Addiction

Psychedelics alter the perception of reality through agonist or partial agonist interaction with the 2A serotoninergic receptor. They are classified as phenethylamines, tryptamines and lysergamides. These classes, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), account for an important percentage of the new psychoactive substances (NPS) current scenario.The paper aimed at: a) identifying and categorising psychedelic molecules from a list of psychonaut websites and NPS online resources; and b) comparing the NPSfinderⓇ results with those from the European and United Nations databases...

BACKGROUND: A sense of meaningfulness is an important initial indicator of the successful treatment of addiction, and supports the larger recovery process. Most studies address meaningfulness as a static trait, and do not assess the extent to which meaningfulness might vary within an individual, or how it may vary in response to daily life events such as social experiences. METHODS: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) was used to: 1) examine the amount of within-person variability in meaningfulness among patients in residential treatment for prescription opioid use disorder; 2) determine whether that variability was related to positive or negative social experiences on a daily basis; and 3) assess whether those day-to-day relationships were related to relapse at four months post-treatment...

Background : Smartphone is an indispensable miracle of artificial intelligence in the hands of global netizens. Medical students overburdened and sleep-deprived due to the curricular demands can have serious health effects due to further sleep deprivation caused by problematic smartphone use, affecting their work proficiency as practicing physicians. This study aimed to evaluate the association of smartphone addiction and quality of sleep among medical students across all semesters, along with other background variables...

OBJECTIVE: The current study expands the literature on alcohol-related protective behavioral strategies (PBS) that individuals may use to reduce risk of intoxication and/or consequences. This study used daily data collected prospectively to test (a) the extent to which college students' plans for using different types of PBS on a given day were associated with actual PBS use and (b) whether drinking intentions moderated the strength of the association between PBS plans and use. METHOD: College students ages 18-24 ( N = 189; mean ( SD ) = 20...

OBJECTIVE: Alcohol expectancies are a critical factor in the development of problematic alcohol use. Expectancy challenge (EC) interventions aim to manipulate positive alcohol expectancies to reduce or prevent alcohol use among young people. The present meta-analysis investigated the effects of ECs at changing expectations and alcohol use among high school and college students, and moderating effects of study and individual characteristics on these changes. METHOD: A total of 23 EC studies (N = 4,122; mean age = 19...

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INTRODUCTION: Several questionnaires have been developed for screening cannabis use disorder in clinical populations, but very few studies have compared the screening abilities of the different instruments. Here, we aimed to confirm the psychometric properties of a French version of the Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test-Revised (CUDIT-R), and to compare its screening abilities with those of the Cannabis Abuse Screening Test (CAST), in subjects consulting in mental health settings...

BACKGROUND: Substance use disorder is a serious public health problem. It is essential to know who is prone to substance use in order to adopt appropriate measures. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to determine the use prevalence ratios of substance use (tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, synthetic cannabinoids, ecstasy, and others) in a large-scale sample of a general population. It also intends to examine related sociodemographic factors. METHODS: This study is based on a cross-sectional survey conducted with a nationally representative sample of 24,494 individuals in face-to-face interviews conducted by a trained team of 125 clinical psychologists...

BACKGROUND: Disorders of substance and behavioral addiction are believed to be associated with a myopic bias towards the incentive salience of addiction-related cues away from general rewards in the environment. In non-treatment seeking gambling disorder patients, neural activity to anticipation of monetary rewards is enhanced relative to erotic rewards. Here we focus on the balance between anticipation of reward types in active treatment gamblers relative to healthy volunteers. METHODS: Fifty-three (25 gambling disorder males, 28 age-matched male healthy volunteers) were scanned with fMRI performing a Monetary Incentive Delay task with monetary and erotic outcomes...

Background : Nicotine is the addictive agent in tobacco products. The monoterpene linalool is the main ingredient in the essential oils of various aromatic plants. It has previously been demonstrated that linalool has beneficial effects on some mechanisms that are important in drug addiction. Objectives : The goal of the current study was to investigate the effect of linalool on nicotine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) in male mice. Methods : CPP was induced by administering intraperitoneal (i.p...

Background and aims: Consensus in acknowledging compulsive buying-shopping disorder (CBSD) as a distinct diagnosis has been lacking. Before research in this area can be advanced, it is necessary to establish diagnostic criteria in order to facilitate field trials. Methods: The study consisted of the following phases: (1) operationalization of a broad range of potential diagnostic criteria for CBSD, (2) two iterative rounds of data collection using the Delphi method, where consensus of potential diagnostic criteria for CBSD was reached by an international expert panel, and (3) interpretation of findings taking into account the degree of certainty amongst experts regarding their responses...

Background and aims: Social media use has become a ubiquitous part of society, with 3.8 billion users worldwide. While research has shown that there are positive aspects to social media engagement (e.g. feelings of social connectedness and wellbeing), much of the focus has been on the negative mental health outcomes which are associated with excessive use (e.g. higher levels of depression/anxiety). While the evidence to support such negative associations is mixed, there is a growing debate within the literature as to whether excessive levels of social media use should become a clinically defined addictive behaviour...

BACKGROUND: Recently there has been an increase in reports of the phenomenon called chemsex, a subform of sexualized substance use. Chemsex is a neologism consisting of the two terms "chemicals" and "sex". It describes the use of methamphetamine, γ‑hydroxybutyrate/γ-butyrolactone (GHB/GBL), mephedrone and sometimes other substances in a sexual context, especially by men who have sex with men (MSM). Chemsex has been described as a significant risk factor for mental and physical diseases...

In Germany every second offence occasioning bodily harm and every fourth sexual offence occur under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Untreated substance use disorders are a risk factor for further offences. The §64 of the German Penal Code (StGB) regulates the commitment of offenders to a Forensic addiction treatment unit as a result of an addiction to excessive consummation of intoxicating substances. The previous regulation has come under criticism because too many patients are committed, the sentence is often given to the wrong persons, the treatment is often terminated without success and the sentence consumes to many resources...

Importance: Psychiatric emergency department (ED) visits may be avoidable if individuals have access to adequate outpatient care, but the extent to which individuals use the ED itself as a key point of access is largely unknown. Objective: To describe the extent to which the ED is a first point of contact for mental health care among adults, and identify key factors associated with this outcome. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study was conducted from 2010 to 2018 in Ontario, Canada...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this systematic review is to identify, appraise, and synthesize the best available evidence on the effectiveness of opioid substitution treatment in reducing HIV risk behavior among African, Caribbean, and Black people. INTRODUCTION: Substance use plays an important role in HIV transmission among Black people by increasing risky sexual behavior and the risk of HIV acquisition. Opioid substitution treatment, such as methadone maintenance treatment and buprenorphine therapy, has been found to be an effective measure to minimize HIV transmission attributable to opioid addiction...

OBJECTIVE: The aim: To determine the effect of smoking on indicators of nutritional status in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: A study included 91 patients with COPD. Patients were divided into two groups depending on the status of smoking: smokers and non-smokers. Everyone underwent an assessment of the severity of COPD, a study of nutritional status, a laboratory study of kidney function and blood lipid profile...

INTRODUCTION: The perceived health benefits and effectiveness of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) in quitting smoking may affect e-cigarette usage, however, research on the use of e-cigarettes among the Chinese, especially among the rural Chinse, is scarce. This study examined factors associated with perceptions of e-cigarette related harms, benefits, and addictiveness, among smoker and non-smoker households with children in rural China, to support the design of population-based interventions targeting rural Chinese households...

The molecular mechanisms tuning cholinergic interneuron (CIN) activity, although crucial for striatal function and behaviour, remain largely unexplored. Previous studies report that the Etv1/Er81 transcription factor is vital for regulating neuronal maturation and activity. Whilst Er81 is known to be expressed in the striatum during development, its specific role in defining CIN properties and the resulting consequences on striatal function is unknown. We report here that Er81 is expressed in CINs and its specific ablation leads to prominent changes in their molecular, morphological and electrophysiological features...

The insula contributes to behavioral control and is disrupted by substance abuse, yet we know little about the neural signals underlying these functions or how they are disrupted after chronic drug self-administration. Here, male and female rats self-administered either cocaine (experimental group) or sucrose (control) for twelve consecutive days. After a one-month withdrawal period, we recorded from insula while rats performed a previously learned reward-guided decision-making task. Cocaine-exposed rats were more sensitive to value manipulations and were faster to respond...