The Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccines During the Pre-Omicron and Omicron Periods: A Retrospective Test-Negative Case-Control Study.

Background: The aim of this study was to estimate the effectiveness of original and bivalent COVID-19 vaccines in reducing COVID-19-associated hospitalizations among the adult population of Turin, Italy.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, test-negative, case-control study of 5768 adults aged ≥50 years who had symptoms that were consistent with COVID-19-like illness and were admitted to the hospitals of the Turin Health Unit network from 1 January 2021 to 31 January 2023. We evaluated the effectiveness of the vaccines that at the time of the study were authorized in the European Union (original/bivalent BNT162b2; original mRNA-1273; ChAdOx1-S; Ad26.

Evaluation of Effectiveness of the Unplugged Program on Gambling Behaviours among Adolescents: Study Protocol of the Experimental Controlled Study "GAPUnplugged".

Gambling risk behaviour is an emerging problem among adolescents. "Unplugged" is an effective Social Influence curriculum for preventing substance use among students. This study aims to develop and test a new component focused on gambling added to the Unplugged program.

Effects of the "Unplugged" school-based substance use prevention program in Nigeria: A cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: School-based programs are the most convenient interventions to tackle substance use among youth. "Unplugged" is a Social Influence universal school curriculum developed and tested in the "EU-Dap" project. In 2015, Nigeria implemented a large-scale project to promote healthy lifestyles in schools, families and communities.

Correlates of alcohol experimentation and drunkenness episodes among secondary-school students in Nigeria.

Alcohol is the most used substance among adolescents in Nigeria. While risk factors for alcohol use among adolescents are well documented in Europe and the US, they have received less attention in the literature on African countries. This study aimed to investigate the factors associated with alcohol experimentation and drunkenness episodes in a national sample of Nigerian adolescents.

Does parental permissiveness toward cigarette smoking and alcohol use influence illicit drug use among adolescents? A longitudinal study in seven European countries.

Purpose: Adolescents' perceptions of parental norms may influence their substance use. The relationship between parental norms toward cigarette and alcohol use, and the use of illicit substances among their adolescent children is not sufficiently investigated. The purpose of this study was to analyze this relationship, including gender differences, using longitudinal data from a large population-based study.

Prevalence of cocaine use and cocaine use disorder among adult patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

We conducted this systematic review and meta-analysis (registered with PROSPERO CRD42020142039) of the literature to estimate the lifetime prevalence of cocaine use and cocaine use disorder among adult patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The literature search was performed on the electronic databases PubMed and PsychINFO without date or language restrictions. Additional studies were identified by hand searching of citations.

Identification of harmful drinking in subjects who have had their driving license suspended due to alcohol use: a retrospective Italian study.

Objective: Early identification of Harmful Drinking (HD) is difficult, and underestimated. The aim of our retrospective study was to investigate the presence of HD in a population of subjects who had their driving license suspended due to driving under the influence of alcohol.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively recruited 979 subjects.

Opioid overdose risk during and after drug treatment for heroin dependence: An incidence density case-control study nested in the VEdeTTE cohort.

Introduction And Aims: To corroborate protective effects of a range of drug treatment modalities against overdose mortality risk.

Design And Methods: Nested case-control study, with incidence density sampling, selecting controls retrospectively at each case event. Cases and controls came from a sub-cohort of opioid-dependent patients (n = 4444) from two Italian regions (Lazio and Piedmont).

Socio-economic differences in factors associated with alcohol use among adolescents in Slovenia: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: This paper aims to investigate the association of parental, friends, and personal factors with the risk of alcohol use in a sample of Slovenian adolescents, and whether these associations differ by socio-economic status of the school area (SES).

Methods: The survey involved 2946 students of 44 Slovenian primary schools in the school year 2010/2011. The association between sociodemographic characteristics, parental alcohol use and permissiveness to drink, parental monitoring, perception of friends' alcohol use, beliefs towards alcohol, self-esteem and refusal skills, and the probability of recent alcohol use was evaluated through multiple multilevel logistic regression analysis.

Do the socioeconomic context and the European geographical area modify parental influences on smoking experimentation among adolescents?

Adolescent smoking is a major public health problem. While the socioeconomic status (SES) of the neighbourhood and that of the family are known to play a role in smoking onset and progression, it is not clear whether it modifies the association between parental influences and adolescent behaviour. The purpose of this study is to investigate family correlates of adolescent smoking experimentation and to explore the modifying role of socioeconomic context and European geographical area in a sample of European adolescents.

Knowledge, attitudes and behaviours on tobacco, alcohol and other drugs among Nigerian secondary school students: Differences by geopolitical zones.

Introduction And Aims: Nigeria is composed of six geopolitical zones plus one Federal Capital Territory. Differences between zones can differentially influence the adoption of risk behaviours by adolescents. This paper aims to describe the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, risk perception, skills and substance use among Nigerian secondary school students highlighting the differences by geopolitical zone.

Outcomes of integrated management versus specialized care for patients with type 2 diabetes: An observational study.

Aims: To compare type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients included in a Diabetes Integrated Management (DIM) program with those followed in Diabetes Specialized Care (DSC), investigating differences in general characteristics, changes in clinical outcomes, and factors related with the inclusion in the DIM program.

Methods: T2D patients living in the ASLTO3 district and included into the DIM program, a shared disease management between general practitioners and diabetes specialists, from 2008 to 2014 were compared with T2D patients living in the same district and in charge of the local DSC. Demographic, anthropometric and clinical data for both groups of patients were obtained from the electronic records of DSC.

Problematic internet use among high school students: Prevalence, associated factors and gender differences.

This study aimed to measure the prevalence of Problematic Internet Use (PIU) among high school students and to identify factors associated with PIU underlining gender differences. The students filled a self-administered, anonymous questionnaire collecting information on demographic characteristics and patterns of Internet use. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with PIU in the overall sample and by gender.

Factors Predicting Patient's Allocation to Short- and Long-Term Therapeutic Community Treatments in the Italian VOECT Cohort Study.

The Evaluation of Therapeutic Community Treatments and Outcomes (VOECT) study was conducted in 131 Italian Therapeutic Communities (TCs) in 2008/2009. All of the patients entering residential treatment for drug or alcohol dependence were invited to participate. Data regarding patient socio-demographic characteristics, drug and alcohol consumption, health and psychopathological status, prior treatments and outcomes, and their motivation score were collected upon enrolment onto the study.

Gender Differences in Heroin Addiction and Treatment: Results from the VEdeTTE Cohort.

Background: Gender differences strongly affect heroin addiction, from risk factors to patterns of consumption, access to treatments, and outcomes.

Objectives: To investigate gender differences in the VEdeTTE cohort of heroin addicts.

Methods: VEdeTTE is a cohort of 10,454 heroin users enrolled between 1998 and 2001 in 115 public drug treatment centres in Italy.

18F-FDG PET/CT in the post-operative monitoring of patients with adrenocortical carcinoma.

Context: The role of (18)F-labeled 2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in the post-operative monitoring of patients with adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is still unclear.

Objective: To assess the accuracy of FDG PET/CT to diagnose ACC recurrence in a real world setting.

Design And Methods: Retrospective evaluation of data of 57 patients with presumed ACC recurrence at CT scan who underwent FDG PET/CT within a median time of 20 days.

The theoretical model of the school-based prevention programme Unplugged.

Unplugged is a school-based prevention programme designed and tested in the EU-Dap trial. The programme consists of 12 units delivered by class teachers to adolescents 12-14 years old. It is a strongly interactive programme including a training of personal and social skills with a specific focus on normative beliefs.

Psychopathological symptoms of patients with heroin addiction entering opioid agonist or therapeutic community treatment.

Background: The relationship between substance use disorders and psychiatric pathology is still an open question. The main aim of the present study was to verify whether the five psychopathological dimensions identified through the SCL-90 tool in a previous study carried out on patients with heroin addiction entering an outpatient opioid agonist treatment (OAT) were also observable in those entering a residential treatment community (TC). Further aims were to look at differences in the psychopathological profiles of patients entering a TC versus an OAT treatment and at the correlation between gender and the observed psychopathology.