Maintenance therapy with methadone or buprenorphine is an established and first-line treatment for opioid dependence. Clinical studies indicate that about a third of patients in opioid maintenance therapy show increased alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorders. Comorbid alcohol use disorders have been identified as a risk factor for clinical outcome and can cause poor physical and mental h...

OBJECTIVE There is a significant interindividual variability in treatment outcomes in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) for opioid use disorder (OUD). This prospective cohort study examines the impact of comorbid psychiatric disorders on continued illicit opioid use in patients receiving MMT for OUD. METHODS Data were collected from 935 patients receiving MMT in outpatient clinics between...

conclusions: relationships between the spiritual intelligence and resiliency parameters with withdrawal time show that these parameters can have a role in relapse protection among addicted people. results: there were significant positive correlations between resiliency and scores of spiritual intelligence as well as with subscales of spiritual intelligence. in addition, there were significant p...

THE RATE OF OVERDOSE MORTALity increased sharply in the United States in the past decade and overdose mortality is a pressing public health problem. Between 1999 and 2007, the rate of unintentional overdose death in the United States increased by 124%, largely because of increases in prescription opioid overdoses. Achieving a better understanding of the factors contributing to prescription opio...

CONTEXT Record numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans survive their war injuries and yet continue to experience pain and mental health problems, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Little is known about the association of mental health disorders and prescription opioid use. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of mental health disorders, particularly PTSD, on risks and adverse...

OBJECTIVE To identify meaningful classes of opioid-using military veterans in terms of self-reported opioid overdose risk behaviors. METHOD The study recruited a sample of 218 military veterans in the NYC area who were discharged from active duty service after September 11, 2001 and reported past-month opioid use. Survey data including measures of mental health, social stressors, substance us...

Use of opioids for chronic non-cancer pain is increasing, but the clinical epidemiology and standards of care for this practice are poorly defined. Psychiatric disorders are associated with increased physical symptoms and may be associated with opioid use. We performed a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from the Health Care for Communities (HCC) survey conducted in 1997-1998 (N=9279) ...

We assess the influence of co-occurring psychiatric disorders on retention in 189 opioid dependent patients in a methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) and determine the incidence of psychiatric co-morbidity during an 18-month follow-up period. About 68.5 % were retained in the MMT. Neither co-occurring mental disorders (chi-square = 0.303, df = 1, p = 0.622) nor methadone doses [85 (88.9) vs. 7...

chronic pain is a prevalent and debilitating condition, conveying immense human burden. suffering from chronic pain is not only caused by painful symptomatology, but also through a wide range of psychopathological and physical consequences, including depression and anxiety disorders, impaired sleep and cognition, cardiovascular morbidity and impaired sexual function, all contributing to diminis...