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Monthly Archives: June 2009

Editors’ introduction: Policy change and policy analysis

This issue contains selection of papers from the 2nd Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP), which was held in Lisbon, Portugal in March 2008. The goal of the ISSDP, as the name suggests, is to promote research related to policies on how societies respond to illegal drugs and to create an international community of scholars interested in this topic

Editors’ introduction: Policy change and policy analysis

This issue contains selection of papers from the 2nd Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP), which was held in Lisbon, Portugal in March 2008.

Global Appraisal of Individual Needs Short Screener (GSS): psychometric properties and performance as a screening measure in adolescents.

Authors: McDonell MG, Comtois KA, Voss WD, Morgan AH, Ries RK Psychiatric and substance use disorders, separately or combined, are frequent in adolescence. Brief, psychometrically sound screening tools are needed to identify those at-risk.

Pulmonary hypertension in first episode infective endocarditis among intravenous buprenorphine users: case report.

CONCLUSION AND SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: PHT may contribute to morbidity and mortality amongst IV buprenorphine abusers. A high index of suspicion of PHT is required in treating IV buprenorphine abusers who presented with pleuropneumonic symptoms. The absence of a relationship between PHT and pulmonary embolism underscores the possibility of the contribution of buprenorphine to PHT, which have been demonstrated in a number of animal studies

Cocaine dependence and concurrent marijuana use: a comparison of clinical characteristics.

CONCLUSION AND SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: Cocaine-dependent patients with frequent marijuana use present for treatment with more severe impairment. Accounting for this heterogeneity among participants may improve treatment outcome

Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid versus clomethiazole for the treatment of alcohol withdrawal syndrome in a medical intensive care unit: an open,…

CONCLUSION: GHB effectively controls AWS symptoms in medical ICU patients.

Family support and employment as predictors of smoking cessation success: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of nicotine sublingual…

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the need for a more in-depth examination of the impact of being married and employment as a white collar worker (rather than manual laborer) in order to develop better targeted interventions for improving smoking cessation interventions.

Home polysomnography in methadone maintenance patients with subjective sleep complaints.

CONCLUSIONS: Home PSG is a viable method for recording sleep in opioid-dependent MMT patients, and was stable across consecutive nights of study. Two nights of home PSG for MMT patients, therefore, are not necessarily required and confidence in the reliability of data from one night of recording can be assumed

Pharmacogenetic treatments for drug addiction: cocaine, amphetamine and methamphetamine.

CONCLUSIONS: Disulfiram and methylphenidate pharmacotherapies for cocaine addiction are optimized by considering polymorphisms affecting DbetaH and DAT1 respectively. Altered subjective effects for amphetamine in DAT1 VNTR variants suggest a ‘protected’ phenotype. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: Pharmacogenetic-based treatments for psychostimulant addiction are critical for successful treatment.

Management of acute postpartum pain in patients maintained on methadone or buprenorphine during pregnancy.

CONCLUSIONS AND SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: Patients treated daily with either buprenorphine or methadone can have adequate pain control postpartum with opioid medication and IB. Pain control is dependent on the opioid-agonist medication in use at delivery, and must be individualized. PMID: 19462298 [PubMed - in process] (Source: The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse)