No Good Time Without Drugs: Qualitative Study Among Nightlife Attendees in Tbilisi, Georgia.

INTRODUCTION: Individuals who visit nightclubs and electronic dance music (EDM) festivals tend to use psychoactive substances, often multiple substances, in this setting and are at risk of serious negative health effects. This paper aims to explore respondents' experiences and perceptions in order to have a better understanding of patterns and motives related to psychoactive substance use and high-risk behaviours in EDM event attendees. METHODS: In-depth and focus group interviews with 30 EDM event attendees who reported psychoactive substance use at nightlife events. The data was analysed using the Nvivo-v.10 software. RESULTS: Mixing multiple substances to get the desired effects was common. Ecstasy was often combined with Jager (alcohol). Drug use in nightlife settings occurred in a group of friends and was perceived as an essential part of having a good time. Most participants reported that they did not use drugs outside nightlife settings. The dangerous synthetic hallucinogen NBOMe was still on the scene. The respondents had a very low level of knowledge about, and perception of, the risks associated with drug consumption. Knowledge about risk minimisation strategies was very low or non-existent. CONCLUSIONS: Polydrug use and a lack of perceived harmful effects put drug-using nightlife attendees at increased risk of negative health consequences. Future research should focus on identifying strategies to raise the awareness of people who use drugs in nightlife settings and encourage them to employ health protection strategies. Using the social network infrastructure can be thought of as one potentially beneficial approach.

CORRELATION OF THERMAL PAIN PERCEPTION AND HOSTILITY IN MALES AND FEMALES DURING PHYSIOLOGIC STARVATION.

The phenomenon of pain remains one of the most important challenges in medicine and biology, which often causes disability in humans and worsens the quality of life. The pain is a variable, subjective experience, and it is impossible to fully understand it without getting to know the physiological mechanisms beyond sensory damage of the tissues. There are some gender differences in pain perception, particularly, females tend to be more sensitive towards experimental pain. Interestingly, the observed data is consistent for males throughout life, but as for females, parameters vary according to the age and ovarian-menstrual cycle (OMC) phases. Study aims to assess correlation between pain perception and indices of hostility in males and females (in the follicular phase of OMC cycle). The sample of this study included volunteer students, ages 18 to 23. The main selection criterium for participants was their health state; Those without chronic pain, excess body weight (assessed by BMI), cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, etc. disorders were selected for participation in the study. Prior to the start of the study, participants were given information about their rights and written informed consent was obtained. Participants were informed that they could refuse to take part in the study at any stage. All procedures and protocol of the study were approved by Tbilisi State Medical University Biomedical Research Committee. The study was conducted in compliance with all requirements and regulations of International Pain Association for biomedical observation and experiments. Ovarian-menstrual cycle of the women participating in the research were evaluated using relevant questionnaires. All experiments were performed in the follicular phase of menstrual cycle (7-11 days of the cycle). At this stage, study was conducted in starvation state- 10-12 hours after the last meal. According to our experiment, the findings about gender differences of psychologic parameters and their linkage to heat and cold sensitivity coincides with previous study results, where pain threshold and tolerance to the pain are positively correlated with high degree of assault. Our findings demonstrate that pain perception by humans, besides intensity of nociceptive stimuli, depends on psychophysiologic parameters. The findings correlate with the data from previous studies, particularly to the idea, that negative emotions and different types of assault define individual correlates of pain perception, pain threshold and tolerance to the pain. It is quite clear that further research is warranted in order to make evidence-based statements and recommendations for clinical practice, including treatment protocols for pain management. It is quite possible, that in near future, assessing psychoemotional condition will be one of the most important tools in pain management. Besides, by evaluating psychoemotional parameters, it may become possible to predict the probability of progressing acute pain into chronic pain, which will be essential predictive information to decrease the risk of disease chronization.

SENSITIVITY TO MECHANICAL PAIN BASED ON SATIETY LEVELS IN WOMEN.

The recent data have shown that in addition to biological and psychosocial mechanisms, individual pain perception can be altered by satiety level as well. Some studies confirm that there is a relationship between being fed by sucrose and hyperalgesia in animals, while others show that ketogenic diet can be associated with decreased pain sensitivity to thermal stimuli. It can be argued that the effect of satiety level on pain perception is mediated by gastrointestinal hormones and endogenous opioids. Pharmacological stimulation of kappa-opioid receptors decreases stress and promotes analgesia. Accordingly, these changes can be inhibited by applying antagonists. Our study aims to assess pain perception induced by mechanical experimental irritation in women during different satiety levels in follicular phase of ovarian-menstrual cycle. The sample of the study was comprised of volunteer students aged 18-23 (women, mean age 19,5±2,9). Ovarian-menstrual cycle of the women participating in the research were evaluated using the questionnaires. All the studies were performed in the follicular phase of menstrual cycle (7-11 days of the cycle). At the first stage, study was conducted in starvation state - after 10-12 hours after the last meal, the second stage - in primary, sensory-motor satiety 20-30 minutes after a mixed meal intake. Every participant has been offered a standard, mixed meal (including proteins, fats, carbohydrates). Mechanical pain sensitivity was evaluated using computerized algometer - AlgoMed (Medoc, Ltd, Ramat Yishai, Israel), which was delivering mechanical stimuli to the participants; Meanwhile, mechanical pressure threshold, mechanical pain threshold and pain tolerance threshold were determined. According to this data, the reason of relatively diminished pain perception during primary satiety should be alterations of gastrointestinal tract that take place after food ingestion: Mechano- and chemoreceptors of initial segments in digestive system, particularly in stomach and in duodenum get irritated; that is followed by activation of several humoral factors and duodenal afferentation. In addition, by some authors duodenal release of cholecystokinin is believed to be hypothetical cause of decreased pain sensitivity after 20-30 minutes from the last mixed meal and is thought to have antinociceptive effect on endogenous opioid system.