Effectiveness of a Selective, Personality-Targeted Prevention Program for Adolescent Alcohol Use and Misuse: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.
Effectiveness of a Selective, Personality-Targeted Prevention Program for Adolescent Alcohol Use and Misuse: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
JAMA Psychiatry. 2013 Jan 23; 1-9
Conrod PJ, O’Leary-Barrett M, Newton N, Topper L, Castellanos-Ryan N, Mackie C, Girard A
CONTEXT Selective school-based alcohol prevention programs targeting youth with personality risk factors for addiction and mental health problems have been found to reduce substance use and misuse in those with elevated personality profiles. OBJECTIVES To report 24-month outcomes of the Teacher-Delivered Personality-Targeted Interventions for Substance Misuse Trial (Adventure trial) in which school staff were trained to provide interventions to students with 1 of 4 high-risk (HR) profiles: anxiety sensitivity, hopelessness, impulsivity, and sensation seeking and to examine the indirect herd effects of this program on the broader low-risk (LR) population of students who were not selected for intervention. DESIGN Cluster randomized controlled trial. SETTING Secondary schools in London, United Kingdom. PARTICIPANTS A total of 1210 HR and 1433 LR students in the ninth grade (mean [SD] age, 13.7 [0.33] years). INTERVENTION Schools were randomized to provide brief personality-targeted interventions to HR youth or treatment as usual (statutory drug education in class). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Participants were assessed for drinking, binge drinking, and problem drinking before randomization and at 6-monthly intervals for 2 years. RESULTS Two-part latent growth models indicated long-term effects of the intervention on drinking rates (? = -0.320, SE = 0.145, P = .03) and binge drinking rates (? = -0.400, SE = 0.179, P = .03) and growth in binge drinking (? = -0.716, SE = 0.274, P = .009) and problem drinking (? = -0.452, SE = 0.193, P = .02) for HR youth. The HR youth were also found to benefit from the interventions during the 24-month follow-up on drinking quantity (? = -0.098, SE = 0.047, P = .04), growth in drinking quantity (? = -0.176, SE = 0.073, P = .02), and growth in binge drinking frequency (? = -0.183, SE = 0.092, P = .047). Some herd effects in LR youth were observed, specifically on drinking rates (? = -0.259, SE = 0.132, P = .049) and growth of binge drinking (? = -0.244, SE = 0.073, P = .001), during the 24-month follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Findings further support the personality-targeted approach to alcohol prevention and its effectiveness when provided by trained school staff. Particularly novel are the findings of some mild herd effects that result from this selective prevention program. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00776685.
HubMed – addiction
Generic legislation of new psychoactive drugs.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
J Psychopharmacol. 2013 Jan 23;
van Amsterdam J, Nutt D, van den Brink W
New psychoactive drugs (NPDs, new psychoactive substances) enter the market all the time. However, it takes several months to ban these NPDs and immediate action is generally not possible. Several European countries and drug enforcement officers insist on a faster procedure to ban NPDs. Introduction of generic legislation, in which clusters of psychotropic drugs are banned in advance, has been mentioned as a possible solution. Here we discuss the pros and cons of such an approach. First, generic legislation could unintentionally increase the expenditures of enforcement, black market practices, administrative burden and health risks for users. Second, it may have a negative impact on research and the development of new treatments. Third, due to the complexity of generic legislation, problems in the enforcement are anticipated due to lack of knowledge about the chemical nomenclature. Finally, various legal options are already available to ban the use, sale and trade of NPDs. We therefore conclude that the currently used scientific benefit-risk evaluation should be continued to limit the adverse health effects of NPDs. Only in emergency cases, where fatal incidents (may) occur, should this approach be overruled.
HubMed – addiction
Personality and the acute subjective effects of d-amphetamine in humans.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
J Psychopharmacol. 2013 Jan 23;
Kirkpatrick MG, Johanson CE, de Wit H
There is evidence that subjective responses to psychoactive drugs are related to personality traits. Here, we extend previous findings by examining personality measures in relation to acute responses to d-amphetamine (AMPH) in a large sample of healthy volunteers. Healthy adults (n=286) completed the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire Brief Form (MPQ-BF) and participated in four sessions during which they received oral AMPH (0, 5, 10, 20 mg), under double-blind conditions. Subjective responses to the drug were measured using the Profile of Mood States, Addiction Research Center Inventory, and Drug Effects Questionnaire. Drug responses were reduced via principal components analysis to three higher-order factors (‘Euphoria’, ‘Arousal’, ‘Dysphoria’). Participants were rank ordered on selected MPQ-BF scales; the top and bottom third on each trait were compared on the drug response factors. High trait physical fearlessness was significantly associated with greater amphetamine-related Arousal, and high trait reward sensitivity was significantly associated with greater Euphoria. In addition, high trait impulsivity was significantly associated with greater Arousal and Euphoria. These results provide further evidence that individual differences in the subjective effects of AMPH are partially explained by differences in personality, and are consistent with the idea that both personality and responses to stimulants depend upon shared neurochemical systems.
HubMed – addiction
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