Introduction: There are 4000–5000 opioid abusers and about 1700 patients in opioid substitution treatment in Finland. New legislation (2008) allows less restrictive treatment models than before. Aims: To assess advantages and disadvantages of pharmacy delivery of buprenorphine-naloxone and referral of stabile patients into primary health care. Theory and methods: The setting was five Finnish ou...

In the era of highly effective anti-retroviral therapy (ART), data show a significant difference in treatment outcomes between injecting drug users (IDUs) and non-IDUs. Factors that may contribute to suboptimal treatment outcomes in IDUs include delayed access to ART, competing comorbid diseases, psychosocial barriers and poor long-term adherence to ART. This review describes and compares sever...

Question Are levo acetyl methadol (LAAM) and buprenorphine as effective as methadone for substitution treatment of opioid dependence? Participants: 220 people categorised as opioid dependent by DSM-IV; 1 groups similar on demographics and drug use history. Exclusion criteria were medical and psychiatric illness requiring long-term medication, and pregnancy. Interventions: (i) Levo acetyl methad...

Background. There are limited community based treatment services for drug dependence in India. Rural areas and urban resettlement colonies are in particular deficient in such services. Aims. The current study aimed at preliminary assessment of substance use disorder management services at a community based substance use treatment clinic in an urban resettlement colony. Methods. The study was ca...

Abstract Background Opioid substitution with methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is shown to reduce illicit opioid use and renew social functioning. Understanding factors that undermine clients’ functioning during MMT vital for improving compliance quality of life. Method A total 210 respondents who were already enrolled in a formal program Myanmar recruited from five cities through stratifie...

Benzodiazepine use by patients in methadone and buprenorphine substitution treatment is common, despite safety concerns regarding these drug interactions. The relative safety of diazepam use by methadone- or buprenorphine-treated patients has not been systematically examined. This study aimed to examine the effect of single diazepam doses, within normal therapeutic range (doses: 0, 10, and 20 m...

introduction: addiction is a habit or behavior that is often hard to quit. it is estimated that 190 million persons are substance users around the world. substance abuse creates tolerance after a while. shortly after taking the drug, a person will not enjoy as the beginning of its use that is why the amount of substance used is gradually increased. the purpose of this study was to find the reas...

BACKGROUND Poor adherence to treatment diminishes its individual and public health benefit. Financial incentives, provided on the condition of treatment attendance, could address this problem. Injecting drug users are a high-risk group for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and transmission, but adherence to vaccination programmes is poor. We aimed to assess whether contingency management delive...