Drug and alcohol dependence
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Oct 2005
Controlled Clinical TrialSmoked cocaine discrimination in humans: effects of gabapentin.
Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) agonists, such as the GABA analogue, gabapentin, may provide new avenues for pharmacological treatment of cocaine dependence. The purpose of this study was to develop a smoked cocaine drug discrimination procedure in humans to test the effects of gabapentin maintenance on the discriminative stimulus, subjective, cognitive and cardiovascular effects of smoked cocaine. Eight male, nontreatment-seeking, cocaine-dependent volunteers, residing on an inpatient research unit for 47 days completed a within-subjects, counter-balanced design. ⋯ Gabapentin did not significantly affect psychomotor task performance or the subjective effects of cocaine. Although the direction of gabapentin's effects was appropriate for a potential treatment medication, i.e., a decrease in cocaine-elicited craving and a decrease in cocaine's discriminative stimulus effects, these effects were limited to low doses of cocaine. The results suggest gabapentin may not produce effects sufficiently robust to be clinically useful, at least at this dose regimen.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Oct 2005
Prevalence of abuse of alcohol and other drugs among injured drivers presenting to the emergency department of the University Hospital of Modena, Italy.
Among those drivers responsible for injury-producing traffic crashes in a town of northern Italy (Modena) and its surrounding territory, we evaluated the percentage that was positive for alcohol or other drugs affecting CNS function. A total of 115 crash-responsible injured drivers (90 males and 25 females) consecutively presenting to the emergency department at the University Hospital of Modena were enrolled. A urine sample was requested from each driver; the presence of alcohol or drugs was detected by means of various procedures (enzyme immunoassay, liquid or gas chromatography, mass spectrometry). ⋯ The majority of drivers positive for benzodiazepines were 41-70 years old, while most drivers positive for alcohol or other drugs were 21-40 years old. Thirty-nine (85%) of the positive injured drivers were males and seven (15%) were females. The present data confirm that a significant percentage of injury-producing traffic crashes involves drivers who are under the influence of drugs of abuse, alcohol, or other drugs affecting the CNS.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Oct 2005
Outpatient alcoholism treatment: predictors of outcome after 3 years.
This prospective study investigated predictors for relapse 3 years after completion of an intensive outpatient treatment programme for alcoholism. ⋯ In contrast to previous studies we could not confirm the importance of determinants known as risk factors for relapse like severity of alcohol dependence. The strongest predictor for relapsing after treatment is treatment drop-out. Since women were at an increased risk for relapse gender-specific treatment approaches should be considered. In summary, the effectiveness of the studied intensive outpatient treatment programme, with an abstinence rate of 43% for the total follow-up period of 3 years, is favourable although selection criteria of must be taken into account.