Opioids, stimulants, and depressant drugs in fifteen Mexican Cities: A wastewater-based epidemiological study.

Background: Monitoring drug use in México is a challenge due to emerging drugs and rapid changes in consumption patterns. The temporal and geographical patterns of cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamine, MDMA, cannabis, heroin, ketamine, and fentanyl were examined in Mexican cities using wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE).

Methods: 105 daily composite wastewater samples were collected from sewage treatment plants in fifteen Mexican cities.

Opioid Crisis Along Mexico's Northern Border: Treatment Needs Mexican Opioid Crisis.

Background: Heroin production for external markets and low rates of use in Mexico have had a long history. A recent shift toward an increase in use and related problems calls for the evaluation of treatment needs in order to draw recommendations for policies.

Methods: The objectives were to identify predictors of choice of treatment and barriers to care among persons that had been with no treatment.

Fentanyl is used in Mexico's northern border: current challenges for drug health policies.

Background And Aims: Results from a recent study among 750 heroin users in three Mexico's northern border cities revealed an increase in white powder availability (also known as China white) and preference for this product among heroin users, as well as a general perception of increased overdose cases among this population. Here, we questioned whether those findings reflect an increased presence of heroin laced with fentanyl, which is associated with greater risks of overdose but that, until now, has not been described in Mexico.

Design: We tested fentanyl using highly sensitive test strips in syringe plungers, metal cookers and drug wrappings associated with heroin use.

Factors Associated with Sexual Debut in Mexican Adolescents: Results of the National Survey on Drug Use among Students in 2014.

Introduction: Although first sexual experience (understood as first sexual intercourse) is one of the most commonly assessed characteristics of adolescents, recent research emphasizes the importance of understanding other related social factors. This study highlights factors associated with first sexual experience in a nationally representative sample of adolescent students in Mexico.

Aims: The goals of this study were (i) to determine the proportion of adolescents aged 12-17 who had had their first sexual experience; (ii) to identify the factors associated with first sexual experience; and (iii) to analyze the conditions (condom use, substance use) in which first sexual experience takes place.

Social factors, weight perception, and weight control practices among adolescents in Mexico.

We evaluated the association of social factors and weight control practices in adolescents, and the mediation of this association by weight perception, in a national survey of students in Mexico ( n = 28,266). We employed multinomial and Poisson regression models and Sobel's test to assess mediation. Students whose mothers had a higher level of education were more likely to perceive themselves as overweight and also to engage in weight control practices.

Barriers to accessing substance abuse treatment in Mexico: national comparative analysis by migration status.

Background: We examined Mexican migrants' perceived barriers to entering substance abuse treatment and potential differences by gender.

Methods: This study analyzed a subset of household data collected in Mexico in 2011 via the Encuesta Nacional de Adicciones (National Survey of Addictions). A sample of 1,143 individuals who reported using illicit drugs was analyzed using multivariate negative binomial models to determine direct and moderated relationships of gender, migrant status, and drug dependence with perceived barriers to accessing treatment.

Mexicans' use of illicit drugs in an era of drug reform: national comparative analysis by migrant status.

Background: Although rates of illicit drug use are considerably lower in Mexico than in the United States, rates in Mexico have risen significantly. This increase has particular implications for Mexican women and US migrants, who are considered at increased risk of drug use. Due to drug reforms enacted in Mexico in 2008, it is critical to evaluate patterns of drug use among migrants who reside in both regions.

[Drugs and public health: where are we heading to?].

This paper describes a plan for the attention of addictions from a public health perspective; it defines strengths of this perspective and its limitations to face the special challenges that the problem represents for social policies; adopts a wider perspective that includes the integration of health and social issues in measuring policy results having as a main aim the benefit of the person and of the communities with a perspective of the populations well being. It describes the challenge the country faces as producer, route of traffic and rates of consumption, analyzes briefly the evidence of public policies and makes a series of recommendations.

Volatile substance misuse in Mexico: correlates and trends.

This paper analyzes volatile substance misuse in Mexico since the 1980s. Data were collected from national household and school surveys, epidemiological surveillance systems, and studies among special populations. Volatile substance misuse begins at 12-14 years.

Prevalence and correlates of drug use disorders in Mexico.

Objective: To describe the prevalence of drug use disorders, the correlates of drug use, and the utilization of specialized treatment services for drug users among the Mexican urban population 18-65 years old.

Methods: The data were collected in 2001 and 2002 in the Mexican National Comorbidity Survey. The sample design was stratified probabilistically for six geographical areas of the country in a multistage process for census count areas, city blocks, groups of households, and individuals.

Prevalence, service use, and demographic correlates of 12-month DSM-IV psychiatric disorders in Mexico: results from the Mexican National Comorbidity Survey.

Background: This paper describes the 12-month prevalence, severity and demographic correlates of 16 DSM-IV psychiatric disorders and service utilization in the Mexican urban population aged 18-65 years of age. This is representative of 75% of the national adult population.

Method: The sample design was a strict probability selection scheme.

[Drugs use among adolescents: results from the National Survey on Addictions, 1998].

Objective: The aim of this paper is to describe drug and associated factors use among adolescents (12 to 17 years of age).

Material And Methods: Data come from the recent Encuesta Nacional de Adicciones, 1998 (National Survey on Addictions) undertaken in urban areas of Mexico. A probabilistic, multi-stage, stratified cluster sampling design was used to select the study population.

[From tobacco use to other drugs use: does the early use of tobacco increase the probability of use of other drugs].

Objective: To assess the likelihood of substance abuse predicted by age of first exposure to tobacco.

Material And Methods: Data from the 1998 National Household Survey on Addictions in urban areas were analyzed.

Results: The age period of greater likelihood of drug experimentation is between 15 and 19 years; only 5.