Drug abuse is often seen as a unitary phenomenon, partly as a result of the discovery over the past three decades of shared mechanisms of action for addictive substances. Yet the pattern of drug taking is often very different from drug to drug. This is particularly evident in the case of 'club drugs', such as ketamine. Although the number of ketamine abusers is relatively small in the general p...

Objectives: Illicit drug abuse and drug-related crimes are still a growing problem worldwide. Understanding the increasing number of individuals arrested for drug charges, as well as their characteristics is necessary to predict and establish preventive and treatment programs. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Shahroud, Northeast of Iran from 2015 to 2018. Data were collecte...

OBJECTIVE This study examines whether child abuse; child neglect; demographic, family and social, behavioral, economic, and neighborhood risk; and protective factors predict different drug-use patterns into middle adulthood. METHOD Using a prospective cohort design, individuals with documented cases of childhood physical and sexual abuse and neglect (processed during 1967-1971) and a matched ...

in the 1960s, discovery of pleasure system (defined as reward system) in the brain that may underlie drug reward and addiction encouraged many scientists to investigate the mechanisms by which drug abuse affects central nervous system function. in this regard, investigators developed several drugs targeting the brain reward system for drug dependence therapy. however, no positive results obtain...

aim: substance abuse is a substantial threat and problem to public health. the goal of drug abuse treatment is to return people to a productive normal situation in the family, workplace, and community. treatment dropout is one of the major problems, encountered by the treatment programs. the maintenance of treatment is associated with retention in treatment, and many factors are associated with...