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Treatment
The range of medical, psychological, and social services designed to help individuals reduce or stop substance use and manage substance use disorders. Treatment may include assessment, counselling and behavioural therapies, medication-assisted treatment, withdrawal management, and support for co-occurring mental or physical health conditions. Effective treatment is typically person-centred and evidence-informed, and may be provided in outpatient, community, or residential settings. Treatment aims to improve health and functioning, reduce substance-related harms, and support individuals in moving toward recovery and long-term wellbeing.
What is 'Substance Use'?
The following tries to summarise both what “substance use” is, and some of the issues that surround the term.
Characteristics of Persons Who Inject Drugs and Who Witness Opioid Overdoses in Vietnam
Abstract
Background
Persons who use opioids have a high risk of overdose and associated mortality. In Vietnam, little is known about the characteristics of this population and the persons who are witness to those overdoses. One approach...
Barriers to Retention in Methadone Maintenance Therapy among People who Inject Drugs in Bangkok
Abstract
Background
Methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) is a mainstay for treating opioid use disorder and preventing and managing HIV among people who inject drugs (PWID). While previous research suggested low dosing of methadone and...
The Importance of Nutrition for Recovery from Addiction
How important is nutrition for recovery from Substance Use Disorders (SUDs)?
According to new research published in the academic journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence the answer is: very.
The paper, which looked at the relationship between...
Dual Disorders: A New Way to Think about Addiction?
Despite a growing evidence base and numerous policy changes, the association between addiction and other mental health problems is often ignored.
It remains that many patients with Substance Use Disorder (SUDs) also have Other Psychiatric...
Synthetic Cathinone and Cannabinoid Designer Drugs Pose a Major Risk for Public Health
As part of an increasing worldwide use of designer drugs, recent use of compounds containing cathinones and synthetic cannabinoids is especially prevalent. Here, we reviewed current literature on the prevalence, epidemiology, bio-behavioral...
How States Are Tackling the Opioid Crisis
ABSTRACT
Objectives:
We used data from the 2015 National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors Web-based questionnaire and other sources to demonstrate the range and scope of state initiatives being used to deal with the...
Drug Matrix Cell A1: Interventions - Ways to Reduce the Harm
Initiates a fortnightly course on the evidence base for harm reduction and treatment in relation to illegal drugs. Comprehensively updated, the cell explores key research on interventions to reduce the harms to the user as a result of their...
Trends in Deaths Involving Heroin and Synthetic Opioids Excluding Methadone, and Law Enforcement Drug Product Reports
Summary
What is already known about this topic?
Opioid overdose deaths in the United States have been increasing since 1999, initially driven by prescription opioid misuse and more recently by heroin and other illicit opioid use.
What is...
Smartphone Ownership among US Adult Cigarette Smokers
ABSTRACT
Background: Despite increasing interest in smartphone apps as a platform for delivery of tobacco cessation interventions, no previous studies have evaluated the prevalence and characteristics of smokers who can access smartphone...
Worrying Substance Use Trends among over 50s
In 2011, the Royal College of Psychiatrists advised that over 50s should not exceed more than 11 units of alcohol a week, compared with 14 for the rest of the adult population, due to age-related physiological and metabolic changes.
Since...
Review Article: Recent Insights into Clinical Decision-Making in Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis
Summary
Background
Alcoholic hepatitis is a severe acute manifestation of alcoholic liver disease with a high mortality. Management of patients with this condition has been a matter of controversy for many years; however, recent clinical...
More Reasons to Move: Exercise in the Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorders
Physical exercise is widely regarded as “medicine” for the prevention and treatment of myriad somatic health conditions. Studies also demonstrate that exercise is effective in the treatment of common mental disorders and has a role in the...
Opioid Use and Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy
ABSTRACT
Opioid use in pregnancy has escalated dramatically in recent years, paralleling the epidemic observed in the general population. To combat the opioid epidemic, all health care providers need to take an active role. Pregnancy...
Teachers and Coaches in Adolescent Social Networks Are Associated with Healthier Self-Concept and Decreased Substance Use
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND
Poor academic (eg. “I am a bad student”) and behavioral (eg. “I am a troublemaker”) self-concepts are strongly linked to adolescent substance use. Social networks likely influence self-concept. However, little is...
Drugs, Brains and Behavior: The Science of Addiction
Since the 1930s, the response to drug addiction has moved from one that focuses on the need to punish users to another that recognises the importance of prevention and treatment approaches.
In other words, thanks to scientific advances...
Is it possible to have a real fight?
Geraldine González Williman is an expert in the prevention and treatment of addictions of legal or illegal drugs. In this interview, details on the plans of action applicable to the Paraguay to combat a scourge that every day grows more.
H...
Line Up Live Up Trainer Manual: Preventing Drug Use by Promoting Active Lifestyles
Line Up Live Up is a new United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Trainer Manual prepared by Peer van der Kreeft of HoGent University College Ghent’s Department for Education, Health and Social Work.
It looks to promote sport and...
Strategies to Facilitate Integrated Care for People with Alcohol and Other Drug Problems
Abstract
Background
There is a growing body of research highlighting the potential benefits of integrated care as a way of addressing the needs of people with alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems, given the broad range of other issues...
Changing Patterns of Substance Misuse in Adult Prisons and Service Responses
Inspection findings were supplemented by fieldwork in eight prisons in 2014 to generate an overall picture of drug use and responses to it in prisons in England and Wales. In the face of rapidly changing and varied drug use patterns, policy...