Methamphetamine use and psychotic symptoms: findings from a New Zealand longitudinal birth cohort.

BACKGROUND: This study examined the association between methamphetamine use and psychotic symptoms in a New Zealand general population birth cohort (n = 1265 at birth). METHODS: At age 18, 21, 25, 30, and 35, participants reported on their methamphetamine use and psychotic symptoms in the period since the previous interview. Generalized estimating equations modelled the association between methamphetamine use and psychotic symptoms (percentage reporting any symptom, and number of symptoms per participant). Confounding factors included childhood individual characteristics, family socioeconomic circumstances and family functioning. Long term effects of methamphetamine use on psychotic symptoms were assessed by comparing the incidence of psychotic symptoms at age 30-35 for those with and without a history of methamphetamine use prior to age 30. RESULTS: After adjusting for confounding factors and time-varying covariate factors including concurrent cannabis use, methamphetamine use was associated with a modest increase in psychosis risk over five waves of data (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.33, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03-1.72 for the percentage measure; and IRR 1.24, 95% CI 1.02-1.50 for the symptom count measure). The increased risk of psychotic symptoms was concentrated among participants who had used at least weekly at any point (adjusted OR 2.85, 95% CI 1.21-6.69). Use of methamphetamine less than weekly was not associated with increased psychosis risk. We found no evidence for a persistent vulnerability to psychosis in the absence of continuing methamphetamine use. CONCLUSION: Methamphetamine use is associated with increased risk of psychotic symptoms in the general population. Increased risk is chiefly confined to people who ever used regularly (at least weekly), and recently.

Childhood trauma and cognitive functioning in mood disorders: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment is a core feature of mood disorders and has been identified as an important treatment target. A better understanding of the factors contributing to cognitive impairment in mood disorders would be beneficial in developing interventions to address cognitive impairment. One key factor is childhood trauma. The aim of this review was to systematically synthesise and review research examining associations between reported childhood trauma and cognitive functioning in mood disorders. METHODS: Studies in adult samples examining the relationship between objective cognitive function and reported childhood trauma in major depressive disorder and/or bipolar disorder (in-episode or euthymia) were identified. Searches were conducted on PubMed, Embase and PsycINFO until January 2022. A narrative review technique was used due to the heterogeneity of group comparisons, cognitive tests and data analysis across studies. RESULTS: Seventeen studies met the criteria for inclusion (mood disorders N = 1723, healthy controls N = 797). Evidence for childhood trauma being related to poorer cognitive functioning was consistent across global cognitive functioning and executive function domains for euthymic patients and psychomotor speed for in-episode patients. There was mixed evidence for verbal learning and memory and executive function for in-episode patients. Identification of patterns within other domains was difficult due to limited number of studies. CONCLUSION: Findings from this review suggest childhood trauma is associated with poorer cognitive functioning in people with mood disorders. Targeted interventions to improve cognition may be warranted for this group.

Experiences of violence among people with stimulant use disorder in psychiatric inpatient settings: A qualitative study.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the perspectives of those with lived experience of stimulant use disorder on methamphetamine-related violence in psychiatric inpatient settings. METHOD: Eight adult psychiatric inpatients with stimulant use disorder were recruited. Semi-structured interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Participants reported that traumatic experiences predisposed those using methamphetamine to violent behaviour. Participants were fearful of psychiatric hospitalisation because of loss of autonomy and stigma. Methamphetamine use was associated with mercurial intense emotions. Participants believed these factors led to violence during psychiatric admissions. CONCLUSIONS: People with stimulant use disorder have a sophisticated understanding of the complex causal pathways from methamphetamine use to violent behaviour. Their lived experience can make an important contribution to service development.

Differential Fairness: An Intersectional Framework for Fair AI.

We propose definitions of fairness in machine learning and artificial intelligence systems that are informed by the framework of intersectionality, a critical lens from the legal, social science, and humanities literature which analyzes how interlocking systems of power and oppression affect individuals along overlapping dimensions including gender, race, sexual orientation, class, and disability. We show that our criteria behave sensibly for any subset of the set of protected attributes, and we prove economic, privacy, and generalization guarantees. Our theoretical results show that our criteria meaningfully operationalize AI fairness in terms of real-world harms, making the measurements interpretable in a manner analogous to differential privacy. We provide a simple learning algorithm using deterministic gradient methods, which respects our intersectional fairness criteria. The measurement of fairness becomes statistically challenging in the minibatch setting due to data sparsity, which increases rapidly in the number of protected attributes and in the values per protected attribute. To address this, we further develop a practical learning algorithm using stochastic gradient methods which incorporates stochastic estimation of the intersectional fairness criteria on minibatches to scale up to big data. Case studies on census data, the COMPAS criminal recidivism dataset, the HHP hospitalization data, and a loan application dataset from HMDA demonstrate the utility of our methods.

Learning representations of microbe-metabolite interactions.

Integrating multiomics datasets is critical for microbiome research; however, inferring interactions across omics datasets has multiple statistical challenges. We solve this problem by using neural networks (https://github.com/biocore/mmvec) to estimate the conditional probability that each molecule is present given the presence of a specific microorganism. We show with known environmental (desert soil biocrust wetting) and clinical (cystic fibrosis lung) examples, our ability to recover microbe-metabolite relationships, and demonstrate how the method can discover relationships between microbially produced metabolites and inflammatory bowel disease.

A Novel Graphical Method for Data Presentation in Alcohol Systematic Reviews: The Interactive Harvest Plot.

AIMS: To demonstrate a novel method for presenting and exploring data in systematic reviews of the alcohol literature. METHODS: Harvest plots are a graphical method for displaying data on the overall pattern of evidence from a systematic review. They can display the direction of effects and risk of bias within studies for multiple outcomes in a single graphical chart. Using data from our previous meta-analysis on the association between personality disorder and alcohol treatment outcome, we extended the application of harvest plots by developing an interactive online harvest plot application. RESULTS: Studies included in the review were heterogeneous in design. There were many different primary outcomes, and similar outcomes were often defined differently across studies. The interactive harvest plot allows readers to explore trends in the data across multiple outcomes, including the impact of within-study bias and year of publication. In contrast, meta-analysis on the same data was hampered by a lack of consistency in the way outcomes were measured, and incomplete reporting of effect sizes and their variance. This meant many studies included in the systematic review could not be meta-analysed. CONCLUSIONS: Interactive harvest plots are a novel graphical method to present data from systematic reviews. They can supplement or even replace meta-analysis when the studies included in a systematic review use heterogeneous designs and measures, as is often the case in the alcohol literature.

Childhood abuse and psychotic experiences in adulthood: findings from a 35-year longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: The extent to which exposure to childhood sexual and physical abuse increases the risk of psychotic experiences in adulthood is currently unclear.AimsTo examine the relationship between childhood sexual and physical abuse and psychotic experiences in adulthood taking into account potential confounding and time-dynamic covariate factors. METHOD: Data were from a cohort of 1265 participants studied from birth to 35 years. At ages 18 and 21, cohort members were questioned about childhood sexual and physical abuse. At ages 30 and 35, they were questioned about psychotic experiences (symptoms of abnormal thought and perception). Generalised estimating equation models investigated covariation of the association between abuse exposure and psychotic experiences including potential confounding factors in childhood (socioeconomic disadvantage, adverse family functioning) and time-dynamic covariate factors (mental health, substance use and life stress). RESULTS: Data were available for 962 participants; 6.3% had been exposed to severe sexual abuse and 6.4% to severe physical abuse in childhood. After adjustment for confounding and time-dynamic covariate factors, those exposed to severe sexual abuse had rates of abnormal thought and abnormal perception symptoms that were 2.25 and 4.08 times higher, respectively than the 'no exposure' group. There were no significant associations between exposure to severe physical abuse and psychotic experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that exposure to severe childhood sexual (but not physical) abuse is independently associated with an increased risk of psychotic experiences in adulthood (particularly symptoms of abnormal perception) and this association could not be fully accounted for by confounding or time-dynamic covariate factors.Declaration of interestNone.

A systematic review of risk factors for methamphetamine-associated psychosis.

OBJECTIVE: Chronic methamphetamine use is commonly associated with the development of psychotic symptoms. The predictors and correlates of methamphetamine-associated psychosis are poorly understood. We sought to systematically review factors associated with psychotic symptoms in adults using illicit amphetamine or methamphetamine. METHODS: A systematic literature search was performed on MEDLINE (OVID), PsycINFO and EMBASE databases from inception to 8 December 2016. The search strategy combined three concept areas: methamphetamine or amphetamine, psychosis and risk factors. Included studies needed to compare adults using illicit methamphetamine or amphetamine, using a validated measure of psychosis, on a range of risk factors. Of 402 identified articles, we removed 45 duplicates, 320 articles based on abstract/title and 17 ineligible full-text articles, leaving 20 included studies that were conducted in 13 populations. Two co-authors independently extracted the following data from each study: country, setting and design; participant demographic and clinical details; sample size; measure/s used and measures of association between psychosis outcomes and risk factors. Individual study quality was assessed using a modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, and strength of evidence was assessed using GRADE criteria. RESULTS: Frequency of methamphetamine use and severity of methamphetamine dependence were consistently found to be associated with psychosis, and sociodemographic factors were not. There was inconsistent evidence available for all other risk factors. Individual study quality was low-moderate for the majority of studies. Heterogeneity in study outcomes precluded quantitative synthesis of outcomes across studies. CONCLUSION: The most consistent correlates of psychotic symptoms were increased frequency of methamphetamine use and dependence on methamphetamine. The findings of this review highlight the need for targeted assessment and treatment of methamphetamine use in individuals presenting with psychosis.

Personality Disorder and Alcohol Use Disorder: An Overview.

BACKGROUND: Clinically, personality disorder (PD) commonly coexists with alcohol use disorder (AUD), although within mainstream mental health services both of these mental disorders are routinely overlooked. Despite a rich literature examining the interactions between AUD and personality functioning, personality traits, and PD, there remains conflicting evidence as to the degree of association and impact of one on the other. METHODS: A narrative review and a synthesis of the literature were done. RESULTS: The lifetime prevalence of AUD approaches 50% in some PD populations. The rates of PD in AUD populations are less clear but likely similar. Personality influences outcomes in AUD regardless of whether a categorical personality diagnosis or dimensional trait domain approach is taken. There are, however, no good data to inform clinicians on the impact of AUD on the outcomes of PD. Understanding the extent of this impact is complicated by the multiple tools used for diagnosis (of both PD and AUD) and the statistical methods used. Overall, caution is required in interpreting the data due to the quality of the current literature; however, comorbidity between the two disorders is likely significant and the impact of PD on AUD outcomes is sufficient to require consideration. CONCLUSIONS: From a research perspective, better agreement on both diagnoses and outcomes is urgently needed to improve the overall quality of the evidence. Clinically, despite the limitations in the literature, it is unacceptable for PD services to ignore AUD and for AUD services not to screen for PD. Both are likely to have an impact on health and functioning and should be considered in routine reviews. A better conceptualization of the putative mechanisms of this interaction, as well as an understanding of the neurobiology and reasons for the impact on treatment outcomes, will help to move the field forward.

Personality disorder and alcohol treatment outcome: systematic review and meta-analysis.

BackgroundPersonality disorders commonly coexist with alcohol use disorders (AUDs), but there is conflicting evidence on their association with treatment outcomes.AimsTo determine the size and direction of the association between personality disorder and the outcome of treatment for AUD.MethodWe conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials and longitudinal studies.ResultsPersonality disorders were associated with more alcohol-related impairment at baseline and less retention in treatment. However, during follow-up people with a personality disorder showed a similar amount of improvement in alcohol outcomes to that of people without such disorder. Synthesis of evidence was hampered by variable outcome reporting and a low quality of evidence overall.ConclusionsCurrent evidence suggests the pessimism about treatment outcomes for this group of patients may be unfounded. However, there is an urgent need for more consistent and better quality reporting of outcomes in future studies in this area.

Personality Predictors of Drinking Outcomes in Depressed Alcohol-Dependent Patients.

AIM: To evaluate the role of personality dimensions as predictors of drinking outcomes in depressed alcohol-dependent patients. METHODS: Temperament and character inventory (TCI) scores were obtained at baseline in a 24-week study of 127 depressed alcohol-dependent patients who received open-label naltrexone and were randomized to citalopram or placebo. The association between TCI personality dimensions and alcohol outcomes during follow-up was examined using general linear mixed models. RESULTS: Low novelty seeking, high self-directedness and high cooperativeness predicted less alcohol consumption on drinking days during follow-up. Temperament and character variables had no effect on the percentage of days abstinent from alcohol. Depression mediated the effects of self-directedness and cooperativeness on alcohol outcomes while the effect of novelty seeking remained after adjusting for depression scores in follow-up. CONCLUSION: Identifying personality characteristics at baseline predicts drinking outcomes in depressed, alcohol-dependent patients. In particular patients with high novelty seeking drank more heavily on drinking days and they may therefore need more intensive intervention to achieve good treatment outcomes.

OPRM1 genotype and naltrexone response in depressed alcohol-dependent patients.

A functional polymorphism rs1799971 (A118G) in the µ-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) produces an amino acid substitution Asn40Asp, which is believed to influence naltrexone response in nondepressed alcohol-dependent patients. In this study, patients with alcohol dependence and major depression (n=108) received open-label naltrexone and clinical case management for 12 weeks, and were randomized to citalopram or placebo. General linear mixed models examined the effect of the OPRM1 A118G genotype on alcohol outcomes during treatment. There was no evidence of any difference in the percentage of days abstinent, drinks per drinking day or percentage of heavy drinking days between Asp40 carriers and noncarriers during treatment. This study therefore failed to replicate the previous positive findings for this single nucleotide polymorphism in relation to naltrexone response, possibly indicating that the effect is not present in depressed patients.

A randomized trial of combined citalopram and naltrexone for nonabstinent outpatients with co-occurring alcohol dependence and major depression.

Despite the high rate of co-occurrence of major depression and alcohol dependence, the role of pharmacotherapy in their treatment remains unclear. In the new era of naltrexone for alcohol dependence, it is notable that only 1 study to date has examined the efficacy of antidepressant medication prescribed concurrently with naltrexone. We aimed to determine whether combining naltrexone with citalopram produced better treatment outcomes than naltrexone alone in patients with co-occurring alcohol dependence and depression, and to investigate whether either sex or depression type (independent or substance-induced depression) moderated treatment response. Participants were 138 depressed alcohol-dependent adults who were not required to be abstinent at the commencement of the trial. They were randomized to 12 weeks of citalopram or placebo, plus naltrexone and clinical case management. Treatment was well attended, and medications were reasonably well tolerated with high adherence rates. Substantial improvements in both mood and drinking occurred in both groups, with no significant differences between groups on any of the mood or drinking outcome measures, whether or not other variables were controlled for. No interaction effect was found for independent/substance-induced depression status, whereas there was a marginal effect found by sex, with greater improvement in 1 drinking outcome measure (percent days abstinent) in women taking citalopram. These findings suggest that citalopram is not a clinically useful addition to naltrexone and clinical case management in this treatment population. Independent/substance-induced depression status did not predict treatment response. Findings for sex were equivocal.

Changes in alcohol-related emergency department presentations-a comparison of three waves in 2013, 2017 and 2022.

AIMS: Emergency departments (EDs) around the world are increasingly overcrowded, which is associated with significant patient harm. Alcohol use is a known contributor to ED overcrowding. This study aimed to assess trends in the characteristics of alcohol-related ED presentations over time. METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study of Christchurch ED attendances during 3-week waves of data collection in November-December 2013, 2017 and 2022 was conducted. Potential participants were those patients attending the Christchurch Hospital ED who had ingested alcohol in the 4 hours prior to arrival, and/or the presentation was thought to be related to alcohol. Those who consented to take part were interviewed to examine amount and source of alcohol. RESULTS: There has been a change in the age profile towards a greater proportion of older patients attending the ED with alcohol-related issues. In 2022, a greater proportion of alcohol was purchased from on-licence venues compared to previous years, although off-licence alcohol purchase and consumption in private locations remained the most common. CONCLUSION: Alcohol use and harm places a significant, yet preventable, burden on EDs and the wider healthcare system. Implementation of evidence-based alcohol policies is urgently needed to reduce the impact of alcohol in the ED and improve the health of communities.

Mental disorders and discrimination: A prospective cohort study of young twin pairs in Germany.

Background: Mental disorders and perceived discrimination share common risk factors. The association between having a mental disorder and experiencing discrimination is well-known, but the extent to which familial factors, such as genetic and shared environmental factors, might confound this association, including sex differences in familial confounding, remains unexplored. Aims: We investigated potential unmeasured familial confounding in the association between mental disorders and perceived discrimination using a matched twin study design. Method: We examined data from 2044 same-sex twin pairs (n = 4088) aged 16-25 years from the German population-based study 'TwinLife'. We applied random-effects logistic regression to within-individual and within-and-between pair models of the association between mental disorder and perceived discrimination, and used likelihood ratio tests (LRTs) to compare these models. Multivariable models were adjusted for body mass index, educational attainment, and life satisfaction. Results: There were 322 (8.1%) participants with a diagnosed mental disorder, and 15% (n = 604) of the cohort reported having experienced discrimination in the previous 12 months. Mental disorder and discrimination were associated in the adjusted within-individual model (adjusted odds ratio = 2.19, 95% confidence interval: 1.42-3.39, P<0.001). However, the within-and-between pair model showed that this association was explained by the within-pair mean (aOR = 4.24, 95% CI: 2.17-8.29, P<0.001) and not the within-pair difference (aOR = 1.26, 95% CI: 0.70-2.28, P = 0.4) of mental disorder. Therefore, this association was mostly explained by familial confounding, which is also supported by the LRTs for the unadjusted and adjusted models (P<0.001 and P = 0.03, respectively). This familial confounding was more prominent for males than females. Conclusions: Our findings show that the association between mental disorder and discrimination is at least partially explained by unmeasured familial factors. Designing family-based healthcare models and incorporating family members in interventions targeted at ameliorating mental ill-health and experiences of discrimination among adolescents may improve efficacy.