Evaluation of pharmaceutical abuse and illicit drug use in South Korea by wastewater-based epidemiology

High-throughput wastewater analysis for substance use assessment in central New York during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…where mass load represents the daily mass load of a substance entering a WWTP (g d À1 ), C W is the aqueous concentration of a substance in wastewater (ng L À1 ), Q is the average daily ow rate of wastewater measured at the inlet of a WWTP (m 3 d À1 ), stability is the in-sewer stability change of a substance (%; assuming <10% according to previous WBE studies [66][67][68] given the relatively short sewer transit times in the studied sewersheds), consumption rate is the collective consumption of a substance (i.e., consumed and disposed) by a given population (mg per d per 1000 people), excretion is the average excretion rate of a parent compound or its metabolite reported in the pharmacokinetic literature and WBE studies, 65,[68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79] MW Parent is the molecular weight of a parent compound, MW Metabolite is the molecular weight of a stable metabolite when present, and population is the number of residents served by a given WWTP (assuming no substantial variations due to travel restrictions 80 ).…”

Effects of comorbid alcohol use disorder on the clinical outcomes of first-episode schizophrenia: a nationwide population-based study

“…The discrepancy from previous literature may be attributed to the use of claim data derived from clinical practice in this study. Considering that clinicians tend to focus on chief complaints, which are mainly auditory hallucinations or delusions in the case of patients with a psychotic disorder, comorbid psychiatric diagnoses could be neglected in clinical practice, especially considering the very low prevalence of illegal drug abuse and dependence in South Korea [ 23 ]. A mean observation period of 5.1 years in this study might not be sufficiently long to determine the lifetime prevalence of AUD among patients with schizophrenia.…”

“…The comorbid AUD group could be composed of severe cases of AUD, given the high prevalence of alcohol-related disorders in South Korea [ 28 , 29 ], which suggests that mild alcohol abuse could be neglected in clinical practice. Fourth, even though we used nationwide population data, the generalizability of our results might be limited due to the low prevalence of illegal drug use and dependence in South Korea South [ 23 ]. Finally, we could not obtain information on the treatment for AUD in the comorbid AUD group.…”

Effects of Comorbid Alcohol Use Disorder on the Clinical Outcomes of Schizophrenia: A Nationwide Population-based Study

“…The discrepancy from previous studies may be attributed to the use of claim data from clinical practice in this study. Considering that clinicians focus on chief complaints, which are mainly auditory hallucinations or delusions, of patients with a psychotic disorder, comorbid psychiatric diagnoses, such as AUD and substance use disorder, could be disregarded in clinical practice because of the very low prevalence of illegal drug abuse and dependence in South Korea [17]. Moreover, since the incident cohort of our study was composed of rst episode schizophrenia patients, a mean observation period of 5.1 years in this study might not be su ciently long to determine the lifetime prevalence of AUD among patients with schizophrenia.…”