A new ecstasy-like substance, meta-chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP), has been detected in street drugs in the Netherlands. Theoretically, mCPP possesses the potential to become a non-neurotoxic alternative for methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), the regular psychoactive substance of ecstasy. Since its introduction on the Dutch market of synthetic drugs, the percentage of mCPP-containing tablets ...

I started in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry, London, in October 1972, and spent the next 3 years completing my basic training. I was then offered a research post studying the excretion of dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in patients with schizophrenia. DMT is a hallucinogen used by Amazonian Indians in their religious ceremonies, as well as a minor street drug, and the ...

OBJECTIVE Medical prescriptions for opioids as well as their non-medical use have increased in Canada in recent years. This study aimed to estimate the number of non-medical prescription opioid (PO) users in the general and street drug using populations in Canada. METHODS The number of non-medical PO users among the general population and the number of non-medical PO users, heroin users, or b...

Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and Departments of Neurology, and Radiology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan. Received: 15 November 2001. Revised: 14 December 2001. Accepted: 2 April 2002. Reprint requests and correspondence to: Dr. Lieh-bang Liou, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 5 Fu-Hsing Street, Kwei Sh...

BACKGROUND Antimicrobial resistance is an increasing problem in developing countries and antibiotic use is widespread. Our previous surveys in Java, Indonesia, revealed that most antibiotic use was probably unnecessary or ineffective. The aim of this study was to explore a potential connection between resistance and substandard antibiotics sold in the area. METHODS A cross-sectional field stu...

Sharing drug using equipment Sharing equipment for injection and non-injection drugs such as needles, cottons, cookers, ties, straws, pipes and even water are some of the easiest ways to get hepatitis C. Even the smallest amounts of blood that you may not be able to see can transmit the virus. Making sure your equipment stays personal and isn’t shared with anyone will help you stay healthy. If ...

Clinical scenario A fourth-year medical student interested in HIV has joined you in the clinic this afternoon. The last time he was there, you asked him to find out the latest statistics on HIV in Canada. Are rates rising or falling? What are the trends in terms of age groups and exposure categories? The student reports that he has researched your questions. You note there is a 34-year-old male...

I examined two young men who developed cerebral infarction associated with heavy marijuana smoking. Both were light tobacco smokers, but they did not drink alcohol or use other street drugs. Diagnostic work-up for nonatherosclerotic causes of stroke was unremarkable. I postulate that marijuana-associated alterations in systemic blood pressure resulted in vasospasm, leading to strokes in these p...

OBJECTIVE To study attitudes toward menopause in women with or at risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) aged 35 to 60 in New York City, NY, USA. DESIGN Data were obtained at the baseline interview in a cohort study of menopause. Of 502 participating women, 92 were postmenopausal and 162 were perimenopausal. RESULTS Overall, 37.5% of women had a relatively favorable attitude toward meno...

The authors tested an attribution-affect model of schizophrenic relapse attending to the role of families' positive affect (warmth) and negative affect (criticism). Coders listened to interviews of 40 family members taken from C. E. Vaughn, K. S. Synder, S. Jones, W. B. Freeman, and I. R. Falloon (1984) and rated their attributions of controllability for the symptoms and behaviors of their rela...