Background: The use/abuse of psychoactive drugs such as khat leaves (Catha edulis) are believed to alter one’s moods or emotional state either through the sustained release or inhibition of neurotransmitters, thereby enhancing or dampening the response of the individual. Most people whose thinking are warped by continued drug use may not be able to see the harm resulting from their actions. Thu...

Introduction: Tobacco remains one of the most important preventable cause addiction, sickness and mortality in world as it affects oral epithelium. Normal epithelium undergoes continuous exfoliation or shedding its superficial cells, is replenished by new crop cells from basal layer. The rationale exfoliative cytology lies epithelial physiology. purpose this study to conduct quantitative cytomo...

Background: Khat chewing practice has increased over the years and chronic khat use is associated with adverse socio-economic effects. Thus, this study was undertaken among chewers in case of Anna Sorra Woreda, Guji Zone, Oromia regional state, southeastern part Ethiopia to investigate effects chewing. Methods: Cross-sectional research design descriptive data analysis used. Diversion software u...

BACKGROUND We earlier observed altered expression of p53 and Bcl-xL in oral cancer cell lines/tissues and wanted to evaluate these proteins for prediction of radiotherapy response and outcome. METHODS Thirty-nine paraffin-embedded, pretreatment oral cancer biopsies were analyzed for protein expression using immunohistochemistry and correlated with tumor response to radiotherapy and disease-fr...

A total of 312 persons aged 10 years and above were interviewed to collect information about their habits of taking tobacco, alcohol and other substances. The study reveals that 40.4% of the respondents used tobacco irrespective of their using pattern, with significant difference between sexes (p< 0.001). Among tobacco users 58.2% were only tobacco chewers. 26.3% were smokers and 15% of them we...

Oral cancer is most common cancer in males and third most common in females, the main causative agent being use of chewing betel quid (BQ). The micronucleus (MN) assay in exfoliated buccal cells is a useful and minimally invasive method for monitoring genetic damage in humans. Micronuclei (MN) have been proposed as good biomarker to assess cytogenetic damage. MN formation has been observed in c...

The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and determinants of khat chewing, and explore its social, economic and work impacts and examine its relation with road traffic accidents (RTA) among professional drivers in Jazan region, Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 215 drivers recruited from transport stations in Jazan region by random cluster sampling. An inter...