ATI

Research for Recovery: A Review of the Drugs Evidence Base

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:51:48 +0000

This 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.

It examines both the published evidence base and the policy context in which the strategy sits and this provides the link between the evidence base for addictions and the wider social, health and economic context in which recovery occurs. The review set out to assess what we know about ‘what works’ in drugs recovery and identify the core questions that need to be answered when assessing the effectiveness and impact of The Road to Recovery.

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Does heroin addiction makes temperamental changes?

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:51:23 +0000

Investigation 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.

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Time to Legalize Drugs? Ethan Nadelmann on FOX News

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:47:02 +0000

Policy resistance to harm reduction for drug users and potential effect of change

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:46:10 +0000

Despite 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

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:44:20 +0000

An 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

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:47:26 +0000

It 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.

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Trends in UK deaths associated with abuse of volatile substances, 1971-2008

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:45:27 +0000

This is the twenty-third annual report of the Volatile Substance Abuse (VSA) Mortality Project, and has been produced by the International Centre for Drug Policy (ICDP) based at St. George’s, University of London.

This report outlines the current trends, examines the nature of the problems, and identifies the factors associated with deaths from abuse of volatile substances occurring in the United Kingdom in 2008.

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A Grounded Theory of Detoxification-Seeking Among Heroin Users in South East Ireland

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:44:39 +0000

This study explores a central phenomenon of detoxification-seeking among heroin users in the South East of Ireland, through a grounded theory approach.

The study conceptualises detoxification-seeking as a help-seeking behaviour, experienced by heroin users, but not all, in response to and as a consequence of the complex experience of being heroin dependent, and wanting to become abstinent. The core category, ‘forging a pathway towards abstinence from heroin’, provides an insight into challenges and tasks that research participants undertook when their aim was abstinence.

Pathways towards abstinence involved collaboration with other heroin users, family and/or health and drug service professionals and were heavily influenced by internal factors such as perception of services and perception of need for help. The process of forging a pathway towards abstinence had three stages; recognising, help-seeking, and navigating.

The three stages include actions related to information seeking, and treatment (including detoxification) seeking. Not all research participants experienced all of the stages. However, all of the research participants, at some point in their heroin-using careers experienced factors which blocked, or facilitated them, to seek detoxification. Such factors included the presence, or lack of; family support, a therapeutic alliance, personal knowledge (of heroin dependence
and drug treatment) and access to treatment services.

Such barriers and/or enabling factors, were found in the social and personal contexts of the individual, and were shown to inhibit or facilitate the individual to seek heroin detoxification. The study offers a clear theoretical framework for understanding the contextual factors that can lead heroin users to seek detoxification. The study has implications for development of low threshold services, development of community-based detoxification and facilitation of service user involvement.

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Toward a Syndrome Model of Addiction: Multiple Expressions, Common Etiology

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:05:09 +0000

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National Drugs Confernce of Ireland 2010

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:44:11 +0000

This feature focuses on to the upcoming National Drugs Conference which will be held in The Radisson Blu Royal Hotel Golden Lane, Dublin 8, 4^th & 5^thNovember, 2010.

One of the conference organisers, Tim Bingham, from Co. Kerry, discusses the upcoming conference with drugs.ie. In doing so, Tim provides some general insights into the conference and also shares some of the hopes and visions that a conference of this nature can aspire to.