Search

Background: Aspects of the canonical stress response differ in stimulant, opioid, and alcohol users relative to controls, and dysregulated responses to stress may contribute to continued use of these drugs. Little prior research has focused on stress responses in regular cannabis smokers. We assessed responses to a standardized laboratory social stress assay (the Trier Social Stress Task; TSST) in regular cannabis smokers (CANs) compared with controls (CONs). Methods: Healthy, non-treatment-seeking adult CANs (⩾4×/week; smoking cannabis as usual) and demographically matched CONs completed the TSST. Outcome measures were subjective mood, heart rate, and salivary cortisol. Results: Nineteen CANs (1 female) and 20 CONs (2 female) participated; groups were matched on trauma exposure, sex, race, and age. CANs smoked cannabis 6.4 ± 1.1 days/week. Eight CANs and one CON smoked tobacco cigarettes daily. Overall, the TSST produced expected increases in anxiety, negative mood states, cortisol, and heart rate. CANs had blunted subjective response to stress relative to CONs, but they did not differ in physiological (cortisol and cardiovascular) stress responding. Conclusion: These results indicate that CANs have blunted mood responses to social stress, but normative physiological stress responding. Observed differences could be due to residual effects of cannabis, reluctance to endorse negative mood states, or to issues related to identifying (i.e., emotional identification) or feeling (i.e., interoception) stress-related affective states. Further research is warranted to characterize the mechanisms of these differences and assess implications for daily functioning and treatment outcomes.

Rates of harmful alcohol use are high among justice-involved individuals and may contribute to violent recidivism. Robust treatments for alcohol-related violence in criminal justice systems are thus a public health priority. In this analysis of existing randomized controlled trial data ( N = 105), we examined the impact of a brief motivational intervention (BMI) for harmful substance use on violent recidivism among individuals in a pretrial jail diversion program. Results indicated that, after controlling for violence history, the intervention’s impact on violent recidivism was moderated by baseline harmful alcohol use. Specifically, among people with severe alcohol problems at baseline, the BMI + standard care group had less violent recidivism at a 1-year follow-up than participants randomized to standard care alone. This finding was unchanged when we accounted for psychopathic traits. Our study provides preliminary evidence that a BMI may be useful for decreasing violent recidivism among heavy drinkers in criminal justice systems.

A questionnaire was administered to 1565 adults to identify the prevalence of smoking and to assess respondents' attitudes toward smoking. Of men 41% were yearly smokers, 27.8% were monthly smokers and 21% were daily smokers. The corresponding figures for women were 3.4%, 2% and 0.6% respectively. Higher prevalence rates were observed among less educated, middle-aged men who were from underprivileged families. About 23% of men and 0.9% of women were monthly alcohol users. Alcohol use seems to be positively associated with smoking. A considerable portion of both smokers and non-smokers expressed a favorable attitude towards smoking habits of adult males (40.1% of smokers and 12.8% of non-smokers) and towards the tobacco industry (25.1% of smokers and 13.1 of non-smokers). Since the majority of people in Sri Lanka are non-smokers, attitudinal support given by them in promoting smoking in the society needs to be addressed effectively in smoking control interventions. Asia Pac J Public Health 2005: 17(1): 40-45.

Objective: This study tested a motivational intervention designed to enhance the likelihood that detoxified alcohol users will seek and participate in any form of aftercare. Method: After a baseline interview, 96 clients (76 men and 20 women) in a hospital inpatient detoxification unit were randomly assigned to either a standard care condition or a motivational interviewing condition, consisting of three motivational sessions conducted by master’s-level therapists. Results: Two months after discharge, participants in the motivational condition did not differ from controls in the areas of sustained abstinence, typical drinking, or entry into formal treatment. However, clients receiving motivational interviewing were more likely to participate in 12-step groups. Conclusions: Motivational interviewing is a potentially useful strategy to encourage detoxification clients to initiate participation in self-help and may show promise as a strategy for helping alcohol users remain abstinent during the critical initial period following discharge from detoxification.

There is growing evidence that a host of factors, commonly referred to as protective resources, can serve to mediate patterns of alcohol use commonly found in at-risk groups. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of two protective resources-(a) self-concept and (b) attitudes pertaining to the benefits of alcohol-to differentiate between self-reported alcohol users and nonusers in a sample of Hispanic junior high school students (N = 207). Generally, the results revealed that Hispanic adolescents with more positive self-concepts were less likely to use alcohol or to have friends who use alcohol. The number of benefits ascribed to alcohol was found to vary by grade level and to be positively linked with using alcohol or associating with peers who use alcohol. The importance of prevention and intervention programs at the junior high school level or earlier is discussed

An association between regular alcohol use and hypertension is firmly established. The clinical features of hypertensive patients who used alcohol frequently or heavily were compared with those of age and sex matched hypertensive patients who used alcohol only occasionally or never. Regular alcohol use was associated with milder hypertension, lower blood urea concentrations and fewer electrocardiographic abnormalities. However, there was no evidence that major vascular complications, including myocardial infarction, were less common in regular drinkers, perhaps because of their associated heavy cigarette smoking. Regular alcohol users were as likely to give a positive family history of hypertension, but were less likely to have an abnormal intravenous pyelogram. Heavy drinkers were twice as likely to default within one year.

This paper relates psychosocial correlates to prevention. Young native American heavy alcohol users (ages 12 to 16) were matched with non-users. Alcohol users did not have more emotional problems, did not experience less alienation, or did not feel less self-confident or less socially accepted than non-users, but did use other drugs and were more deviant. Alcohol users came more often from broken families, felt less family caring and had fewer family sanctions against substance use, had poorer school adjustment, had less hope for the future, and had friends encouraging alcohol and drug use. Prevention programs should start very early and should focus on increasing family strength, improving school adjustment, providing opportunities for the future, breaking up deviant peer clusters and building peer clusters that discourage alcohol and drug use.

The purpose of this analysis was to contrast the attitudes and patterns of drug use among marijuana and alcohol users and non-users at the University of South Carolina. More specifically, the incidence of drug use, the time of initial drug use, and the motivations for various types of use have been analyzed in this study.