Methamphetamine abusers' personality traits and its relational with Spiritual well-being and Perceived Social Support.
CONCLUSION: The results indicate that personality traits, perceived social support, and spiritual well-being can be considered as risk factors for methamphetamine abuse. PMID: 30332980 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews)
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - October 20, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

Updated indicators to evaluate harmful drug use, in particular polydrug use.
CONCLUSION: These results are consistent with previous analyses based on surveys among high school students in Italy. PMID: 30246647 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews)
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - September 26, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

Pain-prescription differences - an analysis of 500,000 discharge summaries.
CONCLUSIONS: The choice of pain relievers is varies regionally and is often in disagreement with approved indications and regulatory guidelines. A pronounced East-West gradient was observed with metamizole use and the opposite with prescription opioids. PMID: 30207223 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews)
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - September 13, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

The Use of Psychoactive Substances and Illegal Drugs in the Albanian Society.
CONCLUSION: Overall, taking into consideration all three databases, the number of drug users has significantly increased. There are more officially reported drug users today compared to 2012, however, different trends are observed during different periods. Youngsters are more eager and tempted to use and experiment more with safer and less harmful drugs like cannabis, meanwhile, as age increases, there is a tendency to shift towards more potent and dangerous drugs. Prevention and reducing the prevalence of use of psychoactive drugs is one of the main goals of public health. PMID: 30070180 [PubMed - as supplied by p...
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - August 7, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

Drug Overdose-Induced Coma Blisters: Pathophysiology And Clinical And Forensic Diagnosis.
Authors: Dinis-Oliveira RJ Abstract Coma blisters or coma bullae are bullous lesions that have been associated with cases of drug overdose-induced coma. Previous history of suicide attempt with benzodiazepines, barbiturates, ethanol, antipsychotics, antidepressants or opioids have been particularly implicated. Patients may present also painful deep skin and soft tissue involvement, edema and functional impairment. The pathophysiology remains unknown and lesions are usually self-limited and typically resolve without scarring. This work, aims to fully review the state of the art regarding cause, pathophysiol...
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - July 31, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

Spirituality, religiosity and addiction recovery: current perspectives.
Authors: Castaldelli-Maia JM, Beraldo L, Ventriglio A, de Andrade AG, da Silva AG, Torales J, Goncalves PD, Bhugra D Abstract Substance use disorders are an important public health problem with a multifactorial etiology and limited effective treatment options. Within this context, spirituality-based approaches may provide interesting and useful options in managing substance use disorders. This kind of intervention can have positive effects in alleviating some core symptoms associated with substance use, such as aggressiveness. Improvement in cessation rates for alcohol, cocaine and opioid use disorders hav...
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - June 15, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

The Effectiveness of Group Spiritual Intervention on Self-esteem and Happiness among Men Undergoing Methadone Maintenance Treatment.
CONCLUSION: It was concluded that group spiritual intervention as a useful method could be effective in enhancing self-esteem and happiness among addicted individuals undergoing methadone maintenance treatment. The given treatment could be also used as a complementary therapy beside methadone maintenance treatment to reduce the likelihood of people returning to substance abuse. PMID: 29749316 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews)
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - May 12, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

A move from describing to evaluating the effectiveness of Indigenous drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation services: a systematic review.
CONCLUSION: There are few published studies on Indigenous drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation services, an average of one paper per annum internationally, and only one treatment outcome evaluation. Three key features of the reviewed papers included (i) studied services were mostly located in regional areas; (ii) services provided multi-component programs, with little alignment between the models of care of other services; and (iii) the majority used qualitative, rather than quantitative methods. Client outcomes will likely improve if future research can establish best-practice, culturally acceptable models of care ...
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - May 2, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

THIAMINE AND ALCOHOL FOR BRAIN PATHOLOGY: Super-imposing or different causative factors for brain damage?
Authors: Moretti R, Caruso P, Dal Ben M, Gazzin S, Tiribelli C Abstract Drinking more than the recommended limits is a worldwide emerging problem, difficult to circumscribe, and alcohol related brain damages are an under-recognized health problem. Alcohol-cognitive disruption can be considered as transient and recoverable if the alcohol consumption is limited and occasional; if not, it can progress to the so-called alcohol-related dementia (ARD), or to the Wernicke encephalopathy, or it can even induce the Korsakoff syndrome, an irreversible and long-lasting medical condition. ARD still remains poorly diag...
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - May 2, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

High Prevalence of Abandoned Needlesticks from Injecting Drug Users in Milton Keynes, UK: Analysing Access to Needle Exchange Centres and Drug Dependency Services.
CONCLUSION: Tackling the issue of abandoned needles effectively should be done through a targeted, multi-agency approach. Reductions in needlestick abandonment can be strengthened through improving access to needle exchange points, DDU and BBV services, delivering high-quality harm reduction interventions and using data mapping in order to identify and target hot spot areas. PMID: 29714154 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews)
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - May 2, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

Proceeding of the 9th Alcohol Hangover Research Group Meeting.
Authors: Verster JC, Merlo A, Adams S, Benson S, Devenney L, Gunn C, Iversen J, Johnson SJ, Mackus M, Scholey A, Stock AK, van de Loo AJAE, van Schrojenstein Lantman M, Versprille LJFW Abstract Alcohol hangover is a common occurrence among individuals who have experienced an episode of heavy alcohol consumption the previous night. Until now defined as the general feeling of misery that develops once the Blood Alcohol Concentration approaches zero. Despite its prevalence and several related adverse consequences, insufficient research has been conducted with regards to this matter and further understanding o...
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - January 6, 2018 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

Drug-Drug Interactions in cocaine-users and their clinical implications.
Authors: Gallelli L, Gratteri S, Siniscalchi A, Cione E, Sirico S, Seminara P, De Sarro G, Cristina Caroleo M Abstract Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are a common problem in clinical practice during drug treatments. DDIs can induce development of adverse drug reactions or reduce clinical efficacy of the drugs. In this review, using PubMed, Embase and Cochrane library we searched articles published until January 10, 2017, and described both pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic DDIs in cocaine consumers, focusing the interest on their clinical implications. In this review, the nodal points treated focused on: ...
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - December 3, 2017 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

Role of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) in Treatment of Addiction and Related Disorders: A Systematic Review.
CONCLUSION: rTMS may serve as an emerging therapeutic option for addiction and related disorders. The major lacunae include important methodological limitations and dearth of knowledge about precise mechanism of action that need to be addressed in the future studies. PMID: 29189190 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews)
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - December 3, 2017 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

Long-term administration of antipsychotic drugs in schizophrenia and influence of substance and drug abuse on the disease outcome.
CONCLUSION: The abuse of drugs and substances might be combined with a reduced adherence to the antipsychotic pharmacotherapy. Drugs and substances might in some cases worsen the psychotic symptoms. Appropriate measures to reduce substance and drug abuse as well as to improve the adherence to the antipsychotic pharmacotherapy are cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoeducation and the administration of long-acting injectable antipsychotic drugs. Some new drugs, for example the cannabis compound cannabidiol that shows antipsychotic properties and ß-vancreline, a nicotinergic cholinergic agonist, might be administered when su...
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - October 29, 2017 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research

Cannabis: an overview of its adverse acute and chronic effects and their implications.
Authors: Ford TC, Hayley AC, Downey LA, Parrott AC Abstract In many communities, cannabis is perceived as a low-risk drug, leading to political lobbying to decriminalise its use. However, acute and chronic cannabis use has been shown to be harmful to several aspects of psychological and physical health, such as mood states, psychiatric outcomes, neurocognition, driving and general health. Furthermore, cannabis is highly addictive, and the adverse effects of withdrawal can lead to regular use. These in turn have adverse implications for public safety and health expenditure. Although the cannabinoid cannabid...
Source: Current Drug Abuse Reviews - July 15, 2017 Category: Addiction Tags: Curr Drug Abuse Rev Source Type: research