International Journal of High Risk Behaviors and Addiction
Volume:11 Issue: 3, Sep 2022

Context: 

Suicide attempt is a common high-risk behavior, and early detection is crucial for prevention and treatment. There is limited research on suicide indices in the Rorschach test. Therefore, the purpose of this review study was to assess studies related to suicide indicators in the Rorschach test to determine whether the use of this test can indicate the risk of suicide among people or not.

All databases, including PubMed, Science Direct, and Scopus, were used based on “Suicide” AND “Rorschach” keywords from 1960 to the end of 2019. Screening and selection of articles and their quality evaluation were carried out by two reviewers independently. Of the 554 articles in the initial search, 21 passed the evaluation stage.

Given that 21 articles were included in this research, color-shading responses are considered the most critical suicide indices using the single-sign approach. Hertz's multiple-signs approach and Exner’s suicide constellation are among the most commonly used indices for suicide risk assessment. A total S-CON score of 8 or higher in the Rorschach test is a powerful predictor of suicide risk.

Preventing suicide is a horrific but crucial responsibility. Early identification of suicidal thoughts can save the lives of many. Projective tests such as Rorschach can be used with clinical interviews to detect thoughts and suicide attempts.

We compared the effect of intravenous (IV) administration of dexamethasone versus dexmedetomidine alongside the subarachnoid injection of Bupivacaine in terms of spinal anesthesia (SA) quality in opium-addicted patients.

This parallel randomized clinical trial (RCT) was conducted on opium-addicted patients aged 18 to 65 with The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class of I/II candidates for surgery under SA. In one group, dexmedetomidine at a dose of 0.5 μg/kg body weight was injected intravenously 10 minutes before surgery and then at a dose of 0.5 μg/kg body weight during surgery. In another group, 8 mg dexamethasone was injected intravenously 10 minutes before surgery, and then normal saline at a rate of 0.5 μg/kg/h was infused during surgery. The primary outcomes were the onset of sensory block, the onset of motor block, the regression of two levels of sensory block, and the duration of motor block. The secondary outcomes were total analgesia time and the time to the first analgesia requirement.

Totally, 57 patients divided into two groups were included in the final analysis. The results showed that the two groups differed significantly in none of the assessed baseline variables (P > 0.05). The mean duration between performing SA and the onset of sensory block in the Dexamethasone and Dexmedetomidine groups was 4.8 ± 2.2 and 4.2 ± 1.9 minutes, respectively (P = 0.290). The mean duration between performing SA and the onset of motor block in the dexamethasone and dexmedetomidine groups was 5.9 ± 2.6 and 5.1 ± 2.3 minutes, respectively (P = 0.251). The mean duration between performing SA and the regression of two levels of sensory block in the dexamethasone and dexmedetomidine groups was 63.6 ± 27.7 and 82.0 ± 17.1 minutes, respectively (P = 0.004). The mean duration of motor block in the dexamethasone and dexmedetomidine groups was 75.0 ± 32.1 and 97.5 ± 19.4 minutes, respectively (P = 0.377). The mean total analgesia time in the dexamethasone and dexmedetomidine groups was 86.9 ± 32.9 and 109.3 ± 16.3 minutes, respectively (P = 0.002). The mean duration between performing SA and the first requirement for analgesic agent administration in the dexamethasone and dexmedetomidine groups was 206.21 ± 93.19 and 267.86 ± 76.02 minutes, respectively (P = 0.008).

It seems that the quality of spinal anesthesia in opium-addicted patients who received concurrent IV dexmedetomidine was better than that of those who received concurrent IV dexamethasone.

 The present study explored the risk factors for the running away behavior in young Iranian girls.

 This cross-sectional study recruited 95 young girls who ran away from home and 135 girls as the control group. They responded to several self-reported measures to assess sociodemographic characteristics, the household’s economic status, the strength of the family, religious beliefs, history of substance abuse, experiencing physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, self-esteem, coping styles, and depression.

 Girls who came from low-income and moderate-income families had significantly higher odds of running away than girls belonging to high-income families. Girls who had a history of using illicit drugs had higher odds of running away from home. Moreover, low family strength and weak religious beliefs significantly predicted running away from home.

 The findings suggested that the family’s economic status, history of substance use, familial relationships, and weak religious beliefs were key factors in understanding the behavior of running away from home in Iranian adolescent girls.

 Methamphetamine is a highly addictive psychostimulant. Narcotics also reduce anxiety and aggression and create a kind of euphoria. These characteristics provide a special attraction for the abuse of these substances for sexual behaviors, and by that, high-risk sexual behaviors.

 The current research intended to compare the impact of methamphetamine and narcotics on sexual high-risk behaviors.

 This comparative study was performed on 91 men (49 amphetamine and 42 narcotics abusers) from the patients of Yareegar Clinic in Tehran, Iran, within 2019 - 2021. A substance-influenced sexual behavior questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed using the analysis of variance.

 The results showed that the use of amphetamine and narcotics affect on sexual desire, function, and sexual pleasure (P < 0.001). The investigation of behaviors in the two groups showed significant differences between the two groups in increasing sexual desire, sexual pleasure, desire for sex in anonymous situations, and intimacy and eroticism in a relationship and reducing the negative emotional consequences of sexual behavior (P < 0.001).

 The use of amphetamines can provide a vicious cycle of arousal-desire by desire and intensification of sexual behaviors, thereby increasing the likelihood of the occurrence and spread of infectious disorders, a phenomenon that is also observed in the use of narcotics. By training sexual skills and making individuals more efficient and cognitive, they can be prevented from entering the aforementioned cycle.

The control, management, and prevention of driving accidents and risky driving are regarded as concerns for numerous countries, according to the World Health Organization. In this regard, many technologies, such as count stations, are recommended. They count traffic offenses, such as speeding and unsafe distance, hourly and daily, and have different patterns according to the hour of the day and the location.

This study aimed to investigate the risky driving behaviors according to traffic offenses in Iran and estimate their hourly and spatial patterns using generalized additive models (GAMs) and stochastic partial differential equation methods.

There were 2,316 count data stations for one month within March-April 2019. This study estimated the hourly average of each traffic offense, Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlations, and the energy statistics for testing the bivariate normal distribution. There are five distributions, such as univariate Poisson, quasi-likelihood Poisson, Gaussian, location-scale Gaussian, and bivariate Gaussian in GAMs, to study the hourly patterns which were compared to the mean squared error (MSE) and correlation.

The hourly average of total vehicles and number of speeding and unsafe distance offenses per count station had positive skew distributions with mean values equal to 347 ± 456, 22.5 ± 44.2, and 65.9 ± 150, respectively. The correlation between traffic offenses in most provinces was significant, not large, and different. The GAM with the bivariate Gaussian distribution had the best performance according to the MSE and correlation. It revealed three hourly patterns for count predictions; the first was that speeding is higher than unsafe distances; the second was that unsafe distances are higher than speeding; the third was that speeding and unsafe distances do not have a specific pattern in some hours. The percentage of speeding was higher in the central, northeast, and southeast regions than in other parts of Iran, and the percentage of unsafe distances was higher for the north, northwest, west, and some parts of the southwest than in other parts of Iran, respectively.

The hourly pattern of traffic offenses exists and has a complex structure. The spatial pattern of traffic offenses shows the riskiest points in Iran.

The aim of this qualitative study was to explain the reasons for using smokeless tobacco based on the grounded theory approach.

We conducted a qualitative study using the grounded theory approach in 2020 - 2021. Participants were adult users of smokeless tobacco in Chabahar city, southeast Iran. The strategy for choosing participants was based on purposeful sampling and continued till theoretical saturation was achieved. Thirty adults who were smokeless tobacco users participated in the interviews voluntarily. We used techniques such as asking questions, constant comparisons, and writing memos to collect data, which were analyzed based on the grounded theory presented by Corbin and Strauss in 2008.

Two themes emerged from data analysis (the context of consumption and the need for effective supervision), each of which had several subcategories. The opportunity for consumption was the first main category of the contextual factors frequently mentioned by the participants, whose subcategories included consumption culture, individual and general beliefs, and consumption by family members. Insufficient supervision was the second main category, which included three subcategories, profitable market, insufficient supervision, and easy access.

In general, two main themes explain the tendency of adults to consume smokeless tobacco: The context of consumption and the need for effective supervision. Concepts such as the consumer’s culture, individual and public beliefs, family members and friends being users, profitable market, the need for effective supervision, and easy access were the key factors pushing people of different ages toward using smokeless tobacco in Chabahar city.

Poisoning is a critical global health problem, especially among children. This study aimed to assess the epidemiological features, clinical signs, and risk factors of childhood poisoning in the southeastern region of Iran.

Methods:

 This cross-sectional study was conducted on 636 children and adolescents admitted to the Emergency Department of Ali Ebne Abitaleb Teaching Hospital in Zahedan, Iran, within 2014 to 2020. The collected data were clinical symptoms at the time of admission, socioeconomic and demographic determinants, poisoning agents, admission to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), using antidote, hospital stay in days, discharge status from the hospital, self-poisoning, gender, and place of residency. The data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 18), and the level of significance was considered 0.05.

Opium was the most common poisoning agent with the age of 8years and femalepriority. Among poisoned subjects by chemical agents, the highlighted symptoms were respiratory distress, decreased peripheral oxygen saturation (SPO2), nausea and vomiting, fever, and a decrease in heart rate in the given order. Among poisoned subjects by medicinal agents with a decrease in SPO2, a decrease in consciousness and blood pressure was common. More frequent symptoms in children poisoned by opium were a decrease in SPO2, myosis, a decrease in heart rate, a decrease in respiratory rate, seizures, and nausea and vomiting. The factors, including antidote, gender, place of residency, poisoning by accidental events, admission to PICU, and days stayed in the hospital, were the significant factors in poisoning.

Poisoning by opium agents was more common than other agents in Iran in lower age groups. Poisoned children by opium agents had severe symptoms with higher frequency than other agents. Antidote, gender, place of residency, poisoning by accidental events, admission to PICU, and days stayed in the hospital were significant factors in agent poisoning.