BACKGROUND GPs occupy a pivotal position in relation to providing services to opiate misusers in the UK, and this is now cited to support initiatives in other countries. AIMS To investigate GP involvement in the management of opiate misusers; and to examine the nature of this prescribing of methadone and other opioids. DESIGN GP data collected via self-completion postal questionnaire from a...

Chronic opioid exposure induces neuroadaptative changes in several brain systems. Amongst others the alpha adrenergic system appears to be extremely sensitive to opioid exposure and has, therefore, been proposed to play a key role in opiate withdrawal symptoms. In order to better understand the influence of the noradrenergic system in opioid withdrawal and be able to develop new therapeutic str...

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to describe patterns of major depression (MDD) in a cohort of untreated illicit opiate users recruited from 5 Canadian urban centres, identify sociodemographic characteristics of opiate users that predict MDD, and determine whether opiate users suffering from depression exhibit different drug use patterns than do participants without depression. METHOD Baseline dat...

OBJECTIVE To quantify the effect of opiate substitution treatment in relation to HIV transmission among people who inject drugs. DESIGN Systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective published and unpublished observational studies. DATA SOURCES Search of Medline, Embase, PsychINFO, and the Cochrane Library from the earliest year to 2011 without language restriction. REVIEW METHODS We ...

BACKGROUND Despite intriguing observational cross-sectional data there are no longitudinal studies of opiate related arterial disease. As opiates act via P16INK4A/CDKN2A, and vascular ageing has been thought to be a surrogate for organismal ageing, the subject has far-reaching implications. METHODS Pulse Wave Analysis (PWA) by radial arterial tonometry (SphygmoCor) was performed on control an...

Facial pruritus associated with spinal opiate analgesia in man is thought to result either from release of histamine or from imbalance of sensory modulation secondary to spread of opiate to the medulla or fourth ventricle. There is another possibility: the sensory imbalance may be secondary to rostral spread of opiate effect by nervous transmission. Evidence is adduced in support of possible an...

Objective(s): Oxytocin is involved in modulation of many brain-mediated functions. In the present study, we investigated the central effects of oxytocin and its receptor antagonist, atosiban on inflammatory pain. The contribution of opiate receptors was explored using non-selective and selective antagonists. Materials and Methods: The fourth ventricle of the brain of anesthetized rats was impla...

of prescribing injectable heroin and methadone to opiate-dependent drug users: associated health gains and harm reductions. Active heroin injectors' perceptions and use of methadone maintenance treatment: cynical performance or self-prescribed risk reduction? Substance It takes your heart: the image of methadone maintenance in the addict world and its effects on recruitment into treatment. Opia...

INTRODUCTION The aim of the present study was to perform reliability and validity analyses of the Turkish version of the Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale which is used to determine the severity of opiate withdrawal. METHODS Initially, the Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale (COWS) was translated into Turkish and subsequently back-translated into English. The originality of the back-translated ve...