Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Evaluating The Prevalence Of Postpartum Substance Use In South Jersey, Hebba Ahmad, Joanna Petrides

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The goal of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of substance use among women who experience postpartum depression. Looking at South Jersey women in particular, we aimed to compare the rates of women who began to engage in substance use after undergoing labor within the past one year who are covered by private health insurance versus those with Medicaid coverage. A retrospective chart review was performed, and although the small sample size limited our attempts at data analysis, it revealed that there is work to be done in this field. There needs to be methods in reducing the stigma …

Ketamine Crisis: Case Report On The Complications Of Ketamine Usage And Its Rise In The United States, Shika Veera, Vajreshwari Shivaprakash Md

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The recreational use of ketamine poses various health risks, including addiction, cognitive impairments, and physical harm.

The patient is a 24-year-old female who presented with 30 lbs. unintentional weight loss, generalized weakness, and urinary incontinence over four months. She endorses right upper quadrant and suprapubic pain with occasional gross hematuria. The patient denied recreational drug use. Urine drug screen was negative. Gynecologic exam and STI testing were without concerns. On exam, she had positive right lower quadrant tenderness, suprapubic tenderness, and costovertebral angle tenderness bilaterally. The patient was admitted to the ICU due to weakness and significant hyponatremia at 115. …

Case Report And Review: Promethazine ("Purple Drank") Abuse, Riya Tandra, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

A 23 year old female was brought to the Emergency Department by EMS for confusion and aggressive behavior. The friends told EMS that the patient had been ingesting "purple drank" and that she had told her friends that she made the concoction with promethazine and opiate cough syrup with some vodka added. She mixed it in a carbonated soda. “Purple Drank” or “Lean” is a combination of codeine promethazine hydrochloride and soda or alcohol that has frequently been misused since the 1990s. This paper aims to highlight the recent resurgence of promethazine abuse occurring in the United States as well …

Body Dysmorphic-Induced Androgenic Anabolic Steroids Usage And Its Association With Mental Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review, Ahmed Gawash, Hasan Zia, David Lo

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

This systematic review on body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) use, and mental health outcomes aim to examine the relationship between them. While looking at prior research, it has been suggested that individuals with BDD may be more likely to abuse AAS due to their preoccupation with appearance but, unfortunately, AAS use may worsen mental health issues in this population and exacerbate the issue. This systematic review will also discuss treatments that will help mitigate the effects of AAS on individuals with BDD. The review will include only published literature from a variety of databases such as PubMed, Scopus, …

Implementation Of Attending Narcotics Anonymous Meetings In Addiction Medicine Curriculum, Gabrianna Andrews, Krisha Darji, Natalyce Sanchez, Stephen Acheampong

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, opioid-related deaths were augmented, highlighting an area of concern for the state of New Jersey. Although the state has taken steps to combat the number of opioid-related deaths, this continues to be a problem emphasizing the need for increased interventions to decrease the number of opioid-related deaths and to improve long-term healthcare outcomes. Rates of stigma surrounding addiction, and more specifically, opioid addiction, are high within the general population and amongst healthcare professionals.2,3 A national survey conducted in 2016 revealed that two-thirds of primary care physicians surveyed viewed people with opioid use disorder as …

The Effects Of Prenatal Buprenorphine Exposure On The Neurobehavioral Development Of The Child, Zaineb Zubair, Maryam Zubair, Juan Alonso, Abdullah Zubair

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Background: Current guidelines for pregnant women with substance use disorder advise prenatal maintenance of opioid agonist therapy with either buprenorphine or methadone. Despite this rise in prenatal opioid agonist therapy, little is known about the effect of prenatal buprenorphine on the neurobehavioral development of the child. This poses the question: does buprenorphine have a long-lasting effect on the central and peripheral nervous system development and behavior of children who were exposed prenatally?

Methods: A comprehensive literature review identified articles relating to prenatal buprenorphine and neurobehavioral outcomes. Article searches were conducted on PubMed and Dynamed. Publications from 2002 through November 2021 …

Infective Endocarditis Secondary To Needle Embolization To The Heart, Tony Elias, David Barsoum, Robert Malak, Veyola Rezkalla, Maziyar Daneshvar, Howard Weinberg, Rafail Beshai

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Needle embolisms in the heart are very rare, even though the number of intravenous drug users (IVDUs) has increased over the past 10 years.Due to varied symptomology-chest pain, dyspnoea, fever, or asymptomatic, this remains a complex and likely underdiagnosed condition. We describe a 31-year-old female with past medical history of IV drug use who presented to the emergency room with heart palpitations and described it as her “heart feels funny” and shortness of breath. She acknowledged intravenous (IV) heroin use and stated that the last time to use IV drugs was 2 days before coming to the hospital.

To our …

Growing Use Of Xylazine As An Adulterant In Opioids And Its Effects, Oluwapelumi Oluwo

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Xylazine, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is a non-opioid tranquilizer used in veterinary medicine. Although this drug has not been approved for human use, it can be linked to an increase in opioid overdose deaths due to its role as an adulterant in drugs like fentanyl.

Xylazine was detected in drugs involved in 41% of all opioid-involved unintentional deaths and in 44% of all unintentional overdose deaths with fentanyl involved in the year of 2021 in Philadelphia.

Challenges To Implementing Screening, Brief Intervention, And Referral To Treatment (Sbirt) For Substance Use In Primary Care Settings At Rowan-Virtua, Alissa Hochman, Kristy Straub, Nancy Chase, Samuel Damiri, Jenna Destefano, Allyson Distel, Sana Farhat

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Background and Purpose: Implementing the SBIRT model for substance use in a primary care setting has many benefits including normalizing conversations about alcohol and other substance use into patients’ visits, thereby reducing harm, reducing consumption and its negative impact, and promoting system changes to overcome barriers to treatment access. The full scope of the current SBIRT project involves the recruitment, hiring, training, and integration of health educators in 9 primary care sites throughout South Jersey, as well as a project supervisor serving as implementation lead and liaison to medical and administrative staff at all 9 primary care sites. Initial barriers …

Release The Kratom: Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome In A 70 Year Old Male, Nardin El-Shammaa, Kyle Street, Narshima Pinninti

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Centuries in Eastern medicine.. Kratom has been commonly used for chronic pain and opiate withdrawal symptoms with first reported cases in the United States in the early 2000s. It is a plant that consists of psychoactive alkaloids that target opioid receptors with different affinity. Effects from Kratom are dose-dependent, at lower doses, it acts as a stimulant, while at higher doses produces analgesia and euphoria. Although Kratom is legal and easily accessible over the counter, there have been increasing reports of potential for addiction and toxicity. Cessation of Kratom can result in withdrawal symptoms similar to opiate withdrawal. Here we …

A Systematic Review Of The Barriers Of Opioid Addiction Treatment For Young Adult Males (Ages 18-26) Living In Low Income Areas In The United States Of America, Atish Gandhi, Asim Shafique, Jillian Baker

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

NOTE: This is a broad literature review, not a systematic review.

This systematic review aims to analyze the reasons behind reduced access to opioid addiction treatment for individuals of low socioeconomic standing. Understanding these barriers may allow communities to build a more comprehensive plan to lower addiction rates. In addition, this review will be examining further developments of theopioid crisis due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The literature search used publications from the following databases: PubMed, Google Scholar, and NCBI. The keywords searched were “opioid addiction”, “substance abuse”, “low-income area”, “barriers to treatment”, “young male addiction”, “opioid treatment”, “Narcan”. There …

Neuronal Activity Within The Ventral Tegmental Area Is Correlated With Cocaine-Seeking Behavior In Male, But Not Female, Rats, Colton D. Spencer, Nicole M. Hinds, Ireneusz D. Wojtas, Desta M. Pulley, Daniel Manvich

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The objective of this study was to begin to determine the neurobiological underpinnings of psychosocial stress-induced cocaine seeking. Social defeat stress, achieved using the well-established resident-intruder procedure, is an ecologically-valid psychosocial stressor in rodents that may more closely recapitulate those psychosocial experiences that elicit cocaine craving and relapse in human cocaine users. Our laboratory has developed a model of psychosocial stress-induced relapse in rats in which extinguished cocaine seeking is reinstated by re-exposure to a discrete cue that signals impending social defeat stress. We previously reported that an individual rat’s predilection towards the display of active coping behaviors during prior …

Family-Centered Training And Therapy As Substance Abuse Intervention In Adolescents, Ryan St. John, Cam'ron Klotz, Muskaan Bibi, Archana Salek, Health Careers Opportunity Program - Rowansom, Rowan University

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

We hypothesized that providing mental health resources for adolescents and educating their parents and families would decrease the prevalence of substance abuse in the Camden, NJ community given that overdose death had risen 138% from 2014-2018. Educating parents and families on the importance of adolescents dealing with mental disorders may help evaluate the mental stability of their child and prevent them from turning to illicit substance to cope. Increasing the communication and the availability of resources for adolescents to turn to before resorting to illicit substances can have beneficial effects.

Barriers To Alternative Narcotic Education And Treatment In Young Adults In New Jersey, Shubh Bhambri

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The purpose of this study is to determine alternative methods and programs that result in better outcomes for young adults dealing with opioid addiction in New Jersey while identifying potential barriers that prevent the implementation of these programs.

Opioid Lifeline Community Service Project, Ekrem Cetinkaya, Cam'ron Klotz, Harvy Patel

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The opioid epidemic has claimed the lives of thousands of people over the last decade due to overprescribing, synthetic opioids, and lack of treatment options. Project Opioid Lifeline was created as a mission to combat this issue by equipping the Camden County, NJ population with the necessary information to advocate for themselves and others. This project aims to find and centralize available resources for residents of Camden County by including addiction treatment centers, Narcan training and distribution, and unused medication drop off locations. Over the last nine months, partnerships were formed with community leaders and organizations, such as the Neuromusculoskeletal …