Drug and alcohol dependence
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Jun 2015
Randomized Controlled TrialCharacterizing opioid withdrawal during double-blind buprenorphine detoxification.
Prescription opioid (PO) abuse has become an urgent public health issue in the United States. Detoxification is one important treatment option, yet relatively little is known about the time course and severity of opioid withdrawal during buprenorphine detoxification. ⋯ Data from this trial may inform clinicians about the expected time course, magnitude, and pattern of buprenorphine withdrawal and aid efforts to identify patients who may need additional clinical support during outpatient buprenorphine detoxification.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Jun 2015
Racial/ethnic differences in trends in heroin use and heroin-related risk behaviors among nonmedical prescription opioid users.
This study examines changing patterns of past-year heroin use and heroin-related risk behaviors among individuals with nonmedical use of prescription opioids (NMUPO) by racial/ethnic groups in the United States. ⋯ Individuals with NMUPO, particularly non-Hispanic Whites, are at high risk of heroin use and heroin-related risk behaviors. These results suggest that frequent nonmedical users of prescription opioids, regardless of race/ethnicity, should be the focus of novel public health efforts to prevent and mitigate the harms of heroin use.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Jun 2015
Altered white matter in cocaine-dependent subjects with traumatic brain injury: A diffusion tensor imaging study.
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a useful technique for non-invasively investigating the microstructural organization of white matter (WM), and the most consistent DTI finding regarding cocaine-related WM alterations is in the corpus callosum (CC). WM injury has also been observed in subjects with traumatic brain injury (TBI), including in the CC. ⋯ Cocaine dependence (or mTBI) related WM impairments in the CC were not detectable in this small subject sample. The significant finding in the CC suggests that the concurrence of cocaine dependence and mTBI might result in more severe damage to the CC, which could even be detected in small sample size.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Jun 2015
The introduction of a potentially abuse deterrent oxycodone formulation: Early findings from the Australian National Opioid Medications Abuse Deterrence (NOMAD) study.
There is increasing concern about tampering of pharmaceutical opioids. We describe early findings from an Australian study examining the potential impact of the April 2014 introduction of an abuse-deterrent sustained-release oxycodone formulation (Reformulated OxyContin(®)). ⋯ These data suggest that, in the short term, introduction of an abuse-deterrent formulation of OxyContin(®) in Australia was associated with a reduction in injection of OxyContin(®), with no clear switch to other drugs. Reformulated OxyContin(®), in this short follow-up, does not appear to be considered as attractive for tampering.