A study of the utilization of community meeting as an interactive strategy in substance abuse management

In a treatment facility in Nigeria community meeting has been an effective strategy in substance abuse management for identifying and addressing motivation in the treatment, insight and judgment, self-esteem, psychotic symptoms, readiness for treatment etc. The components of community meeting significantly facilitate effective transition in stages of change. This research utilised information from various meetings, individual interviews and Focus Group Discussion. The study also obtained information about substance use from files of 211 participants previously admitted from 2014 – 2020, descriptive statistics using SPSS version 20 was utilized in the analysis. The analysis show that male were predominant at 91.9% with a mean of 1.08, 24.6% primary substance of abuse is alcohol and the most common substance abused at 29%. Clients admitted with psychotic symptoms were 47.9% and 29% common problematic substance is cannabis and 65% of them are within the ages of 21-30 years, while 45% of them have used other psychoactive substances like opioids and cocaine. The qualitative study reveals that all the components of community meeting significantly contributed positively in the management of clients. Consequently, community meeting gives people experiencing addiction the opportunity to self-examine, express, and adapt to techniques of living a substance free life effectively. This gathering allows all categories of clients interact freely and respectfully given way to teaching, learning and mentoring. The researchers therefore, suggest that though substance abuse problems may not vary, however, the approach to addressing this problem should be tailored in a ways that reflects the people and their culture.

Travelling Sideways in Time (Without a Suitcase): The Aggregate Identity of Audrey Parker on Haven

A distinct strand has differentiated itself in television programming in the twenty-first century: television series that feature female protagonists travelling between parallel worlds. The worlds in most of these series are on the edge of destruction through terrorism, war or another traumatic event. The female protagonists, who share the special ability to travel between the worlds, have a unique role to play – they serve as mediators between the universes. Their inbetweenness enables their autonomy and resistance to violence, death, and appropriation. This role is played by Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) in the fantasy/supernatural drama Haven. Audrey’s task is to travel through an interdimensional portal to the town of Haven every twenty-seven years to help as a police officer to protect the inhabitants who are plagued by “the Troubles,” that is, supernatural abilities, which finally threaten them with imminent destruction. The uniqueness of Audrey resides not only in her special status as a traveller between the worlds but also in her identity, which consists of many segments in which different consciousnesses inhabit the same non-ageing body over five hundred years. The essay will analyse the unique temporality of the character, governed by female patterns of travel and her nomadic subjectivity, proposing that her figure links human lifetimes to geological aeons, symbolised by aether, the primary substance of the Void, located between the worlds. That link makes Haven a show of the Anthropocene, the geologic time period defined by humanity’s influence upon the earth. The Anthropocene challenges us to think beyond the usual temporality of a human lifespan, and so does Haven. The imminent destruction as a result of individual egotism leading to the misuse of aether in the show is a trope for the destruction of our planet. Haven uses the figure of Audrey Parker to represent a network of connections and repercussions dispersed over centuries to illustrate how our cumulative actions impact our planet. The show’s anti-linear strategies thus address the environmental concerns of an increasingly unstable environment to propose new ways through which to figure and address imminent threats concerning ecological disaster.

Micro- and Nanocellulose in Polymer Composite Materials: A Review

The high demand for plastic and polymeric materials which keeps rising every year makes them important industries, for which sustainability is a crucial aspect to be taken into account. Therefore, it becomes a requirement to makes it a clean and eco-friendly industry. Cellulose creates an excellent opportunity to minimize the effect of non-degradable materials by using it as a filler for either a synthesis matrix or a natural starch matrix. It is the primary substance in the walls of plant cells, helping plants to remain stiff and upright, and can be found in plant sources, agriculture waste, animals, and bacterial pellicle. In this review, we discussed the recent research development and studies in the field of biocomposites that focused on the techniques of extracting micro- and nanocellulose, treatment and modification of cellulose, classification, and applications of cellulose. In addition, this review paper looked inward on how the reinforcement of micro- and nanocellulose can yield a material with improved performance. This article featured the performances, limitations, and possible areas of improvement to fit into the broader range of engineering applications.

Unintentional Opioid Overdoses Treated at University Clinic of Toxicology-Skopje in a Nine-Year-Period

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the epidemiological profile of unintentional opioid overdoses, the prevalence and number of psychotropic substances involved in opioid overdoses.Methods: This was a descriptive study, in which 180 participants were enrolled, and covered a nine-years-period. For collecting data was used the National patient electronic system “My term”. The variables as gender, age, duration of opioid dependence, number of overdoses, type of substance, number of antidote ampoules, duration of hospitalization were analyzed. Severity of poisoning was made by using the Poison severity score. Results: Opioid overdose cases were significantly higher among males than females. Mean age with standard deviation (SD) was 32.23 ± 6.71 years. Mean years (±SD) of duration of opioid use disorder was 11.60 ± 5.89 years. The most commonly used primary substance was methadone in 68.89% and heroin in 31.11% cases. Twenty patients were treated with mechanical ventilation because of the severe respiratory depression. Poison severity score was moderate in 51.11%, severe in 45.56% and fatal in 3.33% of the cases. Conclusion: Most of the cases, predominantly males used one or two substances. The combination of methadone and benzodiazepine was most frequently used and the most common way was by injecting the abused substances. In most of the subjects PSS score was moderate and severe with no differences between genders.

Substance use disorder and the baby boomers: Does German outpatient addiction care face a change?

Background The aging of baby boomers is expected to confront addiction care with new challenges. This study aims to investigate if German addiction care is confronted with a sustained change in its clientele that was initiated by the baby boomers. Methods Using data from Berlin outpatient addiction care facilities, we contrasted type of primary substance use disorder and number of comorbid substance use disorders in baby boomers with an older (n = 6524) as well as a younger cohort (n = 15677). To isolate cohort effects, two-level random-intercept regression models were applied in the overlapping age groups of the baby boomer cohort with each other cohort. Results Compared to the older cohort, alcohol use disorder lost importance while illicit substances use disorder gained importance in the baby boomers. Baby boomers presented a higher number of comorbid substance use disorders than the older cohort. Comparing baby boomers with the younger cohort, these relationships pointed in the opposite direction. Conclusions Outpatient addiction care faces a sustained change to more illicit and comorbid substance use disorders. The addiction care system ought to adapt its services to address the changing needs of its clientele. Key messages Baby boomers differed in comparison to the older cohort regarding type of substance use disorder and comorbid substance use disorders. The changes set off by the baby boomers continued in the younger cohort.

Cosmic Justice

Anaximander thought water is a bad idea for a primary substance of the universe because it’s not neutral—it has an opposite, fire. And opposites destroy; they don’t generate one another. If everything in the universe were initially water, it would be impossible to have its opposite, fire, ever created because water destroys fire. Thus, quarks and leptons can’t be primary, for they have opposites, their antimatter versions, and as opposites, matter and antimatter annihilate, not generate, each other. Anaximander taught everything is generated from the apeiron: a timeless, neutral substance, encompassing the universe and constantly transforming into competing transient opposites, but with measure to preserve the cosmic justice—without absolute dominance by either opposite. In physics, it’s ubiquitous energy that’s constantly transforming into competing opposites—matter and antimatter—with measure. Curiously, however, matter (“water”) is more plentiful than antimatter (“fire”). Why? Nobody knows. Where’s the cosmic justice?

The Stepping-Stone to Truth

In his search for the primary substance of matter, Anaximenes returned to the tangible world and chose air. And he explained the manifold of natural phenomena quantitatively, in terms of condensation and rarefaction of air (of one material of unchangeable nature). With these opposite processes in mind, it was no longer necessary to ascribe all sorts of different properties to each object—such as rigidity, softness, hotness, coldness—just how dense it was. This idea in itself has a certain truth. But from a grander point of view as regards the evolution of science, his theory was the stepping-stone to one of the most consequential truths of nature, the atom! Atomism, however, required first the development of all other great ideas conceived thereafter, including mathematics. The significance of mathematics as a practical method to describe nature had been realized first by the great Pythagoras because of his passion for numbers.

Estimates of the Incidence of Crack Cocaine Use in Those Likely to Attend Treatment in the English Population, 2005–2018

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Public health bodies in the UK, and elsewhere, have expressed concern over the wider social and economic impact of crack cocaine use on society. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> The aim of the study was to use English substance misuse treatment data to estimate the incidence of crack cocaine use in the population who are expected to present to treatment with crack cocaine as the primary substance. <b><i>Method:</i></b> Known year of first crack-related treatment demand and age of first use of crack were combined to provide the distribution of lag to treatment for each year of onset. The resulting combined lag distribution was used to estimate the proportion of incident crack cocaine users who will have presented in a given year and, from that, the total number who will have started in that year. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Our estimates identified an approximate doubling in incidence between 2012 and 2016, following a decrease up to 2012. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> This represents an increase in treatment demand that is likely to continue for a number of years.

The Implementation & Sustainment Facilitation Strategy improved implementation effectiveness and intervention effectiveness: Results from a cluster-randomized type 2 hybrid trial

Background Substance use disorders (SUD) among people with HIV are both prevalent and problematic. In 2014, the Substance Abuse Treatment to HIV care (SAT2HIV) Project was funded to test the team-focused Implementation & Sustainment Facilitation (ISF) strategy as an adjunct to the staff-focused Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) strategy for integrating a motivational interviewing-based brief intervention (MIBI) for SUD within HIV community-based organizations (CBOs). This article presents the main findings from the project. Methods Using a cluster-randomized, type 2 hybrid trial design, 39 HIV-CBOs were randomized to either: 1) ATTC (n = 19); or 2) ATTC+ISF (n = 20). HIV-CBOs identified two staff to be prepared to implement the MIBI (N = 78 MIBI staff). Subsequently, during the implementation phase, HIV-CBOs in each condition randomized client participants (N = 824 client participants) to one of two intervention conditions: 1) usual care (UC; n = 415); or 2) UC+MIBI (n = 409). Both staff-level outcomes and client-level outcomes were examined. Results The ISF strategy had a significant impact on implementation effectiveness (i.e., the consistency and quality of implementation; β = 0.65, p = 01), but not on time-to-proficiency (β = - 0.02) or level-of-sustainment (β = 0.09). Additionally, the ISF strategy was found to have a significant impact on intervention effectiveness (i.e., the effectiveness of the MIBI), at least in terms of significantly decreasing the odds (odds ratio = 0.11, p = .02) of clients using their primary substance daily during follow-up. Conclusions The ATTC strategy was sufficient for the preparation of HIV-CBO staff to implement a MIBI for SUDs, yet the ISF strategy was found to be an effective adjunct to the ATTC strategy in terms of implementation effectiveness and intervention effectiveness. Based on these findings, it is recommended future efforts to integrate the project’s MIBI for SUD within HIV-CBOs use the ATTC+ISF strategy. However, given the ISF strategy did not have a significant impact on level-of-sustainment, which was similarly low in both implementation conditions, implementation research testing the extent to which the ATTC+ISF strategy can be significantly enhanced via effective sustainment strategies is warranted.