A questionnaire investigating substance abuse was sent to 128 anaesthetic departments in Australia and New Zealand of which 100 (78%) replied. Forty-four cases of substance abuse were reported. Abusers were more likely to be male, aged between 25 and 35 years and abusing opioids. Death was the eventual outcome in 24% of cases. Only 19% of abusers made a long-term recovery within the specialty. ...

Introduction: In the modern world, drug abuse is one of fastest emerging social issues. Cannabinoid receptor agonists are becoming increasingly popular as abused substance due to their ease cultivation and availability. Case report: We present a series three cases who were scheduled for lower limb surgeries planned under spinal anaesthesia. All patients consuming either cannabis or its products...

We used the Stroop task as a measure of the ability to inhibit a prepotent response tendency and examined its association with relative glucose metabolism in selected prefrontal brain regions in cocaine addicts, alcoholics, and controls (17 per group). Results revealed that for the substance abusers, higher orbitofrontal gyrus (OFG) activation was associated with lower conflict (higher score; r...

The relationship between optimism, abstinence self-efficacy, and self-mastery was examined by investigating levels of these cognitive resources among two samples of recovering substance abusers: Oxford House residents who attended twelve-step groups and twelve-step members who had never lived in an Oxford House. Participants 'levels of optimism were significantly and positively related to both ...

Abstract Psychiatric disorders with substance abuse are considered the leading causes of most violent and aggressive behaviors in general population. This study was aimed to assess impact therapeutic approaches adopted by psychiatrists vs non-aggressive outpatients ( n = 400) attending community-based psychiatric services recruited over a 3-year period. Clinical variables were collected from me...

Individuals with substance abuse disorders, whether or not they are HIV infected, are subject to higher rates of mental disorders than the rest of the population. In some studies of substance abusers, the lifetime prevalence of such disorders is as high as 51 percent (Kessler et al., 1996). However, the percentage of HIV-infected substance abusers with psychiatric disorders has not been ascerta...