Addiction & Health
Volume:7 Issue: 3, Summer-Autumn 2015

We aimed to evaluate the current status of scientific production in the field of substance use and addiction in Iran, to determine its trend and pattern during a 5 years period (2008-2012). Using relevant keywords, we searched three international databases (Web of Science, Medline, and Scopus) and two local databases (SID and Iranmedex) to locate the papers published in the field of addiction by Iranian researchers during 2008-2012. The results indicated a significant increase in the number of studies published in the field during the 5 years study period, with more than half of the papers published in the last 2 years. Results also indicated that over half (53.5%) of the papers were published in Persian-language Iranian Journals, but the rate of increase in the number of papers published in English was slightly higher than that of Persian ones. Opioid substances were found to be the topic of approximately 75% of the papers. Studies on key topics, including national surveys, evaluation of current programs, addiction in women and children, and so forth, were found to be highly lacking. Results suggested a significant growth in the scientific production of Iran in the field of substance use and addiction. However, considering the significance of substance use and dependence in the country, and compared to the scientific production of developed countries, the amount of research conducted in the field of addiction in Iran is still limited.

Methadone maintenance has received little scientific attention regarding neurocognitive effects. This study is aimed to assess the neuropsychological performance of methadone maintenance patients (MMP) compared to those healthy controls. Thirty-five MMP and 35 healthy controls, matched for age, gender, education and employment status, examined on a battery of tests aimed at assessing verbal fluency, executive functions, verbal memory, and working memory, using controlled oral word association test (COWAT), trial making test (TMT) Part A and B, Rey auditory verbal learning test (RAVLT), and backward digit span. MMP performed significantly poorly than controls in cognitive domains of verbal fluency, executive function, and verbal memory. MMP did not exhibit impairment in working memory, and TMT Part A compared to controls. These results suggest that methadone consumption induces significant cognitive impairment that could compromise drug-treatment outcomes in MMP.

Substance use is a growing public health problem among adolescents. In the lack of a valid and reliable instrument based on social development model (SDM), this study aimed to develop risk and protective factors of substance use scale based on SDM to determine risk and protective factors influencing substance use among adolescents. A total of 235 male students from 9th and 10th grade (14-18 years old) of public high schools in Kerman, Iran, selected through multistage cluster sampling. Items pool extracted from the literature and focus groups with male adolescents. Face validity of the questionnaire assessed for readability and clarity of items. Then, an expert panel evaluated the items for content validity. Consequently, construct validity of questionnaire confirmed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Known group validity is determined by the degree to which the instrument shows different scores between two groups of those who had an experience in drug use and those who did not have such an experience. In addition, reliability assessed via internal consistency and test-retest. About 10 factor solution (containing 38 items) emerged as a result of EFA entitled adolescent’s “beliefs on hookah and alcohol,” “bonding to parents,” “family rules on substance use,” “drug resistance skills,” “adolescent’s beliefs on hard drugs,” “situational perception on hookah and alcohol,” “rules of school,” “situational perception on hard drugs,” “attachment to school,” and “perceived opportunity at school.” The first four emerged factors explained 46% of the total variance observed. Among these factors, adolescent’s beliefs on hookah and alcohol explained a more than 25.3% of the total variance. Results indicated satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach¢s alpha ranging from 0.71 to 0.85) and intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) (ranging from 0.48 to 0.81). The risk and protective factors of substance use questionnaire are the first instrument based on the SDM. The findings showed that this questionnaire is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing determinants of substance use which can be used by researchers and policymakers in preventive initiatives.

Opiates affect blood factors as well as pain and inflammation in a gender-dependent manner. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of morphine on serum glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, and urea in gonadectomized and inflammation conditions. Animals were divided as follows: control group, carrageenan and chronic morphine recipients, acute morphine recipients, chronic morphine recipients, carrageenan recipients, acute morphine and carrageenan recipients, gonadectomized group, gonadectomized recipients of carrageenan, gonadectomized recipients of morphine, gonadectomized recipients of chronic morphine, gonadectomized recipients of carrageenan and chronic morphine, gonadectomized recipients of acute morphine and carrageenan. Our results have shown that acute and chronic morphine elevates blood glucose level in the acute and chronic morphine group. Cholesterol level has shown to be increasing in the morphine and carrageenan recipient group compared with a group which merely received morphine. Triglyceride has shown to be decreasing in acute and chronic morphine recipient group compared with control group. A significant increase in serum urea was observed in acute and chronic morphine recipients compared with the carrageenan recipient group. Morphine alters the serum glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, and urea in the normal and inflammatory conditions differently, hence, this finding should be considered in the patients who use morphine as a relief of pain, especially in an inflammatory condition.

Although the triggering role of both opium use and elevated plasma homocysteine level for progressing atherosclerosis and, therefore, appearing coronary heart disease has been clearly determined, no study are available with respect to the relation between these to risk profiles. In the present study and for the first time, we hypothesized that the opium addiction can be potentially correlated with elevated homocysteine concentration. 217 persons (103 opium-addicted and 114 non-addicted) were randomly selected from the Kerman Coronary Artery Disease Risk Study (KERCADRS), Iran, as a population-based, epidemiological prospective study. In all participants, an enzyme immunoassay kit was used to measure homocysteine in serum samples. The serum level of homocysteine was significantly higher in the opium-addicted ones compared to non-addicted individuals (11.49 ± 7.45 vs. 8.02 ± 3.87 μmol/l) (P < 0.001). In this regard, 21.3% of the opium users and only 3.2% of the non-users had homocysteine concentration > 15 μmol/l (P < 0.001). On the other hand, individuals addicted to opiates exhibited significantly elevated odds of having homocysteine level higher than 15 [odds ratio (OR) = 8.244, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 3.117-21.806]. Multivariable linear regression model showed that the opium addiction could strongly predict elevated homocysteine level in the study individuals [beta = 3.524, standard error (SE) = 0.852] (P < 0.001). Opium consumption can be strongly accompanied with the elevation of plasma homocysteine concentration, and thus opium addiction can exhibit elevated odds of having hyperhomocysteinemia.

Positive perfectionism helps the individual to experience fewer worries and less anxiety. The aim of the present study was to assess the value of coping strategies to predict perfectionism in drug-user women. This cross-sectional study was performed on 361 consecutive drug-user women who were randomly selected from a total of 6237 women referring to the Drug Abuse Centers of Kerman, Iran, in 2013. Data were gathered using the positive and negative perfectionism scale, and coping responses questionnaire. There were significant correlations between positive and negative perfectionism with coping strategies problem-focused and emotional-focused (P < 0.001). Using multivariate regression modeling, 12% of total mental health variances could be estimated from metacognition beliefs. The positive and negative perfectionism can be rolled both as the predictors of coping strategies in drug-user women.

Needle-syringe programs (NSP) have been running in Iran since 2002. However, the coverage of such program among the NSP clients at the individual level was not studies yet. This study aimed to determine the client coverage of NSP and its correlation with high injection-related risk behaviors. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Kermanshah province, Iran, in 2014. 230 people who inject drugs (PWID) recruited from two drop-in centers (DICs) from April to September 2014, participated in a face-to-face interview to provide information related individual coverage of NSP, demographic characteristics, and injecting behaviors 30 days prior to the interview. Overall, the average of syringe coverage was 158% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 65.7-205.5], while 56% (95% CI = 40-97) have individual converge less than 100%. Needle/syringe sharing was significantly higher among individual with low NSP coverage [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.3-6.2]. About 85% participants with coverage of less than 100% reported reuse of syringe within the last 30 days (AOR = 3.2, 95% CI = 1.4-7.7). PWID are different regarding their NSP individual-level converges. There are certain clusters of PWID, who do not receive sufficient number of syringes. Given that insufficient individual syringe coverage level is highly associated with injection risk behaviors, reasons for such low converge need to be assessed and addressed carefully.

Sensory information processing and alexithymia are two important factors in determining behavioral reactions. Some studies explain the effect of the sensitivity of sensory processing and alexithymia in the tendency to substance abuse. Giving that, the aim of the current study was to compare the styles of sensory information processing and alexithymia between substance-dependent people and normal ones. The research method was cross-sectional and the statistical population of the current study comprised of all substance-dependent men who are present in substance quitting camps of Masal, Iran, in October 2013 (n = 78). 36 persons were selected randomly by simple randomly sampling method from this population as the study group, and 36 persons were also selected among the normal population in the same way as the comparison group. Both groups was evaluated by using Toronto alexithymia scale (TAS) and adult sensory profile, and the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test was applied to analyze data. The results showed that there are significance differences between two groups in low registration (P < 0.020, F = 5.66), sensation seeking (P < 0.050, F = 1.92), and sensory avoidance (P < 0.008, F = 7.52) as a components of sensory processing and difficulty in describing emotions (P < 0.001, F = 15.01) and difficulty in identifying emotions (P < 0.002, F = 10.54) as a components of alexithymia. However, no significant difference were found between two groups in components of sensory sensitivity (P < 0.170, F = 1.92) and external oriented thinking style (P < 0.060, F = 3.60). These results showed that substance-dependent people process sensory information in a different way than normal people and show more alexithymia features than them.

At present smoking is considered a great health-related problem. Smoking cigarettes and use of tobacco are on the rise in the Middle East countries; therefore, the number of people exposed to passive cigarette smoke is increasing, too. The aim of the present study was to determine and compare salivary cotinine levels in hookah smokers, individuals exposed to passive cigarette smoke and non-smoker (passive smokers). In the present cross-sectional study, unstimulated salivary samples were collected from 150 subjects, including 50 hookah smokers, 50 passive smokers, and 50 non-smokers. Bioassay Technology Laboratory cotinine kit was used to determine salivary levels of cotinine using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique at a sensitivity rate of 0.019 pg/ml. Data were analyzed with SPSS software using t-test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The highest salivary cotinine levels were recorded in hookah users (20.24 ± 5.62 ng/ml), followed by passive smokers (16.09 ± 3.51 ng/ml), in descending order. No detectable cotinine levels were observed in non-smokers. Pearson’s correlation coefficient showed a strong and positive correlation between use of hookah and salivary cotinine levels (r = 0.932, P = 0.001). Based on the results of the present study, salivary cotinine levels were higher in hookah smokers compared with passive smokers and non-smokers, in descending order.

The present study aimed at investigating the role of depression and attachment styles in predicting cell phone addiction. In this descriptive correlational study, a sample including 100 students of Payame Noor University (PNU), Reyneh Center, Iran, in the academic year of 2013-2014 was selected using volunteer sampling. Participants were asked to complete the adult attachment inventory (AAI‎), Beck depression inventory-13 (BDI-13‎) and the cell phone overuse scale (COS). Results of the stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that depression and avoidant attachment style were the best predictors of students’ cell phone addiction (R2 = 0.23). The results of this study highlighted the predictive value of depression and avoidant attachment style concerning students’ cell phone addiction.