Opioid substitution treatment is linked to reduced risk of death in opioid use disorder

Opioid substitution treatment is linked to reduced risk of death in opioid use disorder

Deaths related to the “epidemic” of opioid use disorder are inescapable realities in communities across North America, with tags like “the American Carnage” and “this generations’ AIDS crisis” in the lay press. Prescription opioids, heroin, and, more recently, fentanyl have all contributed to a precipitous rise in deaths related to opioid overdose. The global burden of opioid use disorder also ...

Concurrent buprenorphine and benzodiazepines use and self-reported opioid toxicity in opioid substitution treatment.

AIMS To examine concurrent buprenorphine and benzodiazepine consumption and to compare opioid toxicity symptoms induced by methadone and buprenorphine, examining factors associated with the reporting of these symptoms. DESIGN Self-report cross-sectional survey. SETTING Five needle syringe programmes and five opioid substitution treatment services in Melbourne, Australia. PARTICIPANTS A to...

Mitigating the risk of HIV infection with opioid substitution treatment.

Substitution treatment for opioid addicts in Germany

BACKGROUND After a long and controversial debate methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) was first introduced in Germany in 1987. The number of patients in MMT--first low because of strict admission criteria--increased considerably since the 1990s up to some 65,000 at the end of 2006. In Germany each general practitioner (GP), who has completed an additional training in addiction medicine, is all...

Drug use and opioid substitution treatment for prisoners

Drug use is prevalent throughout prison populations, and, despite advances in drug treatment programmes for inmates, access to and the quality of these programmes remain substantially poorer than those available for non-incarcerated drug users. Because prisoners may be at greater risk for some of the harms associated with drug use, they deserve therapeutic modalities and attitudes that are at l...