Drug and alcohol dependence
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Apr 2014
Multicenter StudyAlcohol use disorders among surgical patients: unplanned 30-days readmissions, length of hospital stay, excessive costs and mortality.
Alcohol use disorders (AUD) have been associated with an increased risk of unplanned hospital readmissions (URA). We analyzed in a sample of 87 Spanish Hospitals if surgical patients with AUD had a higher risk of URA and if among patients with URA, those with AUD had an excess length of hospital stay, higher hospital expenses and increased risk of mortality. ⋯ Among surgical patients, AUD increase the risk of URA, and among patients with URA, AUD heighten the risk of in-hospital death, and cause longer hospital stays and over expenditures.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Apr 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialDoes beverage type and drinking context matter in an alcohol-related injury? Evidence from emergency department patients in Latin America.
Previous studies have already substantiated alcohol's causal role in injuries. Yet the role that alcoholic beverage preferences and the drinking context play in the risk for injury is still under-investigated. In this study, a cross-national comparison of the association between alcohol and injury focusing on beverage type preference and the drinking context is reported. ⋯ A similar beverage-specific association with alcohol-related injury was found across LAC countries, mainly attributed to beer consumption, and spirits drinkers seem to have a greater chance of becoming involved in injury events. Future prevention strategies should inform the public about harms from drinking associated with the context in which drinking takes place.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Apr 2014
The global epidemiology and burden of psychostimulant dependence: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010.
To estimate the global prevalence of cocaine and amphetamine dependence and the burden of disease attributable to these disorders. ⋯ Dependence upon psychostimulants is a substantial contributor to global disease burden; the contribution of cocaine and amphetamines to this burden varies dramatically by geographic region. There is a need to scale up evidence-based interventions to reduce this burden.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Mar 2014
Early adolescent patterns of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana polysubstance use and young adult substance use outcomes in a nationally representative sample.
Alcohol, tobacco and marijuana are the most commonly used drugs by adolescents in the U.S. However, little is known about the patterning of early adolescent substance use, and its implications for problematic involvement with substances in young adulthood. We examined patterns of substance use prior to age 16, and their associations with young adult substance use behaviors and substance use disorders in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents. ⋯ This research confirms the elevated prevalence and importance of polysubstance use behavior among adolescents prior to age 16, and puts early onset of alcohol, marijuana and cigarette use into the context of use patterns rather than single drug exposures.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Mar 2014
Using cannabis to help you sleep: heightened frequency of medical cannabis use among those with PTSD.
The use of cannabis for medical purposes is proliferating in the U.S., and PTSD is an explicitly approved condition for accessing medical cannabis in 5 states. Prior research suggests that people with PTSD often use cannabis to help cope with their condition, and that doing so results in more frequent and problematic cannabis use patterns. Specific coping motivations, such as sleep improvement, among medical cannabis users, have not been examined. ⋯ Consistent with prior research, this study found increased rates of coping-oriented use of cannabis and greater frequency of cannabis use among medical users with high PTSD scores compared with low PTSD scores. In addition, sleep improvement appears to be a primary motivator for coping-oriented use. Additional research is needed to examine the health consequences of this pattern of cannabis use and whether alternative sleep promoting interventions (e.g. CBT-I) could reduce the reliance on cannabis for adequate sleep among those with PTSD.