Alcohol and alcoholism : international journal of the Medical Council on Alcoholism
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effectiveness of nurse-practitioner-delivered brief motivational intervention for young adult alcohol and drug use in primary care in South Africa: a randomized clinical trial.
To assess the effectiveness of brief motivational intervention for alcohol and drug use in young adult primary care patients in a low-income population and country. ⋯ Brief Motivational Intervention may be effective at reducing at-risk alcohol use in the short term among low-income young adult primary care patients; additional research is needed to examine long-term outcomes.
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Observational Study
Quality of life depends on the drinking pattern in alcohol-dependent patients.
In patients with alcohol dependence, health-related quality of life (QOL) is reduced compared with that of a normal healthy population. The objective of the current analysis was to describe the evolution of health-related QOL in adults with alcohol dependence during a 24-month period after initial assessment for alcohol-related treatment in a routine practice setting, and its relation to drinking pattern which was evaluated across clusters based on the predominant pattern of alcohol use, set against the influence of baseline variables ⋯ Among individuals with alcohol dependence, a rapid improvement was seen in the mental dimension of QOL following treatment initiation, which was maintained during 24 months. Improvement was associated with the pattern of alcohol use, becoming close to the general population norm in patients classified as mostly abstainers, improving substantially in mostly moderate drinkers and improving only slightly in mostly heavy drinkers. The physical dimension of QOL was generally in the normal range but was not associated with drinking patterns.
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Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with fracture non-union. Canonical Wnt pathway signaling activity regulates normal fracture healing. We previously demonstrated that binge alcohol exposure modulates β-catenin levels in the fracture callus of mice. Here, we sought to determine whether exogenous enhancement β-catenin signaling activity could restore normal fracture healing to binge-exposed mice. ⋯ These data link alcohol-impaired fracture healing with deregulation of Canonical Wnt signaling activity in the fracture callus. Exogenous activation of the Wnt pathway using LiCl attenuated the damaging effects of binge alcohol exposure on the fracture healing process by modulating canonical Wnt signaling activity.