Addiction medicine

About: Addiction medicine is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1070 publications have been published within this topic receiving 23685 citations.

Family and drug addiction treatment—study on effectiveness of family support in drug addiction treatment concerning different ages of drug abusers

Abstract: Objective:To analyze the influence of family structure on the effectiveness of drug addiction treatment,and think about the corresponding methods of family therapy and family care.Methods:Samples were randomly selected from different age groups of drug abusers in Jiaxing Road Hongkou District during September to November 2005.The basic information data of the selected samples(20% in every age group,totally 65 drug abusers)and their families were collected and analyzed through file review,home visit and individual interview.Results:In comparison with broken family or dysfunction family,complete and harmonious families saw better efficacy in drug addiction treatment.Conclusion:The influence of family structure on drug addiction treatment is great.Correct method of family therapy and family care play an important part in the success of drug addiction treatment.

Employee Utilization of Addiction Treatment

Abstract: The costs of treating employee alcohol and drug dependence are rising. Several trends are contributing to the escalation of treatment costs. Among these is the expansion of the addiction treatment industry. Many treatment purchasers are being encouraged to "overbuy" services despite the lack of evidence that the more dollars spent on treatment, the more effective it will be. Employers who seem to determine the most cost-effective method of addiction treatment must recognize that not all employees require the same treatment pattern. There are distinct gender and ethnic variations in general mental health service utilization which suggest that addiction treatment utilization is also sensitive to patient characteristics such as gender and race. There are also numerous psychological and organizational barriers to the use of employer-sponsored treatment which must be considered. The evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of treatment must always be underscored by a deep understanding of its utilization: Which em...

Preliminary Results of Psychiatric Inpatients Referred to an Addiction Medicine Consult Service.

Abstract: To the Editor: T he paper by Priest and McCarty (2019) provides valuable insights into Addiction Medicine Consult Services (AMCS) and the care delivered to hospitalized individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs). We commend the authors for this and also wish to illuminate further on this topic. As part of a larger-quality improvement initiative focused on the acute inpatient psychiatric units, we retrospectively examined the medical records of patients admitted to acute inpatient psychiatric units at St. Paul’s Hospital, an inner-city hospital, in Vancouver, British Columbia, who had been referred to the AMCS. It consisted of certified addiction specialist physicians, interdisciplinary trainees and fellows, a clinical nurse educator, and 2 social workers—one who provides dedicated support to psychiatric inpatients. The Analytics and Decision Support Service at St. Paul’s Hospital identified there were 391 psychiatric inpatient referrals to the AMCS between April 30, 2016 and May 1, 2017, of which 284 individuals met the criteria. Subsequently, this service randomly selected 45 medical records for evaluation. The research team developed a data collection tool along with a code book to extract data on the patients’ characteristics, reasons for referrals, and on the care provided from the patients’ medical records. After retrieving the data, R version 3.4.4 was used to generate descriptive statistics. The chart abstraction was approved by the Providence Health Care/University of British Columbia Behavioural Research Ethics Board. Table 1 shows those in this study were predominantly male (n1⁄4 29, 64.4%) and the vast majority of individuals (n1⁄4 40, 91%) had more than 1 documented SUD. Nicotine use disorder was the most common diagnosis (n1⁄4 32, 72.7%), followed by stimulant use disorder (n1⁄4 30, 68.2%) and opioid use disorder (n1⁄4 23, 52.3%). Most patients were referred due to their opioid use (n1⁄4 27, 60%), including 4 (8.9%) for the continuation of opioid agonist therapy (OAT). Sixteen individuals (35.6%) were receiving an OAT at the time of discharge, but only 7 (15.6%) had a documented follow-up plan for this treatment. Take-Home Naloxone (THN) kits were offered to 12 individuals (26.7%) and most