Notes toward a history of drug epidemiology 31dec2016

Artificial silk

The beginnings of the Carbon Disulfide (CS2) story.

The Code Switch and Drug Use

JSTOR: Benoit et al., 2003

A recommended reading for anyone interested in ethnicity and ethnic self-identification, or the colloquial meanings of "race" differences.

We need to abandon that term in scientific discourse. Leave it to others. Ask them "Exactly what do you mean by 'race' when you use that term?"

Another word choice issue for scientists: I cannot recommend this article's vocabulary of "hard drugs" ( versus "soft drugs" ) in that it places too much stress on the "demon drug."

A drug is an agent in the agent-host-environment triad. Are some infective agents "hard agents" and others "soft agents"? Tell that to anyone who lost a loved one to "the common flu" or to those who were infected with Ebola virus and survived.

A misplacement of explanatory power.
Represents confused pharmacological thinking.

But read the article and judge for yourselves. Some potentially great ethnographic material in this article, and the term "code switch" is worth learning. Applicable in immigration and cross-cultural studies generally.

Discussion of optimal heroin price, and miscellaneous notes on heroin

Neri F. (1996) working paper. Must read for heroin epidemiology master's.

A "popular culture" perspective from 1981 (might need a JSTOR account to read this one):
"Heroin Boys"

What an ethnographer learns by applying ethnographic approaches to law enforcement wiretapped conversations. What a truly great study! Natarajan, 2006

Unusual syndromes deserve attention

The Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25841113



LSD flashbacks
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25841230

Expect these syndromes to become more prominent with appearance of new synthetic compounds, not only cannabinoids, but other molecules.

As for tools needed to study them, think of the charity luncheon foodborne disease outbreak challenge and think through the possibilities for latent variable analyses.

In the following version of the charity luncheon case study, the attack rates vary by the different ways to combine potential signs and potential symptoms into a syndromic case definition. This case study version eliminates that part, but imagine what you might try to do if you had attack rates specific to each food and to each combination of foods eaten and not eaten.

See Lesson 1.

Peer Recovery Coach Tactics on the Frontlines of Drug Outbreaks

Must one be in recovery to be an effective peer recovery coach?

This is not a question intended to be dismissive about efforts of " in recovery" coaches, who deserve nothing but accolades.

But it is a pertinent question in two contexts:

(1) How to make most efficient and effective use of scarce resources, counting the indirect benefits of employing " in recovery" coaches?

and (2) What is the analogue to a peer recovery coach when a community faces an outbreak and struggles more to constrain occurrence rates for newly incident users before the community has accumulated enough cases required to mobilize treatment services?

npr story on peer recovery coaches

Popular culture expressions (Levy collection at JHU)

Popular culture expressions of mental, behavioral, and social disturbances, as well as early memes (drug user mischief). A good source of images for your presentations, and the Levy collection includes sheet music for the music literati.

Family strife related to alcohol intoxication.

URL for Levy collection search tool

Related collections link

Search results from Visual Hunt public domain "heroin"

Anything of interest to our program, family studies, etc.: please post a comment and we'll assemble a collection we can share. It appears that all images in the Levy collection from before 1923 are in the public domain, except as noted by the collections' archivists, but check it out yourselves:
http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/copyright

"Image courtesy of the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, The Sheridan Libraries, The Johns Hopkins University"

Time to get back to that overdue chapter after a little quasi-recreational distraction.

Until you're dead, don't bet against neuronal plasticity.

Until you're dead, don't bet against neuronal plasticity.

Brain plastic people: Whoa baby now,....