Addiction Research & Theory

Background: Although research demonstrates the necessity of social recovery capital (SRC) for youth in recovery, through having family that do not use substances and who support their recovery, the ways in which parents actually enact SRC have not been empirically examined. This qualitative study applied the Recovery Capital Model for Adolescents to group interview data from parent(s) of youth who resolved a substance use disorder (SUD) to explore the ways parents enacted SRC. Method: The interviews were conducted in a prior ethnographic study in which parents of alternative peer group (APG) alumni volunteered to participate in a group interview; five mothers and five fathers of APG alumni participated in the interviews (n=10)...

Background: Although recovery capital represents various resources for persons recovering from substance use disorders, measures of this construct examine components that might not necessarily reflect the recovery goals of individuals who base their recovery through involvement in 12-step groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA). It is not clear whether 12-step involvement is related to recovery capital, particularly among individuals living in recovery homes who utilize social networks of recovering peers for their recovery...

Given the disproportionate alcohol-related consequences experienced by North American Indigenous youth, there is a critical need to identify related risk and protective factors. Self-compassion, which has been found to mitigate the effects of trauma exposure, may serve as one such protective factor given the high-degree of historical trauma and contemporary discrimination identified as contributing to the alcohol-related disparities experienced by Indigenous communities. However, no research has examined how self-compassion (i...

BACKGROUND: Quantifying average amounts of marijuana used per day or per occasion of use helps inform understanding population-level patterns of use and use-related harm, but better estimates and estimation methods are needed. Users have difficulty in reporting use amounts, but purchase amounts may be more clearly recalled. METHODS: Measures of individual's use and purchasing frequency and details of purchases such as the amounts and products bought and the cost of these were collected in six cross-sectional representative surveys of the population 18 and older in the state of Washington from 2014 to 2016...

Same-day alcohol and cannabis use is relatively common in adolescents and young adults, constituting a higher-risk behavior relative to single-substance use. However, the association between quantity of alcohol and cannabis use on co-use days is understudied. We examined the association between the quantity of alcohol and same-day cannabis use with a multilevel regression analysis in a sample of youth (16-24 years old) with risky alcohol use. Participants reported one or more days of alcohol and cannabis over the past month ( N = 468)...

BACKGROUND: Research on the efficacy of ketamine in treating depression and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in treating post-traumatic stress disorder have been widely covered by the media. Given recent widespread coverage of the efficacy of these drugs, it is important to determine whether such coverage influences prevalence of recreational use. While longitudinal studies would be most ideal for assessing this, to acquire preliminary data, we tested survey items assessing this potential phenomenon in a population known for high prevalence of use of these drugs...

Time perspective is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct that assesses individuals' feelings and thoughts about the past, present, and future. The current study examined relationships between feelings (time attitudes) and thoughts (time orientation) about time and substance use behaviors across three adolescent samples. Participants included a high-risk sample of adjudicated youth ( N =124; M age =15.54, SD =1.69; 51.61% female) and two general population school samples ( N =777; M age =15.82, SD =1...

Despite extensive evidence of bias resulting from industry sponsorship of research across health sciences, and longstanding concerns about alcohol industry research funding, there has not been a strong tradition of empirical research on this subject. This study explores researcher decision-making regarding industry funding at the early career stage and the consequences of such funding. Data were derived from semi-structured interviews with researchers working on alcohol policy-relevant topics who first received alcohol industry funding early in their careers ( n  = 7)...

Aim: Opioid misuse is a severe threat to justice-involved children and adolescents. Identifying risk factors and sex differences is critical to design accurate risk assessments and person-centered interventions. Stress theory and research posit that abuse may be linked to opioid misuse, and the consequences may be harsher for females. The study tests the hypothesis that physical and sexual abuse will individually and cumulatively increase the risk for opioid misuse, and females will have a higher risk than males...

The evidence for the efficacy of harm reduction approaches to harmful alcohol use has accumulated over the past 30 years. Self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan and Deci 2017) offers a useful framework for understanding why people engage in alcohol harm reduction behaviors, as well as for delineating active ingredients of harm reduction interventions and individual characteristics that influence response to intervention. In the current paper, we sought to advance a research agenda for applying SDT to alcohol harm reduction behaviors...

In this article, we demonstrate the applicability of a 3-I (interests, institutions, and ideas) framework to alcohol policy research. The analysis uses literature from political science research to provide a core theoretical framework. To help illustrate the argument, we draw on relevant examples from alcohol policy in the UK as well as initial findings from an ongoing research study on minimum-unit pricing in Wales. The Welsh case study provides an opportunity to examine the value of the framework in generating testable hypotheses in alcohol policy research...

Background: Methamphetamine use is associated with disproportionate risk of HIV infection and increased risk of depression among sexual minority men. The purpose of the study was to estimate the association between clinical depression diagnoses and sexual risk-taking among cisgender men who have sex with men (MSM) who use methamphetamine. Method: From March 2014 through January 2016, 286 MSM who use methamphetamine but were not seeking treatment for methamphetamine use disorder were enrolled to participate in a technology-based randomized controlled trial to reduce methamphetamine use and HIV sexual risk behaviors; participants were assessed for major depressive episodes (MDE) and persistent depressive disorder (PDD) at baseline...

OBJECTIVE: Same day use of alcohol and cannabis is prevalent among emerging/young adults and increases the risk for negative consequences. Although motives for alcohol and cannabis use are well-documented, specific motives on co-use days are under-investigated. We examined differences in motives on single substance use (i.e., alcohol or cannabis) versus co-use days in a sample of primarily cannabis-using emerging/young adults. METHODS: Participants (N=97) aged 18-25 (Mage =22...

It is crucial for individuals with substance use disorders, especially those with a co-occurring mental health disorder, to access effective coping resources. We quantify coping through four domains of individual resources (self-esteem, self-efficacy, perceived social support, and hope) to examine the extent to which individuals with varying psychiatric severity can access coping-related resources. Since sex is an additionally important consideration in treatment, we also explore both sexes' access to coping-related resources...

The literature consistently finds that areas with greater density of alcohol outlets (places that sell alcohol) tend to have higher levels of public health harms. However, conflicting findings arise when researchers drill down to identify the type(s) of alcohol outlets with the strongest associations with harms and the mechanisms that explain these associations. These disagreements could be a result of the outdated methods commonly used to quantify the alcohol environment: counts of the number of outlets in an area...

Background: Event-specific drinking occasions (e.g. holidays, special occasions, school breaks) have been associated with heavy drinking and negative alcohol-related consequences among college students. The current study extends prior research by examining understudied holidays and changes in protective behavioral strategy use during these event-specific drinking occasions. Method: Participants were 537 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 who retrospectively reported drinking in the past two weeks...

Background: Identifying factors that can be targeted in intervention/prevention programs aimed at reducing marijuana-(MJ) related consequences is of critical concern due to the changing legislative landscape of MJ. The dualistic model of passion for MJ has indicated that two factors, obsessive passion (OP) and harmonious passion (HP), have unique effects associated with MJ use outcomes. New research suggests that a quadripartite approach could provide a more nuanced method to interpret risk and protective factors associated with MJ use...

Background: The acquired preparedness model (APM) posits that relationships between impulsivity-related traits and alcohol use are partly mediated by the biased acquisition of positive alcohol expectancies. Additionally, alcohol administration studies implicate associations between impulsivity-related traits and sensitivity to acute alcohol effects, suggesting that impulsivity-expectancy associations could be partly explained by individual differences in alcohol response. The present study assessed a theoretical extension of the APM by testing the prediction that self-reported sensitivity to alcohol would partly mediate impulsivity-expectancy relationships, and that the addition of alcohol sensitivity variables would account for increased variance in drinking quantity and problems relative to the traditional APM...

Objectives: Skip-logic is commonly used on electronic surveys in which programs provide follow-up questions to affirmative responses and skip to the next topic in response to non-affirmative responses. While skip-logic helps produce data without contradictory responses, erroneous non-affirmative reports can lead to loss of accurate information. We examined the extent to which type-in drug use responses contradict unreported use in a survey of a high-risk population-electronic dance music (EDM) party attendees...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.