Life in these United States: female-male drinking, good/bad, benefit/risk?

“Cumulative meta-analysis summary estimates from the US show a highly reproducible female excess in newly incident drinking among 12-17 years (final estimated female-male difference in risk, FMD = 2.1%; 95% confidence interval = 1.5%, 2.7%). Several European countries show female excess risk, estimated as lifetime cumulative incidence of drinking onsets before age 17 years. At the country level, the observed magnitude of FMD in risk is positively associated with the Gender Development Index (especially facets related to education and life expectancy of females relative to males), and with residence in a higher income European country.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27915406

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5233577/

and this:

Read carefully. Much to learn and to master.

“I see.” in place of “I understand.”?

Or “I acknowledge”?

Precision words

smokin!

It is not all about smoking any more.

NYTimes article, Jan 2018

The Witness Series on Development of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Great Britain

Found here: URL

Physical dependence versus....

In my view, the differentiation of ‘physical’ from ‘psychological’ dependence takes us back several centuries before studies of central nervous system processes evolved into modern 21st century neuroscience. Nature does not carve at this joint. This article has much to say that should teach us about treatment of this condition. It has unfortunate dualism echoes that ignore neuroscience advances.

Article

This issue does not take anything away from the author’s main point:

“... we need to publicly recognize that recovery on medication is every bit as valid as any other treatment. What matters is whether, as Freud put it, you can love and work, not the chemical content of your brain or urine.’

Multi-trait Multi-Method Research: What do you know about it?

Most epidemiologists know little:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/merrpalmquar1982.63.3.0367?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=adhd&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicResults%3Fgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3Bacc%3Doff%26amp%3Bso%3Dnew%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bsi%3D1%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3BQuery%3Dadhd&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Good or bad?

Decisions made by medical and public health experts?

Or by experts on .... what....?

https://govtrackinsider.com/stop-the-importation-and-trafficking-of-synthetic-analogues-act-would-ban-13-of-the-most-deadly-256e7ffb63d

Glenn Sonnedecker, Belated R.I.P.

His contribution on the history of the concept of “opiate addiction” is a “must read” for anyone with a serious interest.

Metaphor to describe a new under-investigated variable found within a public use data file

Some days you find a white duck wearing brown.

Should you believe me or your lying eyes?

Ibn-al-Haytham

Opioid Epidemic, Observations in 2017

https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/04/american-carnage

I cannot say that I agree with all of the author's assertions or conclusions, but it is a thought-provoking essay.

(There actually are quite a few diseases that, once acquired, can possess a reinforcing function that is as strong or stronger than is exerted by the attempts to cure the disease.)

Quotations from within:

...

Ethnography: J. Bryan Page & Merrill Singer

https://muse.jhu.edu/book/197