Nonmedical use of cough syrup (NUCS) among secondary vocational school (SVS) students has been an increasing concern for public health in China, but no data were available. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the epidemiological characters of NUCS as well as its risk factors among SVS students in China.From September 2013 to December 2014, a total of 13,614 SVS students were purposively selected through multistage sampling in 6 cities of China. Information on NUCS, demographics, family background, smoking and alcohol consumption, impulsiveness, sensation seeking, and parental monitoring were collected. Logistic regression was used to explore factors related to NUCS.The 12,923 (94.9%) valid responses (16.3 ± 1.0 years old, and 52.6% men) reported 3.47% (95% confidence interval: 3.15-3.79%) lifetime NUCS. Logistic regression indicated that smoking, part-time job experience, high level of impulsiveness, and sensation seeking were risk factors for NUCS, whereas urban living and high parental monitoring were protective ones.NUCS was prevalent among SVS students. Interventions that target on smoking, impulsiveness and sensation seeking control, improvement on parental monitoring may have considerable impact on NUCS among SVS students.

New-type drugs are popular with adolescents and could lead to psychiatry disorders, but no medications have been proven to be effective for these disorders of new-type drug dependence. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of tryptophan on sleeping disorders and mental symptoms in detoxified individuals with new-type drug dependence. This randomized, placebo-controlled trial included 80 detoxified individuals with new-type drug dependence, recruited successively from a Compulsory Residential Drug Abstinence Institution in Wuhan, China, from April 2012 to November 2012. Eligible participants were randomly allocated to be treated with tryptophan (1000 mg/d, n = 40) or placebo (n = 40) for 2 weeks. The sleeping disorders and mental symptoms were assessed using Athens Insomnia Scale and Symptom Check-List-90 at baseline and 2 weeks. Results were analyzed according to the "intention-to-treat" approach. Forty-five participants completed the 2-week study, 24 in the tryptophan group and 21 in the placebo group. There were no statistically significant differences in baseline characteristics between groups and the treatment adherence was similar between groups. The reduction in the Athens Insomnia Scale score in the tryptophan group was significantly greater than that in the placebo group (P = 0.017). However, no significant differences were found in Symptom Check-List-90 scores (either by individual dimension or the overall score) between groups (all P > 0.05). The frequency of adverse events was similar and no serious adverse events were reported during the study. Tryptophan was unlikely to be effective for mental symptoms, but could alleviate sleep disorders in short term among detoxified individuals with new-type drug dependence. Future large-scale trials are required to confirm findings from this study.

Disrupting the process of memory reconsolidation could be a promising treatment for addiction. However, its application may be constrained by the intensity of addiction memory. This study aimed to develop and initially validate a new measure, the Addiction Memory Intensity Scale (AMIS), for assessing the intensity of addiction memory in illicit drug users. Two studies were conducted in China for item analysis (n = 345) and initial validation (n = 1550) of the AMIS. The nine-item AMIS was found to have two factors (labelled Visual Clarity and Other Sensory Intensity), which accounted for 64.11% of the total variance. The two-factor structure provided a reasonable fit for sample data and was invariant across groups of different genders and different primary drugs of use. Significant correlations were found between scores on the AMIS and the measures of craving. The AMIS and its factors showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α: 0.72–0.89) and test-retest reliability (r: 0.72–0.80). These results suggest that the AMIS, which demonstrates an advantage as it is brief and easy to administer, is a reliable and valid tool for measuring the intensity of addiction memory in illicit drug users, and has the potential to be useful in future clinical research.

The relationships between parental monitoring (PM), sensation seeking (SS), expected social benefits (ESB), refusal efficacy (RE), and tobacco and alcohol use (TAU) have been well documented among adolescents. However, the mechanisms by which these 4 determinants affect TAU remain unclear. Based on the Theory of Triadic Influence, this study aimed to explore how PM, SS, ESB, and RE simultaneously influenced TAU in Chinese adolescents. From September 2013 to June 2014, we used multistage cluster sampling to select 6269 students from 179 classes of 7 vocational high schools in 3 cities of China. Each student completed a battery of 5 measures: PM, SS, ESB, RE, and TAU. Then, we used structural equation modeling techniques and mediation analyses to investigate the relationships among these 5 measures, with TAU as the final dependent variable. Results demonstrated that the relationship between PM and TAU was fully mediated by ESB and RE (b = −0.18, P < 0.001), that SS influenced TAU directly (b = 0.10, P < 0.001) and indirectly through ESB and RE (b = 0.15, P < 0.001), and that ESB influenced TAU directly (b = 0.09, P < 0.001) and indirectly through RE (b = 0.28, P < 0.001). These findings indicate that the link between PM and SS to TAU among Chinese adolescents can be explained by ESB and RE. These 4 precursory determinants can play an important role in TAU prevention among adolescents in China.