Consumption of caffeine among University students in Ajman

Background: Researchers have become concerned with caffeine because of risks of addiction, as shown by latest studies. World Health Organization identify caffeine dependence as a clinical disorder. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of Caffeine Use Disorder among participants and identify determinants of Caffeine Use Disorder among participants.Methods: Questionnaires were distributed among university students who consumed caffeinated products and were older than 18 years of age. The research was carried out in 3 universities in Ajman, UAE. The data collected was analyzed using SPSS software.Results: It was found that the prevalence of Caffeine Use Disorder among caffeine consumers was 69%. The prevalence of Caffeine Use Disorder was significantly higher among students: who believed that their consumption had increased since joining the university (p<0.001) compared to other categories. The risk of Caffeine Use Disorder was higher among participants who consumed caffeine to: feel awake (OR=1.567, 95% CI:1.05-2.34), be more productive (OR=2.06, 95% CI:1.28-3.22), and because of peer pressure (OR=2.4, 95% CI:1.03-5.62) and who believed that their caffeine consumption had increased since joining the university (OR=3.68, 95%CI:2.49-5.44).Conclusion: The prevalence and risk of having Caffeine Use Disorder was high among university students, hence more research should be conducted and actions should be taken to reduce the prevalence of Caffeine Use Disorder.

Caffeine dependence among medical interns of a tertiary teaching hospital

Background: Consumption of caffeine in adequate quantities has no adverse effects, but prolonged consumption makes it addictive. Medical students especially Interns due to their long working hours often indulge in excessive caffeine consumption. Objectives were to assess the knowledge of caffeine addiction among the medical interns, to assess the pattern of caffeine dependence among them and to calculate the caffeine dependence among them. Methods: It is a cross sectional descriptive study conducted among 124 medical interns of Trichy SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre using a pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire.Results: High level of knowledge was found in 47 (37.90%) participants, moderate level in 34 (27.41%) participants and low level of knowledge was found in 47 (34.67%) participants. The most preferred beverage was coffee 70 (56.45%) persons and second was tea 32 (25.80%). Majority of the study population 110 (88.7%) started consuming caffeinated products only after 5 years of age. Head ache 51 (41.12%) and exam durations 50 (40.32%) were common occasions of high caffeine intake. Among the study population, major group had either no 99 (79.83%) or just thirst 10 (8.06%) as withdrawal symptoms. Only 19.35% of them had caffeine dependence. Conclusions: Though the dependence level is low, the magnitude of the problem is big and self-awareness of this dreadful habit is necessary. Thus, prompt recognition of symptoms of dependence, tolerance and intoxication is necessary to avoid them falling a prey to this habit in the future.

Common Psychiatric Disorders and Caffeine Use, Tolerance, and Withdrawal: An Examination of Shared Genetic and Environmental Effects

Background: Previous studies examined caffeine use and caffeine dependence and risk for the symptoms, or diagnosis, of psychiatric disorders. The current study aimed to determine if generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, phobias, major depressive disorder (MDD), anorexia nervosa (AN), or bulimia nervosa (BN) shared common genetic or environmental factors with caffeine use, caffeine tolerance, or caffeine withdrawal. Method: Using 2,270 women from the Virginia Adult Twin Study of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders, bivariate Cholesky decomposition models were used to determine if any of the psychiatric disorders shared genetic or environmental factors with caffeine use phenotypes. Results: GAD, phobias, and MDD shared genetic factors with caffeine use, with genetic correlations estimated to be 0.48, 0.25, and 0.38, respectively. Removal of the shared genetic and environmental parameter for phobias and caffeine use resulted in a significantly worse fitting model. MDD shared unique environmental factors (environmental correlation = 0.23) with caffeine tolerance; the genetic correlation between AN and caffeine tolerance and BN and caffeine tolerance were 0.64 and 0.49, respectively. Removal of the genetic and environmental correlation parameters resulted in significantly worse fitting models for GAD, phobias, MDD, AN, and BN, which suggested that there was significant shared liability between each of these phenotypes and caffeine tolerance. GAD had modest genetic correlations with caffeine tolerance, 0.24, and caffeine withdrawal, 0.35. Conclusions: There was suggestive evidence of shared genetic and environmental liability between psychiatric disorders and caffeine phenotypes. This might inform us about the etiology of the comorbidity between these phenotypes.