Search

Background Alcohol consumption patterns on the U.S.-Mexico border and their relationships with DSM-5 alcohol use disorders ( AUD) have been understudied. Yet, the effects of drinking by Mexican-origin individuals may differ between cities on versus off the border both in the United States and in Mexico. We characterize prior 12-month drinking patterns and examine their relationships with AUD, in border and off-border cities of Texas and adjacent Mexican states. Methods Data come from the U.S.-Mexico Study of Alcohol and Related Conditions involving 2,336 Mexican Americans in Texas and 2,460 Mexicans in bordering states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas in Mexico. Drinking pattern was defined as an interaction between volume and maximum amount, or intensity (never vs. ever 5+/4+ [men/women], 8+, and 12+ drinks in a day). DSM-5 AUD was assessed using an adaptation of the Alcohol Section of the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview core. Separately by gender, 5 logistic regressions models controlling for age were estimated predicting symptoms in 2 or more AUD criteria domains from volume, heavy pattern and, successively, effects of country, and (by country) residing on vs. off the border, or in each of 3 cities/country. Results A segmentation analysis for Texas males based on rate of experiencing AUD generated several distinct volume groups, each partitioned by an empirically selected maximum, and helped identify a drinking-pattern typology. In gender-stratified models of AUD rates using this typology, adjusting for age, significant volume and intensity effects were seen, more strongly in the United States. Border versus interior differences implied more AUD for given patterns at the border in the United States and the reverse in Mexico, with some city differences also evident. Conclusions Drinking-pattern analyses confirm that border proximity may affect drinking problems but in opposite directions in the United States and Mexico, possibly related to economic and psychological stresses specific to respective communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The percentage of alcohol dependents who attend self-help groups increased from 33.4% in 2008 to 43.7% in 2011 according to the National Surveys of Addictions. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and their Twelve Steps program represent the main model for self-help in Mexico. The 12th Step or carrying the message is a common strategy to attract new members into AA groups and it is done frequently at hospital wards. Objective To describe the activity of carrying the message in a hospital context in order to identify the meanings involved and how AA members relate to the patients. Method An ethnographic approach was used to observe the activity of nine AA's members in a third level hospital in Mexico City over a ten-month period. The activity system model was used for data organization and interpretation. Results The carrying the message activity consists of six core moments: 1. Self-introduction of the recovering alcoholic; 2. Defining alcoholism as an incurable disease; 3. AA's Twelve Steps as an alternative; 4. Self-diagnosis; 5. Ask about consumption; 6. Invitation to hospital AA's group meetings. The AA's member uses personal experience's stories to convey AA vision about alcoholism and recovering. Discussion and conclusion The carrying the message activity is mainly oriented by the meaning of alcoholism-denial. The AA's actions are designed to avoid denial and to promote disease acceptance. Furthermore, the hospital setting itself legitimizes the AA presence and their Twelve Steps. Carrying the message presents a strategy to diminish stigma related to alcohol dependency which is one of the main obstacles for seeking help. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two years ago, the Governor of the Mexican State of Puebla declared that his State was fully covered by health services, which is not true. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Mexican Constitution, health is one of the most important human rights for every citizen. However, according to our statistics, many indigenous communities of that State are still waiting for those services, even though the budget designated for that purpose has been incremented ten times in the last seven years. Since I have been working for years in the highlands of the northern part of the State, 1 will prove that medical services are not covering the total population, which means that the future survival of these people is rather grim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION Smoking and alcohol use (beyond social norms) by health sciences students are behaviors contradictory to the social function they will perform as health promoters in their eventual professions. OBJECTIVE Identify prevalence of tobacco and alcohol use in health sciences students in Mexico and Cuba, in order to support educational interventions to promote healthy lifestyles and development of professional competencies to help reduce the harmful impact of these legal drugs in both countries. METHODS A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using quantitative and qualitative techniques. Data were collected from health sciences students on a voluntary basis in both countries using the same anonymous self-administered questionnaire, followed by an in-depth interview. RESULTS Prevalence of tobacco use was 56.4% among Mexican students and 37% among Cuban. It was higher among men in both cases, but substantial levels were observed in women as well. The majority of both groups were regularly exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. Prevalence of alcohol use was 76.9% in Mexican students, among whom 44.4% were classified as at-risk users. Prevalence of alcohol use in Cuban students was 74.1%, with 3.7% classified as at risk. CONCLUSIONS The high prevalence of tobacco and alcohol use in these health sciences students is cause for concern, with consequences not only for their individual health, but also for their professional effectiveness in helping reduce these drugs' impact in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol dependence is a major global problem, associated with lower quality of physical and mental health, higher mortality and an enormous familial and social cost. Prevention strategies and treatment of this condition are therefore crucial. Success of psychosocial programs and pharmacological treatments has been frequently reported, but a better understanding of the etiology of this chronic disease is needed. For this purpose, the identification of associated factors in different populations is of great significance. It has been clearly demonstrated by twin and adoption studies and supported by animal models that both genetic and environmental components play a substancial role in alcohol dependence. Heritability estimates range from 40 to 60%, depending on the specific analyzed sample. Several coexisting genetic variants in each affected individual, rather than a single gene transmitted in a Mendelian manner, may be the rule in alcohol dependence. Similarly, many environmental factors can increase susceptibility, and because of their diversity, they do not have to be the same in every affected person. Environmental contribution may be linked to epigenetics, which refers to chemical processes that can modify gene activity without changing the sequence of DNA. In humans, the most stable epigenetic process is the union of a methyl group (one carbon atom surrounded by three hydrogen atoms) to cytosines in DNA. Other epigenetic mechanisms are modifications to nuclear proteins called histones, which alter the way DNA is packed. Moreover, non-protein coding RNAs such as microRNAs have been associated with the development of alcohol dependence. MicroRNAs could work as epigenetic intermediaries that allow ethanol to affect complex and divergent developmental mechanisms, which is added to the effect of DNA methylation, histone acetylation, and other epigenetic modifications. Most reasearch points to an association between alcohol dependence and genes related with alcohol metabolism, with neurotransmission of dopamine, GABA, serotonin, glutamate, endogenous opioids, and cannabinoids, signal transduction within the mesolimbic dopamine reward system, and stress response system, among others. During pregnancy, there are several non-genetic factors that may have an important impact on vulnerability to alcohol dependence. Given that the Central Nervous System is developing throughout the entire pregnancy and that alcohol consumed by the mother can reach the fetus through the placental barrier, the brain of a baby is always vulnerable to harm caused by alcohol exposure. Children born to alcoholic mothers may inherit genetic susceptibility variants but at the same time they may be exposed to early effects of ethanol. Heavy alcohol exposure during pregnancy has been associated with mental retardation, epilepsy, attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, and later on with substance abuse, anxiety, personality, affective and psychotic disorders, as well as with engagement in antisocial behaviors and school or work problems. Furthermore, it has been shown that animals exposed to prenatal stress exhibit persisting modifications related to dopamine and glutamate transmission in limbic structures associated with dependence to alcohol and other substances. These alterations may later contribute to increase motivation to drink, to use large amounts of drugs of abuse or to relapse after periods of drug withdrawal. It was shown that after exposure to prenatal stress, male mice consumed more ethanol during alcohol reinforcement in adulthood. In addition, it has been well documented that affective disorders are associated with alcohol dependence. A recent meta-analysis including 54 studies that together involved more than 40749 individuals, confirmed that the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism at the promoter of the serotonin transporter gene moderates the association between stress and depression, where the short allele is related with an increased risk for depression under stress (p = 0.00002). A strong association was detected when the stressful factor was childhood maltreatment (p=0.00007). Childhood maltreatment, including neglect as well as physical and sexual abuse, is associated with developmental difficulties, low social competence and self-esteem, and it is an important risk factor for binge drinking in adolescence and alcohol dependence in adulthood. Childhood maltreatment may interact with factors such as variants of the monoamine oxidase-A and catechol-omethyltransferase gene. Adolescence is a critical period for initiation of alcohol intake, experimentation, and establishment of regular drinking patterns. Substance use at this age is considered a risk factor for the development of later alcohol and other drug-related problems, as well as for externalizing disorders such as antisocial personality disorder. Alcohol use initiation is affected by environmental factors such as ethanol availability, parental attitudes, and peer pressure. It has been reported that heavy drinking during adolescence can have a negative impact on brain development. Moreover, dopaminergic and GABAergic systems undergo important changes during adolescence, and they can be affected by alcohol intake. Dopamine is implicated in the rewarding effects of ethanol, and GABA in its sedating effects and development of tolerance. The way an adult copes with environmental challenges is notably influenced by early life experiences and by the familial environment he or she had as an infant, which affects neurodevelopmental behavior. While environmental factors tend to have a crucial role in drinking habits in adolescence, adultood may be characterized by a weaker effect of environment and a higher effect of genetic components. It is probable that a complex set of gene-environment interactions determine the risk to alcohol dependence. Environmental factors that may affect this vulnerability appear at different stages from pregnancy to adulthood. These interactions are mediated by DNA methylation, histone modifications, protein complexes and nonprotein- coding RNAs such as microRNAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Obsessive thoughts and compulsive drinking behaviors have been proposed as key factors associated with the loss of control over alcohol consumption experienced by alcohol-dependent patients. The self-report 14-item Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS; Anton et al., 1995 ) was designed in order to rate these features. Methods: A Spanish-translated version of the OCDS was applied to a group of 159 alcohol-dependent subjects while in abstinence, and data were analyzed in order to evaluate the factor structure and concurrent validity of the scale. Results: Several solutions were explored after applying the principal factor analysis to the data. The most plausible result was obtained after excluding the items on quantity and frequency of drinking. This model explaining 56.9% of the variance included 2 factors: obsessive thoughts related to drinking and interference/behaviors related to drinking. Additionally, OCDS scores were significantly correlated with measures for the Alcohol Dependence Scale, number of DSM-IV criteria met for alcohol dependence as well as the number of days in a week engaged in heavy drinking, indicating concurrent validity. Conclusions: Our results support the use of OCDS as a valid self-rated instrument that can be broadly applied in research and treatment settings. However, its current version includes questions that may not represent the core concept of craving. The abridged 12-item version of the scale (excluding the items on drinking habits) maintains good psychometrics features and seems to be adequate when different cognitive and behavioral dimensions are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamic and scope of the consumption of alcoholic beverages, in Mexico, have been known by household surveys, since the last third of the last century. Nowadays those surveys describe alcohol use as one of the main public health tasks nationwide, due not only to its consequences but also to the damage on the different areas of individual's everyday life. A number of indicators have been highlighted by the first survey on 1988, such as teetotalism rates, the alcohol consumers proportion, age of first use, and problems associated with alcohol consumption. As a public health problem, alcohol consumption represents high costs to health institutions because of the problems related to the consumption. So, it requires undertaking certain actions that would be deal with this problem on primary and structural attention, as well as in the individual susceptibility as prevention, or attention levels, diagnosis and treatment. All actions to face this problem are practically impossible in the absence of instruments to establish differential diagnosis between heavy drinking and alcohol dependence. Along the study of alcoholism, have been distinguished two issues to establish differential diagnosis. First is a traditional version of dependence diagnosis by DSM criterions, defined as disadaptative pattern of alcohol consumption that produces significant malaise, expressed trough one year long. The second diagnosis issue quantifies the individual differences of physical, psychological and social damage degrees, caused by the alcohol consumption. From this, appears the motion of Multiple Alcoholism Syndrome. From this last point of view, The Alcohol Use Inventory by Skinner, Horn and Wanberg (1983), is compose by 147 items self administrated, clustered in 24 scales. Time latter, as of many researches done by this research group, aroused The Multiple-syndrome Alcohol Model as The Alcohol Use Inventary simplified version, used as a useful differential diagnosis questionnaire in alcoholics. There for, last version has been done many researches that agree on characterize the alcohol use inventory as screening questionnaire useful to detect problematic drinking to implement primary intervention. Those authors suggest the use of this questionnaire at different stages and populations, with different cut points. Antecedent's use of the questionnaire in Mexico, by Ayala et al., made the adapted version, however, researches seems to be not enough to know the validity of diagnostic instruments on ethanol dependence. The Alcohol Dependence Scale (ADS) consider the dependence as a continuum of four levels, depending on the damage degree associated with alcohol consumption, on the different areas of physical, intellectual, social and psychiatric functioning. In the questionnaire 1 is the minimum cut point for dependence diagnostic and 48 as the highest point, this rank lets differentiate with respect to low dependence, moderate dependence, substantial dependence and severe dependence. This article pretends to diffuse the EDS's validity on inhabitants in Mexico City. As methodology, a case design and 1:1 paired controls were used by age and marital status. Through a not intentioned sampling by quotas were selected 240 men of 18 to 50 years old. The cases group was integrated by 120 individuals that voluntarily sought treatment at the Center of Assistance for the Alcoholic and Relatives (CAAF) from June, 1998 to June, 2000. All cases comply with DSM-IV alcohol dependence criterion; they reported the last consumption at one month before the beginning of the research and with basic school as scholar level. In the control group were 120 volunteers that request treatment to CAAF from June, 1998 to June, 2000.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide information on prevalence rates of alcohol use and alcohol use disorders, as well as service utilization among persons that present with alcohol abuse or dependence in Mexico. The data were collected in 2001 and 2002 in the Mexican National Comorbidity Survey. The sample design was stratified, using a computerized version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. The response rate was 76.6%, for a total of 5,826 interviews; 86.2% of the population had ever tried alcohol and 43.5% drank in the past 12 months. Lifetime abuse or dependence was reported by 7.6% of the population, and in the past 12 months by 2.0%. Only 30. 9% of all respondents with an alcohol use disorder had ever used any treatment service, and then after several years' delay. The low prevalence of service use is a matter of great concern in Mexico. Extension of services, increasing the number of health professionals in this area and more diverse and appropriate treatment programs are urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcoholism and cirrhosis, which are two of the most serious health problems worldwide, have a broad spectrum of clinical outcomes. Both diseases are influenced by genetic susceptibility and cultural traits that differ globally but are specific for each population. In contrast to other regions around the world, Mexicans present the highest drinking score and a high mortality rate for alcoholic liver disease with an intermediate category level of per capita alcohol consumption. Mexico has a unique history of alcohol consumption that is linked to profound anthropological and social aspects. The Mexican population has an admixture genome inherited from different races, Caucasian, Amerindian and African, with a heterogeneous distribution within the country. Thus, genes related to alcohol addiction, such as dopamine receptor D2 in the brain, or liver alcohol-metabolizing enzymes, such as alcohol dehydrogenase class I polypeptide B, cytochrome P450 2E1 and aldehyde dehydrogenase class 2, may vary from one individual to another. Furthermore, they may be inherited as risk or non-risk haplogroups that confer susceptibility or resistance either to alcohol addiction or abusive alcohol consumption and possibly liver disease. Thus, in this era of genomics, personalized medicine will benefit patients if it is directed according to individual or population-based data. Additional association studies will be required to establish novel strategies for the prevention, care and treatment of liver disease in Mexico and worldwide.