BACKGROUND The growing trends in opioid abuse, assessment of the abuse liability of prescription opioid products, and growing efforts by the pharmaceutical industry to develop 'abuse-resistant' formulations highlight a need to understand the features that make one product more 'attractive' than another to potential abusers. We developed a scale to measure the 'attractiveness' of prescription op...

BACKGROUND Treatment of patients with chronic conditions requiring hospitalization requires patient acceptance and cooperation and adoption of coping strategies. Inappropriate coping strategies such as substance abuse are concerning in the course of treatment. This study sought to explore the association of coping strategies with suicidal behavior in substance abusers and non substance abuser p...

We describe correlates of drug use-consequences related variables (addiction concern, problem consequences, and drinking alcohol/using drugs while driving) among two samples of high school students, one in the Russian Federation (n = 365), and one in the United States (n = 965). The correlates used in the analyses are based on the Theory of Triadic Influence, which organizes predictors of adole...

The study of wording and its impact on medical practice is key for the training future physicians. Negative, imprecise, disrespectful terms are still widespread in field contribute to stigmatization people treatment, which ultimately limits their access care. In this study, we explore feasibility acceptability a method investigate students’ perceptions stigma. This involves questionnaire that s...

Five basic models of chemical dependency and their treatment implications are described. The moral model, although disdained by most treatment professionals, actually finds expression in over half the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The learning model, albeit the center of the controlled drinking controversy, is also utilized by most abstinence-oriented programs. The disease model, which enjoys ...

This article provides an overview of 2 closely linked treatment approaches for the substance abusing client: The Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA) and Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT). In 1973, Hunt and Azrin created CRA in an attempt to restructure an individual’s “community” so that a sober lifestyle was more rewarding than one dominated by alcohol. One salient CRA pre...

The study's (n = 447) purposes were to (1) describe relationships of abuser behavior to elder women's perception of barriers to help-seeking; (2) compare fit of model to participants' levels of abuse, race-ethnicity, age, and gender and relationship of identified close other; and (3) determine extent to which the model differentiated relationship of abuser to participant and level of abuse. Ana...

Causes of a massive elevation in serum aminotransferases (aspartate aminotransferase [AST] and alanine aminotransferase [ALT]) in the substance-abusing patient include viral hepatitis and drug hepatotoxicity. A patient chronically addicted to injection heroin and cocaine presented to the emergency room in a confused state and was admitted to a medical ward with an AST of 4120 U/L, ALT 3820 U/L ...