HIV prevalence worldwide among people who inject drugs (PWID) is around 19%. Harm reduction for PWID includes needle-syringe programs (NSPs) and opioid substitution therapy (OST) but often coupled with antiretroviral therapy (ART) for people living with HIV. Numerous studies have examined the effectiveness of each harm reduction strategy. This commentary discusses the evidence of effectiveness ...

Natasa Gisev ([email protected]) Amy Gibson ([email protected]) Sarah Larney ([email protected]) Jo Kimber ([email protected]) Megan Williams ([email protected]) Anton Clifford ([email protected]) Michael Doyle ([email protected]) Lucy Burns ([email protected]) Tony Butler ([email protected]) Don J Weatherburn ([email protected]) Louisa ...

The medical discipline of narcology in Russia is a subspecialty of psychiatry from the Soviet era and it is given warrant to define the scope of health activities with regard to alcohol and other drug use, drug users, and related problems. Narcological practice is in turn constrained by the State. The emergence of widespread injection opiate use and associated HIV morbidities and mortalities du...

buprenorphine (subutex) has been used to treat opioid dependency in the past 16 years. subutex (or buprenorphine hydrochloride) was approved by the singapore's ministry of health (moh) in 2000 as a substitution treatment for opiate-dependent drug abusers within the framework of medical, social and psychological treatments. it was subsequently introduced into the singapore market in 2002. i...

AIMS Screening for concomitant drug consumption is necessary in opiate substitution therapy of opiate-dependent patients. Adulteration of samples is a common problem in this setting. A recently developed polyethylene glycol marker system allows reliable identification of urine samples. In this study, we aimed to compare the rates of drug detection in conventional and marker urine samples. DES...

We are faced with a worldwide opiate/opioid epidemic that is devastating. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least 127 people, young and old, are dying every day in America due to narcotic overdose. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Medication-Assisted Treatments (MATs) for opiate/opioids as well as alcohol and nicotine. The mechanism of acti...

Methadone overdoses are increasing in parallel with the increased frequency of opiate substitution therapy in adults. Although unintentional methadone intoxication in children is rare, it is becoming more frequently recognized. We report 3 cases of unintentional methadone overdose in toddlers who initially displayed central nervous system depression associated with severe nonketotic hyperglycem...