[Validation of the brief Bite's symptoms scale for screening of the bulimia nervosa in university students]. / Validación de la escala breve de síntomas del BITE para el tamizaje de Bulimia Nerviosa en estudiantes universitarios.

INTRODUCTION: Prevalence of the Bulimia Nervosa and eating disorder bulimic-like have increased in the last years. It has created the necessity of instruments for early detection on high risk populations. OBJECTIVE: Validity and internal consistency of the brief BITE's symptoms scale in a non-clinical population of university students in Colombia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We took a sample probabilistic and representative of 261 university students from Bucaramanga. They full out the BITE's symptoms scale. The fifteen items with the higher correlation with total score were selected. Construct and criterion validity were computed for these fifteen items. RESULTS: Internal consistency of brief version was of 0.84. There were three factors that explained 49.2% of the variance. Significant difference among the area under the curve ROC between the original version (0.9736) and the brief version (0.9608) was not observed. The best cutoff point was 5 with sensibility of 91.9%, specificity of 82.6% and the Cohen's kappa of 0.53. CONCLUSION: The brief BITE's symptoms scale shows psychometrics properties similar to the original version allowing the use like screening instrument in university students.

[Substance abuse amongst adolescents, Bucaramanga, Colombia, 1996-2004]. / Consumo de Sustancias Psicoactivas en Adolescentes, Bucaramanga, Colombia, 1996-2004.

OBJECTIVES: Ascertaining substance use prevalence amongst upper-level high-school adolescents and comparing these figures with those from 1996 and 1997. METHOD: 2,291 randomly sampled high-school adolescents participated in a cross-sectional survey about legal and illegal substance abuse. RESULTS: Mean adolescent age was 15,9 (1,09 SD); 53,9 % of the sample was female. The use of several substances grew from 1996/1997 to 2004, i.e. marihuana (1,5 % to 4,4 %), crack (0,.4 % to 1,2 %), inhalants (0,1 % to 1,2 %), stimulants (0,7 % to 1,9 %), and tranquilisers (2,0 % to 3,1 %). Similar figures were found for weekly alcohol use to the point of getting drunk (6,5 % to 7,7 %). Annual MDA use was 2,5 % (a substance not studied in 1996/1997). CONCLUSION: Inhalant and tranquiliser consumption amongst high-school adolescents has increased dramatically during the last few years. MDA consumption has reached a significant percentage.

Consumo de Sustancias Psicoactivas en Adolescentes, Bucaramanga, Colombia, 1996-2004 / Substance abuse amongst adolescents, Bucaramanga, Colombia, 1996-2004

Objetivo: Determinar la prevalencia de uso de sustancias psicoactivas entre estudiantes de los dos últimos años de bachillerato y comparar la variación frente a lo encontrado en 1996 y 1997. Métodos: Estudio descriptivo. Una muestra de 2 291 estudiantes seleccionados al azar diligenció un cuestionario autoadministrado sobre consumo de sustancias legales e ilegales. Resultados: La edad promedio fue 15,9 años (DE 1,09); 53,9 por ciento eran mujeres. Se observó un incremento en la prevalencia de consumo anual de marihuana (1,5 por ciento a 4,4 por ciento), bazuco (0,4 por ciento a 1,2 por ciento), inhalantes (0,1 por ciento a 1,2 por ciento), estimulantes (0,7 por ciento a 1,9 por ciento), tranquilizantes (2,0 3,1 por ciento) y de consumo semanal de alcohol hasta la embriaguez (6,5 por ciento a 7,7 por ciento). La prevalencia anual de uso de éxtasis fue 2,5 por ciento (no investigada en 1996 y 1997). Conclusiones: El consumo de sustancias de inhalantes y tranquilizantes se incrementó en forma importante en los últimos años. El consumo de éxtasis alcanzó una cifra significativa.

Objectives: Ascertaining substance use prevalence amongst upper-level high-school adolescents and comparing these figures with those from 1996 and 1997. Method: 2 291 randomly sampled high-school adolescents participated in a cross-sectional survey about legal and illegal substance abuse. Results: Mean adolescent age was 15,9 (1,09 SD); 53,9 percent of the sample was female. The use of several substances grew from 1996/1997 to 2004, i.e. marihuana (1,5 percent to 4,4 percent), crack (0,.4 percent to 1,2 percent), inhalants (0,1 percent to 1,2 percent), stimulants (0,7 percent to 1,9 percent), and tranquilisers (2,0 percent to 3,1 percent). Similar figures were found for weekly alcohol use to the point of getting drunk (6,5 percent to 7,7 percent). Annual MDA use was 2,5 percent (a substance not studied in 1996/1997). Conclusion: Inhalant and tranquiliser consumption amongst high-school adolescents has increased dramatically during the last few years. MDA consumption has reached a significant percentage.

Smoking is associated with schizophrenia, but not with mood disorders, within a population with low smoking rates: a matched case-control study in Bucaramanga, Colombia.

When comparing current smoking in schizophrenia patients versus the general population, the average odds ratio (OR) was 5.3 in a meta-analysis of 42 studies from 20 nations. Limited tobacco access can eliminate this strong association in some nations. Out of the 42 ORs, 37 were significantly higher than 1. Of the 5 non-significant ORs, three came from Colombian studies comparing current smoking prevalences in schizophrenia versus those in the general population (18%). However, the 3 ORs were not adjusted for confounders. We hypothesized that the association between schizophrenia and smoking is so strong that it can be detected in populations with limited access to smoking after carefully controlling for confounders. Of the three Colombian studies, one included 73 schizophrenia patients (DSM-IV schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder) and 111 patients with mood disorders (DSM-IV bipolar or major depressive disorders). The current study matched each of these patients with 2 controls from the general population and performed more sophisticated statistical analyses. Prevalences of current smoking were 26% for schizophrenia patients and 10% for their matched controls (adjusted Mantel-Haenszel OR=3.1, 95% CI, 1.4-6.8), and 7% for patients with mood disorders and 12% for their matched controls (adjusted Mantel-Haenszel OR=0.62; CI, 0.28-1.4). The previously observed lack of association between schizophrenia and current smoking was due to lack of control of important confounding variables because of the absence of a control group. This re-analysis, which used a careful matching that controlled for confounders, suggests that the association between schizophrenia and smoking behaviors can stand in populations with low monetary income and low smoking rates. This study also suggests that the association between severe mood disorders (bipolar and major depression) and smoking is not as strong as that observed between schizophrenia and smoking, and may not be observable in countries where people have limited economic resources.