Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a risk for substance use disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between adult ADHD symptoms, opioid use disorder, life dysfunction and co-occurring psychiatric symptoms. 1057 heroin dependent patients on opioid substitution treatment participated in the survey. All patients were screened for adult ADHD symptoms usin...

Pain management is complicated by the levels of unacceptable opioid abuse and few safe alternatives. In 2011, the Institute of Medicine estimated 116 million American adults suffered from chronic pain [1]. In 2008, the CDC reported drug-related death rates more than tripled since 1990 and opioid related deaths to be higher than that of heroin and cocaine combined [2]. Effective pain treatment o...

Substitution of another opioid for morphine. Opioid toxicity should be managed initially by decreasing the opioid dose' BMJ, vol 317, no. 7150, pp. 81. General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide b...

BACKGROUND Opioid dependence increases risk of premature mortality. Opioid substitution therapy with methadone or buprenorphine reduces mortality risk, especially for drug-related overdose. Clinical guidelines recommend methadone as the first line of opioid substitution therapy. We aimed to test whether buprenorphine treatment has a lower mortality risk than does methadone treatment by comparin...

Opioid abuse is a growing global problem. Current therapies for opioid target withdrawal symptoms and have several adverse side effects. There are no treatments to address opioid-induced neural adaptations associated with addiction. Preclinical research demonstrates interactions between the endogenous cannabinoid systems, suggesting that cannabinoids may be used treat addiction dependence. The ...

BACKGROUND In 2003, a major epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus emerged among injection drug users in Taiwan. In response to the twin epidemics of HIV and intravenous drug addiction, the government implemented comprehensive harm reduction programs beginning in 2005. Collected data from relevant agencies were used to explore the impact of the harm reduction programs on HIV and illicit drug ...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is predominant amongst individuals addicted to opioids and obscures the course of illness and the treatment outcome. We report the case of a patient with major depressive disorder and opioid dependence, who experienced post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms during a recent visit to the inpatient unit. The similarity of symptoms between post-traumatic stres...

The opioid peptide met-enkephalin (met-ENK) produces an outward current with an increase in input conductance in locus coeruleus (LC) neurons. This current has been attributed to an opening of potassium channels. However, the opioid-induced current tends to reverse at potentials more negative than the expected potassium reversal potential (EK) or does not reverse at all. Since lack of reversal ...

An increase in illicit drug use in Northern Ireland may well have links to the resolution of political conflict, which started in the mid 1990s. Social issues, heretofore hidden, have emerged into the limelight and may be worsened by paramilitary involvement. Registered addicts in the four Health Board areas have shown an increase from 1997 with the greatest number resident within the Northern ...