Methamphetamine is one of the most widely used illicit drugs in several Southeast Asian countries, including the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR). The purpose of this study was to examine the socio-cultu...
Authors: Vanphanom Sychareun, Bangone Santavasy, Niramonh Chanlivong, Andrea Fischer, Nicholas Thomson, Robert Power and Jo Durham
Street-involved youth who use illicit drugs are at high risk for health-related harms; however, the profile of youth at greatest risk of hospitalization has not been well described. We sought to characterize h...
Authors: Derek C. Chang, Launette Rieb, Ekaterina Nosova, Yang Liu, Thomas Kerr and Kora DeBeck
In New Zealand, a public health programme on gambling policy development is part of a national gambling harm reduction and prevention strategy mandated by the Gambling Act 2003. Funded by the Ministry of Health, ...
Authors: Komathi Kolandai-Matchett, Jason Landon, Maria Bellringer and Max Abbott
Despite increasing contraceptive availability, unintended pregnancy remains a global problem. Developing strategies to reverse this trend and increasing occurrence of withdrawal syndrome among newborn children...
Authors: Anneli Uusküla, Mait Raag, Sigrid Vorobjov and Don Des Jarlais
Peer outreach harm reduction initiatives are being developed with and for people who use drugs in Dakar, Senegal. This is in response to growing injecting drug use across the West Africa region and linked emer...
Authors: Camille May Stengel, Famara Mane, Andrew Guise, Magath Pouye, Monika Sigrist and Tim Rhodes
Lack of information on the HIV epidemic among men who inject drugs (MWID) in northwestern Vietnam, a remote area, may hamper national efforts to control the disease. We examined HIV prevalence, needle–syringe ...
Authors: Van T. Nghiem, Thanh C. Bui, Patrick P. Nadol, Son H. Phan, Binh T. Kieu, Ryan Kling and Theodore M. Hammett
Needle and syringe program (NSP) service delivery models encompass fixed sites, mobile services, vending machines, pharmacies, peer NSPs, street outreach, and inter-organizational agreements to add NSP service...
Synthetic opioid overdose mortality among young adults has risen more than 300% in the USA since 2013, primarily due to the contamination of heroin and other drugs with illicitly manufactured fentanyl. Rapid t...
Authors: Maxwell S. Krieger, Jesse L. Yedinak, Jane A. Buxton, Mark Lysyshyn, Edward Bernstein, Josiah D. Rich, Traci C. Green, Scott E. Hadland and Brandon D. L. Marshall
Deadly Liver Mob (DLM) is a peer-driven, incentivised health promotion program aimed at increasing understanding of hepatitis C, promoting harm reduction in relation to injecting drug use, and linking particip...
Authors: Carla Treloar, Max Hopwood, Elena Cama, Veronica Saunders, L. Clair Jackson, Melinda Walker, Catriona Ooi, Ashley Ubrihien and James Ward
Pharmacists’ role in harm reduction is expanding in many states, yet there are limited data on pharmacists’ willingness to participate in harm reduction activities. This study assessed community pharmacists’ w...
Authors: Amie Goodin, Amanda Fallin-Bennett, Traci Green and Patricia R. Freeman
When shared by people who inject drugs, needles and syringes with different dead space may affect the probability of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission differently.
Authors: William A. Zule, Poonam G. Pande, David Otiashvili, Georgiy V. Bobashev, Samuel R. Friedman, V. Anna Gyarmathy and Don C. Des Jarlais
The main purpose of the research was to evaluate the implementation of the drug checking service in Slovenia and to obtain the opinion of users included in harm reduction programmes for high-risk drug users an...
Drug checking is a harm reduction strategy which allows users to check the content and purity of illicit drugs. Although drug checking has been trialled internationally, with demonstrated value as a harm reduc...
Authors: Niamh Day, Joshua Criss, Benjamin Griffiths, Shireen Kaur Gujral, Franklin John-Leader, Jennifer Johnston and Sabrina Pit
The distribution of take-home naloxone (THN) kits has been an important strategy in reducing overdose fatalities among people who use drugs. However, little is known about the use of THN among youth who are st...
Authors: Julia Goldman-Hasbun, Kora DeBeck, Jane A. Buxton, Ekaterina Nosova, Evan Wood and Thomas Kerr
Opioid agonist therapy has been widely used to reduce harms among individuals with opioid use disorder but its effectiveness has not been evaluated in the Middle East North African (MENA) region. This study ai...
Authors: Ali Ghaddar, Zeinab Abbas and Ramzi Haddad
North America is currently experiencing an overdose epidemic due to a significant increase of fentanyl-adulterated opioids and related analogs. Multiple jurisdictions have declared a public health emergency gi...
Authors: Geoff Bardwell, Alexandra B. Collins, Ryan McNeil and Jade Boyd
Peer support programmes use individuals with specific experiences to improve engagement and outcomes among new clients. However, the skills and techniques used to achieve this engagement have not been mapped. ...
Authors: Jennifer MacLellan, Julian Surey, Ibrahim Abubakar, Helen R. Stagg and Jenevieve Mannell
The ability to cure hepatitis C viral infection, with specific reference to the prisoner population and the prison environment, will be challenged, even if opiate replacement therapy is concurrently offered, a...
Authors: Ben Harkness, Michael Levy, Ruth Evans and Jillian Wenke
Prison inmates face a ten times increased risk of experiencing a fatal drug overdose during their first 2 weeks upon release than their non-incarcerated counterparts. Naloxone, the antidote to an opioid overdo...
Authors: Aase Grønlien Petterson and Desiree Madah-Amiri
Often, research takes place on underserved populations rather than with underserved populations. This approach can further isolate and stigmatize groups that are already made marginalized. What Goes Around is ...
Authors: Chelsea Jalloh, Shohan Illsley, John Wylie, Paula Migliardi, Ethan West, Debbie Stewart and Javier Mignone
Mexico’s 2009 “narcomenudeo reform” decriminalized small amounts of drugs, shifting some drug law enforcement to the states and mandating drug treatment diversion instead of incarceration. Data from Tijuana su...
Authors: J. Arredondo, S. A. Strathdee, J. Cepeda, D. Abramovitz, I. Artamonova, E. Clairgue, E. Bustamante, M. L. Mittal, T. Rocha, A. Bañuelos, H. O. Olivarria, M. Morales, G. Rangel, C. Magis and L. Beletsky
The purpose of this study was to document the prevalence of hepatitis C among MMT patients, hepatitis C virus (HCV) knowledge of patients and MMT staff members, and the barriers preventing them from receiving ...
Authors: Zhi-Bin Li, Lei Zhang, Jun Wang, Le-Ping Huang, Zhi-Rong Zhou, Yi-Ning Cao, Min Zhao and Jiang Du
Harm reduction refers to interventions aimed at reducing the negative effects of health behaviors without necessarily extinguishing the problematic health behaviors completely. The vast majority of the harm re...
Authors: Mary Hawk, Robert W. S. Coulter, James E. Egan, Stuart Fisk, M. Reuel Friedman, Monique Tula and Suzanne Kinsky
People who inject drugs (PWID) take on significant risks of contracting blood-borne infection, including injecting with a large number of partners and acquiring needles from unsafe sources. When combined, risk...
Authors: Ian Duncan, Patrick Habecker, Roberto Abadie, Ric Curtis, Bilal Khan and Kirk Dombrowski
As postsecondary students’ use of “study drugs” becomes more popular with increasingly reported negative effects on health and academic performance, failing prohibitionist policies to reduce consumption, and a...
Although opioid-dependent patients are disproportionately impacted by hepatitis C (HCV), many do not receive treatment. In addition to HCV treatment-access barriers, substance-using patients may be reluctant t...
Authors: A. W. Batchelder, L. Cockerham-Colas, D. Peyser, S. P. Reynoso, I. Soloway and A. H. Litwin
In Hong Kong, methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) was launched in the 1970s, almost 30 years before the counterpart programme’s inauguration in Mainland China. Both were established in response to perceived ...
Pharmacies are an important source of sterile syringes for people who inject drugs (PWID) in Tajikistan who are under high risk of HIV and hepatitis C virus. Accessibility of sterile syringes at pharmacies wit...
Authors: Umedjon Ibragimov, Hannah L. Cooper, Regine Haardörfer, Kristin L. Dunkle, William A. Zule and Frank Y. Wong
Methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) is a mainstay for treating opioid use disorder and preventing and managing HIV among people who inject drugs (PWID). While previous research suggested low dosing of methadon...
Authors: Kanna Hayashi, Lianping Ti, Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya, Paisan Suwannawong, Karyn Kaplan, Will Small and Thomas Kerr
Persons who use opioids have a high risk of overdose and associated mortality. In Vietnam, little is known about the characteristics of this population and the persons who are witness to those overdoses. One a...
Authors: N.A. Blackburn, K.E. Lancaster, T.V. Ha, C.A. Latkin, W.C. Miller, C. Frangakis, V.A. Chu, T. Sripaipan, V.M. Quan, N.L. Minh, P.T. Vu and V.F. Go
In December 2016, the Surgeon General published a report that concluded e-cigarette use among youth and young adults is becoming a major public health concern in the United States of America.
Authors: Riccardo Polosa, Christopher Russell, Joel Nitzkin and Konstantinos E. Farsalinos
Treatment resistant cluster headache and migraine patients are exploring alternative treatments online. The aim of this study was to improve comprehension regarding the use of non-established or alternative ph...
Authors: Martin Andersson, Mari Persson and Anette Kjellgren
Vietnam began providing methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) in 2008; as of June 2016, 44,479 persons who inject drugs (PWID) were in treatment in 57 provinces. However, 10–23% of patients were estimated to hav...
Authors: Pham Minh Khue, Nguyen Thi Tham, Dinh Thi Thanh Mai, Pham Van Thuc, Vu Minh Thuc, Pham Van Han and Christina Lindan
North America is currently in the grips of a crisis rooted in the use of licit and illicit opioid-based analgesics. Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in Canada and the US, and the growing ...
People who inject drugs (PWID) frequently engage in injection risk behaviours exposing them to blood-borne infections. Understanding the underlying causes that drive various types and levels of risk behaviours...
Authors: Niklas Karlsson, Michele Santacatterina, Kerstin Käll, Maria Hägerstrand, Susanne Wallin, Torsten Berglund and Anna Mia Ekström
Patients with substance use disorders grow older thanks to effective treatments. Together with a high prevalence of comorbidities, psychological problems, and low social support, these patients are at high ris...
Authors: Samuel S. Allemann, Kenneth M. Dürsteler, Johannes Strasser, Marc Vogel, Marcel Stoeckle, Kurt E. Hersberger and Isabelle Arnet
Studies on contraceptive use by patients with substance use disorders (SUD) show a concerning low use of contraception. Mainly conducted in USA, they could be irrelevant to patients attending European SUD trea...
Youth substance use programming and educational strategies are frequently informed by prevention approaches that emphasize abstinence goals, which often do not resonate with youth in their lack of acknowledgme...
Authors: Emily K. Jenkins, Allie Slemon and Rebecca J. Haines-Saah
Given the current opioid crisis around the world, harm reduction agencies are seeking to help people who use drugs to do so more safely. Many harm reduction agencies are exploring techniques to test illicit dr...
In Canada, funding, administration, and delivery of health services—including those targeting people who use drugs—are primarily the responsibility of the provinces and territories. Access to harm reduction se...
Authors: Elaine Hyshka, Jalene Anderson-Baron, Kamagaju Karekezi, Lynne Belle-Isle, Richard Elliott, Bernie Pauly, Carol Strike, Mark Asbridge, Colleen Dell, Keely McBride, Andrew Hathaway and T. Cameron Wild
The history of harm reduction in the USA has led to the development of some of the most important methods for treating persons for drug use disorders, such as methadone and buprenorphine for opiate use disorde...
Gambling has quickly emerged as an important global public health issue. With new technologies used to develop high intensity gambling products and promotions aimed at driving consumption, public health organi...
Authors: Samantha L. Thomas, Melanie Randle, Amy Bestman, Hannah Pitt, Steven J. Bowe, Sean Cowlishaw and Mike Daube
There is good evidence to suggest that performance and image enhancing drug (PIED) use is increasing in Australia and that there is an increase in those using PIEDs who have never used another illicit substanc...
Authors: Boden Tighe, Matthew Dunn, Fiona H. McKay and Timothy Piatkowski
The Golden Crescent region of South Asia—comprising Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan—is a principal global site for opium production and distribution. Over the past few decades, war, terrorism, and a shifting p...
Authors: Syeda Ayesha Farooq, Mohammad Hafiz Rasooly, Syed Hani Abidi, Kayvon Modjarrad and Syed Ali
Supervised injection services (SIS) have been shown to reduce the public- and individual-level harms associated with injection drug use. While SIS feasibility research has been conducted in large urban centres...
Authors: Sanjana Mitra, Beth Rachlis, Ayden Scheim, Geoff Bardwell, Sean B. Rourke and Thomas Kerr
In 2015, the Australian government launched the media campaign Ice Destroys Lives targeting crystal methamphetamine use. Previous research indicates mass media campaigns may have harmful effects for people engage...
Authors: Caitlin H. Douglass, Elizabeth C. Early, Cassandra J. C. Wright, Anna Palmer, Peter Higgs, Brendan Quinn, Paul M. Dietze and Megan S. C. Lim
New, more effective and better-tolerated therapies for hepatitis C (HCV) have made the elimination of HCV a feasible objective. However, for this to be achieved, it is necessary to have a detailed understandin...
Authors: Ryan Buchanan, Salim I. Khakoo, Jonathan Coad, Leonie Grellier and Julie Parkes
Kyrgyzstan, where HIV is concentrated in prisons and driven by injection drug use, provides a prison-based methadone maintenance therapy program as well as abstinence-oriented therapeutic community based on th...
Authors: Lyuba Azbel, Julia Rozanova, Ingo Michels, Frederick L. Altice and Heino Stöver
