The social norms of birth cohorts and adolescent marijuana use in the United States, 1976-2007.

Aims: Studies of the relationship between social norms and marijuana use have generally focused on individual attitudes, leaving the influence of larger societal-level attitudes unknown. The present study investigated societal-level disapproval of marijuana use defined by birth cohort or by time-period.

Design: Combined analysis of nationally representative annual surveys of secondary school students in the United States conducted from 1976 to 2007 as part of the Monitoring the Future study.

Nicotine dependence, abuse and craving: dimensionality in an Israeli sample.

Aims: Evidence-based changes planned for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5th edition (DSM-5) substance use disorders (SUDs) include combining dependence and three of the abuse criteria into one disorder and adding a criterion indicating craving. Because DSM-IV did not include a category for nicotine abuse, little empirical support is available for aligning the nicotine use disorder criteria with the DSM-5 criteria for other SUDs.

Design: Latent variable analyses, bootstrap tests and likelihood ratio tests were used to explore the unidimensionality, psychometric properties and information of the nicotine criteria.

Impact of HMG-CoA reductase inhibition on oxidant-induced injury in human retinal pigment epithelium cells.

In addition to cholesterol-lowering effect, HMG-CoA reductase inhibition by statins has been shown to have protective effect in many cells type. The loss of vision in retinal degeneration disease associates with oxidative stress and apoptosis in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell. This study was designed to examine the effect of statins on oxidant-induced damage in human RPE cells.

Levels of risk: maternal-, middle childhood-, and neighborhood-level predictors of adolescent disinhibitory behaviors from a longitudinal birth cohort in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: Disruptive behavior in adolescence may indicate a broad vulnerability to disinhibition, which begins in childhood and culminates in adult externalizing psychopathology. We utilized prospective birth cohort data to assess childhood predictors of adolescent disinhibition. We also examined the effect of pre-adolescent fluctuation in cognitive ability.

Stressful life experiences, alcohol consumption, and alcohol use disorders: the epidemiologic evidence for four main types of stressors.

Background: Exposure to stress is potentially important in the pathway to alcohol use and alcohol use disorders. Stressors occur at multiple time points across the life course, with varying degrees of chronicity and severity.

Method: We review evidence from epidemiologic studies on the relationship between four different stressors (fateful/catastrophic events, child maltreatment, common adult stressful life events in interpersonal, occupational, financial, and legal domains, and minority stress) and alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorders.

Family history of alcohol use disorders among adults with panic disorder in the community.

Objective: Clinical studies suggest a familial association between panic disorder and alcohol use disorders but this relationship has not been examined in a representative community sample. The objective of this study is to examine the familial association between panic disorder and alcohol use disorders among adults in the community.

Method: Data were drawn from the NESARC, a nationally representative sample of over 43,000 adults in the United States.

The protective effects of social/contextual factors on psychiatric morbidity in LGB populations.

Background: Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) populations evidence higher rates of psychiatric disorders than heterosexuals, but most LGB individuals do not have mental-health problems. The present study examined risk modifiers at the social/contextual level that may protect LGB individuals from the development of psychiatric disorders.

Methods: Data are drawn from Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (N = 34,653), a nationally representative study of non-institutionalized US adults.

Mental health service utilization for psychiatric disorders among Latinos living in the United States: the role of ethnic subgroup, ethnic identity, and language/social preferences.

Purpose: To examine aspects of Latino experience in the US as predicting service utilization for mood, anxiety, and substance disorders.

Methods: Latino participants 18 and older in the NESARC (N = 6,359), a US national face to face survey. Outcomes were lifetime service utilization for DSM-IV lifetime mood/anxiety or substance disorders, diagnosed via structured interview (AUDADIS-IV).

Relationship of personality disorders to the course of major depressive disorder in a nationally representative sample.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of specific personality disorder comorbidity on the course of major depressive disorder in a nationally representative sample.

Method: Data were drawn from 1,996 participants in a national survey. Participants who met criteria for major depressive disorder at baseline in face-to-face interviews (in 2001-2002) were reinterviewed 3 years later (in 2004-2005) to determine persistence and recurrence.

Stress, coping, and depression: testing a new hypothesis in a prospectively studied general population sample of U.S.-born Whites and Blacks.

The scarcity of empirically supported explanations for the Black/White prevalence difference in depression in the U.S. is a conspicuous gap in the literature.

Stigma and treatment for alcohol disorders in the United States.

Among a nationally representative sample of adults with an alcohol use disorder, the authors tested whether perceived stigmatization of alcoholism was associated with a lower likelihood of receiving alcohol-related services. Data were drawn from a face-to-face epidemiologic survey of 34,653 adults interviewed in 2004-2005 who were aged 20 years or older and residing in households and group quarters in the United States. Alcohol abuse/dependence was diagnosed by using the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule-Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, version (AUDADIS-IV).

Borderline personality disorder co-morbidity: relationship to the internalizing-externalizing structure of common mental disorders.

Background: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) shows high levels of co-morbidity with an array of psychiatric disorders. The meaning and causes of this co-morbidity are not fully understood. Our objective was to investigate and clarify the complex co-morbidity of BPD by integrating it into the structure of common mental disorders.

A multiphase method for estimating cohort effects in age-period contingency table data.

Purpose: Understanding the effects of age, period, and cohort on disease morbidity and mortality may help identify etiological factors and inform prevention programs. We illustrate a three-phase method that conceptualizes the cohort effect as a partial interaction between age and period. As an example of application, we analyze homicide mortality data for males in the United States from 1935 through 2004.

The role of a prescription in anxiety medication use, abuse, and dependence.

Objective: Prescriptions for anxiety medications have increased substantially in recent years. Individuals with anxiety disorders are at risk of nonmedical use of these medications, but information about whether this risk is elevated among patients with a prescription for such medications is lacking. The authors compared risk of nonmedical use in individuals in a national sample with and without a prescription for anxiety medication and identified characteristics associated with nonmedical use.

Responses to discrimination and psychiatric disorders among Black, Hispanic, female, and lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.

Objectives: We examined associations between perceived discrimination due to race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender; responses to discrimination experiences; and psychiatric disorders.

Methods: The sample included respondents in the 2004-2005 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (n = 34 653). We analyzed the associations between self-reported past-year discrimination and past-year psychiatric disorders as assessed with structured diagnostic interviews among Black (n = 6587); Hispanic (n = 6359); lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB; n = 577); and female (n = 20 089) respondents.

Birth-cohort trends in lifetime and past-year prescription opioid-use disorder resulting from nonmedical use: results from two national surveys.

Objective: This study aims to test whether recent increases in the reported prevalence of opioid-use disorder in the United States occurred across all age groups (period effect), consistently only among younger age groups (age effect), or varied according to year of birth (cohort effects).

Method: Joint analysis of data from the 1991-1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey (NLAES) and the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), focusing on individuals ages 18-57, grouped by 10-year age intervals. Sample sizes for the present analyses were 30,846 for the NLAES and 31,397 for the NESARC.

The dimensionality of alcohol use disorders: results from Israel.

Aims: To prepare for DSM-V, the structure of DSM-IV alcohol dependence and abuse criteria and a proposed additional criterion, at-risk drinking, require study in countries with low per-capita consumption, and comparison of current and lifetime results within the same sample. We investigated DSM-IV Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) criteria in Israel, where per-capita alcohol consumption is low.

Methods: Household residents selected from the Israeli population register (N=1338) were interviewed with the AUDADIS.

Alcohol craving and the dimensionality of alcohol disorders.

Background: ICD-10 includes a craving criterion for alcohol dependence while DSM-IV does not. Little is known about whether craving fits with or improves the DSM-IV criteria set for alcohol-use disorders.

Method: Data were derived from current drinkers (n=18 352) in the 1991-1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey (NLAES), a nationally representative survey of US adults >17 years of age.

Telescoping and gender differences in alcohol dependence: new evidence from two national surveys.

Objective: The course of alcohol disorders in women is often described as "telescoped" compared to that in men, with a later age at initiation of alcohol use but shorter times from use to dependence and treatment. This study examined evidence for such a telescoping effect in the general population and tested birth cohort effects for gender differences.

Method: Data from two U.

Resolvin E1 protects the rat heart against reperfusion injury.

The purpose of the present study was to assess whether resolvin E1 (RvE1), an anti-inflammatory mediator derived from eicosapentaenoic acid, would limit myocardial infarct size in the rat. The H9c2 cell line was used to assess whether RvE1 has direct protective effects on cardiomyocytes. In in vivo experiments, Male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent 30 min of ischemia/4 h of reperfusion.

Additive effect of TAK-491, a new angiotensin receptor blocker, and pioglitazone, in reducing myocardial infarct size.

Purpose: We assessed the effects of TAK-491 (a newly designed potent and selective ARB) alone and in combination with pioglitazone (PIO) on myocardial infarct size (IS).

Methods: Rats received TAK-491 (0.3, 1, 3, or 10 mgkg(-1)d(-1)), PIO (1.

The myocardial infarct size-limiting effect of sitagliptin is PKA-dependent, whereas the protective effect of pioglitazone is partially dependent on PKA.

Pioglitazone (PIO) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogs limit infarct size (IS) in experimental models. The effects of the dipeptidyl-peptidase-IV inhibitors, which increase the endogenous levels of GLP-1, on myocardial protection, are unknown. We studied whether sitagliptin (SIT) and PIO have additive effects on IS limitation in the mouse.