Drug addiction is a worldwide problem and opioid dependence, notably on heroin, is a major component. Strongly associated with drug addiction is the spread of infectious blood borne diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis C and tuberculosis, which are associated with the shared use of needles amongst intravenous drug users. Drugseeking behaviour accounts for much crime and violence as addicts steal to ...

OBJECTIVES Opioid addiction affects over 2 million patients in the United States. The advent of buprenorphine and the passage of the Drug Addiction Treatment Act in 2000 have revolutionized the opioid treatment delivery system by granting physicians the ability to administer office-based opioid treatment (OBOT), thereby giving patients greater access to treatment. The purpose of this consensus ...

During the past decade, the study of the mechanisms and functional implications of adult neurogenesis has significantly progressed. Many studies focus on the factors that regulate proliferation and fate determination of adult neural stem/progenitor cells, including addictive drugs such as opioid. Here, we review the most recent works on opiate drugs' effect on different developmental stages of ...

OBJECTIVE To document the development of unique opioid-dependence treatment in remote communities that combines First Nations healing strategies and substitution therapy with buprenorphine-naloxone. DESIGN Quantitative measurements of community wellness and response to community-based opioid-dependence treatment. SETTING Remote First Nations community in northwestern Ontario. PARTICIPANTS...

On July 22, 2016, President Barack Obama signed a bill into law that could have the potential to impact our practice. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) is aimed at curbing the national opioid epidemic, a troubling phenomenon leading to increased deaths from drug overdoses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that almost 500,000 people died of drug overd...

Opioids are widely used as the pain reliever and also notorious for being addictive drugs. Sex differences in the opioid analgesia and addiction have been reported and investigated in human subjects and animal models. Yet, the molecular mechanism underlying the differences between males and females is still unclear. Here, we reviewed the literature describing the sex differences in analgesic re...

Diagnosis of opioid addiction in chronic pain sufferers is often triggered by occurrence of what have been called aberrant drugrelated behaviors. Ambiguities inherent in this approach affect patient care adversely. Rather than consistently signifying abuse or addiction, these behaviors are often motivated by undertreated pain. Appropriate clinical responses are suggested here, as well as a diag...

Many physicians avoid prescribing opioid analgesics for chronic pain because of misconceptions or fears about efficacy, adverse effects, abuse, and addiction potential. We discuss these issues and offer suggestions for the rational use of opioid analgesics in patients with chronic noncancer pain.

Opioid tolerance, dependence, and addiction are all manifestations of brain changes resulting from chronic opioid abuse. The opioid abuser's struggle for recovery is in great part a struggle to overcome the effects of these changes. Medications such as methadone, LAAM, buprenorphine, and naltrexone act on the same brain structures and processes as addictive opioids, but with protective or norma...