This article offers a longitudinal computational-rhetorical analysis of biomedical writing on opioids. Using a corpus of 1,467 articles and essays published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" and the "Journal of the American Medical Association" between 1959 and May 2019, this study evaluates diachronic shifts in (a) the…

Background: E-cigarette prevention education aims to mitigate adolescent e-cigarette use. Such education is increasingly delivered through virtual/video-based teaching platforms (e.g. Zoom, Google Classrooms). However, there is little evidence about the effectiveness of virtual e-cigarette education compared to in-person education on adolescents'…

Drug Outreach, Promoting Awareness (DOPA) is an undergraduate outreach program for local high school students designed to convey the neurobiological basis, risks, and addictive potential of commonly abused drugs. Here we describe DOPA and evaluate the program, including its impact on high school student attitudes about drug harm risk and…

We find much of interest, and little to disagree with, in the commentaries on our article. We take issue only with the suggestion that our article was provocative and submit that the attempt to understand the use of stimulants as smart pills does not imply an endorsement of the practice.

Tobacco addiction and chronic pain represent 2 highly prevalent and comorbid conditions that engender substantial burdens upon individuals and systems. Interrelations between pain and smoking have been of clinical and empirical interest for decades, and research in this area has increased dramatically over the past 5 years. We conceptualize the…

Smith and Farah (2011) presented a scholarly review of critical areas related to their intriguing title "Are Prescription Stimulants 'Smart Pills'?" We contend that they accomplished the main goal of the article, to get the facts straight about possible cognitive enhancement via the nonmedical use of stimulant drugs by individuals without a…

In this 15-year longitudinal study the authors investigated individual and contextual factors that predispose adolescents from a disadvantaged urban area to drug dependence in adulthood. Adolescents were recruited from schools serving East Harlem in New York City. Of the 838 participants followed to adulthood, 59% were women, 55% were African…

The purpose of this study was to explore the risk factors and the impact of a prostitution diversion program on prostitution recidivism. Risk factors and recidivism were explored using chi-square, t tests, and survival analysis. Participants were 448 individuals who were arrested for prostitution and attended a prostitution-focused diversion…

Factors associated with recent suicide attempts were examined in clients who sought treatment at an addictions facility between 2001 and 2008. Clients who reported being hospitalized for attempting suicide in the past year (n = 76) were compared to all other clients (n = 5914) on demographic, mental health, substance use, and problem gambling…

Background: We investigated the role of psychosocial and proximal contextual factors on nicotine dependence in adolescence. Methods: Data on a multiethnic cohort of 6th to 10th graders from the Chicago public schools were obtained from four household interviews conducted with adolescents over two years and one interview with mothers. Structural…

The author shares how he helps a student who is a drug addict and reflects about the role of teachers on the campus. He believes that most teachers on the faculty are caring individuals, often parents themselves who want the best for their students. But the author also realizes that teachers are pressed for time, have a wide range of conflicting…

Many college students are using substances at levels consistent with Substance Abuse or Dependence, yet little explanation for this phenomenon exits. The aim of this study was to explore a risk factor profile that best separates those with low and high potential for having a Substance Use Disorder (SUD). A discriminant function analysis revealed…

Many sexuality education interventions focusing on determinants such as attitudes, knowledge, and skills have shown meager impact on sexual behavior. In addition, these determinants have been developed and evaluated for mixed gender or female-only priority populations. More specifically, sexuality education interventions have not been designed…

The purpose of this article is to identify tobacco and cannabis co-consumptions and consumers' perceptions of each substance. A qualitative research including 22 youths (14 males) aged 15-21 years in seven individual interviews and five focus groups. Discussions were recorded, transcribed verbatim and transferred to Atlas.ti software for narrative…

The authors review the article "Prescription Drug Use and Abuse: Risk Factors, Red Flags, and Prevention Strategies" (J. H. Isaacson, J. A. Hopper, D. P. Alford, & T. Parran, 2005), which provides an overview of the recent increase in prescription opioid abuse and dependence from the physician's perspective. In the present article, the authors…