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Heavy Users (heavy + user)
Selected AbstractsFlashblood: blood sharing among female injecting drug users in TanzaniaADDICTION, Issue 6 2010Sheryl A. McCurdy ABSTRACT Aims This study examined the association between the blood-sharing practice of ,flashblood' use and demographic factors, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status and variables associated with risky sex and drug behaviors among female injecting drug users. Flashblood is a syringe-full of blood passed from someone who has just injected heroin to someone else who injects it in lieu of heroin. Design A cross-sectional study. Setting Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Participants One hundred and sixty-nine female injecting drug users (IDUs) were recruited using purposive sampling for hard-to-reach populations. Measurements The association between flashblood use, demographic and personal characteristics and risky sex and drug use variables was analyzed by t -test and ,2 test. The association between flashblood use and residential neighborhood was mapped. Findings Flashblood users were more likely to: be married (P = 0.05), have lived in the current housing situation for a shorter time (P < 0.000), have been forced as a child to have sex by a family member (P = 0.007), inject heroin more in the last 30 days (P = 0.005), smoke marijuana at an earlier age (P = 0.04), use contaminated rinse-water (P < 0.03), pool money for drugs (P < 0.03) and share drugs (P = 0.000). Non-flashblood users were more likely to live with their parents (P = 0.003). Neighborhood flashblood use was highest near downtown and in the next two adjoining suburbs and lowest in the most distant suburbs. Conclusions These data indicate that more vulnerable women who are heavy users and living in shorter-term housing are injecting flashblood. The practice of flashblood appears to be spreading from the inner city to the suburbs. [source] If cannabis caused schizophrenia,how many cannabis users may need to be prevented in order to prevent one case of schizophrenia?ADDICTION, Issue 11 2009England, Wales calculations ABSTRACT Background We consider how many cannabis users may need to be prevented in order to prevent one case of schizophrenia or psychosis [defined as number needed to prevent (NNP)]. Method Calculation for England and Wales using best available estimates of: incidence of schizophrenia; rates of heavy and light cannabis use; and risk that cannabis causes schizophrenia. Results In men the annual mean NNP for heavy cannabis and schizophrenia ranged from 2800 [90% confidence interval (CI) 2018,4530] in those aged 20,24 years to 4700 (90% CI 3114,8416) in those aged 35,39. In women, mean NNP for heavy cannabis use and schizophrenia ranged from 5470 (90% CI 3640,9839) in those aged 25,29 to 10 870 (90% CI 6786,22 732) in 35,39-year-olds. Equivalent mean NNP for heavy cannabis use and psychosis were lower, from 1360 (90% CI 1007,2124) in men aged 20,24 and 2480 (90% CI 1408,3518) in women aged 16,19. The mean and median number of light cannabis users that would need to be prevented in order to prevent one case of schizophrenia or psychosis per year are four to five times greater than among heavy users. Conclusions The number of young people who need to be exposed to an intervention to generate NNP and prevent one case of schizophrenia will be even larger. The public health importance of preventing cannabis to reduce schizophrenia or psychosis remains uncertain. More attention should be given to testing the hypothesis that cannabis is related causally to psychotic outcomes, and to considering what strategies will be the most effective in reducing heavy cannabis use among young people. [source] Cannabis and schizophrenia: model projections of the impact of the rise in cannabis use on historical and future trends in schizophrenia in England and WalesADDICTION, Issue 4 2007Matthew Hickman ABSTRACT Aims To estimate long-term trends in cannabis use and projections of schizophrenia assuming a causal relation between cannabis use and schizophrenia. Methods Trends in cannabis use were estimated from a national survey, 2003; and incidence of schizophrenia was derived from surveys in three English cities, 1997,99. A difference equation cohort model was fitted against estimates of schizophrenia incidence, trends in cannabis exposure and assumptions on association between cannabis and schizophrenia. The model projects trends in schizophrenia incidence, prevalence and attributable fraction of cannabis induced schizophrenia. Results Between 1970 and 2002 cannabis exposure increased: incidence by fourfold; period prevalence by 10-fold; and use among under 18-year-olds by 18-fold. In 1997,99 incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia were 17 per 100 000 and 0.63% among men and 7.3 per 100 000 and 0.23% among women, respectively. If cannabis use causes schizophrenia, earlier increases in cannabis use would lead to increases in overall schizophrenia incidence and prevalence of 29% and 12% among men between 1990 and 2010. By 2010 model projections which assume an association between schizophrenia and light and heavy users suggest that approximately one-quarter of new schizophrenia cases could be due to cannabis, whereas if the association is twofold and confined to heavy cannabis users, then approximately 10% of schizophrenia cases may be due to cannabis. Conclusions If cannabis use causes schizophrenia, and assuming other causes are unchanged, then relatively substantial increases in both prevalence and incidence of schizophrenia should be apparent by 2010. More accurate data on cannabis consumption and future monitoring of schizophrenia are critical. [source] Saccadic peak velocity and EEG as end-points for a serotonergic challenge testHUMAN PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY: CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL, Issue 2 2002Harm J. Gijsman Abstract We previously reported that a single dose of the serotonin receptor agonist meta-chlorophenylpiperazine increased the peak velocity of saccadic eye movements and decreased low-frequency electroencephalographic activity. Methods We administered a single dose of the serotonin releaser dexfenfluramine in a double blind, placebo controlled randomised cross-over design and measured saccadic eye movements and EEG every hour up to 6,h. Subjects were 62 males (18,30 years) with a history of no, moderate or heavy use of ecstasy tablets. Results Dexfenfluramine increased saccadic peak velocity and decreased alpha, delta and theta electroencephalographic activity, the latter predominantly in heavy users of ecstasy. Conclusions This study supports the idea that saccadic peak velocity and EEG can be useful endpoints of a serotonergic challenge. This could be an important anatomical extension of these end-points, which until now were limited to the effect on hypothalamic serotonergic projections. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Life success of males on nonoffender, adolescence-limited, persistent, and adult-onset antisocial pathways: follow-up from age 8 to 42AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 2 2009Lea Pulkkinen Abstract A random sample of 196 males, drawn from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, was divided into four groups of offenders using information from government registers of convictions between ages 21 and 47, from local police registers searched at age 21, from a Self-Report Delinquency Scale administered at age 36, from a Life History Calendar for ages 15,42, and from personal interviews at ages 27, 36, and 42. The groups were: persistent offenders (offences before and after age 21; 29% of the men); adolescence-limited offenders (offences before age 21; 27%); adult-onset offenders (offences after age 21; 16%); and nonoffenders (28%). The profile of the persistent offenders included many characteristics of antisocial personality and problems of social and psychological functioning at all ages. In childhood and adolescence, the adolescence-limited offenders tended to display higher self-control than the other offenders indicated by less negative emotionality and higher constraint. In early middle age, they were well established in terms of work and marriage, but they differed from the nonoffenders in higher neuroticism, aggressiveness, and psychosomatic symptoms as did the other offender groups. The adult-onset offenders displayed an emotionally unstable personality, and in adulthood, they tended to be heavy users of alcohol. Parental SES did not differentiate the groups, but the parents of the persistent offenders tended to use alcohol heavily, and the social capital of the family tended to be low compared with the other groups. Aggr. Behav. 35:117,135, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Cigarette smoking, oral moist snuff use and glucose intoleranceJOURNAL OF INTERNAL MEDICINE, Issue 2 2000P.-G. Persson Abstract. Persson P-G, Carlsson S, Svanström L, Östenson C-G, Efendic S, Grill V (Karolinska Hospital and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden). Cigarette smoking, oral moist snuff use and glucose intolerance. J Intern Med 2000; 248: 103,110. Objective. To investigate the association between cigarette smoking and use of oral moist snuff and impaired glucose tolerance and type 2 diabetes. Design. We performed a population-based cross-sectional study of glucose intolerance and tobacco use in Stockholm during 1992,94. The sample consisted of 3128 men, aged 35,56 years, of whom 52% had a family history of diabetes. In an oral glucose tolerance test, we detected 55 men with type 2 diabetes and 172 with impaired glucose tolerance. Information on cigarette smoking and oral moist snuff use was collected by a questionnaire. Results. The odds ratio of type 2 diabetes was increased for smokers of 25+ cigarettes day,1 (odds ratio = 2.6, 95% confidence interval = 1.1,5.9) as well as for moist snuff dippers of 3+ boxes week,1 (odds ratio = 2.7, 95% confidence interval = 1.3,5.5). The odds ratio of relatively high (highest tertile) fasting insulin levels in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance associated with cigarette smoking of 25+ cigarettes day,1 was 1.5 (95% confidence interval = 0.7,3.6). The corresponding estimate of a relatively low (lowest tertile) 2 h insulin response was 2.5 (95% confidence interval = 0.9,7.1). Conclusions. These results indicate that heavy users of cigarettes or moist snuff have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. The results could suggest that tobacco use is associated with a low insulin response. [source] Impact of antimicrobial drug usage measures on the identification of heavy users, patterns of usage of the different antimicrobial classes and time-trends evolutionJOURNAL OF VETERINARY PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS, Issue 4 2008C. CHAUVIN Several measurement units are available to quantify antimicrobial usage in veterinary medicine, to obtain diverse measures such as the weight of active substance used, the live weight (LW) treated, the fraction of animals exposed, the number of treatments recorded or the cost represented. These measures can be applied to study practices variability between farms, to characterize patterns of usage of the different antimicrobial classes or to follow evolution of antimicrobial usage with time. An investigation was carried out to specifically explore the influence of measurement units on the conclusions obtained from such studies. Antimicrobial exposure was explored in a sample of turkey and chicken broiler flocks, using six different units [kg of active compound, treatments, days of administration, kg of LW treated, animal daily dose to treat 1 kg of LW (ADDkg) and euros] to compare flocks usage variability and patterns of use of the different antimicrobial classes. Time-trends evolutions of macrolides usage in turkey broilers, characterized by percentage of flocks exposed and LW treated, were also compared. In all analyses, the measure gave different results without equivalences, highlighting the necessity for care in choosing the measurement unit and caution in interpreting the figures obtained. [source] Effects of perceived behavioral control on the consumer usage intention of e-couponsPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 10 2006Hyunmo Kang To investigate changes that e-coupons bring to consumers' coupon usage, the authors of this article developed and estimated models of coupon-usage intention. The models are based on the theory of reasoned action or the theory of planned behavior. Results show that the theory of planned behavior explains e-coupon usage intention better than the theory of reasoned action. On the other hand, the intention to use traditional coupons is effectively explained by the theory of reasoned action. Both perceived behavioral control and attitude toward Internet searching have significant effects on the intention to use e-coupons. Also, heavy users of e-coupons are different from those of traditional coupons. Light users of traditional coupons have relatively high intention to use e-coupons if they have more access to e-coupons. On the other hand, heavy users of traditional coupons have relatively low intention to use e-coupons if they have less access to them. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] | ||||||||||