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...

TREATMENT of chronic pain in patients with a history of opioid addiction is difficult since tolerance to the opioid agonist effects may require extremely large opioid doses for pain control. Furthermore, insufficient pain control may be hard to discern from craving for more opioids. Although drug-free periods, also called “drug holiday,” can reestablish sensitivity to drugs used to treat Parkin...

INTRODUCTION Opioid dependence is recorded as the most common drug of abuse in Malaysia. Currently, the preferred substitution therapy for most Government treatment centres is methadone used as substitution therapy for opioid dependence. There are, however patients who may benefit from being on the combined buprenorphine-naloxone formulation as substitution therapy instead. We discuss six cases...

This was a 6-month, randomized, flexible-dose study comparing the effects of methadone (Meth) and buprenorphine (Bup) on retention rate and substance use in a sample of 140 opioid-dependent, primarily heroin-addicted, patients who had been without opioid substitution therapy in the 4 weeks prior to the study. The major aims were to compare the efficacy of Bup and Meth in a flexible dosing regim...

The way in which opioid addiction is managed in France is unique, as it is based on the prescription of buprenorphine by general practitioners and is dispensed by retail pharmacies. This policy has had a direct, positive impact on the number of deaths caused by heroin overdose, which was reduced by four-fifths between 1994 and 2002. In addition, certain associated comorbidities, such as infecti...