Beyond the Ubiquitous Relapse Curve: A Data-Informed Approach

Relapse to alcohol and other substances has generally been described by curves that resemble one another. However, these curves have been generated from the time to first use after a period of abstinence without regard to the movement of individuals into and out of drug use. Instead of measuring continuous abstinence, we considered post-treatment functioning as a more complicated phenomenon, describing how people move in and out of drinking states on a monthly basis over the course of a year. When we looked at time to first drink we observed the ubiquitous relapse curve. When we classified clients (N = 550) according to drinking state however, they frequently moved from one state to another with both abstinent and very heavy drinking states as being rather stable, and light or moderate drinking and heavy drinking being unstable. We found that clients with a family history of alcoholism were less likely to experience these unstable states. When we examined the distribution of cases crossed by the number of times clients switched states we found that a power function explained 83% of that relationship. Some of the remainder of the variance seems to be explained by the stable states of very heavy drinking and abstinence acting as attractors

War and Money in Ngram Viewer

The second and fourth authors have been inviting Intro to Applied Analytics and Statistics 1 students to use the Ngram Database to explore historical topics of their choosing. This is the first article derived from this exercise. The first author examined the historical relationship between war and money from 1775 to 2005 in the American English corpus. This is followed by an examination of the 3-gram “cost of war” in the American English and British English corpora. Specific to the analyses presented here several military and economic events are discussed. More specifically, both economies and wars are somewhat unpredictable, with wars being more so. Through this exercise, more experience with statistics and a greater appreciation of history are achieved

Predicting alcohol consumption during the month before and after beginning college

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We sought to determine predictors of drinking the month before and after beginning college, as well as changes in drinking between these two periods among adjudicated students. We conducted these analyses to inform individual and university-wide approaches to addressing underage drinking, particularly among the heaviest drinkers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The sample consisted of 143 students entering college, adjudicated during their first semester, and interviewed during the same semester. The sample consisted of 43% women. Drinking data were collected through the Time-Line Follow-Back interview.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The average number of drinking days (DD) during the first month of college was 7.0 (SD = 4.7), the average number of drinks per drinking day (DDD) was 7.4 (SD = 3.4), and the average volume of standard drink units consumed during this month was 56.3 (SD = 51.2). Students had volunteered for a two-year college facilitation study, and had been invited to participate after receiving a citation for violating university alcohol policies. Analyses consisted of nine backward elimination regression analyses with nine variables entered as predictors (one was a control variable). Age of first intoxication was related to every dependent measure. Men had a higher August DDD, September DDD, and September volume than women. Roommate drinking level was associated with September DDD and September volume. Out-of-state students had a lower August volume than in-state students. High school rank was inversely related to September drinking days. SAT score, declared major status, and fraternity/sorority status were not related to drinking according to these multivariate analyses.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Results suggest that approaches to underage drinking for adjudicated students may need to be tailored according to age of first intoxication. Results also suggest the drinking level of the heaviest drinking roommate may moderate individual level interventions. Further, interventions applied to an entire dorm room may prove efficacious. Results also suggest that high school rank, rather than SAT scores, should be used as college entry criteria to yield a drier incoming class. Results may not generalize to non-adjudicated students.</p

Role of the α1 blocker doxazosin in alcoholism: a proof-of-concept randomized controlled trial

Evidence suggests that the norepinephrine system represents an important treatment target for alcohol dependence (AD) and the α1-blocker prazosin may reduce alcohol drinking in rodents and alcoholic patients. The α1-blocker doxazosin demonstrates a more favorable pharmacokinetic profile than prazosin, but has never been studied for AD. A double-blind placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial was conducted in AD individuals seeking outpatient treatment. Doxazosin or matched placebo was titrated to 16 mg/day (or maximum tolerable dose). Drinks per week (DPW) and heavy drinking days (HDD) per week were the primary outcomes. Family history density of alcoholism (FHDA), severity of AD and gender were a priori moderators. Forty-one AD individuals were randomized, 30 (doxazosin = 15) completed the treatment phase and 28 (doxazosin = 14) also completed the follow-up. There were no significant differences between groups on DPW and HDD per week. With FHDA as a moderator, there were significant FHDA × medication interactions for both DPW (pcorrected = 0.001, d = 1.18) and HDD (pcorrected = 0.00009, d = 1.30). Post hoc analyses revealed that doxazosin significantly reduced alcohol drinking in AD patients with high FHDA and by contrast increased drinking in those with low FHDA. Doxazosin may be effective selectively in AD patients with high FHDA. This study provides preliminary evidence for personalized medicine using α1-blockade to treat AD. However, confirmatory studies are required

Association of the 5-HTT Gene-Linked Promoter Region (5-HTTLPR) Polymorphism with Psychiatric Disorders: Review of Psychopathology and Pharmacotherapy

Serotonin (5-HT) regulates important biological and psychological processes including mood, and may be associated with the development of several psychiatric disorders. An association between psychopathology and genes that regulate 5-HT neurotransmission is a robust area of research. Identification of the genes responsible for the predisposition, development, and pharmacological response of various psychiatric disorders is crucial to the advancement of our understanding of their underlying neurobiology. This review highlights research investigating 5-HT transporter (5-HTTLPR) polymorphism, because studies investigating the impact of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism have demonstrated significant associations with many psychiatric disorders. Decreased transcriptional activity of the S allele (“risk allele”) may be associated with a heightened amygdala response leading to anxiety-related personality traits, major depressive disorder, suicide attempts, and bipolar disorder. By contrast, increased transcriptional activity of the L allele is considered protective for depression but is also associated with completed suicide, nicotine dependence, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. For some disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder, the research suggests that treatment response may vary by allele (such as an enhanced response to serotonin specific reuptake inhibitors in patients with major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder with L alleles), and for alcohol dependence, the association and treatment for S or L alleles may vary with alcoholic subtype. While some studies suggest that 5-HTTLPR polymorphism can moderate the response to pharmacotherapy, the association between 5-HTTLPR alleles and therapeutic outcomes is inconsistent. The discovery of triallelic 5-HTTLPR alleles (LA/LG/S) may help to explain some of the conflicting results of many past association studies, while concurrently providing more meaningful data in the future. Studies assessing 5-HTTLPR as the solitary genetic factor contributing to the etiology of psychiatric disorders continue to face the challenges of statistically small effect sizes and limited replication

Positive Findings Regarding a New Trend in University Architecture Evaluating Student Impressions of an Innovative Academic Building

Bryant University recently opened a spectacularly visually appealing, new building, the Academic Innovation Center (AIC). It was designed to promote innovative problem solving classroom experiences for business and liberal arts students alike with a spacious and wide open feeling. Bryant is among a group of other universities who are turning to radically different building design. Kamal (et.al.) in a lengthy white paper captures the essence of why universities are turning towards such novel architecture [1]. Students and faculty alike are enjoying the pleasure of working in such an aesthetically pleasing place. The intentions of this paper were to capture the emotions and perceptions of students regarding their impressions of the new building as it just opened, and capture perceptions on whether the new design really did effect a feeling of engagement and collaboration. Upon the opening semester, we surveyed the students that fall with a pre and post survey (September and December) regarding perceptions of engagement, collaboration, and enjoyment. We hoped that the administered survey would illustrate that the new space did indeed foster a feeling of academic success and bolster a new excitement for learning with the students. Varied statistical techniques were used to capture diverse results

Some Alcohol-Related Consequences for Women May Signal an Escape from Interpersonal Violence

Alcohol-related negative consequences can be very costly and emotionally devastating for those with Alcohol Use Disorder and those around them. Such, consequences include driving under the influence motor vehicle accident fatalities, other accidental deaths, and cirrhosis. We investigate two main queries using the data from Project COMBINE (Anton et al., 2006) to determine which negative consequences are most frequent for women, and to determine whether there are differences across ethnicity (for women) on negative consequences. The research method is secondary data analysis. An interpretation of the results turns the typical perspective on its head: We posit that results suggest women are escaping from interpersonal violence, which is of course an excellent outcome