Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy
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Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy · Jun 2011
Age differences in heroin and prescription opioid abuse among enrolees into opioid treatment programs.
In the United States, among those entering opioid treatment programs (OTPs), prescription opioid (PO) abusers tend to be younger than heroin users. Admissions of older persons to OTPs have been increasing, and it is important to understand typical patterns of use among those older enrolees. ⋯ Organizational and cultural phenomena (e.g., OTP characteristics) must be examined to better understand the context of individual characteristics (e.g., age). If nesting of enrolees within OTPs is ignored, then associations that primarily operate at the OTP level may be misinterpreted as exclusively dependent on individuals.
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Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy · Jan 2011
Multicenter Study Controlled Clinical TrialThe SCIDOTS Project: evidence of benefits of an integrated tobacco cessation intervention in tuberculosis care on treatment outcomes.
There is substantial evidence to support the association between tuberculosis (TB) and tobacco smoking and that the smoking-related immunological abnormalities in TB are reversible within six weeks of cessation. Therefore, connecting TB and tobacco cessation interventions may produce significant benefits and positively impact TB treatment outcomes. However, no study has extensively documented the evidence of benefits of such integration. SCIDOTS Project is a study from the context of a developing nation aimed to determine this. ⋯ This study provides evidence that connecting TB-tobacco treatment strategy is significant among TB patients who are smokers. The findings suggest that the integrated approach may be beneficial and confer advantages on short-term outcomes and possibly on future lung health of TB patients who quit smoking. This study may have important implications on health policy and clinical practice related to TB management among tobacco users.
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Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy · Nov 2010
Self-reported tobacco smoking practices among medical students and their perceptions towards training about tobacco smoking in medical curricula: A cross-sectional, questionnaire survey in Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
Tobacco smoking issues in developing countries are usually taught non-systematically as and when the topic arose. The World Health Organisation and Global Health Professional Student Survey (GHPSS) have suggested introducing a separate integrated tobacco module into medical school curricula. Our aim was to assess medical students' tobacco smoking habits, their practices towards patients' smoking habits and attitude towards teaching about smoking in medical schools. ⋯ Medical educators should consider revising medical curricula to improve training about tobacco smoking cessation in medical schools. Our results should be supported by surveys from other medical schools in developing countries of Asia.
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Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy · Jan 2010
Smoking prevalence and smoking cessation services for pregnant women in Scotland.
Over 20% of women smoke throughout pregnancy despite the known risks to mother and child. Engagement in face-to-face support is a good measure of service reach. The Scottish Government has set a target that by 2010 8% of smokers will have quit via NHS cessation services. At present less than 4% stop during pregnancy. We aimed to establish a denominator for pregnant smokers in Scotland and describe the proportion who are referred to specialist services, engage in one-to-one counselling, set a quit date and quit 4 weeks later. ⋯ In Scotland, a small proportion of pregnant smokers are supported to stop. Poor outcomes are a product of current limitations to each step of service provision--identification, referral, engagement and treatment. Many smokers are not asked about smoking at maternity booking or provide false information. Carbon monoxide breath testing can bypass this difficulty. Identified smokers may not be referred but an opt-out referral policy can remove this barrier. Engagement at home allowed a greater proportion to set a quit date and quit, but costs were higher.
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Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy · Nov 2009
An analysis of abstracts presented to the college on problems of drug dependence meeting and subsequent publication in peer review journals.
Subsequent publication rate of abstracts presented at meetings is seen as an indicator of the interest and quality of the meeting. We have analyzed characteristics and rate publication in peer-reviewed journals derived from oral communications and posters presented at the 1999 College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) meeting. ⋯ One out of every three abstracts presented to the 1999 CPDD meeting were later published in peer-reviewed journals indexed in Medline. The subsequent publication of the abstracts presented in the CPDD meetings should be actively encouraged, as this maximizes the dissemination of the scientific research and therefore the investment.