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Methamphetamine use is becoming a major social issue in the Philippines, and this has been attracting international interest. Understanding the characteristics of drug users and the severity of their drug use is an urgent requirement for promoting effective treatment and support; however, in the Philippines, a lack of screening and assessment tools with confirmed reliability and validity is a major obstacle in this regard. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop Tagalog versions of the Drug Abuse Screening Test-20 (DAST-20), a drug-abuse screening tool used worldwide, and the Stimulant Relapse Risk Scale (SRRS), a tool for quantitatively evaluating relapse among stimulant users, and to confirm their validity and reliability. Participants were 305 patients admitted to the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (TRC) operated by the Philippines Department of Health for treatment for methamphetamine use. Sufficient internal consistency for the DAST-20 was confirmed, with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.81. Concerning validity, receiver-operating-characteristic analysis, featuring diagnoses from independent doctors, returned an acceptable area-under-curve value of 0.62. Sufficient internal consistency was also confirmed for the SRRS, with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.89. Correlation analysis of subjective drug craving (measured using a visual analog scale) and the SRRS revealed a significant positive correlation (r = 0.19, p < 0.001), confirming a certain level of validity. The Tagalog versions of the DAST-20 and SRRS developed in this study were confirmed to be reliable and valid. These scales could be effective for use in clinical settings and for research purposes.

Methamphetamine use is becoming a major social issue in the Philippines, and this has been attracting international interest. Understanding the characteristics of drug users and the severity of their drug use is an urgent requirement for promoting effective treatment and support; however, in the Philippines, a lack of screening and assessment tools with confirmed reliability and validity is a major obstacle in this regard. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop Tagalog versions of the Drug Abuse Screening Test-20 (DAST-20), a drug-abuse screening tool used worldwide, and the Stimulant Relapse Risk Scale (SRRS), a tool for quantitatively evaluating relapse among stimulant users, and to confirm their validity and reliability. Participants were 305 patients admitted to the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (TRC) operated by the Philippines Department of Health for treatment for methamphetamine use. Sufficient internal consistency for the DAST-20 was confirmed, with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.81. Concerning validity, receiver-operating-characteristic analysis, featuring diagnoses from independent doctors, returned an acceptable area-under-curve value of 0.62. Sufficient internal consistency was also confirmed for the SRRS, with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.89. Correlation analysis of subjective drug craving (measured using a visual analog scale) and the SRRS revealed a significant positive correlation (r = 0.19, p < 0.001), confirming a certain level of validity. The Tagalog versions of the DAST-20 and SRRS developed in this study were confirmed to be reliable and valid. These scales could be effective for use in clinical settings and for research purposes.

The issue of quality of medicine is a worldwide phenomenon and counterfeit, substandard, spurious, and adulterated (CSSA) drugs are a substantial threat to public health. This issue is rampant in the context of low-middle-income countries such as Pakistan. The current study involved a phenomenology-based qualitative approach to explore these drugs' perception, knowledge, practice, and issues in combating this menace. A semi-structured interview guide was developed. Eleven drug law experts were interviewed through a purposive sampling technique. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using a framework analysis approach, yielding seven distinct themes. The results showed that CSSA drugs are a serious public health threat and drug law experts confirmed its prevalence in the market. They indicated shortcomings in legislation up to the extent of undue amendments, failure to interpret and implement the law by regulators, ineffective law enforcement machinery, the sub-optimum performance of quality control boards, drug testing laboratories, and courts, and the dubious role of rogue middlemen and wholesalers in drug supply chain and corruption were salient issues highlighted. The study revealed that proper drug surveillance, ensuring the presence of a pharmacist, enforcing the law, securing the supply chain, infrastructure for a drug control regime, and training regulators can help tackle this problem.

Background. The substances used in sport could be divided into two major groups: those banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency and those which are not. The prohibited list is extremely detailed and includes a wide variety of both medicinal and nonmedicinal substances. Professional athletes are exposed to intense physical overload every day. They follow a relevant food regime and take specific dietary supplements, which is essential for the better recovery between trainings and competitions. However, the use of “nonprohibited” dietary supplements (DS) is not always completely safe. One of the risks associated with the use of dietary supplements is the risk of unintended doping—originating from contaminated products. The presence of undeclared compounds in the composition of DS is a serious concern. The aim of this study is to evaluate the risk of unintentional doping. Materials and Methods. Literature search was done through PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Web of Science. Studies investigating the presence of undeclared compounds, in dietary supplements, banned by WADA met the inclusion criteria. The last search was conducted in June 2021. The present review is based on a total of 50 studies, which investigated the presence of undeclared compounds in DS. Results. The total number of analyzed DS is 3132, 875 of which were found to contain undeclared substances. Most frequently found undeclared substances are sibutramine and anabolic-androgenic steroids. Conclusion. More than 28% of the analyzed dietary supplements pose a potential risk of unintentional doping. Athletes and their teams need to be aware of the issues associated with the use of DS. They should take great care before inclusion of DS in the supplementation regime.

One of the major challenges in the development of effective pharmaceutical formulations for oral administration is the poor solubility of active pharmaceutical ingredients. For this reason, the dissolution process and drug release from solid oral dosage forms, such as tablets, is usually thoroughly studied in order to understand the dissolution behaviour under various conditions and optimize the formulation accordingly. Standard dissolution tests used in the pharmaceutical industry provide information on the amount of drug released over time; however, these do not allow for a detailed analysis of the underlying chemical and physical mechanisms of tablet dissolution. FTIR spectroscopic imaging, by contrast, does offer the ability to study these processes with high spatial and chemical specificity. As such, the method allows us to see the chemical and physical processes which occur inside the tablet as it dissolves. In this review, the power of ATR-FTIR spectroscopic imaging is demonstrated by presenting a number of successful applications of this chemical imaging technique to dissolution and drug release studies for a range of different pharmaceutical formulations and study conditions. Understanding these processes is essential for the development of effective oral dosage forms and optimization of pharmaceutical formulations.

Opioids are the cornerstone of cancer pain management, but some patients engage in improper use, which may compromise patient safety. To support patient wellbeing, proper prescribing of controlled substances is essential. Frequently, research recommends the use of urine drug testing (UDT) to assist clinicians in responsibly prescribing opioids when managing pain. However, guidelines do not provide instruction for when UDT should be utilized in cancer care. Often, UDT has been limited to random testing or testing of cancer patients with suspected misuse. We sought to maximize the utility of UDT by determining the prevalence of abnormal results in patients seen for supportive care. We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients newly referred to an outpatient supportive care clinic between December 2013 and September 2016. One thousand one hundred and eight consecutive patients underwent routine UDT as part of their initial visit. Total number of drug and/or metabolites identified was 3,165. Thirteen percent were indicative of noncompliance: nearly half of these, 47%, indicated the absence of an opioid currently prescribed. Marijuana was detected in 19% of patients, cocaine in 1.4%. Nineteen percent of all results were indicative of the presence of a prescription drug, not currently prescribed. The vast majority, were non-prescribed opioids in 37% of patients.