Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · May 2012
Alcohol outlet density and intimate partner violence-related emergency department visits.
Previous research has identified risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV) severity, injury, and emergency department (ED) visits. These risk factors have been shown at both the individual level (heavy drinking and other substance use on the part of 1 or both partners) and the neighborhood level (residence in an area characterized by poverty and social disadvantage). Alcohol outlet density has been linked with assaultive violence in community settings, but has not been analyzed in relation to IPV-related ED visits. This study examined the effects of outlet densities on IPV-related ED visits throughout California between July 2005 and December 2008. ⋯ Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms by which environmental factors, such as alcohol outlet density, affect IPV behaviors resulting in ED visits.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · May 2012
Effects of the triple monoamine uptake inhibitor DOV 102,677 on alcohol-motivated responding and antidepressant activity in alcohol-preferring (P) rats.
Concurrent inhibitors of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin uptake have been proposed as novel antidepressants. Given the high comorbidity between alcoholism and depression, we evaluated the activity of DOV 102,677 (DOV) on alcohol-maintained responding and performance in the forced swim test (FST), a model of antidepressant (AD) activity, using alcohol-preferring (P) rats. ⋯ DOV produces both prolonged and selective reductions of alcohol-motivated behaviors in P rats. The elimination kinetics of DOV suggests that its long duration of action may be due to an active metabolite. DOV also produced robust AD-like effects in P rats. We propose that DOV may be useful in treating comorbid alcoholism and depression in humans.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Apr 2012
Hospitalized patients' acceptability of nurse-delivered screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment.
Inpatient healthcare providers in the United States may soon be required to offer alcohol screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) for hospital accreditation, but little is known about inpatient acceptability for SBIRT, particularly when performed by nonphysician providers such as nurses. The purpose of this study was to assess patient acceptability for and comfort with nurse-delivered SBIRT care among hospitalized patients and to identify factors associated with SBIRT acceptability. ⋯ Among hospitalized patients, patient acceptability for nurse-delivered SBIRT is high, and alcohol-related risk perceptions appear to be important factors associated with acceptability for SBIRT tasks. Providers can proceed with greater confidence in SBIRT-related discussions with most hospitalized patients but may need particular sensitivity and skill addressing alcohol with patient subgroups such as older patients and those with positive alcohol screenings.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Mar 2012
Alcohol increases the permeability of airway epithelial tight junctions in Beas-2B and NHBE cells.
Tight junctions form a continuous belt-like structure between cells and act to regulate paracellular signaling. Protein kinase C (PKC) has been shown to regulate tight junction assembly and disassembly and is activated by alcohol. Previous research has shown that alcohol increases the permeability of tight junctions in lung alveolar cells. However, little is known about alcohol's effect on tight junctions in epithelium of the conducting airways. We hypothesized that long-term alcohol exposure reduces zonula occluden-1 (ZO-1) and claudin-1 localization at the cell membrane and increases permeability through a PKC-dependent mechanism. ⋯ These results suggest that alcohol disrupts ZO-1, claudin-1, claudin-5, and claudin-7 through the activation of PKCα, leading to an alcohol-induced "leakiness" in bronchial epithelial cells. Such alcohol-induced airway-leak state likely contributes to the impaired airway host defenses associated with acute and chronic alcohol ingestion.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Mar 2012
Editorial CommentComment on the paper by Suffoletto et al. entitled: Text-message-based assessments and brief intervention for young adults discharged from the emergency department.
This commentary discusses the importance of the recent article by Suffoletto and colleagues (in press), from the perspective of the developing role that technology such as text-messaging is serving as a means of increasing the reach of brief interventions for harmful alcohol use. ⋯ Future adequately powered randomized studies are needed to show the comparative effect of new technologies, such as text-messaging, in comparison with more traditional methods of providing interventions in reducing harmful alcohol use.