Archive for the ‘Resources’ Category
Research for Recovery: A Review of the Drugs Evidence Base
No CommentsThis review of the drugs evidence base was commissioned by the Scottish Government on behalf of the National Drugs
Evidence Group. The main aim of the review was to show where the evidence base is already strong, what the evidence
tells us and what we still need to know to support Scotland’s National Drugs Strategy, The Road to Recovery: A New
Approach to Tackling Scotland’s Drug Problem.
Does heroin addiction makes temperamental changes?
No CommentsInvestigation of specific personality traits is still in focus of modern psychiatry for years. The target usually pursues identification of those personality traits, described as a predisposition of addiction. But the question of fowl and egg is still open: are these traits are predispositions or they are consequences of Heroin personality change. Based on “mathematical” admission that temperamental traits describe an unchangeable basic concept we verify our hypothesis over addicted population.
Policy resistance to harm reduction for drug users and potential effect of change
No CommentsDespite good evidence for its effectiveness in HIV prevention, countries such as Russia remain resistant to harm reduction. Tim Rhodes and colleagues show the obstacles to and potential benefits of changing policy on opiate substitution treatment.
Evidence based policy for illicit drugs
No CommentsAn ethical obligation for those working in the field of drug addiction
Systematic reviews have shown that methadone maintenance treatment significantly reduces heroin use compared with other treatments,1 and it also reduces HIV risk behaviour among injecting drug users.2 Not surprisingly, it is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.3 In the linked prospective cohort study (doi:10.1136/bmj.c3172) Kimber and colleagues describe the effect of opiate substitution treatment on mortality and time to long term injection cessation.4
Toward a Syndrome Model of Addiction: Multiple Expressions, Common Etiology
No CommentsIt is common for clinicians, researchers, and public policy makers to describe certain drugs or objects (e.g., games of chance) as “addictive,” tacitly implying that the cause of addiction resides in the properties of drugs or other objects. Conventional wisdom encourages this view by treating different excessive behaviors, such as alcohol dependence and pathological gambling, as distinct disorders. Evidence supporting a broader conceptualization of addiction is emerging.
