Drug use expectancies among nonabstinent community cocaine users

Psychometric evaluation of the Short-Form Vaping Consequences Questionnaire for use with high school adolescents who use and do not use e-cigarettes

BACKGROUND

Assessing youth vaping expectancies using a psychometrically sound measure can improve understanding of e-cigarette susceptibility and use.

METHODS

We evaluated the psychometric properties of the Short-Form Vaping Consequences Questionnaire (SF-VCQ), an expectancy measure previously validated with adults, within a sample of 1,753 high school adolescents who completed an online, school-based survey in Fall 2020 (51.6% female; 15.56[1.22] years old; 46.6% non-Hispanic white; 26.9% reported lifetime but no past-30-day vaping; 12.6% reported past-30-day vaping). Analyses included confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, measurement invariance, between-group differences, and test-criterion relationships.

RESULTS

The 4-factor structure was confirmed and was scalar invariant by lifetime and past-month vaping status, sex, and race. All subscales were internally reliable (mean α=0.94). The subscales were sensitive to differences based on sex, race, vaping susceptibility among never users, and lifetime and past-month vaping status. For example, students who vaped in the past-month held weaker expectancies for negative consequences but stronger expectancies for positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and appetite/weight control compared to lifetime vapers. Unadjusted relationships within the subsamples of lifetime and past-month vapers provided evidence of convergent validity. Evidence for concurrent validity was observed for all samples after accounting for covariates. For example, expectancies for positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and appetite/weight control remained significantly associated with past-month vaping frequency.

CONCLUSIONS

The SF-VCQ evidenced excellent internal reliability, scalar measurement invariance, and construct, convergent, and concurrent validity in samples of never, lifetime, and past-month adolescent e-cigarette users. Findings support using the SF-VCQ for assessing youths' vaping-related expectancies.

IMPLICATIONS

The current study established the psychometric properties of the SF-VCQ for use among adolescents with and without vaping experience, including measurement invariance that permits direct comparisons of expectancies across these two groups. When considered in concert with previously published research in adults, the SF-VCQ provides researchers with a measure that can be used with both youth and adult samples. Observed relationships between positive expectancies and vaping susceptibility in vaping naïve youth and indices of vaping frequency in youth with vaping experience suggest that challenging positive expectancies may be a valuable addition to prevention and intervention efforts to reduce youth vaping.

Mis-anaesthetized society: expectancies and recreational use of ketamine in Taiwan

Background

The popularity of ketamine for recreational use has been increasing in Asia, including Taiwan. Still, little known about the pattern of ketamine expectancies and whether such patterns are related to ketamine use. This study aimed to examine whether the positive and negative ketamine expectancies are differentially associated with ketamine-using behavior, and whether such relationship may differ by early-onset use of tobacco or alcohol.

Methods

Participants were recruited using respondent-driven sampling (RDS) among regular tobacco and alcohol users, aged 18 to 50, residing in Taipei from 2007 to 2010. Totally 1115 participants (with an age distribution skewed to the right, median = 26; interquartile range: 22–32) had information on substance use and completed a 12-item ketamine expectancies questionnaire (with 6 positive and 6 negative statements). Using two axes of High and Low expectancies, the four combinations of binary positive and binary negative ketamine expectancies were created. Each participant’s drug-using experience was categorized into illicit drug naïve, exclusive ketamine use, polydrug ketamine use, or other illicit drug use. Using the weights in the network output by RDS Analysis Tool, multivariable logistic regression analysis was then conducted.

Results

The weighted prevalence was 2.4% for exclusive ketamine use, 9.0% for polydrug ketamine use, and 9.1% for the other illicit drug use. Ketamine users (11.4%) had greater positive expectancies and lower negative expectancies, particularly the combination of High Positive with Low Negative, as compared to the illicit drug-naïve or other illicit drug users. After adjustment for early-onset tobacco (or alcohol) use and sociodemographic characteristics, High Positive, Low Negative, and their combination of High Positive-Low Negative expectancies remained strongly associated with ketamine uses, without evidence of moderation from early-onset use of tobacco or alcohol.

Conclusions

Positive and negative ketamine expectancies were associated in opposite directions with ketamine use, independent of early-onset use of tobacco or alcohol. Our results indicate ketamine expectancies as possible targets for future intervention and prevention of ketamine use, with a less confrontational feedback on decreasing an individual’s positive expectancies is essential in preventing young people from the initiation of ketamine use.

Determinants of seeking treatment for cocaine abuse: a case-control study

The objective of this study, which targeted long-term socially integrated cocaine users (in powder form, no heroin), was to analyze potential determinants of request for treatment for primary cocaine abuse. Two hundred and twenty-three cases (users who sought treatment for primary cocaine abuse) and 223 controls (users who did not seek treatment) were interviewed in Italy. A semistructured interview was created. Conditional logistic regression models were used. Cases had begun consuming illicit substances later, started using cocaine quicker, had high-risk drinking habits, had more intense recent use of cocaine, and used alone and at work. Some of the motivations of use that characterize subjects who seek treatment (to experience a 'high', disinhibition, avoidance, and to feel more confident) seem specifically to obtain immediate gratification, without concern for future consequences. Variability in cocaine abusers seeking treatment has been a long-recognized feature of this population and the results show that the appropriate target population (cocaine users experiencing problems and using more frequently) is reached by treatment services.

Molecular, cellular, and structural mechanisms of cocaine addiction: a key role for microRNAs

The rewarding properties of cocaine play a key role in establishing and maintaining the drug-taking habit. However, as exposure to cocaine increases, drug use can transition from controlled to compulsive. Importantly, very little is known about the neurobiological mechanisms that control this switch in drug use that defines addiction. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-protein coding RNA transcripts that can regulate the expression of messenger RNAs that code for proteins. Because of their highly pleiotropic nature, each miRNA has the potential to regulate hundreds or even thousands of protein-coding RNA transcripts. This property of miRNAs has generated considerable interest in their potential involvement in complex psychiatric disorders such as addiction, as each miRNA could potentially influence the many different molecular and cellular adaptations that arise in response to drug use that are hypothesized to drive the emergence of addiction. Here, we review recent evidence supporting a key role for miRNAs in the ventral striatum in regulating the rewarding and reinforcing properties of cocaine in animals with limited exposure to the drug. Moreover, we discuss evidence suggesting that miRNAs in the dorsal striatum control the escalation of drug intake in rats with extended cocaine access. These findings highlight the central role for miRNAs in drug-induced neuroplasticity in brain reward systems that drive the emergence of compulsive-like drug use in animals, and suggest that a better understanding of how miRNAs control drug intake will provide new insights into the neurobiology of drug addiction.

γ Hydroxybutyrate use: exploring the influence of outcome expectancies through memory modeling

Gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) has been linked to overdose, criminal surreptitious administration, the need for emergency medical care, and fatalities worldwide. To begin to identify and understand the motivational factors that lead to the use of GHB, the present investigation utilized methods that have been successful in identifying potential expectancy targets and have been incorporated into prevention and intervention strategies successful in reducing high-risk alcohol use. In the present investigation, GHB expectancies were elicited from 926 voluntary participants aged 18-60 at a university in the southeastern United States to develop the GHB Expectancy Questionnaire (GHBEQ). The GHBEQ was subsequently administered to a different sample of 1,373 participants aged 18-55 in order to empirically derive the possible organization of GHB expectancies in memory, including likely paths of GHB expectancy activation. Findings suggest differences in GHB expectancies based on use history and sex. These results can be used to understand differences in GHB use for men and women, and to develop expectancy-based prevention and intervention programming to prevent and reduce its use in high-risk populations. 

Expectancies and marijuana use frequency and severity among young females

This study examined associations between the endorsement of drug use expectancies and the frequency and severity of marijuana use in a community sample of 332 women aged 18-24years who were not explicitly seeking treatment for their marijuana use. Participants were enrolled in a larger intervention study of motivational interviewing for various health behaviors and provided self-reports of their current and past marijuana use, marijuana abuse/dependence symptoms, and marijuana use expectancies. Marijuana use expectancies were measured using the six subscales of the Marijuana Effects Expectancy Questionnaire (MEEQ). Use frequency was defined as the number of use days in the past month, severity as the total number of DSM-IV marijuana abuse or dependence symptom criteria met. Replicating and extending prior research, expectations regarding Relaxation and Tension Reduction emerged as a robust belief in this cohort, predicting not only frequency (p<.01) but also severity (p<.01) of marijuana use in multivariate analyses. Severity of marijuana use was further predicted by expectations regarding loss of control, affective changes following marijuana use, and other aspects of emotion dysregulation (Global Negative Effects, p<.01). These findings document meaningful associations between substance-related cognitions and use behavior and suggest that marijuana users who hold certain beliefs regarding marijuana use may be particularly susceptible to clinically significant problems associated with their substance use. As such, marijuana use expectancies may represent a clinical target that could be incorporated into future interventions.