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You have found 33 entries. Starting with analyses of the most recently published documents, the list shows in orange the type of entry, year the original document was published (or if one of our own documents, the year last updated), and the type of file you will download when you click on the title. In blue is the document’s title followed by a brief description.

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MATRIX CELL 2018 HTM file
Drug Treatment Matrix cell B3: Practitioners; Medical treatment

Seminal and key research and reviews on the influence of the practitioner in the medical treatment of drug dependence. Investigates the how clinician-patient relationships might be affected by enforcing clinic rules and the potential importance of doctors forming a “whole person’ relationship with patients.

DOCUMENT 2017 HTM file
Drug misuse and dependence: UK guidelines on clinical management

Last published in 2007, there is no more important document for UK clinicians involved in treating problem drug use than the so-called ‘Orange guidelines’. This major update offers detailed guidance on the range of problems, settings and patients clinicians encounter, substantially informing judgements of what constitutes good medical practice.

HOT TOPIC 2015 HTM file
Prescribing opiate-type drugs to opiate addicts: good sense or nonsense?

One of our hot topics offering background and analysis on important issues which sometimes generate heated debate. For decades deeply felt and at times intemperate debate has surrounded a treatment which achieves unparalleled success by going with the grain of addiction, prescribing the same type of drug which opiate-dependent patients used illegally – a substitution castigated as surrender or hailed as an enlightened lifesaver.

REVIEW 2015 HTM file
Heroin on trial: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials of diamorphine-prescribing as treatment for refractory heroin addiction

The UK has a long history of prescribing heroin for the treatment of heroin dependence. What has research from six countries concluded about this intensive intervention intended for patients who would otherwise be considered ‘unresponsive’ to treatment?

STUDY 2014 HTM file
Drugs: international comparators

After seeing how drug policy worked overseas, UK government ministers and officials returned saying, “there is no apparent correlation between the ‘toughness’ of a country’s approach and the prevalence of adult drug use”, and that “better health outcomes for drug users cannot be shown to be a direct result of the enforcement approach”.

REVIEW 2013 HTM file
Maintenance agonist treatments for opiate dependent pregnant women

Is it better to prescribe pregnant opioid-dependent women methadone, buprenorphine or oral morphine? Just four randomised trials have addressed this issue and their findings are inconclusive, suggesting greater holding power for methadone but less severe neonatal withdrawal with buprenorphine.

DOCUMENT 2012 HTM file
Has methadone been rehabilitated?

Arousing visceral opposition and passionate defence, prescribing opiate-type drugs for as long as needed has for decades been the mainstay of heroin addiction treatment in Britain. With the weight of government behind them, that position was challenged by ‘recovery’ advocates; in 2012 an expert report sought to reconcile the competing perspectives.

STUDY 2012 HTM file
After the randomised injectable opiate treatment trial: post-trial investigation of slow-release oral morphine as an alternative opiate maintenance medication

Slow-release capsules of morphine – the closest drug to heroin – might offer acceptable and effective treatment to addicts who cannot settle on methadone. In England a dozen also being prescribed heroin switched their supplementary methadone to morphine, generally experiencing the benefits they expected and cutting their average dose of heroin.

REVIEW 2012 HTM file
New heroin-assisted treatment: Recent evidence and current practices of supervised injectable heroin treatment in Europe and beyond

Prescribing oral methadone to heroin addicts divides opinions, but prescribing injectable heroin elevates the controversy to another level. Fortunately we now have six randomised clinical trials involving over 1500 patients to ground us in the evidence – and this European Union review to pull it all together.

REVIEW 2012 HTM file
BAP updated guidelines: evidence-based guidelines for the pharmacological management of substance abuse, harmful use, addiction and comorbidity: recommendations from BAP

Practitioner-friendly review from the British Association for Psychopharmacology on drug-based treatments for substance dependence offer authoritative, evidence-based guidance to prescribers and others; they also demonstrate the limitations of trying to cure over-use of drugs with drugs.


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