OBJECTIVE to evaluate alcohol/tobacco/illicit drug use and sexual function in adolescent juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and healthy controls. METHODS 174 adolescents with pediatric rheumatic diseases were selected. A cross-sectional study with 54 JIA patients and 35 controls included demographic/anthropometric data and puberty markers assessments, physician-conducted CRAFFT (car/relax/al...

BACKGROUND The DSM uses one set of abuse and dependence criteria to assess multiple substance use disorders (SUDs). Most SUD research aggregates across these symptoms to study the behavior of SUD as a static construct. We use an alternative approach that conceptualizes symptoms as directly interacting variables in psychopathological networks. We apply network models to symptom-level data to inv...

OBJECTIVE Although many adolescents use and abuse illicit drugs, few of those who could benefit from substance abuse treatment ever receive these services. The present study examines the prevalence of utilization of substance abuse treatment in national samples of adolescents over the past 22 years and identifies characteristics associated with receipt of these services. METHOD Monitoring the...

The purpose of this study was to explore prevalence and predictors of current and lifetime substance use, substance abuse disorder, and polysubstance use among older youth in foster care. Interviews were conducted with 406 17-year old youth (90% of those eligible) in one state's foster care system between December 2001 and June 2003. Forty-five percent of foster care youth reported using alcoho...

OBJECTIVES This study evaluated a sample of emergency department (ED) patients for history of violence and substance abuse. METHODS Injured patients (n = 320) completed questionnaires (14% refusal rate) during a visit to a Level 1 urban ED after an acute injury. Specific questions were asked regarding whether the injury was related to acute violence (AV), whether there was past-year violence ...

The primary aims of the present study were to assess ADHD history as a risk factor for earlier initiation and current use of licit and illicit substances among a sample of drug using adults. It was hypothesized that ADHD history would accelerate the Gateway Theory of drug use. Participants included 941 drug-using African American and Caucasian individuals in Baltimore, Maryland. The sample cons...

BACKGROUND Socioeconomic status (SES) is often inversely related to health outcomes and is likely to play a role in the use of psychoactive substances among young individuals, although little consensus exists on the association between SES and substance use. The purpose of the study was to determine the association of three SES indicators (perceived family income, education level of participant...

Evidence suggests substance abuse in Tanzania is a growing public health problem. A random sample of 899 adults aged 15-59 in two urban sites of differing levels of poverty surveyed alcohol, tobacco and illicit substance use. Rates of substance use were 17.2%. 8.7% and 0.8% for alcohol, tobacco and cannabis, respectively. Living in the less affluent area was associated with higher lifetime rate...

Rural adolescents are at risk for early initiation and problematic substance use, but to date few studies have examined the rural context of substance use. To better understand substance offers in the rural context, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 118, 12-19 year old adolescents (M = 13.68, SD = 1.37) from Appalachian, rural school districts in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Interviews e...

BACKGROUND Dating apps play a major role in connecting men who are interested in meeting other men for sex. Besides finding a partner, these tools are also exploited for other activities such as encouraging people to get involved in the habit of illicit drug consumption (substance use). METHODS This study evaluated the overall usage of dating apps among Thai men who have sex with men (MSMs), ...