of this study was to compare the ability to identify the emotional states of others between abused and non-abused children. The participants, 129 children (44 abused and 85 non-abused children), completed a children's version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). ...

Steroid abuse is a growing problem among amateur and professional athletes. Because of an inundation of newly and illegally synthesized steroids with minor structural modifications and other designer steroid receptor modulators, there is a need to develop new methods of detection which do not require prior knowledge of the abused steroid structure. The number of designer steroids currently bei...

DRUG abuse is a very serious problem. Because of man's search for new and different ways of inducing pleasurable feelings, the number of available pharmaceuticals has grown exponentially during the last few decades, as has societal use and dependence on medicines. Clearly, increased use has led to frequent abuse. Physicians should be aware of the many facets of drug abuse. It is now clear that ...

To evaluate the role of physical and/or sexual abuse on chronic pain symptoms and health care utilization in women, 104 consecutive female patients presenting to a multidisciplinary pain center for management of chronic pain were surveyed. Outcomes included a measure of sexual or physical abuse history (Drossman Sexual-Physical Abuse Survey), and measures of anxiety, health care utilization, su...