Drug and alcohol dependence
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Feb 2018
Multicenter StudyLong-acting intramuscular naltrexone for opioid use disorder: Utilization and association with multi-morbidity nationally in the Veterans Health Administration.
Long acting intramuscular (IM) naltrexone is an effective treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), but rates and correlates of its use have not been studied. ⋯ IM naltrexone is rarely used for OUD and is primarily used for patients with multiple co-morbidities, especially alcohol use disorder and serious mental illness. The use of this treatment illustrates many of the principles identified by the emerging focus on multi-morbidity as a critical feature of clinical practice.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Feb 2018
Substance use patterns associated with recent exposure to fentanyl among people who inject drugs in Vancouver, Canada: A cross-sectional urine toxicology screening study.
Vancouver, Canada is experiencing an opioid overdose crisis where fentanyl, a potent, synthetic opioid contaminating the illicit drug supply, has been detected in the majority of fatal overdose cases. Despite its growing presence throughout North America, few studies have characterized exposure to fentanyl among people who use illicit drugs (PWUD). We sought to identify the prevalence and correlates of fentanyl exposure among PWUD in Vancouver. ⋯ With one in five PWID being exposed to fentanyl, there is an urgent need to design and scale up interventions to reduce overdose risk, including a range of opioid agonist therapies.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Feb 2018
"You got to love rosin: Solventless dabs, pure, clean, natural medicine." Exploring Twitter data on emerging trends in Rosin Tech marijuana concentrates.
"Rosin tech" is an emerging solventless method consisting in applying moderate heat and constant pressure on marijuana flowers to prepare marijuana concentrates referred to as "rosin." This paper explores rosin concentrate-related Twitter data to describe tweet content and analyze differences in rosin-related tweeting across states with varying cannabis legal statuses. ⋯ Our results indicate that there are higher proportions of personal communication tweets and Twitter users tweeting about rosin in U.S. states where cannabis is legalized. Rosin concentrates are advertised as a safer, more natural form of concentrates, but more research on this emerging form of marijuana concentrate is needed.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Feb 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialOndansetron does not prevent physical dependence in patients taking opioid medications chronically for pain control.
In this study, we investigated the co-administration of ondansetron with morphine, and whether it could prevent the development of physical dependence in patients taking opioids for the treatment of chronic pain. ⋯ We hypothesized that ondansetron would prevent the development of physical dependence in human subjects when co-administered with opioids, but found no difference in naloxone-precipitated opioid withdrawal scores between ondansetron and placebo treatment groups. These results suggest that further studies are needed to determine if 5HT3 receptor antagonists are useful in preventing opioid physical dependence.
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Drug Alcohol Depend · Feb 2018
Polygenic risk for alcohol consumption and its association with alcohol-related phenotypes: Do stress and life satisfaction moderate these relationships?
Genetic and environmental factors contribute about equally to alcohol-related phenotypes in adulthood. In the present study, we examined whether more stress at home or low satisfaction with life might be associated with heavier drinking or more alcohol-related problems in individuals with a high genetic susceptibility to alcohol use. ⋯ There were significant main effects of polygenic scores and of stress and life satisfaction on drinking behavior, but there was no support for PRS-by-stress or PRS-by-life satisfaction interactions on alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems.