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You have found 40 entries. Starting with the most recently added or updated entries, 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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STUDY 2012 HTM file
Housing first for severely mentally ill homeless methadone patients

Homelessness is a significant obstacle to regular participation in methadone maintenance treatment, particularly among people leaving prison. This study in a major US city examines whether a ‘housing first’ programme could improve outcomes among this cohort.

STUDY 2018 HTM file
A randomized, open label trial of methadone continuation versus forced withdrawal in a combined US prison and jail: findings at 12 months post-release

From the USA, a rare randomised trial found in favour of continuing methadone maintenance when patients entered prison rather than compulsory withdrawal. The potential benefits were most apparent in the near-100% continuation of protective treatment during the highly overdose-prone weeks after leaving prison.

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.

STUDY 2015 HTM file
Changing patterns of substance misuse in adult prisons and service responses

Inspection findings on individual prisons were supplemented by fieldwork in eight prisons in 2014 to generate an overall picture of drug use and responses to it in prisons and England and Wales. In the face of rapidly changing and varied drug use patterns, policy and operational responses were seen as insufficiently flexible and dynamic, though treatment had dramatically improved.

REVIEW 2012 HTM file
The effectiveness of incarceration-based drug treatment on criminal behavior: A systematic review

Strongest support for ‘therapeutic community’ approach to incarceration-based drug treatment according to robust review of evidence – with consistent reductions found in both drug relapse and recidivism.

STUDY 2015 HTM file
Impact of treatment for opioid dependence on fatal drug-related poisoning: a national cohort study in England

Implication of this English study is that to save the lives of people dependent on heroin or similar drugs, they should be engaged and retained in substitute prescribing programmes like methadone maintenance until there is little risk of their relapsing after leaving. Shortly after leaving residential/inpatient settings was the highest risk period.

STUDY 2015 HTM file
Impact of opioid substitution therapy for Scotland’s prisoners on drug-related deaths soon after prisoner release

Failure to find effects concentrated in the first two weeks after release persuaded analysts that widespread methadone prescribing in Scottish prisons from 2002 did not reduce the rate of drug-related deaths after release. But over 12 weeks the rate did fall substantially, and methadone treatment may have helped.

DOCUMENT 2015 HTM file
American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) national practice guideline for the use of medications in the treatment of addiction involving opioid use

From the USA’s professional society for clinicians and allied professionals in the field of addiction medicine, comprehensive recommendations on how doctors can use medications to treat addiction to heroin and other opioids.

STUDY 2015 HTM file
Extended-release naltrexone for alcohol and opioid problems in Missouri parolees and probationers

Long-acting injectable naltrexone blocks the effects of opiates for about a month and has also helped dependent drinkers cut back. Treatment records in the US state of Missouri showed that among the few problem substance using offenders allocated to or who chose this treatment, a much higher proportion became abstinent than those offered other kinds of addiction treatment.

REVIEW 2010 HTM file
Does opioid substitution treatment in prisons reduce injecting-related HIV risk behaviours? A systematic review

Maintenance prescribing of drugs like methadone to heroin-dependent prisoners seems to reduce injecting and the sharing of injecting equipment, changes which should reduce the risk of becoming infected with HIV.


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