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The fundamental right to equivalence of health care in prison settings encompasses the provision of medication to address mental health conditions. Considering the increased risk for self-harm among individuals dealing with depression, the limited effectiveness of conservative antidepressants is a major challenge in psychiatry. The high prevalence of suicidal tendencies within prison populations underscores the imperative for state-of-the-art pharmacological treatment to uphold adequate health care standards. Notably, the denial of access to effective medication could be deemed a violation of human rights of people living in prison according to international treaties, domestic law, and United Nations normative standards of detention. This article presents the authors' perspective on the accessibility of ketamine treatment in prison settings, discussing psychiatric and legal considerations as well as current challenges in this context. Implementing novel psychopharmacological interventions may alleviate the distress experienced by individuals struggling with depressive symptoms and suicidality. At the same time, unprecedented treatment alternatives bring along potential issues, including limited understanding of long-term effects and the risk of abuse. Given the scarce data-availability, a pressing need exists for further research on the benefits and risks of ketamine treatment within prison populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The World Health Organisation's (WHO) key population-based strategy for ending the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic is universal HIV test and treat (UTT) along with pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). Despite the successful scale-up of the UTT strategy in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the quality of life (QoL) of people living with HIV (PLHIV) remains sub-optimal. Poor QoL in PLHIV may threaten the UNAIDS 95-95-95 programme targets. Monitoring QoL of PLHIV has become a key focus of HIV research among other outcomes so as to understand health-related QoL (HRQoL) profiles and identify interventions to improve programme performance. This study aimed to describe HRQoL profiles and identify their predictors in PLHIV in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Methods: We conducted a secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional survey conducted between May and June 2022 among PLHIV (n = 105) accessing HIV services at an outpatient clinic in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Socio-demographic, HRQoL (EQ-5D-5L index scores), clinical data, depressive symptoms (CES-D-10), and viral load data were collected from all participants. We examined predictors of HRQoL using generalised linear models controlling for age and sex. Results: The mean age of the participants was 45 years (SD = 13). The proportion of participants with disabilities and comorbidities were 3% and 18%, respectively. Depressive symptoms were present in 49% of the participants. Participant's mean EQ-5D-5L index score was 0.87 (SD = 0.21) and ranged from 0.11 to 1.0. The mean general health state (EQ-VAS) was 74.7 (SD = 18.8) and ranged from 6 to 100. Factors that reduced HRQoL were disability (β = −0.607, p ≤ 0.001), comorbidities (β = − 0.23, p ≤ 0.05), presence of depressive symptoms (β = −0.10, p ≤ 0.05), and old age (β = −0.04, p ≤ 0.05). Factors that increased HRQoL were a good perceived health state (β = 0.147, p ≤ 0.001) and availability of social support (β = 0.098, p ≤ 0.05). Conclusion: A combination of old age (60 years and above), any disability and comorbidities had a considerable effect on HRQoL among PLHIV. Our findings support the recommendation for an additional fourth UNAIDS target that should focus on ensuring that 95% of PLHIV have the highest possible HRQoL. Psycho-social support interventions are recommended to improve the HRQoL of PLHIV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that social norms interventions, which aim to educate individuals and groups on their actual attitudinal and behavioural norms relating to alcohol, cigarette and drug use,incur some success in reducing positive attitudes to substance use and rates of substance use. The research aimed to investigate the extent of misperceptions relating to peer substance-taking attitudes and behaviours amongst a sample of school aged youth (n = 80), and was undertaken as a pre development study to a large scale social norms initiative in Irish schools. The study found evidence for the existence of misperceptions relating to cigarette, alcohol or illicit drug use, with no significant differences pertaining to gender and school type. Attitudes to, and self reported cigarette and illicit drug use, tended to be more conservative. Statistically significant differences were found between participants self usage and peer usage of cigarettes, alcohol, cannabis and other illicit drug usage in the past 30 days. A statistically significant main effect for self reported cannabis use and school type was found. Findings were used to guide the development of a culturally appropriate targeted social norms intervention. (Contains 5 tables.)

Research Aim: This research aimed to provide an anecdotal perception of student substance use according to the teachers' personal experience in the Irish secondary level educational setting. Methodology: Sampling Interviews were conducted with teachers (n=95) at 10 randomly selected schools in County Carlow in the South East of Ireland, as part of a doctoral research programme assessing youth substance use in the South Eastern Region. The school type included vocational, secondary in disadvantaged area, secondary in non- disadvantaged area, youth training centre, private school and both mixed/single sex schools. A letter from the researcher and a follow up phone call to each research site initiated contact with the school principal and explained briefly the nature and purpose of the research. Teachers from all grades were randomly sampled at each school after informed consent was gained. Research Design: The research emphasis was to access the views, perspectives and concerns of teachers and their experience of substance use and its impact in the classroom. Ethical approval of the interview basis was granted by the Ethics and Research Sub Group of Waterford Institute of Technology. The interview schema was piloted on a small sample of teachers in another region not partaking in this study. The interview contained questions regarding experience of substance abuse within the school setting, knowledge and recognition of substance use in students, awareness of school drug and alcohol policy, attitude toward substance misuse and drug education, awareness of drug availability in the area and knowledge of drug related services in their area. All interviews were coded to ensure confidentiality and participants gave permission for audio recording. The interviews took place in open plan areas and in the presence of an independent colleague. All interviews were transcribed. The themes analysis of interviews reported on the issues surrounding student substance use that arose for teachers, but also aimed to identify areas of similar and contrasting opinions. As such themes arose, the interviewee was encouraged to expand in a: "lengthy conversation piece" (Simons, 1982, p. 37). Data Analysis: Zemke and Kramlinger's (1985) thematic analysis procedures were adopted and consisted of generating "a list of key ideas, words, phrases, and verbatim quotes; using ideas to formulate categories and placing ideas and quotes in appropriate categories; and examining the contents of each category for subtopics and selecting the most frequent and most useful illustrations for the various categories" (Anderson, 2003). Conclusion: It was reported that the drug education in schools was "haphazard, dissimilar and rather hit and miss" with not every class receiving drug education, others as part of religious education and Social Personal Health Education and the remainder being visited by the local drug education officer, a former addict or juvenile liaison officer. Teachers highlighted the need for information and teacher specific training in order to recognize the warning signs of adolescent problematic substance use, as many felt this social problem was impacting on their classroom and the academic performance of some students. Some teachers also reported not feeling comfortable with the delivery of drug educational material within their class time due to lack of appropriate training and lack of available time in their curriculum, in addition to feeling that this was not compatible with their role as educator.