INTRODUCTION In spite of its seriousness, dependence on alcohol and benzodiazepines during substitution treatment are poorly documented. Its frequency is nonetheless significant. According to studies, between one and two thirds of patients are affected. This consumption is under verbalized by patients and underestimated by carers. In one study, where the average diazepam doses were from 40 to 4...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of introduction of supervision of methadone dosing on deaths related to overdose of methadone in Scotland and England between 1993 and 2008 while controlling for increased prescribing of methadone. DESIGN Analysis of annual trends in deaths related to overdose of methadone in relation to defined daily doses of methadone prescribed. SETTING Scotland and Engla...

Harm reduction behind bars: Prison-based needle and syringe programs By Emily van der Meulen and Sandra Ka Hon Chu HIV and hepatitis C are serious public health issues in Canadian prisons. Rates of these infections in federal institutions are considerably higher than in the general population. The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) currently provides prisoners with condoms, methadone maintena...

This study describes two bioanalytical methods for the quantitation of methadone enantiomers in dried matrix spots using high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) and supercritical (HPSFC-MS/MS). Dried were obtained by spotting 10 µL each sample fluid on a Whatman paper. Methadone its main metabolite, EDDP, extracted with 100 methanol subsequently i...

BACKGROUND Interindividual variability in methadone disposition remains unexplained, and methadone accidental overdose in pain therapy is a significant public health problem. Cytochrome P4502B6 (CYP2B6) is the principle determinant of clinical methadone elimination. The CYP2B6 gene is highly polymorphic, with several variant alleles. CYP2B6.6, the protein encoded by the CYP2B6*6 polymorphism, d...

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the 2-year outcomes for 351 drug misusers allocated on an intention-to-treat basis to methadone maintenance or methadone reduction treatments. Both groups showed substantial reductions in their use of illicit drugs and in other outcome areas. However, whereas most methadone maintenance patients received maintenance, only about one third of those alloca...

Methadone is a clinically used opioid agonist that is oxidatively metabolized by cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoforms to a stable metabolite, EDDP. Methadone is a chiral drug administered as the racemic mixture of (R)-(-)- and (S)-(+)-methadone, but (R)-methadone is the active isomer. The cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoform involved in methadone's metabolism is thought to be CYP3A4, but human drug-drug int...

Benzodiazepines and methadone use has been associated with various neuropsychological impairments. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have been carried out on the effect of these substances (either separately or combined) on impulsive personality, including studies in prisoners. The aim of this study is to examine the impulsive personality of a sample of 134 male prisoners using ...