Impairment, Disability, and Substance Use Disorder.

According to the social model of disability, it is not individuals' impairments, but societal barriers that cause these impairments to be disabling. Impairment refers to the "loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure or function," whereas disability is socially constructed and refers to the inability to independently complete one or more everyday tasks at a "normal" level of functioning. Existing research finds that disability serves as a chronic stressor, and those with disabilities report higher rates of substance use than their able-bodied counterparts. Therefore, this research will be among the first to combine the social model of disability with the stress process framework. It will examine the relationship between impairment and substance use and how disability, as a measure of chronic stress, may affect this relationship. More specifically, using data from the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (N = 42,739), this article examines the following two research questions: (1) What is the relationship between impairment and substance use disorder? and (2) Does disability, as a measure of chronic stress, mediate the relationship between impairment and substance use disorder? Findings reveal that those with an impairment have significantly greater odds of having a substance use disorder. However, the relationship between impairment and substance use disorder is fully mediated by disability. These findings indicate that disability or the chronic stress one faces living in an inaccessible society, not one's impairments, are what accounts for the increased likelihood of substance use disorder among individuals with disabilities.

Real-time RT-qPCR assay to detect sequences in the Piscine orthoreovirus-1 genome segment S1 associated with heart and skeletal muscle inflammation in Atlantic salmon.

During the last decade, Piscine orthoreovirus was identified as the main causative agent of heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI) in Atlantic Salmon, Norway. A recent study showed that PRV-1 sequences from salmonid collected in North Atlantic Pacific Coast (NAPC) grouped separately from the Norwegian sequences found in Atlantic Salmon diagnosed with HSMI. Currently, the routine assay used to screen for PRV-1 in NAPC water and worldwide cannot differentiate between the two groups of PRV-1. Therefore, this study aimed at developing a real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay to target the PRV-1 genome segments specific for variants associated with HSMI. The assay was optimized and tested against 71 tissue samples collected from different regions including Norway, Chile and both coast of Canada and different hosts farmed Atlantic Salmon, wild Coho Salmon and escaped Atlantic Salmon collected in British Columbia, West Coast of Canada. This assay has the potential to be used for screening salmonids and non-salmonids that may carry PRV-1 potentially causing HSMI.

Race, Coping Style, and Substance Use Disorder Among Non-Hispanic African American and White Young Adults in South Florida.

BACKGROUND: Despite their higher rates of stress, African American young adults tend toward similar or lower rates of substance misuse than their White counterparts. Arguably, such patterns derive from: (1) racial variations in the availability of coping strategies that mitigate stress; and/or (2) racial differences in the efficacy of available coping styles for reducing substance misuse. OBJECTIVES: We assessed whether two coping style types-problem-focused and avoidance-oriented-varied by race (non-Hispanic African American vs. non-Hispanic White) and whether the effects of coping styles on substance misuse were moderated by race. METHODS: Using data from a community sample of South Florida young adults, we employed logistic regression analyses to examine racial differences in coping style and to test if race by coping style interactions (race × problem-focused coping and race × avoidance-oriented coping) influenced the odds of qualifying for a DSM-IV substance use disorder, net of lifetime stressful events and sociodemographic controls. RESULTS: We found that African American young adults displayed lower problem-focused coping, and higher avoidance-oriented coping, than did White young adults. Among both African American and White respondents, problem-focused coping was associated with reduced odds of illicit drug use disorder (excluding marijuana), and among Whites, avoidance-oriented coping was associated with increased odds of an aggregate measure of alcohol, marijuana, and other illicit drug use disorders. Among African Americans, however, avoidance-oriented coping was associated with lower odds of marijuana use disorder. CONCLUSION: Substance misuse policies and practices that consider the sociocultural contexts of stress and coping are recommended.

Unconventional mental health treatment: reexamining the racial-ethnic disparity in treatment-seeking behavior.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine whether a more inclusive definition of mental health treatment that incorporates unconventional treatment may partially account for the racial disparity in treatment-seeking behavior. METHODS: Using 2005-2007 pooled data (N=102,749) from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), logistic regression models were used to examine the relationship between race (non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and Hispanic) and the type of mental health treatment sought. Treatment types were classified as conventional care (outpatient or inpatient), psychotropic medication, or unconventional treatment. Unconventional treatment was further classified as complementary and alternative medicine or parochial care, defined as treatment that appeals to a specific religious group that is provided at no cost outside a health delivery system. RESULTS: Compared with whites, blacks had 53% lower odds and Hispanics had 41% lower odds of seeking any type of mental health treatment in the past year. Both blacks and Hispanics were significantly less likely to report use of any single type of conventional or unconventional mental health treatment other than parochial care. Blacks had 60% greater odds and Hispanics had 36% greater odds than whites of using parochial care only. CONCLUSIONS: Although blacks and Hispanics were more likely than whites to use parochial mental health treatment, accounting for use of this type of unconventional treatment did not explain the racial disparity in treatment-seeking behavior.