Considerable money and effort have been expended in attempts to prevent drug use by youth, with disappointing results. Too often, prevention programs have singled out youth with simplistic messages of exaggerated risk and the same politically acceptable solution for all-abstinence. Historically, prevention efforts have been less effective by not being soundly based in science and failing also t...

OBJECTIVE To identify whether drug abuse is a risk factor for potentially more harmful methods of suicide attempts that could predict suicide completion in the future. METHODS The study involved the assessment of 86 patients who attempted suicide and who were admitted to the emergency ward of a Southwestern Brazilian general hospital. RESULTS Most patients were women (84.9%), young adults (...

OBJECTIVE To identify robust predictors of drug dependence. METHODS This longitudinal study included 2361 male and female twins from an ongoing longitudinal study at the Center for Antisocial Drug Dependence (CADD) at the University of Colorado Boulder and Denver campuses. Twins were recruited for the CADD project while they were between the ages of 12 and 18. Participants in the current stud...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES There has been a limited focus on prescription drug abuse among women in the country. Choice of psychoactive substance, reasons for initiation and co-occurring disorders have been found to be different among men and women. The current study was aimed at studying the profile of female patients seeking in-patient treatment for prescription drug use over a period of five ye...

BACKGROUND The United States is experiencing an opioid overdose epidemic. Treatment use data from diverse racial/ethnic groups with opioid use disorder (OUD) are needed to inform treatment expansion efforts. METHODS We examined demographic characteristics and behavioral health of persons aged ≥12 years that met criteria for past-year OUD (n=6,125) in the 2005-2013 National Surveys on Drug Use...

South Africa has made observable and globally acknowledged successes in tobacco control. This paper examines a decade of the response to tobacco control policy in South Africa. It draws on previously published data and preliminary results from a recently conducted national survey of patterns and forms of tobacco products used in South Africa. Results suggest that smoking prevalence has decrease...

AIM In view of the potential effects of psychiatric drugs on DNA methylation, we investigated whether medication use in bipolar disorder is associated with DNA methylation signatures. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES Blood-based DNA methylation patterns of six frequently used psychotropic drugs (lithium, quetiapine, olanzapine, lamotrigine, carbamazepine, and valproic acid) were examined in 172 bipola...

DESCRIPTION Update of the 2008 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation on screening for illicit drug use. METHODS The USPSTF reviewed the evidence on interventions to help adolescents who have never used drugs to remain abstinent and interventions to help adolescents who are using drugs but do not meet criteria for a substance use disorder to reduce or stop their use. PO...