Prevalence & Experience of Chronic Pain in Suburban Drug Injectors

AIMS:

To explore the relationship between chronic pain and characteristics, behaviors, and psychological status of suburban Connecticut injection drug users.

METHODS:

Cross-sectional study with quantitative interview and serological testing for HIV and hepatitis B and C in 456 individuals who injected drugs in the past month. Participants were dichotomized into those reporting current chronic pain of at least six months duration and all others. The interview covered 

1. sociodemographics, 
2. injection drug use, 
3. interactions with drug treatment, criminal justice, and harm reduction, 
4. screening for alcohol use, chronic pain, anxiety, and depression, and 
5. knowledge regarding HIV, hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV), and opioid overdose. 

Serological testing for HIV, HBV, and HCV was conducted.

RESULTS:

One-third (n = 143) reported chronic pain. These individuals differed significantly from those not reporting chronic pain on characteristics that included older age, lower educational achievement, and injection of pharmaceutical opioids. They also reported experiencing more psychological and family problems on the ASI and higher levels of depression and anxiety. Four of five individuals with chronic pain (n = 117) reported non-medical opioid use prior to the onset of chronic pain.

CONCLUSIONS:

Chronic pain is common among drug injectors in our study population although it was unusual for chronic pain to have preceded non-medical opioid use. Psychological problems in injectors with co-occurring chronic pain are likely pose significant complications to successful treatment for substance abuse, pain, or infectious disease treatment.

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By:   Heimer R¹, Zhan W², Grau LE².

¹Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS and the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Disease, Yale University School of Public Health, 60 College Street, New Haven, CT 06520, United States. Electronic address: robert.heimer@yale.edu.

²Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS and the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Disease, Yale University School of Public Health, 60 College Street, New Haven, CT 06520, United States.

  

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The School to Prison Pipeline in Connecticut

Via:  http://goo.gl/iKaoIw  By https://twitter.com/ctjja

The Color of Justice in Connecticut

Corresponding Report at: http://goo.gl/gbMeKA  By https://twitter.com/ctjja

Connecticut - Unlocking Potential: Alternatives to Youth Prisons

Via:   http://goo.gl/Q2Hfy4  By https://twitter.com/ctjja

Youth Homelessness: Prevalence and Associations with Weight in Three Regions

This study investigated the utility of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to document associations between homeless status and weight while estimating the prevalence of youth homelessness in three regions. A school-based survey, the YRBS includes youths who have been difficult to involve in past research. 

Analysis of 2011 YRBS data produced population-weighted estimates of youth homelessness prevalence separately for Connecticut, Delaware, and Philadelphia. Public high school students anonymously reported their housing status, height, and weight on the YRBS. Height and weight were converted to body mass index (BMI) percentile-for-age scores. 

Homelessness was associated with higher BMI percentile scores for youths compared with nonhomeless peers. Associations between BMI percentile and different forms of homelessness (homeless with family, unaccompanied homeless without family) were explored at each site. Estimates of one-month homelessness prevalence ranged from 3.9 percent to 5.9 percent at each site. Homelessness, especially family homelessness, is associated with risk for higher BMI. 

The YRBS is an informative tool for estimating the prevalence of youth homelessness, expanding on what is known through other, more commonly used methods.

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By:   Cutuli JJ, Steinway C, Perlman S, Herbers JE, Eyrich-Garg KM, Willard J.

1. J. J. Cutuli, PhD, is assistant professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Rutgers University, 345 Armitage Hall, 311 North Fifth Street, Camden, NJ 08102; Caren Steinway, MSW, MPH, is clinical research coordinator, Division of Adolescent Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Staci Perlman, PhD, is assistant professor, Human Development & Family Studies, University of Delaware, Newark. Janette E. Herbers, PhD, LP, is assistant professor, Department of Psychology, Villanova University, Villanova, PA. Karin M. Eyrich-Garg, PhD, LCSW, is associate professor, College of Public Health, Temple University, Philadelphia. Joe Willard, MS, is vice president of policy and advocacy, People's Emergency Center, Philadelphia.

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Framing Samuel See: The Discursive Detritus of the Moral Panic over the “Double Epidemic” of Methamphetamines and HIV among Gay Men

After being arrested for violating a restraining order against his husband, on November 24, 2013, Yale professor Samuel See died while in lockup at the Union Avenue Detention Center in New Haven, Connecticut. The death received a media attention around the world, with readers arguing online about whether See's death was caused by police misconduct, as his friends and colleagues charged in interviews and during a well-publicized march and protest. 

When an autopsy revealed that he had died from a methamphetamine-induced heart attack, online commentary changed dramatically, with See's many supporters rhetorically abandoning him and others describing him as a stereotype of the gay meth addict who deserved his fate. 

In this article, I argue that his shift in the interpretation and meaning of See's death can be traced to the discursive structures left by the moral panic about crystal meth in United States (1996-2008), which comprised within it a secondary moral panic about crystal meth in the gay community and its connection to the spread of HIV and a possible super-strain (2005-2008).

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/9uBg95

By:   Theodore K. Gideonse

Program in Global Health David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

 

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