Alcoholism and Addiction

AIM: To summarize the major findings of the five Cochrane reviews on substitution maintenance treatments for opioid dependence. METHODS: We conducted a narrative and quantitative summary of systematic review findings. There were 52 studies included…

Since the DSM-IV was published in 1994, we've seen many advances in our knowledge of psychiatric illness. This Text Revision incorporates information culled from a comprehensive literature review of research about mental disorders published since…

OBJECTIVE: A primary behavioral pathology in drug addiction is the overpowering motivational strength and decreased ability to control the desire to obtain drugs. In this review the authors explore how advances in neurobiology are approaching an…

Alcohol consumption has been identified as an important risk factor for chronic disease and injury. In the first paper in this Series, we quantify the burden of mortality and disease attributable to alcohol, both globally and for ten large…

BACKGROUND: Buprenorphine has recently been reported to be an alternative to methadone and LAAM for maintenance treatment of opioid dependent individuals, differing results are reported concerning its relative effectiveness indicating the need for…

The Global Assessment Scale (GAS) is a rating scale for evaluating the overall functioning of a subject during a specified time period on a continuum from psychological or psychiatric sickness to health. In five studies encompassing the range of…

Methadone, a full mu-opioid agonist, is the recommended treatment for opioid dependence during pregnancy. However, prenatal exposure to methadone is associated with a neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) characterized by central nervous system…

Methadone maintenance was the first widely used opioid replacement therapy to treat heroin dependence, and it remains the best-researched treatment for this problem. Despite the widespread use of methadone in maintenance treatment for opioid…

Alcohol dependence treatment may include medications, behavioral therapies, or both. It is unknown how combining these treatments may impact their effectiveness, especially in the context of primary care and other nonspecialty settings.

OBJECTIVE: Project TrEAT (Trial for Early Alcohol Treatment) was designed to test the efficacy of brief physician advice in reducing alcohol use and health care utilization in problem drinkers. DESIGN: Randomized controlled clinical trial with…

Bipolar disorder is a common, severe and cyclic psychiatric illness. A strong association between alcohol dependence and bipolar disorder has been reported in numerous studies. The abuse of other drugs including cocaine, amphetamines, opiates,…

Followup results from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Studies (DATOS) 1-year and 5-year followups were used to describe the long-term outcomes of drug treatment and to further clarify the relationship between treatment duration and post-treatment…

Smoking among patients with mental illness is a major and underappreciated public health problem. The case of Ms G, a 51-year-old woman with bipolar disorder who wishes to quit smoking, illustrates the importance and feasibility of smoking cessation…

We examined the prevalence and course of psychiatric and substance dependence (SD) disorders in subjects with SD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHOD: We interviewed 1761 adults with a lifetime diagnosis of cocaine and/or…

BACKGROUND: Contingency management interventions that provide tangible incentives based on objective indicators of drug abstinence have improved treatment outcomes of substance abusers, but have not been widely implemented in community drug abuse…

BACKGROUND: Comorbid psychiatric disorders among opioid-dependent patients are associated with several negative outcome factors. However, outcomes of maintenance treatment have not been sufficiently established, and no evidence is available with…

Methadone medical maintenance (MMM) reduces the reporting schedule for stable and well-functioning methadone maintenance patients to once a month, with counseling provided by medical staff. We report on the 12-month outcomes of 92 highly stable…

AIMS: This study evaluated the primary/secondary distinction among substance misusers according to comorbid mental disorders. METHODS: A consecutive sample (n = 287) of DSM-IV substance dependents from public treatment facilities in two counties in…

OBJECTIVE: Studies on drug dependence show a high prevalence of comorbidity with additional mental disorders. Comorbidity patients also show more poly-substance use and other psychosocial problems. This study analyzed the importance of comorbidity…

Background: Ongoing psychiatric symptoms and substance use are common difficulties experienced by clients enrolled in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). However, little research to date has evaluated if specific types of current substance use…