American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse

Background: As more states pass recreational cannabis legalization (RCL), we must understand how RCL affects substance use. Objectives: The current study aims to examine the effect of RCL on lifetime and past-year use of cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, frequency of cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco use, co-use of cannabis with alcohol and tobacco, and consequences from cannabis and alcohol use. Methods: We used a unique, co-twin control design of twin pairs who were discordant for living in a state with RCL between 2018 and 2021...

Background: Medication treatment for opioid use disorder (MOUD) is an instrumental tool in combatting opioid use and overdose. Excess weight gain associated with MOUD initiation is a potential barrier that is not well understood. Objectives: Conduct a scoping review of available studies investigating the effect of MOUD on weight. Methods: Included studies consisted of adults taking any type of MOUD (e.g. methadone, buprenorphine/naloxone, naltrexone) with data on weight or body mass index for at least two time points...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns are known to affect alcohol consumption. This study examines drinking expectancies and contexts upon alcohol consumption of Argentinean students. Objectives: To assess within-person changes in alcohol consumption in Argentinean college students (aged 18-24), from August 2019 with a one-year follow-up during the COVID-19 lockdown, considering alcohol expectancies, drinking contexts, and main socio-demographic variables. To validate the stability of these predictors, we discuss the effects on the alcohol consumption across dependent and independent measures...

Background: Phenibut is a drug similar in structure to gabapentin and pregabalin. It is available online without prescription, often marketed as a dietary supplement or amino acid derivative. Little is known about phenibut use despite its increased popularity in the United States over the last decade. Objective: To clarify reasons for taking phenibut, circumstances, and effects of use. Methods: Reports of phenibut, gabapentin, and pregabalin use were downloaded from a publicly-available database, Erowid.org...

A drug concoction called tusi has emerged in Latin America and in Europe and is now beginning to acquire popularity in the United States. "Tusi" is a phonetic translation of "2C," a series of psychedelic phenethylamines. The concoction is also sometimes referred to as "pink cocaine" as it typically comes in the form of pink powder. However, despite its name, the concoction rarely contains 2C series drugs. Multiple drug checking studies have found that the majority of tusi samples contain ketamine, often combined with 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methamphetamine, cocaine, opioids, and/or new psychoactive substances...

Background: The last decade has witnessed a surge of findings implicating neuroinflammatory processes as pivotal players in substance use disorders. The directionality of effects began with the expectation that the neuroinflammation associated with prolonged substance misuse contributes to long-term neuropathological consequences. As the literature grew, however, it became evident that the interactions between neuroinflammatory processes and alcohol and drug intake were reciprocal and part of a pernicious cycle in which disease-relevant signaling pathways contributed to an escalation of drug intake, provoking further inflammation-signaling and thereby exacerbating the neuropathological effects of drug misuse...

Background: Latinx sexual minorities with increased levels of acculturation report higher rates of alcohol use, and discrimination may impact this association. Yet, there is little research examining the concomitant impact of racism and sexual minority stress (i.e. intersectional discrimination) and the additive effect of acculturation on Latinx sexual minority men's risk for hazardous alcohol consumption. Objectives: This study investigated the role of perceived stressfulness of intersectional discrimination in the relation between acculturation (US cultural orientation/Hispanic cultural orientation) and alcohol use among Latinx sexual minority men...

Dehumanization, the perception or treatment of people as subhuman, has been recognized as "endemic" in medicine and contributes to the stigmatization of people who use illegal drugs, in particular. As a result of dehumanization, people who use drugs are subject to systematically biased policies, long-lasting stigma, and suboptimal healthcare. One major contributor to the public opinion of drugs and people who use them is the media, whose coverage of these topics consistently uses negative imagery and language...

Background: Recovery from substance use disorder requires sustained effort and perseverance. Hence, the resilience factor of grit may be important for people in recovery. Little research has been conducted on grit in patients with substance use disorder (SUD), especially in a large and varied sample. Objectives: To analyze the psychometric properties of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) in patients with SUD and to use demographic and clinical characteristics to predict variance in Grit-S scores. Methods: Participants completed the Grit-S and other self-report measures...

Background: There is emerging recognition of the unique benefits of implementing screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) in pharmacy settings to identify patients who can benefit from services and connecting them to those services. Objectives: This study describes Project Lifeline - a multipronged public health initiative to provide educational and technical support to rural community pharmacies implementing SBIRT for substance use disorder (SUD) and providing harm reduction support...

Background: Despite lifesaving medications such as buprenorphine and methadone, the majority of individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) face access barriers to evidence-based treatment. COVID-19 era regulatory reforms have shown that telehealth can improve access to care, although disparities in clinical outcomes are likely to persist. Objective: We aimed to analyze 180-day and 365-day retention in treatment with buprenorphine for OUD overall and by demographics, hypothesizing that retention would be lower among racial/ethnic minorities and rural patients...

Background: Recovery Housing (RH), an important resource for substance use disorder (SUD) recovery, centers on shared lived experience. Program evaluation considers the contribution of environmental factors to outcomes, yet most research on outcomes has focused on patient factors and fidelity to protocols. Investigations of process measures reflecting the dynamic interplay between patient factors and the treatment program are limited. Alliance, one's perceived connection with others, is a process measure associated with mental health outcomes and includes domains "tasks," "goals," and "bonds...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Background: Individuals experienced increased social isolation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies have found social isolation and loneliness to be strongly associated with anxiety and depression, which have been associated with increased smoking and vaping rates among young adults, including college students. Objectives: To examine relationships between psychological distress and nicotine use within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey ( n  = 4634; 77...

Opioid use disorder (OUD) produces exceedingly high rates of morbidity and mortality in the United States and throughout the world. Almost 90% of persons qualifying for treatment do not enter treatment and 72% of those who initiate treatment leave within 60 days. This Perspective posits that over the past decade our OUD treatment system has produced only small iterative gains in treatment access because, in part, it is founded in a series of top-down regulatory policies dating back more than 100 years. These policies prioritized restricting persons with OUD from having access to opioid agonists over empirical discovery of treatment best practice...

Background: People with HIV (PWH) report higher rates of cannabis use than the general population. It is unclear how cannabis use among PWH has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications for the health and wellbeing of PWH. Objectives: To describe changes in frequency of cannabis use among a sample of PWH during the pandemic, reasons for those changes, and implications of the findings. Methods: The data are cross-sectional and come from questions asked in a follow-up phone survey administered to a prospective cohort of PWH in Florida between May 2020 and March 2021...

Background: Previous research conducted among Latino/a immigrants has shown the underlying effect that exposure to stress after immigrating to the U.S. (i.e. health access, racial/ethnic discrimination, and language barriers) has on alcohol use patterns. However, given the demographic shifts in recent immigrants, understanding the influence of stress before (i.e. poverty, healthcare, and educational opportunities) and after immigration on their alcohol use (i.e. alcohol consumption and drinking behaviors in the past 12 months) in the context of migration and traditional gender roles is warranted...

Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatments, including medications, are increasingly offered via telehealth. Objective: This study characterizes 90-day treatment retention and changes in objectively measured blood alcohol concentration (BAC) in a large cohort receiving AUD telehealth. Methods: Patients received AUD treatment through Ria, a virtual (telehealth) program offering AUD treatment that is tailored to patient goals (e.g. abstinence or controlled drinking). Patients were encouraged to complete breathalyzer readings twice daily for measurement-based care...

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) show a graded association with the development of substance use disorders (SUDs) and engagement in risky substance use behaviors. Women are overrepresented among individuals with more severe childhood adversity (≥4 types of ACEs) and may be at particular risk for aberrant substance use. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of ACEs among men and women with cannabis, opioid, cocaine, and tobacco use disorders. Methods: Non-treatment-seeking individuals participating in clinical addiction research at a single site completed the ACE questionnaire and provided a detailed substance use history...

Background: The neuroanatomy of craving, typically investigated using the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) drug cue reactivity (FDCR) paradigm, has been shown to involve the mesocorticolimbic, nigrostriatal, and corticocerebellar systems in several substances. However, the neuroanatomy of craving in heroin use disorder is still unclear. Objective: The current meta-analysis examines previous research on the neuroanatomy of craving in abstinent individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD). Method: Seven databases were searched for studies comparing abstinent OUD versus healthy controls on drug > neutral contrast interaction at the whole-brain level...