SUMMARY Despite record-breaking numbers of opiate related deaths in the UK 2019, pharmacological management dependence has evolved little since advent methadone 1965. Along with harm minimisation and psychosocial interventions, mainstay treatment remains opioid substitution therapy (OST) using or buprenorphine, many patients receiving OST for years. Even these treatments, users continue to face...

BACKGROUND Though patients in opiate substitution programs are commonly infected with HCV, due to safety and efficacy concerns, they are rarely treated with interferon and ribavirin. METHODS In a multicenter study, HCV-infected patients in opiate maintenance treatment programs received 180 microg pegylated interferon-alfa-2a once weekly, plus daily ribavirin for 24 weeks (genotypes 2, 3), or ...

The evaluation of the outcome of the pilot Opioid Substitution Therapy programme in Penitentiary Institution No. 47 in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) took place in 2009–2010. The programme’s participants consisted of 84 patients enrolled in methadone maintenance therapy. Assessments were carried out at baseline and after 3 and 6 months. Instruments adopted by WHO, translated into Russian and applied in e...

Approximately 10% of new HIV infections worldwide are attributable to injecting drug use, often of an opiate such as heroin. 1 Opioid substitution therapy supplies illicit drug users with a replacement drug, a prescribed medicine such as methadone or buprenorphine, which is usually administered orally in a supervised clinical setting. The effectiveness of this therapy is recognized in developed...

BACKGROUND The P300 component of the auditory evoked potential is an indicator of attention dependent target processing. Only a few studies have assessed cognitive function in substituted opiate addicts by means of evoked potential recordings. In addition, P300 data suggest that chronic nicotine use reduces P300 amplitudes. While nicotine and opiate effects combine in addicted subjects, here we...

Background As opiate use has increased, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of opiate users presenting for treatment. Questions regarding the challenges of treating opiate users in residential treatment remain largely unanswered. This study seeks to determine what, if any, meaningful differences exist between opiate and non-opiate users, as well as within opiate users who ente...

R.J. KATZ and R.L. DOYLE, Enhanced responses to opiates produced by a single gene substitution in the mouse, European J. Pharmacol. 67 (1980) 301--303. Adult male mice of the C57B1/6J strain, or mice differing at a single locus from the above, pallid mice (C57Bl! 6J-pa), were treated with morphine or vehicle and two responses associated with opiate receptor stimulation were examined. In compari...

the efficacy of neurofeedback treatment on psychopathological symptoms in addicted male patients was assessed. participants were 20 opiate dependent patients who was seeking medication treatment. after completing the symptom chekclist-90-revised (derogatis, 1975), participants were randomly assigned to an experimental or a witness group. the experimental group received 30 sessions of neurofeedb...

Follow-up of 108 opiate addicts for a period of six to seven years showed that 35 were still being prescribed opiates, 25 were off drugs, 19 were dead, and for 29 it was not certain whether they were on or off drugs. Most patients who came off drugs did so in the first two years after notification to the Home Office. Clearly treatment is more likely to be successful if given early in the life h...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are differences in overall and cause-specific mortality rates of opiate users in maintenance treatment and of opiate users not in any drug treatment program in Vienna, Austria. A cohort of opiate-users enrolled in maintenance treatment in Vienna and a cohort of individuals involved in opiate-related emergencies from 1995 to 1997 were re...