Alcohol and cannabis use as risk factors for injury – a case-crossover analysis in a Swiss hospital emergency department

BACKGROUND: There is sufficient and consistent evidence that alcohol use is a causal risk factor for injury. For cannabis use, however, there is conflicting evidence; a detrimental dose-response effect of cannabis use on psychomotor and other relevant skills has been found in experimental laboratory studies, while a protective effect of cannabis use has also been found in epidemiological studies. METHODS: Implementation of a case-crossover design study, with a representative sample of injured patients (N = 486; 332 men; 154 women) from the Emergency Department (ED) of the Lausanne University Hospital, which received treatment for different categories of injuries of varying aetiology. RESULTS: Alcohol use in the six hours prior to injury was associated with a relative risk of 3.00 (C.I.: 1.78, 5.04) compared with no alcohol use, a dose-response relationship also was found. Cannabis use was inversely related to risk of injury (RR: 0.33; C.I.: 0.12, 0.92), also in a dose-response like manner. However, the sample size for people who had used cannabis was small. Simultaneous use of alcohol and cannabis did not show significantly elevated risk. CONCLUSION: The most surprising result of our study was the inverse relationship between cannabis use and injury. Possible explanations and underlying mechanisms, such as use in safer environments or more compensatory behavior among cannabis users, were discussed

Search for gravitational waves associated with gamma-ray bursts detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO–Virgo run O3b

We search for gravitational-wave signals associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Fermi and Swift satellites during the second half of the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (2019 November 1 15:00 UTC–2020 March 27 17:00 UTC). We conduct two independent searches: a generic gravitational-wave transients search to analyze 86 GRBs and an analysis to target binary mergers with at least one neutron star as short GRB progenitors for 17 events. We find no significant evidence for gravitational-wave signals associated with any of these GRBs. A weighted binomial test of the combined results finds no evidence for subthreshold gravitational-wave signals associated with this GRB ensemble either. We use several source types and signal morphologies during the searches, resulting in lower bounds on the estimated distance to each GRB. Finally, we constrain the population of low-luminosity short GRBs using results from the first to the third observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. The resulting population is in accordance with the local binary neutron star merger rate

Taking alcohol by deception II: Paraga (alcoholic herbal mixture) use among commercial motor drivers in a south-western Nigerian city

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Paraga, an alcoholic herbal preparation that comes in different varieties had been shown to be commonly available to commercial drivers in southern Nigeria. This study aims to determine the prevalence and pattern of paraga use, and to evaluate the level of awareness of the risks entailed in taking paraga among intercity commercial drivers operating out of motor parks in Osogbo, southwest Nigeria. We administered a locally validated version of the WHO drug and alcohol survey questionnaire to 350 commercial drivers.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the 350 questionnaires administered, 332 were used for the data analysis; the remaining 18 were rejected because they had too many missing data. The prevalence rate in the past one year was 53.6% and 43.2% for the past one month (current). Three-quarters were moderate to heavy users, and many take the drug while working. A total of 25.6% had been involved in road crashes after taking paraga and 36.7% had actually seen people getting drunk from taking paraga. Only 40% of the drivers thought paraga use was harmful to their health, the others believing it to have therapeutic values (25%) or undecided (35.0%). Only 43.8% of the drivers would be willing to stop taking paraga.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Paraga use is popular among commercial drivers. Because of its alcoholic nature, drivers’ access to the concoction should be controlled and appropriate enforcement put in place.</p

Giving or taking: the role of dispositional power motivation and positive affect in profit maximization

Economic decision-making, Rational choice theory, Personality, Implicit power motive, Positive affect, Operant motive test,