Emotional reactivity and difficulties in emotional regulation in drug users: a study in adolescents undergoing treatment in a therapeutic community

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate which emotions and difficulties in the emotional regulation of adolescents with illicit substance consumption. Design/methodology/approach In total, 41 adolescents undergoing treatment for the use of alcohol and drugs were recruited. The instruments used were the emotional rating scale and the difficulties in the regulation of emotions scale. Findings Emotional reactivity showed significant differences in the sadness dimension in relation to the number of cannabis cigarettes smoked daily and length of stay, and in the surprise dimension in relation to the number of cannabis cigarettes smoked daily. There was a significant correlation between happiness and age, surprise and number of siblings, sadness and school absenteeism and fear, school absenteeism and number of substances consumed. In regard to difficulties in emotional regulation, there were significant differences between the groups, in strategies regarding the gender of the participants and the number of substances consumed, in non-acceptance and impulses and in the number of substances consumed and in the awareness of the type and number of substances consumed. There was a significant correlation between strategies, non-acceptance, awareness and impulses and the number of substances consumed. Originality/value This study demonstrated that the emotional problems of adolescents admitted to a therapeutic community are predictors of illicit substance use.

The efficacy of multimodal intervention program on mental health states

Filipino youths are the hope of Philippine society. However, cigarette smoking and binge drinking continually corrupt this aspiration. Mental health states interplay with the growing setback of substance consumption. The main objective of the study is to determine the efficacy of the multimodal intervention program among the participants in this study. Specifically, it answers the following objectives: i) Develop an intervention program to address the high anxiety, mild depression, and normal self-esteem of the participants and ii) Determine the significant difference between the control group and the experimental group in the pre-test and post-test intervention measures. A matched-group experimental design was carried out among the participants who were randomly assigned to the control group and the experimental group. There were forty participants who met the criteria set by the researchers. When the multimodal intervention program was tested using t-test to analyze the findings at .05 level, it yielded significant results. Based on the findings of the study, the developed multimodal intervention program appeared to be effective. A follow-up study may be conducted to further test the efficacy.

Psychoactive substance consumption: A Portuguese cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Increasing consumption of psychoactive substances is a major social concern worldwide. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of psychoactive substances consumption in the Portuguese, throughout their life as well as recently, and the main reasons for the consumption and associated factors. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was based on the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) applied to a sample of 385 Portuguese obtained for convenience. It was used descriptive statistics, the Cui-square, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests, with a significance level of 5%. RESULTS: Alcohol was the most consumed throughout life (86%), followed by xanthines (79%) and tobacco (60%). In the last 3 months, xanthines (49%) were the most consumed daily, followed by tobacco (22%) and alcohol (9%). Socializing was the main reason for consumption of alcohol (67%), tobacco (36%) and cannabis (34%) while anxiolytics have been used to sleep (50%) and xanthines to increase cognitive capacity (35%). Tobacco (p = 0.016), alcohol (p = 0.03) and illicit substances (p < 0.001) were more consumed by men and anxiolytics by women (p = 0.027). Alcohol (p = 0.008), cannabis (p = 0.027), and xanthines (p = 0.009) were mostly consumed by young adults. CONCLUSIONS: The results reveal sporadic and recreational use of illicit substances, and regular use of alcohol, tobacco and xanthines, mostly by young adults and men, and anxiolytics by women. Socializing was the main reason for psychoactive substances consumption.

Distinct motivations to seek out information in healthy individuals and problem gamblers

As massive amounts of information are becoming available to people, understanding the mechanisms underlying information-seeking is more pertinent today than ever. In this study, we investigate the underlying motivations to seek out information in healthy and addicted individuals. We developed a novel decision-making task and a novel computational model which allows dissociating the relative contribution of two motivating factors to seek out information: a desire for novelty and a general desire for knowledge. To investigate whether/how the motivations to seek out information vary between healthy and addicted individuals, in addition to healthy controls we included a sample of individuals with gambling disorder—a form of addiction without the confound of substance consumption and characterized by compulsive gambling. Our results indicate that healthy subjects and problem gamblers adopt distinct information-seeking “modes”. Healthy information-seeking behavior was mostly motivated by a desire for novelty. Problem gamblers, on the contrary, displayed reduced novelty-seeking and an increased desire for accumulating knowledge compared to healthy controls. Our findings not only shed new light on the motivations driving healthy and addicted individuals to seek out information, but they also have important implications for the treatment and diagnosis of behavioral addiction.

A Network Analysis of Substance Consumption Patterns among Students of Public Schools in Mozambique

This study aimed to identify the main patterns of alcohol and tobacco consumption among adolescents and its risk factors. Participants were 208 eighth, ninth, and tenth-grade students (65.3% female, 34.7% male) in Maputo, Mozambique, whose ages ranged from 12 to 18 years old (M=14.88; SD=1.29). The study sought to investigate the association between sociodemographic features, academic performance, positive and negative beliefs about drugs, and its consumption patterns among teenagers in Mozambique through network analyses. The results showed high alcohol consumption with early-onset, in the age group ranging from 11 to 13 years old. The frequency of tobacco consumption is related to understanding the positive aspects of smoking, expansiveness, and confidence. The present study contributes to the knowledge of the prevalence of these substances’ consumption in the school community. It may be useful to design strategies for prevention and intervention on alcohol and tobacco consumption by adolescents. The key limitations are the sample exclusively from Maputo and the cross-sectional design. Future studies should thus investigate the patterns of licit and illicit drug consumption among teenagers from other places and use a longitudinal design.

Long-Term Profiles of Bullying Victims and Aggressors: A Retrospective Study

Bullying is a widespread and worrying phenomenon, related to many different personal, behavioral, and social variables which can modulate it and its outcomes, also in the long term. These relationships are usually studied in children and adolescents, but less often in adults who have suffered or perpetrated bullying in the past. The present work explored the long-term characteristics of bullying victims and aggressors using a retrospective design. A sample of 138 adults of different ages completed an on-line protocol that included measures of bullying and victimization, substance use, sensitivity to reward and punishment, social skills, antisocial behavior, emotional regulation strategies, depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem, and risk of suicide. The sample was divided into three groups (victims, aggressors, and controls) based on their responses to bullying-related questions. A set of Multiple Analyses of Variance with group as a fixed factor was carried out for each dependent variable. Victims and aggressors did not significantly differ in their self-reported substance consumption. Victims showed higher global depression, anxiety and stress in the past than aggressors (M = 34.66, SD = 11.74; aggressors: M = 19.70, SD = 16.53), higher emotional lack of control (M = 23.97, SD = 10.62; controls: M = 17.11, SD = 7.95) and rejection (M = 21.72, SD = 7.24; controls: M = 16.33, SD = 5.67), lower self-esteem (M = 27.72, SD = 6.70; controls: M = 31.60, SD = 6.60), and a larger frequency of suicidal thoughts (in the past) than controls. Aggressors showed higher sensitivity to reward (M = 12.03, SD = 3.66; controls: M = 8.42, SD = 3.92), larger communicational and relational skills (M = 22.10, SD = 7.20; controls: M = 17.96, SD = 7.16), and lower emotional sensitivity (M = 14.80, SD = 4.10; controls: M = 16.76, SD = 2.21). Accordingly, the logistic regression analysis identified sensitivity to reward and low psychological adjustment as the main predictors of the aggressor and victim profiles, respectively. The present results are discussed considering the extant literature on bullying and may help to improve prevention programs for this relevant social scourge.

Intimate-partner violence and its relationship with substance consumption by Mexican men and women: National Survey on Addictions

Introduction. Research findings about intimate-partner violence (IPV) have focused mostly on women as victims of violence. Recent studies show the importance of violence inflicted by women towards men or between same-sex couples. Objective. To estimate the prevalence of intimate-partner violence and its association with alcohol and drug consumption in a representative sample of men and women in Mexico through secondary data analysis. Method. The data come from a representative sample who filled out the section on intimate-partner violence in the Mexican 2011 Encuesta Nacional de Adicciones (National Survey on Addictions). Results. The prevalence of intimate-partner violence in the last year was 17.6% against women and 13.4% against men. If one of the two partners consumed substances, the risk that men and women would experience violence increased, and that risk was even greater if both consumed. Discussion and conclusion. This is the first time violence against men was reported in a Mexican national study. The findings show that gender-based violence should also be considered a result of social and cultural violence.

Addiction biology research on miRNAs, and their role in the pathophysiology of addiction is enabling gene therapy opportunities

This article lists known miRNAs that may be used one day to diagnose and treat addiction. Besides miRNAs associated with a particular abuse drug, miR132/212, miR124 and miR9 all have a distinct expression profile in various abuse drugs. Based on our research, these miRNAs appear to be pleiotropic, meaning they are regulated in their environment by several different variables or chemicals. Substance consumption, drug type, and the paradigm (i.e., acute vs. chronic) under which they are consumed all affect the addiction manifestation. MiRNA levels appear to change for acute and chronic use, indicating that miRNA isoforms involved in numerous abuse drugs and brain areas (e.g. let7, miR212/132) may function as regulatory hubs for addictive behavior. MiRNA strands compete with each other, work hierarchically, and some miRNA targets have stronger binding affinities than others. Future addiction biology research should focus on miRNAs, and how miRNA expression changes over time. Research investigating how miRNA's expression differs in drug intoxication and recovery should take precedence. Another topic for future research is using polydrugs. Drug studies that analyze many substances together are well known. This is of particular importance, as the presence of several abused drugs increases the likelihood of upregulating or downregulating miRNAs. If miRNAs are linked to nicotine, alcohol, marijuana and opiates, understanding their role in polydrug use is vital. We created a map to highlight miRNAs influenced by drug use in the context of synaptic plasticity pathway genes. These miRNAs and their pathways may open the door to new addictive behavior therapies.Currently, preclinical investigations using miRNAs as biomarkers or disorder therapies, but no clinical trials and only a few preclinical trials are being undertaken. Biomarkers would make it one of today's most researched areas. Research shows promise for miRNAs in rehabilitation despite several roadblocks. MiRNAs can have many downstream effects, making them challenging to use. Indeed, interesting research on circRNAs has shown that they function as a miRNA sponge, possibly limiting the effects of a particular miRNA increase. Like miRNAs, CircRNAs can produce unforeseen results. Because miRNAs' functions vary widely, absorbing miRNAs via circRNAs may hinder therapeutic development. Because of nucleases and phospholipid bilayers, distribution of miRNA to humans was challenging. Passing the delivery barriers using organic and inorganic nanoparticles like peptides, gold, mesoporous silicon, graphene oxide, and iron oxide is a popular technique. MiRNA-based lipid nanoparticles delivery vectors were found to be successful. In our future studies, the main EVs are naturally occurring, biolabeled, and targeted with little toxicity and antigenicity. EVs can pass the essential blood-brain barrier to help cure drug addiction.

The Change in Psychoactive Substance Consumption in Relation to Psychological Stress During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Uruguay

Objective: to analyze how the health crisis associated with the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affected psychoactive substance consumption in Uruguay. Method: An online survey was answered by 1916 Uruguayan citizens between March 26th and April 5th, 2020. They were surveyed on psychoactive substance use before and after the instauration of a recommended quarantine, and on increases in frequency and volume of use (during the quarantine) of the psychoactive substance they reported as having consumed the most in the year prior to the quarantine, and psychological distress experienced during the last month. Results: The main substances consumed during the quarantine were alcohol, tobacco, marihuana, and psychopharmaceuticals. Approximately 29.0% increased the volume (and 17.7% the frequency) of use of the substance they had consumed the most the year before the instauration of the quarantine. Moreover, 5.6% initiated the consumption of a new psychoactive substance during the quarantine, mostly marihuana and psychopharmaceuticals. Psychological distress was significantly higher in women, in participants under 30 years old and in those that increased the volume of their preferred substance or increased the volume of the second preferred psychoactive substance. Membership into the group reporting an increase in the volume of use of the preferred psychoactive substance was associated with greater psychological distress. Conclusions: These results indicate an association between the instauration of the recommended quarantine in Uruguay and greater psychoactive substance use during the period, as well as an association between increased psychoactive substance use during this period and levels of psychological stress. These results are relevant in terms of public health and public policies. Keywords: COVID-19, pandemic, Uruguay, psychoactive substances