Substance among women has been shown to have high costs, yet intervention efforts continue to lag behind needs. To address this gap, researchers at Yale University and Washington University of St Louis conducted a randomized controlled trial of various types of health care interventions.
As of 2009, 33.4 million people worldwide were living with HIV, with some 2.7 million new infections each year, according to the World Health Organization. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than one million people in the United States alone are HIV positive, and that one in five of those individuals is unaware of his or her infection. Given the scope of the problem, slowing the spread of HIV remains a public policy issue of enormous importance.
While depression is often linked with physiological factors, the larger human environment appears to contribute to and worsen existing depression. The degree to which this is true, however, and how much impact public health and safety efforts might help mitigate depression in the populace, is less certain.
The surge in U.S. methamphetamine use began in 2001 and peaked in 2005, when federal legislation was passed to target the drug. For a time, law enforcement appeared to get the upper hand and the problem began, relatively speaking, to subside. One vexing issue remains that the drug’s core chemical ingredients, such as pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, are commonly found in legal drugs available in stores.
Sexual minority youths — those who self-identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or unsure of their sexuality — remain underrepresented in the academic data on youth issues. Such information is crucial for schools and education systems, in particular, as they look to design and improve outreach and intervention programs to address the health needs of this population.
Marijuana usage in America rose 6.9% between 2009 and 2010, when some 17.4 million Americans reported using the drug. Sixteen states now permit the medical use of marijuana for diseases such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis, but the drug’s growing popularity is primarily due to more recreational users ages 18 to 34, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Television and radio anti-drug campaigns — including the well-known “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” and “Just Say No” ads from the 1980s — have long warned youth about the perils of illicit substances. Millions of dollars have been spent on such efforts, but are they effective? Drugs continue to be a significant public health problem among youth, and the patterns of usage continue to evolve.
Policy decisions concerning education programming and early interventions are increasingly driven by documented results from long-term academic studies. The Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS) has now tracked the education and post-education experiences of 1,539 families, most of which participated in the Child-Parent Center (CPC) Education Program (the second-oldest federally funded preschool program, behind Head Start).
The stereotypical image of gambling is of the bright lights in Las Vegas and all the things that come with it — drinking, strip shows, drugs and high-risk behavior. Critics point out that the image is often further glamorized through entertainment media, and young people of course are more susceptible to such seductive representations.
