Off-label medication use

Prescribing medications for off-label uses is not illegal. Off-label prescribing includes using medications for unapproved indications; using a drug outside of the recommended dosage range or duration of use; using a drug in certain unapproved patient populations, such as those defined by age, sex, or particular clinical parameters; or intentionally using a medication in a patient who has a known contraindication. Medications would be considered appropriate for off-label use based on their known clinical pharmacology, evidence from clinical studies, and sometimes from the personal experience of the prescriber. The decision to use a drug off label should be based on a careful assessment of the patient's treatment history and the drug's potential risks and benefits. Patients should be given adequate informed consent about how the drug is being used off label and why, along with appropriate information about known risks and side effects.     

Study: Elevated risk of substance use if parents use marijuana

Last month, JAMA Network Open published a study indicating that recent and past parental marijuana use confers a heightened risk for use of marijuana — and other substances — by their adolescent and young adult offspring who live in the same household. The article from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Institute on Drug Abuse and McLean Hospital is in line with federal anti‐marijuana policy (marijuana is still illegal under federal law, although states have legalized it, both recreationally, in some cases, and medically, in more).     

Anabolic androgenic steroids: use and perceived use in nonathlete college students

OBJECTIVE: The authors investigated the use and perceived use of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) among nonathlete college students. PARTICIPANTS: The authors surveyed a sample of 485 nonathlete college students at a major metropolitan university. METHODS: They administered a survey on use and perceived use of AAS to the students. RESULTS: Forty-two participants (9%) reported using AAS (37 men, 5 women). Seniors were the most likely to use AAS (36%), and freshman the least likely (7%). Thirty-four percent of nonusers and 41% of users indicated they knew between 1 and 5 AAS users. Of the total sample, 36% perceived that 5% to 10% of nonathlete college students used AAS. Reasons for AAS use were because friends were using (7%), a desire to enhance physical appearance (45%), and a desire to increase physical performance (48%). CONCLUSIONS: These findings may have significant implications in planning strategic preventive educational programs, and health educators should target incoming college freshmen with the intent of dissuading AAS use.     

Interface of drug use

Packaging and labeling play a crucial role awhile protecting medicaments and transmitting a range of crucial information to the users. Taking into account the scarcity of specific studies in this area, it was considered great the need for a comprehensive survey about customers' satisfaction when handling these containers.     

Marijuana use and depression

The primary goal of this study is to examine the association between marijuana use and adult depressive symptomatology. The key independent variables examined are age of marijuana initiation, frequency of current marijuana use, the use of other licit and illicit drugs, and whether marijuana was used to cope with problems. The relationships among these variables are assessed using data from the Young Men and Drugs Survey (n = 1,941), a nationally representative sample of men from the 1944-1954 birth cohort. Results show that early marijuana initiation appears to be weakly associated with increased depression in adulthood. This effect, however, is mediated by educational attainment, employment status, marital status, and other drug use, notably alcohol and tobacco use. Adult frequency of marijuana use is not significantly associated with increased depression in adulthood. Finally, marijuana users who use the drug to cope with problems are more depressed than those who do not use to cope with problems.     

Migrants' remittances and their use

This report, prepared at the request of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), examines how remittances flow from employing countries to migrants' countries of origin and how they are used. The migrants examined largely come from Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, and work in France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, and The Netherlands. Part 1 of the paper collects basic data on the finance flows formed by migrants' remittances, as measured by the balances of payment of the countries exporting and receiving manpower. These flows are related to such concepts as savings for real tranfers. The article also analyzes their composition, evolution over the past decade, and economic significance. Part 2 examines the use to which funds transverred and brought home from abroad are put by the income-producing migrants. Reports, field surveys, and expert communications supply data to examine whether such capital is invested to aid economic development. Part 3 explains how financial and economic flows from employing countries can play a positive role in the the development of the countries of origin and how international cooperation can assist. Recent changes in the migration policies of the main countries of employment, which now offer incentives to foreign manpower to encourage their return to emigrating nations, make the topic of this report especially timely.     

Media use in long-distance friendships

New media such as email and mobile phones have made it easier to maintain relationships over distances. The present paper examines which media people use to maintain long-distance friendships. The main focus lies on the comparison of email and phone. Media choice theories like media richness theory assume that media can be classified according to their richness, and that people choose the medium which fits best to the affordances of a specific task. The phone as richer medium should be preferred over email in the case of maintenance of long-distance friendships because it is easier to express emotions and to give immediate feedback via phone than via email. Email is an asynchronous medium and communication via email is therefore independent of space and time. Therefore, it can also be argued that email is preferred over the phone because it makes it easier to communicate across different work schedules or even time-zones. In two studies (Study 1 conducted in the Netherlands, Study 2 conducted in Germany) media use in long-distance friendships was measured. Across both studies, email was the most frequently used medium. In Study 1, an interesting asymmetric influence of closeness of the friendship emerged. The closer the friendship, the more emails were written in total, but the less the relative use of email. Instead, the percentage of phone calls increased. Study 2 aimed to replicate and explain this finding and assessed also the content of the phone call or emails. Whereas the intimateness of the emails did not change with increased closeness of the friendship, the intimateness of the phone calls increased with increasing closeness of the friendship. This result indicates that people use email primarily for staying in touch, whereas important personal matters are still discussed on the phone.     

The use of canonical analysis

The first part of this non-technical review of canonical analysis is concerned with the principle, the data requirements, the interpretation, the evaluation and the application in consumer research of canonical analysis. In this context, concepts as canonical correlation, weights, loadings and scores are explained. Their interrelationships are discussed. Then the characteristics of specific forms of canonical analysis: canonical correlation, canonical regression, redundancy analysis and partial canonical analysis are discussed. Their different application properties are emphasized. The last part consists of an application of canonical correlation analysis for brand positioning. Here the relationship with discriminant analysis is illustrated. Furthermore the usage of canonical analysis for optimal scaling purposes is illustrated for the same example.     

Heroin use and criminal careers

The relationship between heroin use and crime has been the subject of continuing debate. While the principle focus of this debate has been the causal nexus between heroin and crime, a related controversy exists regarding the nature of addict criminality. Some have argued that heroin addicts are impulsive and opportunistic criminals, while others maintain that addicts are sophisticated criminal entrepreneurs. The present study based on career history interviews with 30 hard core street addicts, suggests that both positions may be relevant at different times in the addict's career. These addicts clearly identified a preferred main hustle, but did find it necessary to deviate from their main hustle at various times in their careers. This paper seeks to identify those conditions under which addicts are likely to maintain and, conversely, deviate from established patterns of criminality.This research was supported in part by DHEW Grant No. 1 R01 DA01827 from the Division of Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse. Views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. I would like to thank Carl Klockars for his meticulous guidance through various drafts of this paper.     

Religion and drug use.

This study is a secondary analysis of data gathered under the sponsorship of the Utah State Division of Alcoholism and Drugs in 1989. The researchers concluded that there is a difference in frequency of alcohol use, source of alcohol, and age of first alcohol use among LDS, Other Religions and No Religion subgroups. There is no significant difference found among the various religious subgroups for age of first marijuana use of quantity of alcohol use. For all religions except Jews, a lower percentage of Utahns used alcohol than their national counterparts. A theoretical model for LDS Drug use is presented.     

Trends in long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) use,LARC use predictors,and dual-method use among a national sample of college women

Objective: Assess long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) and other contraceptive use trends, identify LARC use predictors, and examine dual method use. Participants: Women in the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) II, aged 18–24 years, who reported having vaginal sex (N = 37,899). Methods: Secondary analyses of Fall 2011–2014 ACHA-NCHA II data. Results: Statistically significant increases in LARC usage and, specifically, implant usage, were found. Characteristics associated with LARC use included age, race/ethnicity, relationship status, and school type. Students reporting LARC use had lower odds of condom usage compared with non-LARC hormonal method users. Conclusion: This analysis of LARC predictors and dual LARC/condom use has implications for research and health promotion efforts. Findings suggest that college health services are well positioned to meet the sexual and reproductive health needs of diverse populations of students. College health professionals should elicit students' individual and/or relationship priorities to tailor messaging/services offered for pregnancy/STI prevention.