Substance use & misuse
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One hundred fifty-eight drug users received an interview that included self-reported drug use. Opiate/cocaine use in the prior 48 hours was assessed by urinalysis. ⋯ The rate of agreement was 58% when the urine test was performed after the interview and 93% when performed before the interview (chi2 = 28.6, p < .001). Conducting urine tests before an interview can increase the accuracy of self-reports.
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Syringe exchange in Germany is clearly linked to a recent shift of local responses to drug-use(r) associated problem. Since the end of the 1980s, metropolitan communities in Northern and Central Germany-concerned by the emergence of "Open Drug Scenes," increasing HIV and mortality rates among drug users, and drug-use-related property crime-began to favor measures of survival-oriented drug-user help. While the Federal Government still favors repression and law enforcement efforts, they nevertheless made syringe exchange explicitly legal in 1992-some 5 years after the creation of local Syringe Exchange Programs. ⋯ Another major problem continues to be the drug-use situation in prisons. Although injection drug use is common in prisons, injection equipment is not legally available for the 10,000 injecting drug users imprisoned at any given time. Two of Germany's 220 prisons started an experimental syringe exchange in 1996.
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Substance use & misuse · Sep 1997
ReviewThe most important unresolved issue in the addictions: conceptual chaos.
This article suggests that the field of addiction study and treatment remains in a state of conceptual chaos. The addictions is an emerging scientific field that lacks conceptual clarity. To develop the precision necessary for scientific advance, we must begin by developing improved definitions of substance use, abuse, dependence, and addiction. ⋯ The neurobiology of subjective experience may be a more important factor in helping to explain addictive behaviors. Consequently, this article concludes that it is improper to consider drugs as the necessary precondition for addiction. Better operational definitions will advance addictions research.
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Substance use & misuse · Aug 1997
Comparative StudyDifferential perceptions of drinkers of alcoholic beverages by Mexican-Americans and non-Hispanic whites.
Random samples of 534 Mexican-Americans and 616 non-Hispanic Whites were interviewed over the telephone in San José, California and in San Antonio, Texas. Mexican-Americans tended to favor most frequently negative traits for their perceptions of drinkers than non-Hispanic Whites. Excessive drinkers were perceived most frequently in generally negative fashion by members of both ethnic groups although they were also perceived as happy persons. Highly acculturated Mexican-Americans reported perceptions of drinkers and of excessive drinkers that differed from those held by the less acculturated Mexican-Americans and that resembled those held by the non-Hispanic White respondents.
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Substance use & misuse · Jan 1997
Clinical TrialA five-factor model of personality and addiction, psychiatric, and AIDS risk severity in pregnant and postpartum cocaine misusers.
The relationship between addiction severity, psychiatric symptoms, AIDS risk behaviors, and an alternative five-factor measure of personality, the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire, was assessed in 92 cocaine-misusing pregnant and postpartum women in an inner city outpatient treatment program. Three of the personality traits (Neuroticism-Anxiety, Impulsive Sensation Seeking, Aggression-Hostility) were significantly related to different subscales of the Addiction Severity Index, Beck Depression Inventory, various psychiatric symptoms, and high HIV risk sexual activity. Of these traits, Neuroticism-Anxiety seemed to be the most powerful predictor of symptom severity for this sample of women. Scores on the personality dimensions were not related to recency, frequency, amount, or duration of drug use or to treatment outcomes.