scholarly journals New guidelines for prescribing injectable heroin in opiate addiction

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 123-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Luty
Keyword(s):  
Substance Misuse ◽  
Heroin Addiction ◽  
Opiate Addiction ◽  
National Treatment ◽  
Home Office ◽  
Treatment Agency ◽  
Specialist Services ◽  
The Usa ◽  
New Guidelines ◽  
Drug Problems

Few treatments are more controversial than the prescribing of injectable heroin (diamorphine) to heroin addicts. This practice is still banned in the USA and Australia, despite the serious drug problems in those countries. At present any UK doctor can prescribe injectable methadone for the treatment of heroin addiction; however, the prescribing of heroin requires a special licence from the Home Office. The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse is the statutory body currently responsible for advising purchasers (local drug action teams) in regard to specialist services for addictions. They have recently commissioned and published guidelines for the prescription of injectables in opiate addiction (National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, 2003). This follows the report of a Government committee, which stated:‘If diamorphine treatment could be offered to all problematic users who do not successfully access other treatments, we believe it could play a useful part in managing the social problems generated by this group of people’ (House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, 2003).

scholarly journals Heroin prescription: a limited but valuable role

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 126-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Carnwath
Keyword(s):  
Advisory Group ◽  
National Treatment ◽  
Treatment Agency ◽  
Expert Advisory ◽  
Heroin Prescription ◽  
New Guidelines ◽  
Directing Attention ◽  
Valuable Role ◽  
Expert Advisory Group ◽  
Valuable Service

Luty (2005, this issue) performs a valuable service by directing attention to the new guidelines from the National Treatment Agency. He explains clearly why he thinks these guidelines are wrong. I was a member of the expert advisory group that produced the guidelines, and will therefore attempt to defend them (my arguments do not necessarily reflect the views of all members of the group).

scholarly journals Commentary on: New guidelines for prescribing injectable heroin in opiate addiction

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 128-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eilish Gilvarry
Keyword(s):  
Drug Dependence ◽  
Opiate Addiction ◽  
Home Office ◽  
Audit Commission ◽  
New Guidelines ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Opiate Drug

Until recently, the UK led the addiction field worldwide as the only country to prescribe diamorphine for the treatment of opiate drug dependence. However, the approach was inconsistent, with development conducted in a haphazard and arbitrary manner (Audit Commission, 2002), with variation in criteria, individualistic approaches and many doctors ‘inheriting’ patients on these long-term prescriptions from other doctors. There were relatively few restrictions once the doctor had been granted a licence by the Home Office.

Meditation in Prison

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine M. Auty
Keyword(s):  
Substance Misuse ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Wellbeing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Vipassana Meditation ◽  
Prison Studies

In recent years interest in the use of meditation programs in prison has grown considerably, yet empirical research evidence for their effectiveness has been slower to accumulate. This chapter explores the application of meditation programs that take place within prison walls and evaluates their effectiveness in three key areas: (i) mental health and psychological wellbeing; (ii) substance misuse; (iii) and reoffending behavior. Evidence from prison studies, most of them conducted in the USA, is reviewed with a focus on their effectiveness. The philosophical and historical context of meditation is taken into account, and key concepts and definitions are critiqued. The chapter explores the meditation practices that are most often found in prison, such as Transcendental Meditation, mindfulness, and Vipassana meditation. It examines meditation’s role as an adjunct therapy in the treatment of substance misuse disorders and more general applications that aim to enhance well-being. The limitations of current studies together with directions for future research are also discussed.

EVERYDAY LIFE REFLECTION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC: NATURAL EXPERIMENT IN ACADEMIA

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Adams
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Department Chairs ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Individual Decision ◽  
Home Office ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Auto Ethnography ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Viral Outbreak

The COVID-19 pandemic created a profound challenge for universities and colleges. In the USA, the response to the viral outbreak within institutions of higher education was largely driven by individual decision-makers, including professors, department chairs, and deans. As a professor of geography, the author undertook auto-ethnography as both process and product, a way to learn about his competencies and coping strategies, his social interactions and responses, and his engagements with social power relations from a particular positionality. As a scholar with longstanding interest in communication media, the author focused on a trajectory from the campus to the home office, from place-based scholarship to the online contexts of «distance learning», from in-place communications to dependence on digital technologies. The study reveals resilience and adaptation but also incompleteness and fragility.

Guiding principles of drug demand reduction: An international response

1999 ◽  
Vol 175 (4) ◽  
pp. 310-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Ghodse
Keyword(s):  
Substance Misuse ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Small Communities ◽  
International Response ◽  
Controlled Drugs ◽  
Demand Reduction ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
Drug Demand ◽  
Supply Reduction ◽  
Drug Problems

BackgroundThe 20th century has seen the globalisation and homogenisation of substance misuse problems, blurring traditional boundaries between producer and consumer countries and forcing the international community to consider new responses to substance misuse.AimsTo highlight the importance of the principles of illicit drug demand reduction and related activities in tackling global drug problems and to discuss the commitment made by United Nations (UN) Member States at the highest political level towards meeting the objectives set in their Declaration on the Guiding Principles.MethodA review of international responses to substance misuse.ResultsTraditionally, the focus has been on reducing the supply of controlled drugs, while maintaining adequate supplies of narcotic and psychotropic drugs for clinical and scientific purposes. However, it has become apparent that supply reduction in isolation is insufficient and demand reduction is now receiving greater emphasis – culminating in the UN General Assembly adopting the Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Demand Reduction in 1998.ConclusionsThis declaration offers a genuinely holistic approach to the complexities of substance misuse. To be successful, it requires the commitment of governments at the highest level and the willing participation of small communities.

The Role of Legal Coercion in the Treatment of Offenders with Alcohol and Heroin Problems

1997 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Hall
Keyword(s):  
Drug Treatment ◽  
Drug Dependence ◽  
Legal Coercion ◽  
Coerced Treatment ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Dependent Property ◽  
Drug Dependent ◽  
Drug Problems ◽  
Prison Populations

This article discusses the ethical justification for, and reviews the American evidence on the effectiveness of, treatment for alcohol and heroin dependence that is provided under legal coercion to offenders whose alcohol and drug dependence has contributed to the commission of the offence with which they have been charged or convicted. The article focuses on legally coerced treatment for drink-driving offenders and heroin-dependent property offenders. It outlines the various arguments that have been made for providing such treatment under legal coercion, namely: the over-representation of alcohol and drug dependent persons in prison populations; the contributory causal role of alcohol and other drug problems in the offences that lead to their imprisonment; the high rates of relapse to drug use and criminal involvement after incarceration; the desirability of keeping injecting heroin users out of prisons as a way of reducing the transmission of infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis; and the putatively greater cost-effectiveness of treatment compared with incarceration. The ethical objections to legally coerced drug treatment are briefly discussed before the evidence on the effectiveness of legally coerced treatment for alcohol and other drug dependence is reviewed. The evidence, which is primarily from the USA, gives qualified support for some forms of legally coerced drug treatment, provided that these programs are well resourced, carefully implemented, and their performance is monitored to ensure that they provide a humane and effective alternative to imprisonment. Expectations about what these programs can achieve also need to be realistic.

scholarly journals A Smartphone Application Supporting Recovery from Heroin Addiction: Perspectives of Patients and Providers in China, Taiwan, and the USA

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marya Schulte ◽  
Di Liang ◽  
Fei Wu ◽  
Yu-Ching Lan ◽  
Wening Tsay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Smartphone Application ◽  
Heroin Addiction ◽  
The Usa

Alcohol and Drug Problems: Overview

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shulamith Lala Ashenberg Straussner ◽  
Richard Isralowitz
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Substance Misuse ◽  
Elderly Women ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
Evidence Based Treatment ◽  
United States Population ◽  
Drug Problems ◽  
Alcohol And Other Drugs

Most social workers will encounter individuals and families who have problems resulting from excessive use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, commonly referred to as substance abuse or, increasingly, as substance misuse problems. This article provides an overview of problems related to substance use worldwide, focusing on the United States population and selected subpopulations, such as young people, the elderly, women, ethnic and racial minorities, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual communities. It discusses the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for Substance Use Disorders, evidence-based treatment approaches, and relevant policy issues relating to substance use problems. The roles of social workers in addressing these problems are identified.

scholarly journals POLICY OF PREVENTIVE WORK WITH JUVENILE DRUG USERS IN THE USA

2021 ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Bohdana Buleza
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
Substance Misuse ◽  
Preventive Intervention ◽  
Skills Training ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Effective Prevention ◽  
Preventive Work ◽  
The Usa

This article deals with the problem of preventive work with young drug users. This is one of the most important problems in the world, including the USA. Substance misuse can put individual users and others among them at risk of harm. Early substance misuse and substance use disorders are associated with a variety of negative results, including deteriorating relationships, poor school performance, loss of employment, diminished mental health and increases in sickness and death. It is therefore critical to prevent the full spectrum of substance misuse problems in addition to treating those with substance use disorders. The aim of the study is to reveal the peculiarities of preventive work with young drug users in USA. Theoretical research methods have been used in this study: analysis of scientific sources, systematisation and generalisation of available data; defining of the essence of basic concepts; identification of the current state of the problem. The results of investigation give possibility to state that preventing or reducing early substance use initiation, substance misuse and the harms related to misuse requires the implementation of the effective programs and policies that address substance misuse across the lifespan. The effective prevention programs exist in the USA, and if implemented well, they can markedly reduce substance misuse and related threats to the health of population. There are three main categories of prevention interventions: universal, selected and indicated. Universal interventions are aimed at all members of a given population; selective interventions are aimed at a subgroup determined to be at high risk for substance; indicated interventions are targeted to individuals who are already using substance but have not developed a substance use disorder. It is recommended to provide a mix of universal, selective and indicated preventive intervention. Different programs are used for different categories of population. The program «Family Partnership» is focused on children younger than age 5. «The Good Behavior Game» and «Classroom-Centered Intervention» is an universal elementary school-based prevention program. For adolescents aged 10 to 18 programs «Life Skills Training» and «Towards No Drug Abuse» are used. There are also family-based programs («Strengthening Family», «For Parents and Youth»), program for College Students («Brief Alcohol Screening»), Internet-based program («I hear what you are saying») and many others. drug; juvenile; youth; preventive work; rehabilitation; programs of prevention; USA.

scholarly journals Comorbid non-alcohol substance misuse among people with schizophrenia

2001 ◽  
Vol 179 (6) ◽  
pp. 509-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Duke ◽  
Christos Pantelis ◽  
Michael A. McPhillips ◽  
Thomas R. E. Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Substance Misuse ◽  
Alcohol Misuse ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Lifetime History ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Drug And Alcohol

BackgroundFew epidemiological studies have assessed the extent and nature of comorbid non-alcohol substance misuse in people with schizophrenia in the community in the UK.AimsTo study the extent and nature of comorbid non-alcohol substance misuse in people with schizophrenia in central London.MethodSubjects were identified in an epidemiological census survey of South Westminster. Standardised assessment of each subject included demographic data, ratings of mental state and movement disorder and questioning about drug and alcohol misuse.ResultsIndividuals with schizophrenia or related psychoses were identified (n=352) and 57 (16%) reported a lifetime history of non-alcohol substance misuse. Age and gender were the main variables relevant to the extent and pattern of misuse. Self-reported non-alcohol substance misuse showed no significant relationship with a range of outcome measures.ConclusionsThe high proportion of subjects reporting non-alcohol substance misuse is comparable with figures from the USA. The reports of lifetime misuse most commonly referred to cannabis, psychostimulants, LSD, opiates and anticholinergics. Misuse was concentrated in those younger than 36 years and was reported more often by males.

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