Efficacy of the Young Women's CoOp: An HIV Risk-Reduction Intervention for Substance-Using African-American Female Adolescents in the South.

HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk-reduction interventions are needed to address the complex risk behaviors among African-American female adolescents in disadvantaged communities in North Carolina. In a two-group randomized trial, we reached 237 sexually active, substance-using African-American female adolescents, to test a risk-reduction intervention, the Young Women's CoOp (YWC), relative to a nutrition control. In efficacy analyses adjusting for baseline condom use, at three-month follow-up participants in the YWC were significantly less likely to report sex without a condom at last sex relative to control.

Physical pain is common and associated with nonmedical prescription opioid use among people who inject drugs.

Background: People who inject drugs (PWID) often have poor health and lack access to health care. The aim of this study was to examine whether PWID engage in self-treatment through nonmedical prescription opioid use (NMPOU). We describe the prevalence and features of self-reported physical pain and its association with NMPOU.

Prescription drug monitoring programs, nonmedical use of prescription drugs, and heroin use: Evidence from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health.

In the United States, nonmedical prescription opioid use is a major public health concern. Various policy initiatives have been undertaken to tackle this crisis, including state prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs). This study uses the 2004-2014 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and exploits state-level variation in the timing of PDMP implementation and PDMP characteristics to investigate whether PDMPs are associated with a reduction in prescription opioid misuse or whether they have the unintended consequence of increasing heroin use.

Tasty THC: Promises and Challenges of Cannabis Edibles.

Food products containing cannabis extract (edibles) have emerged as a popular and lucrative facet of the legalized market for both recreational and medicinal cannabis. The many formulations of cannabis extracts used in edibles present a unique regulatory challenge for policy makers. Though edibles are often considered a safe, discreet, and effective means of attaining the therapeutic and/or intoxicating effects of cannabis without exposure to the potentially harmful risks of cannabis smoking, little research has evaluated how ingestion differs from other methods of cannabis administration in terms of therapeutic efficacy, subjective effects, and safety.

Behavioral characteristics and injection practices associated with skin and soft tissue infections among people who inject drugs: A community-based observational study.

Background: People who inject drugs (PWID) are at increased risk for bacterial skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs). Although SSTIs pose significant health risks, little is known about their prevalence and characteristics in the population of PWID in the United States. This study investigates whether behavioral factors related to skin and equipment hygiene and tissue-damaging injection practices are associated with recent SSTIs among PWID.

Nonmedical use of prescription drugs in the European Union.

Background: Nonmedical prescription drug use (NMPDU) refers to the self-treatment of a medical condition using medication without a prescriber's authorization as well as use to achieve euphoric states. This article reports data from a cross-national investigation of NMPDU in five European Countries, with the aim to understand the prevalence and characteristics of those engaging in NMPDU across the EU.

Methods: A parallel series of self-administered, cross-sectional, general population surveys were conducted in 2014.

Prescription pain reliever misuse and levels of pain impairment: 3-year course in a nationally representative outpatient sample of US adults.

Background: The primary aim of this work was to present the prevalence data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), a representative 3-year longitudinal survey (ages 18+ years) that captured information on patterns of self-reported pain interference and prescription pain reliever misuse. A second aim was to assess the degree to which the risk of various types of opioid misuse (onset, desistance, and incidence of dependence) was related to the longitudinal course of self-reported pain interference over the 3-year period.

Methods: We used a two-wave, nationally representative sample of adults (aged 18+ years) in which the baseline data were collected during 2001-2002 and a single follow-up was obtained ~3 years later (2004-2005 with 34,332 respondents with complete data on study variables for both waves).

Neurocognitive Characteristics of Early Marijuana Use Initiation in Adolescents: A Signature Mapping Analysis.

Objective: Prior studies of the association between neurocognitive functions and marijuana use among adolescents are mostly cross-sectional and conducted in adolescents who have already initiated marijuana use. The current study used a longitudinal design on a preadolescent, substance-naive sample. We sought to identify demographic factors associated with neurocognitive functions and the complement of neurocognitive function characteristics that predict marijuana initiation in adolescents.

Association between self-reports of being high and perceptions about the safety of drugged and drunk driving.

This study examines the relationship between self-reports of being high on marijuana and perceptions about driving high or drunk. Data were collected in 2014 from an online convenience sample of adult, past 30-day marijuana and hashish users in Colorado and Washington (n = 865). Respondents were asked, "Were you high or feeling the effects of marijuana or hashish when you took this survey?" Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between being high and beliefs about driving high, controlling for demographics and marijuana use.

The male factor: Outcomes from a cluster randomized field experiment with a couples-based HIV prevention intervention in a South African township.

Background: This study examined the effects of the Couples Health CoOp intervention on heavy drinking, condom use, and HIV incidence.

Methods: Thirty neighborhoods from one South African township were cluster randomized into three intervention arms: Couples Health CoOp (CHC), Women's Health CoOp/Men's Health CoOp (WHC/MHC), or a comparison arm. We recruited 290 men from informal drinking establishments who reported drinking alcohol regularly.

Correlates of Marijuana Drugged Driving and Openness to Driving While High: Evidence from Colorado and Washington.

Aims: A potential unintended consequence of legalizing recreational marijuana is increased marijuana-related driving impairment. Some states where recreational marijuana is legal have begun implementing interventions to mitigate driving under the influence (DUI) of marijuana, including media campaigns to increase knowledge about DUI laws. However, little is known about the associations between knowledge of DUI laws and marijuana DUI behavior.

Nonmedical prescription pain reliever and alcohol consumption among cannabis users.

Background: This study examined poly-drug use involving the use of cannabis with nonmedical prescription pain reliever use (NMPR) and alcohol use.

Methods: Computer-assisted survey data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health were examined. The NSDUH is an annual, cross-sectional survey of non-institutionalized citizens in the United States (ages 12+).

Initiation of Heroin and Prescription Opioid Pain Relievers by Birth Cohort.

We examined initiation patterns among different birth cohorts of people who used prescription opioids and heroin because of historical differences in drug use availability. We examined data from a community-based study of persons who inject drugs (n = 483) in California and a general population survey from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (n = 1264) and found that individuals born after 1980 were more likely than were individuals born before 1980 to initiate opioids through nonmedical use of prescription opioids than heroin.

Is cannabis use associated with less opioid use among people who inject drugs?

Background: Clinical, experimental, and ethnographic research suggests that cannabis may be used to help manage pain. Ethnographic research has revealed that some people are using cannabis to temper their illicit opioid use. We seek to learn if there is an association between cannabis use and the frequency of nonmedical opioid use among people who inject drugs (PWID).

The mental health consequences of nonmedical prescription drug use among adolescents.

Background: Nonmedical prescription drug use is estimated to be the second most abused category of drugs after marijuana among adolescents. Prescription drugs can be highly addictive and prolonged use can produce neurological changes and physiological dependence and could result in adverse mental health outcomes. This topic is largely unexplored, as current knowledge of possible mechanisms of the linkage between adverse mental health consequences and prescription drug misuse is limited.

Novel genetic locus implicated for HIV-1 acquisition with putative regulatory links to HIV replication and infectivity: a genome-wide association study.

Fifty percent of variability in HIV-1 susceptibility is attributable to host genetics. Thus identifying genetic associations is essential to understanding pathogenesis of HIV-1 and important for targeting drug development. To date, however, CCR5 remains the only gene conclusively associated with HIV acquisition.

School and work status, drug-free workplace protections, and prescription drug misuse among Americans ages 15-25.

Objective: We assessed the prevalence and characteristics of prescription drug misuse among youth ages 15-25 to examine differences by student and employment status, and associations with workplace antidrug policies and programs.

Method: Multivariate logistic regressions analyzed associations in weighted data on the 20,457 young adults in the combined 2004-2008 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health. Demographic controls included sex, race, community size, and age group.

Detecting initiation or risk for initiation of substance use before high school during pediatric well-child check-ups.

Background: Youth substance use (SU) is prevalent and costly, affecting mental and physical health. American Academy of Pediatrics and Affordable Care Act call for SU screening and prevention. The Youth Risk Index(©) (YRI) was tested as a screening tool for having initiated and propensity to initiate SU before high school (which forecasts SU disorder).

Promethazine use among chronic pain patients.

Background: Concomitant use of opioids and promethazine has been reported in various subpopulations, including methadone maintenance patients, injection drug users, and at-risk teenagers. Promethazine is thought to potentiate the "high" from opioids. However, to date, the prevalence of promethazine use has not been determined among patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain.

The biobehavioral Women's Health CoOp in Pretoria, South Africa: study protocol for a cluster-randomized design.

Background: South Africa has 6.4 million adults over the age of 15 living with HIV. Gender inequality issues continue to drive the HIV epidemic in South Africa, where Black African women bear the greatest HIV burden.

Alcohol and drug use outcomes among vulnerable women living with HIV: results from the Western Cape Women's Health CoOp.

Alcohol and other drug use can negatively affect adherence to and retention in antiretroviral therapy (ART) among people living with HIV/AIDS. Yet, there are few brief interventions that reduce these behaviors among this population. This article presents the findings from a randomized field experiment that assessed the effects of a woman-focused intervention (the Women's Health CoOp [WHC]) on reducing alcohol and other drug use among vulnerable women in Cape Town, South Africa.

Experiences of violence and association with decreased drug abstinence among women in Cape Town, South Africa.

Drug abuse is a contributing factor in women's HIV risk in low-income communities in Cape Town, South Africa. This study assessed whether experiencing violence is associated with reduced drug abstinence among adult women (n = 603) participating in a randomized field trial for an HIV prevention study in Cape Town. In relation to drug abstinence at 12-month follow-up, multivariable regression models were used to assess (1) baseline partner and non-partner victimization, and (2) victimization at 12-month follow-up among participants reporting baseline victimization.