Journal of psychoactive drugs
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The phenomenology of drug craving has become the focus of much research within addictive disorders because of the belief that desire plays a role in maintaining the addiction. Many of the studies have focused on the activation of neural pathways, particularly within the dopamine system in response to specific events or stimuli. While many of these studies have focused on a particular drug of choice, little has been done across addictive disorders. This article will present and review phenomena that induce drug craving, as well as delineate precise neural pathways which are activated during craving and specific neurobiological markers which are associated with an increased risk for drug craving and other forms of addictive behavior.
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Propofol is a widely used general anaesthetic with multisite mechanisms and especially ultrashort activation of certain central GABA-A receptors. Since its introduction into the market in the mid 1980s this is the seventh report on propofol dependence in the literature. The present case shows for the first time that craving for propofol can be quite intense and able to induce addictive behaviour.
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J Psychoactive Drugs · Sep 2007
An exploratory study of OxyContin use among individuals with substance use disorders.
This study surveyed 422 individuals being treated in a substance abuse treatment program that offers various levels of care in order to learn about OxyContin use among this population. Focus areas included exposure and use of OxyContin, how this medication was obtained, reasons for initial use, and whether users of OxyContin were drug naive or experienced users of opiate or non-opiate drugs. Whether OxyContin users who previously had never used opiates would report migrating to heroin was also explored. ⋯ While most users of OxyContin had a history of past opiate use, a small percentage had not, and of this later group, 73% migrated to using heroin. The majority of individuals who obtained OxyContin from a physician had a history of recreational or problematic opiate or non-opiate drug use. Finally, over time, 90% had stopped using this drug, although other drug use continued.
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J Psychoactive Drugs · Jun 2004
Probation officers' beliefs about the effectiveness of alcohol treatment.
Research has shown that a large number of individuals on probation have alcohol problems but only a fraction of them receive treatment. This study surveyed 145 probation officers about their views on alcohol problems among probationers. A previous analysis of the data found that two beliefs predicted probation officers' use of coercion to mandate probationers to alcohol treatment: the belief that treatment was effective and the belief that one's peers were using coercion to mandate treatment. ⋯ Multiple regression found that several factors predicted the belief that treatment is effective. Officers who had a family member with a drinking problem (current or family of origin), those who had a strong belief about their self-efficacy in handling alcohol problems, and those who were more likely to make coerced referrals had stronger beliefs that treatment was effective. Strategies for facilitating accurate beliefs about the effectiveness of treatment and increasing self-efficacy among probation officers are reviewed.
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J Psychoactive Drugs · May 2003
Comparative StudyPsychiatric and substance dependence comorbidities, sexually transmitted diseases, and risk behaviors among methamphetamine-dependent gay and bisexual men seeking outpatient drug abuse treatment.
This article describes psychiatric and substance dependence comorbidities, lifetime rates of infectious disease, and reported high-risk sexual behaviors for methamphetamine-dependent, gay and bisexual men at entry to outpatient drug abuse treatment in Los Angeles. Participants' self-reports of high-risk sexual and drug use behaviors and of history of infectious disease status were correlated with diagnostic information from 155 Structured Clinical Interviews for the DSM-IV (SCID). ⋯ Differences in infectious disease prevalence did not correspond to significantly different rates of high-risk sexual behaviors. Findings indicate that gay and bisexual men seeking outpatient treatment for methamphetamine dependence are likely to experience psychiatric comorbidity and to have high rates of infectious disease, including HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea.