scholarly journals Emerging Attitudes Regarding Decriminalization: Predictors of Pro-Drug Decriminalization Attitudes in Canada

2021 ◽  
pp. 002204262110500
Author(s):  
Amy L. MacQuarrie ◽  
Caroline Brunelle
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Male Gender ◽  
Relationship Status ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Problematic Alcohol ◽  
Problematic Alcohol Use ◽  
Drug Decriminalization

Canada and the United States have recently evaluated the decriminalization of drugs as multiple provinces and states put motions forward to consider drug decriminalization legislation. The influence of factors such as demographics, substance use, perceived substance use risk, and personality have not been widely studied in predicting attitudes toward drug decriminalization. A total of 504 participants were drawn from university ( n = 269, 53.37%) and community samples ( n = 235, 46.63%) through online social media groups and posts (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc). Analyses indicated that male gender, single or non-married relationship status, living outside of Atlantic Canada, higher problematic alcohol use scores, lower Extraversion, higher Open-mindedness, and lower perceived risk of using substances emerged as significant predictors of support for drug decriminalization. These findings have important implications as public attitudes toward a substance influence drug policy.

Impaired and Incapacitated Rape Victims: Assault Characteristics and Post-Assault Experiences

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Littleton ◽  
Amie Grills-Taquechel ◽  
Danny Axsom
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Rape Victims ◽  
Self Blame ◽  
Problematic Alcohol ◽  
Assault Victims ◽  
Problematic Alcohol Use ◽  
Assault Characteristics

Alcohol is the most common “rape drug,” with up to two-thirds of victims consuming alcohol prior to the assault. Surprisingly, little research has examined the assault and postassault experiences of victims who were impaired or incapacitated as a result of substance use, including alcohol, during a rape. Thus, the current study evaluated the assault and postassault experiences of a sample of 340 nonimpaired, impaired, and incapacitated college rape victims. Results supported that these three groups differed in several assault characteristics, including threats by the assailant, resistance by the victim, and relationship with the assailant. In addition, impairment and incapacitation were associated with several postassault factors, including self-blame, stigma, and problematic alcohol use. Results also highlighted similarities in victims’ experiences, including levels of postassault distress. Implications of the findings for future research investigating impaired and incapacitated sexual assault victims are discussed.

scholarly journals Parsing Genetically Influenced Risk Pathways: Genetic Loci Impact Problematic Alcohol Use Via Externalizing and Specific Risk

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter B Barr ◽  
Travis T Mallard ◽  
Sandra Sanchez-Roige ◽  
Holly E Poore ◽  
Richard Karlsson Linner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Alcohol Misuse ◽  
Genetic Correlations ◽  
Multivariate Methods ◽  
Problematic Alcohol ◽  
Specific Risk ◽  
Polygenic Scores ◽  
Psychiatric Outcomes ◽  
Problematic Alcohol Use

Importance: Characterizing whether genetic variants for psychiatric outcomes operate via specific versus general pathways provides more informative measures of genetic risk, and, potentially, allows us to design more targeted prevention and interventions. Objective: Employ multivariate methods to tease apart variants associated with problematic alcohol use through either general or specific pathways and compare results to standard univariate genetic analysis of problematic alcohol use. Design: We compared results from a univariate genome wide association study (GWAS) of problematic alcohol use to those from a previous multivariate GWAS of externalizing phenotypes. We identified genetic variants associated with problematic alcohol use through a broad liability to externalizing, and those that remain after removing shared variance with externalizing. We compared these results across SNP overlap, bioannotations, genetic correlations, and polygenic scores. Setting: We included GWAS summary statistics from existing GWAS, and two US based hold out samples: The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) and the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA). Participants: Publicly available GWAS of externalizing behaviors and participants in Add Health (N=5,107) and COGA (N=7,483), limited to individuals of European ancestries. Exposure(s): N/A Main Outcome(s) and Measure(s): Outcomes included problematic alcohol use (ALCP-O), shared risk for externalizing (EXT), and problematic alcohol use-specific risk (ALCP-S) for the GWASs; a preregistered list of 99 available phenotypes for genetic correlations; and substance use, substance use disorder criteria, and alcohol misuse in the polygenic score analyses. Results: The analysis differentiated SNPs operating through common versus specific risk pathways. While ALCP-O was associated with multiple phenotypes, ALCP-S was predominantly associated with alcohol use and other forms of psychopathology. Polygenic scores for ALCP-O were associated with a variety of other forms of substance use and substance use disorders, polygenic scores for ALCP-S were only associated with alcohol phenotypes. Polygenic scores for both ALCP-S and EXT show differential patterns of associations with alcohol misuse across development. Conclusions and Relevance: Focusing on the differential impacts of shared and specific risk can better characterize pathways of risk for alcohol use disorders. Multivariate methods can be a useful tool for studying many psychiatric conditions. Parsing risk pathways will become increasingly relevant as genetic information is incorporated into clinical practice for psychiatric outcomes.

scholarly journals Meta-analysis of problematic alcohol use in 435,563 individuals identifies 29 risk variants and yields insights into biology, pleiotropy and causality

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hang Zhou ◽  
Julia M. Sealock ◽  
Sandra Sanchez-Roige ◽  
Toni-Kim Clarke ◽  
Daniel Levey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Genetic Relationships ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
European Ancestry ◽  
Polygenic Risk Score ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Problematic Alcohol ◽  
Risk Variants ◽  
Problematic Alcohol Use

AbstractProblematic alcohol use (PAU) is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Although genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified PAU risk genes, the genetic architecture of this trait is not fully understood. We conducted a proxy-phenotype meta-analysis of PAU combining alcohol use disorder and problematic drinking in 435,563 European-ancestry individuals. We identified 29 independent risk variants, 19 of them novel. PAU was genetically correlated with 138 phenotypes, including substance use and psychiatric traits. Phenome-wide polygenic risk score analysis in an independent biobank sample (BioVU, n=67,589) confirmed the genetic correlations between PAU and substance use and psychiatric disorders. Genetic heritability of PAU was enriched in brain and in genomic conserved and regulatory regions. Mendelian randomization suggested causal effects on liability to PAU of substance use, psychiatric status, risk-taking behavior, and cognitive performance. In summary, this large PAU meta-analysis identified novel risk loci and revealed genetic relationships with numerous other outcomes.

Social Media Use and Substance Use During Emerging Adulthood

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 364-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine McCauley Ohannessian ◽  
Anna Vannucci ◽  
Kaitlin M. Flannery ◽  
Sarosh Khan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Drug Use ◽  
Emerging Adulthood ◽  
Emerging Adults ◽  
Media Use ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Problematic Alcohol Use

This study examined the relationship between daily time spent using social media and substance use in a national sample of 563 emerging adults from the United States (18- to 22-year-olds, 50% female, 63% non-Hispanic White). Results revealed that males reported more social media use and more substance use in comparison to females. In addition, greater daily social media use was related to more alcohol consumption, more problematic alcohol use, and more frequent drug use. A significant gender × social media use interaction was also observed for drug use, revealing that greater daily social media use was significantly related to more frequent drug use for females but not for males. Results from this study emphasize the importance of considering different types of social media in relation to substance use and abuse during emerging adulthood and the need to examine these relations by gender.

scholarly journals Detection of Problematic Substance Use in the Child Welfare System: A Comparison of Self-Report and Caseworker Report

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen D. Seay
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Drug Use ◽  
Well Being ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Problematic Alcohol ◽  
Problematic Drug ◽  
Problematic Alcohol Use

Using a national sample of American families investigated for child maltreatment, this article compares parental self-report on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test and Drug Abuse Screening Test measures to caseworker report of problematic alcohol and drug use at investigation. Data in this article are from child welfare caseworkers and a subset of parents surveyed in the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being II—primary caregivers (most often the biological mother) whose child remained in the home following investigation ( n = 4,009). Caseworkers identified problematic alcohol use in only 17.7% of the parents who self-reported problematic alcohol use and problematic drug use in 37.6% of the parents who self-reported problematic drug use. Sensitivity and specificity for the detection of problematic alcohol use were 21.5% and 94.8%, respectively, and 65.3% and 83.7% for problematic drug use, respectively. After controlling for the other variables in the model, an allegation of substance use reduced the odds of caseworker detection of problematic alcohol use being consistent with parent self-report (odds ratio [ OR] = 0.45, p < .01) and the odds of caseworker detection of problematic drug use being consistent with parent self-report ( OR = 0.13, p < .001).

scholarly journals Genes identified in rodent studies of alcohol intake are enriched for heritability of human substance use

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spencer B. Huggett ◽  
Emma C. Johnson ◽  
Alexander S. Hatoum ◽  
Dongbing Lai ◽  
Jason A. Bubier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Gene Set ◽  
Problematic Alcohol ◽  
Gene Sets ◽  
Expression Studies ◽  
Gene Expression Studies ◽  
Problematic Alcohol Use

ABSTRACTBackgroundRodent paradigms and human genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on drug use have the potential to provide biological insight into the pathophysiology of addiction.MethodsUsing GeneWeaver, we created rodent alcohol and nicotine gene-sets derived from 19 gene expression studies on alcohol and nicotine outcomes. We partitioned the SNP-heritability of these gene-sets using four large human GWASs: 1) alcoholic drinks per week, 2) problematic alcohol use, 3) cigarettes per day and 4) smoking cessation. We benchmarked our findings with curated human alcoholism and nicotine addiction gene-sets and performed specificity analyses using other rodent gene-sets (e.g., locomotor behavior) and other human GWASs (e.g., height).ResultsThe rodent alcohol gene-set was enriched for heritability of drinks per week, cigarettes per day, and smoking cessation, but not problematic alcohol use. However, the rodent nicotine gene-set was not significantly associated with any of these traits. Both rodent gene-sets showed enrichment for several non-substance use GWASs, and the extent of this relationship tended to increase as a function of trait heritability. In general, larger gene-sets demonstrated more significant enrichment. Finally, when evaluating human traits with similar heritabilities, both rodent gene-sets showed greater enrichment for substance use traits.ConclusionOur results suggest that rodent gene expression studies can help to identify genes that capture heritability of substance use traits in humans, yet the specificity to human substance use was less than expected due to various factors such as the genetic architecture of a trait. We outline various limitations, interpretations and considerations for future research.

Religiousness, Spirituality, and Substance Use: A Genetically Sensitive Examination and Critique

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 340-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph L. Nedelec ◽  
George Richardson ◽  
Ian A. Silver
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Monozygotic Twins ◽  
Spiritual Transformation ◽  
Causal Effects ◽  
Multivariate Models ◽  
Relative Lack ◽  
Substance Use And Abuse ◽  
Problematic Alcohol ◽  
Problematic Alcohol Use

A growing literature has linked religiousness and spirituality (R/S) to substance use and abuse. However, it is not clear that R/S has causal effects on substance use. Currently, there is a relative lack of genetically sensitive examinations in the literature attendant to R/S effects. Given that behavioral genetic analyses have illustrated the influence of genetic factors on substance use and adherence to R/S worldviews, genetic confounding is a concern. The current study employed a sample of monozygotic twins discordant on religiousness, spirituality, and spiritual transformation to assess effects on substance use and abuse. Bivariate and multivariate models indicated a general lack of effect of R/S on substance use and abuse but did illustrate a dampening influence of religiousness on general (but not problematic) alcohol use. The findings highlight the importance of controlling for genetic and shared familial factors in examinations of the religiousness–spirituality–substance use nexus.

Exploring the Moderating Role of Problematic Substance Use in the Relations Between Borderline and Antisocial Personality Features and Intimate Partner Violence

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Armenti ◽  
Alexandra L. Snead ◽  
Julia C. Babcock
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Antisocial Personality ◽  
Problematic Alcohol ◽  
Problematic Substance Use ◽  
Problematic Substance ◽  
Personality Features ◽  
Problematic Alcohol Use

Borderline and antisocial personality features relate to multiple externalizing behaviors, including intimate partner violence (IPV). However, not all individuals with borderline and antisocial traits perpetrate IPV. The strength of the personality-IPV link may be related to problematic substance use. We examined borderline and antisocial personality features, problematic substance use, and IPV in a community sample of couples. Positive relations between both borderline and antisocial features and IPV were stronger in conditions of high problematic alcohol use relative to low problematic alcohol use. Alcohol misuse may be an important factor to consider for IPV reduction in men with these personality features.

Modeling Sexual Assault Risk Perception Among Heterosexual College Females

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan C. Mitchell ◽  
Bailey P. MacLeod ◽  
Jeffrey E. Cassisi
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Comprehensive Model ◽  
Global Risk ◽  
Maladaptive Coping ◽  
Problematic Alcohol ◽  
Problematic Alcohol Use

This investigation utilizes structural equation modeling (SEM) to build and test a comprehensive model of specific and global risk perception. A sample of 325 undergraduate females responded to measures of previous victimization, problematic alcohol use, and maladaptive coping. They also rated perceived risk in multiple hypothetical dating vignettes. The results revealed strong relationships between problematic alcohol use and both decreased specific and increased global risk perception. In addition, previous victimization and maladaptive coping were related to increased global risk perception and specific risk perception, respectively. These findings carry implications for theories of risk perception and point to new approaches for research.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document