Ian Hamilton shares his thoughts on the new Drug Use series published yesterday in The Lancet: The global drug problem – change but not progression.
[read the full story...]The global drug problem: who cares? #LxAddictions19
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We know how to reduce premature deaths from co-morbid mental health and substance use problems, so why aren’t we doing anything about it?
Ian Hamilton looks at a Swedish 42-year follow-up study, which looks at the impact that psychiatric comorbidity can have on premature death in a cohort of patients with substance use disorders.
[read the full story...]Inclusion health: a new perspective on health inequalities?
Noortje Uphoff writes her debut elf blog on a recent paper in The Lancet, which looks at what works in inclusion health; providing an overview of effective interventions for marginalised and excluded populations.
[read the full story...]Opiate substitution therapy: supervised-consumption vs take-home doses
Vicky Carlisle publishes her debut elf blog on a Cochrane review of supervised dosing with long-acting opioid medication in the management of opioid dependence.
[read the full story...]Women, addiction and crime: what works? #WomenAndDrugs
Some of the country’s leading experts on mental health and substance abuse will gather at the University of York tomorrow to “end the silence” surrounding women and addiction. We’ll be taking this #WomenAndDrugs event #BeyondTheRoom and I’m delighted to be publishing two relevant blogs, one today and the other tomorrow.
Here’s the first from regular elf blogger Ian Hamilton, who explores a recent narrative literature review on effective interventions for drug using women offenders.
[read the full story...]Reducing alcohol consumption in illicit drug users: new Cochrane review on psychotherapies
Olivia Maynard reports on a recent Cochrane review that investigates talking therapies for reducing alcohol consumption in illicit drug users. The reviewers found no differences in the effectiveness of different psychotherapies (motivational interviewing, brief interventions, CBT) and insufficient evidence to draw any meaningful conclusions.
[read the full story...]US policy on prescription drug abuse: tackling an unique and significant problem
The fact that drug overdoses are the second largest cause of premature death from unintentional injuries in the US (for example, in 2010 there was 38,329 drug overdose deaths) is not a surprising statistic. What may surprise readers is that of these deaths 22,134 were attributed to prescription drugs. Indeed, almost one and a half [read the full story…]
Methadone for opioid detoxification as effective as other medications, but all have high relapse rates
Dependence on opiates (a group of drugs including heroin, morphine, and methadone) can be highly destructive for both the individual and for the people around them. Heroin addiction in particular is associated with major health risks, co-morbid mental health problems, and a wide-range of social issues. Attempting to stop opiate use leads to severe withdrawal [read the full story…]