The illegal use of methamphetamine (MA) is a growing public health concern globally and results in a series of negative effects. The prominent detrimental effect of MA use is MA-related psychiatric symptoms (MAP) and is observed at a much higher incidence compared to the general population. MAP often includes multiple dimensions of cognitive impairment and induces adverse consequences such as, violence and suicide. However, the assessment methods for MAP are not standardized. Hence, it is necessary to investigate factors that affect the progression of psychiatric symptoms in individuals who use MA. A review of published studies was performed by searching the following databases: PubMed, EMBASE, and PsycINFO from inception to 31 May, 2018. The search strategy included methamphetamine, dependence, psychiatric symptoms, and risk factor terms. We reviewed the different features of MAP and the various types of assessment instruments and summarized MAP risk factors from MA use-related factors, socio-demographic characteristics, life events, and genetic factors. We found that MAP was consistently and causally associated with MA use, particularly as it relates to the frequency and amount of MA use. Other MAP-related risk factors like life events and genetics were relatively inconsistent in their association with MAP. Hence, causal and longitudinal studies that focus on multilateral comparisons are required. This review provides high quality evidence for MAP risk factors and would be helpful for developing early prevention and treatment strategies for MAP.

Methamphetamine (MA)‐related psychiatric symptoms (MAP) are serious comorbidities of MA use and result in many social problems such as violence and suicide. We investigated the sociodemographic and genetic risk factors for persistent MAP of MA users (MUs) and constructed an early MAP prediction model. Derivation and replication samples had 1734 and 905 MUs, respectively. Symptom Checklist 90, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Attention‐Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Rating Scale‐IV, and Social Support Rating Scale were used to assess the past‐year prevalence of general MAP and life events retrospectively. Genome‐wide association study (GWAS) was used to analyze MAP‐related genetic factors. The prediction model was constructed by integrating the risk life events and clinical and genetic features using logistic regression. Of the 2639 MUs, 1293 (48.83%) had past‐year MAP. The severity of MA addiction (SMA), childhood trauma, childhood ADHD symptoms, and social support were reliable risk factors for persistent MAP. By integrating these risk factors and the polygenic risk score from GWAS from derivation samples, the area under the curve (AUC) of the predictive model for MAP was 0.754 (95% CI 0.717~0.771). The risk factors and prediction model were also verified in replication samples. In addition, SMA, ADHD, and social support were mediators for the effect of the risk genetic factor on persistent MAP. Our study identified several risk factors for persistent MAP and will be helpful for developing scalable tools for the prevention of persistent and general MAP.

Background: Poor medication adherence is still the main cause of antiretroviral therapy (ART) failure among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Effective behavioral interventions are needed to improve HIV awareness and medication adherence. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we assessed the effect of problem-based learning (PBL) approaches to HIV-related education and adherence outcomes among PLWHA and a college student sample. In our study, compared with 309 demography-matched control participants using conventional counseling methods (109 PLWHA and 200 college students), 321 subjects (111 PLWHA and 210 college students) chose to learn HIV-related knowledge via PBL-integrated methods. Co-primary outcomes were self-administered questionnaire after HIV-related education by all participants and self-reported medication adherence by newly diagnosed PLWHA, measured in terms of the number of missed doses in the past week at each of the seven visits during a 1-year period. Multivariate regression models adjusting different covariates were used to test the robustness of HIV awareness and adherence association. Mediation model was used to investigate the relationship among PBL training, awareness of HIV, and ART adherence. Results: The knowledge scores of participants in the PBL group were higher than those in the controls ( P = 0.001), especially the subgroup of newly diagnosed PLWHA in the PBL group ( P = 0.001). The HIV-related health scores of the PBL college students were also higher than those of subjects exposed to conventional education ( P < 0.001). There was no significant difference between the two by newly diagnosed PLWHA groups in the number of missed doses during the past week at each visit except at the first follow-up visit ( P = 0.018). The indirect effect of PBL-integrated education on ART adherence at the 2-week visit through HIV awareness had a point estimate of 0.0349 and a 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval of 0.0061∼0.0874 in newly diagnosed PLWHA. Conclusions: PLWHA and college students using PBL showed improved awareness of HIV and higher levels of recent ART adherence; however, there was no change in long-term ART adherence in newly diagnosed PLWHA.