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Rishworth A, King B, Holmes LM. Digital geographies of care: Telehealth landscapes of addiction treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Place 2024; 89:103296. [PMID: 38917673 DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2024.103296] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2023] [Revised: 03/23/2024] [Accepted: 06/11/2024] [Indexed: 06/27/2024]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has created new digital health care landscapes for the management of substance use and misuse. While telehealth was prohibited for addiction treatment prior to the pandemic, the severity of COVID-19 precipitated telehealth expansion for the delivery of individual and group-based treatment. Research has highlighted benefits and challenges of telehealth; however, little is known about the impacts of telehealth on the quality, use, and effectiveness of treatment. Fewer studies examine how these emerging digital geographies of care transform the spaces and landscapes of substance misuse. This article examines how telehealth affects landscapes of opioid use disorder care in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings reveal that while telehealth extends access to treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), it also creates new care inequities within and between providers and clientele that can undermine effective care and recovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Rishworth
- Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
| | - Brian King
- Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, University Park, PA, United States.
| | - Louisa M Holmes
- Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, University Park, PA, United States.
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Lancaster K, Gendera S, Treloar C, Rhodes T, Shahbazi J, Byrne M, Nielsen S, Degenhardt L, Farrell M. Tinkering with care: Implementing extended-release buprenorphine depot treatment for opioid dependence. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2024; 126:104359. [PMID: 38382354 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2024.104359] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2023] [Revised: 02/08/2024] [Accepted: 02/12/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024]
Abstract
We examine how extended-release buprenorphine depot (BUP-XR) is put to use and made to work in implementation practices, attending to how care practices are challenged and adapted as a long-acting technology is introduced into service in opioid agonist treatment (OAT) in Australia. Our approach is informed by ideas in science and technology studies (STS) emphasising the irreducible entanglement of care practices and technology, and in particular the concept of 'tinkering' as a practice of adaptation. To make our analysis, we draw on qualitative interview accounts (n = 19) of service providers involved in BUP-XR implementation across five sites. Our analysis considers the disruptive novelty of BUP-XR. Tinkering to make a novel technology work in practice slows down the expectation of implementation in relation to transformative innovation, despite the promise of dramatic or rapid change. Tinkering allowed for more open relations, for new care practices that departed from the routine and familiar, opening potential for how BUP-XR could be put to use and made to work in its new situation, and as its situation evolved along-with its implementation. Flexibility and openness of altering relations was, however, at times, held in tension with inflexibility and closure. This analysis identifies a concern for what is made present and what is made absent in the altered care network affected by BUP-XR, with the multiple effects of supervised daily dosing practices thrown into relief as they become absented. Tinkering to implement BUP-XR locally connects with a broader assemblage of trial and movement in the constitution of treatment. The introduction of long-acting technologies prompts new questions about embedded implementation practices, including supervised dosing, urinalysis, the time and place of psychosocial support, and how other social aspects of care might be recalibrated in drug treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- K Lancaster
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
| | - S Gendera
- Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - C Treloar
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - T Rhodes
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
| | - J Shahbazi
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - M Byrne
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - S Nielsen
- Monash Addiction Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - L Degenhardt
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - M Farrell
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
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Onohuean H, Oosthuizen F. Multinational appraisal of the epidemiological distribution of opioid fatalities: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Psychiatry 2024; 14:1290461. [PMID: 38250280 PMCID: PMC10796457 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1290461] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 01/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Background The global or multinational scientific evidence on the distribution of opioid fatality is unknown. Hence, the current study collects epidemiological characteristics to shed light on the ongoing global or multinational opioid crisis and to promote the development of public health prevention/management strategies. Method All documents on PRISMA standards were retrieved via electronic databases. Results Among the 47 articles relevant to our studies, which depict a total population size of 10,191 individuals, the prevalence of opioid fatal overdose was 15,022 (14.74%). Among the 47 articles, 14 of them reported the gender of the participants, with 22,125 (15.79%) male individuals and 7,235 (5.17%) female individuals, and the age distribution of the participants that was most affected by the overdose was as follows: 29,272 (31.13%) belonged to the 18-34-year-old age group and 25,316 (26.92%) belonged to the less than 18-year-old age group. Eighteen studies qualified for the meta-analysis of the multinational prevalence of fatal opioid overdose, depicting an overall pooled prevalence estimate of 19.66%, with 95% CIs (0.13-0.29), I2 = 99.76% determined using the random-effects model, and Q statistic of 7198.77 (p < 0.0001). The Egger test models of publication bias revealed an insubstantial level of bias (p = 0.015). The subgroup analysis of the study design (cohort or other) revealed that others have the highest prevalence estimate of 34.37, 95% CIs (0.1600-0.5901), I2 = 97.04%, and a sample size of less than 1,000 shows the highest prevalence of 34.66, 95% CIs (0.2039-0.5234), I2 = 97.82%, compared to that of more than 1,000 with a prevalence of 12.28, 95% CIs (0.0675-0.2131), I2 = 99.85%. The meta-regression analysis revealed that sample size (less-than or greater-than 1,000), (p = 0.0098; R2 = 3.83%) is significantly associated with the observed heterogeneity. Conclusion Research-based findings of fatal opioid overdose are grossly lacking in middle- and low-income nations. We established that there is a need for opioid fatality surveillance systems in developing nations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hope Onohuean
- Biopharmaceutics Unit, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Kampala International University Western Campus, Ishaka-Bushenyi, Uganda
- Discipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
| | - Frasia Oosthuizen
- Discipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
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Long C, Guimond T, Bayoumi AM, Firestone M, Strike C. The multiple makings of a supervised consumption service in a hospital setting. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2024; 123:104260. [PMID: 38035448 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2023.104260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2023] [Revised: 11/08/2023] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Whereas supervised consumption services (SCSs) are common in many community settings, they are seldomly found in acute care hospitals. As hospitals present unique circumstances that can shape the impacts of an SCS, careful consideration of local implementation contexts and practices is required. We explored the pre-implementation stage of an SCS, to examine how an SCS is made and made differently in relation to the material-discursive context of the hospital. METHODS We conducted 11 focus groups with 83 staff and clinicians at an inner-city hospital in Toronto, Canada. Data analysis followed principles of grounded theory and was informed by an 'evidence making interventions' framework. RESULTS While most participants indicated they would support the establishment of an SCS at the hospital, multiple enactments of an SCS emerged. An SCS was enacted: as a means to reduce drug-related risks for all people who use drugs, as an opportunity to intervene on patients' drug use, as a means to centralize drug use, and as a transformative intervention for the hospital. In our findings, harm reduction, abstinence, security, and risk mitigation goals existed closely together, yielding overlaying realities. CONCLUSION Our findings revealed various enactments of an SCS, some of which are likely to negatively affect people who use drugs and service access. As more hospitals consider the implementation of an SCS, understanding how an SCS is made in practice will be key to building a service that focuses on the needs of people who use drugs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cathy Long
- MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, M5B 1T8, Canada.
| | - Tim Guimond
- Addictions Division, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 1001 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON, M6J 1H4, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, 6 Queen's Park Crescent West, ON, M5S 3H2, Canada
| | - Ahmed M Bayoumi
- MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, M5B 1T8, Canada; Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, 6 Queen's Park Crescent West, ON, M5S 3H2, Canada; Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Toronto, ON, M5T 3M7 Canada; Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, St. Michael's Hospital, 36 Queen Street East, Toronto, ON, M5B 1W8
| | - Michelle Firestone
- MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, M5B 1T8, Canada
| | - Carol Strike
- Social and Behavioural Health Sciences, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Toronto, ON, M5T 3M7 Canada
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Neale J, Parkin S, Strang J. How do patients feel during the first 72 h after initiating long-acting injectable buprenorphine? An embodied qualitative analysis. Addiction 2023. [PMID: 36808168 DOI: 10.1111/add.16171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2022] [Accepted: 02/06/2023] [Indexed: 02/22/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS Long-acting injectable buprenorphine (LAIB) is a new treatment for opioid use disorder that is generating positive outcomes. Negative effects are typically mild and transient, but can occasionally be serious, resulting in treatment discontinuation/non-adherence. This paper aims to analyse patients' accounts of how they felt during the first 72 h after initiating LAIB. METHODS Semi-structured interviews were conducted (June 2021-March 2022) with 26 people (18 males and 8 females) who had started LAIB within the previous 72 h. Participants were recruited from treatment services in England and Wales and were interviewed by telephone using a topic guide. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and coded. The concepts of embodiment and embodied cognition framed the analyses. Data on participants' substance use, initiation onto LAIB and feelings were tabulated. Next, participants' accounts of how they felt were analysed following the stages of Iterative Categorization. RESULTS Participants reported complex combinations of changing negative and positive feelings. Bodily experiences included withdrawal symptoms, poor sleep, injection-site pain/soreness, lethargy and heightened senses inducing nausea ('distressed bodies'), but also enhanced somatic wellbeing, improved sleep, better skin, increased appetite, reduced constipation and heightened senses inducing pleasure ('returning body functions'). Cognitive responses included anxiety, uncertainties and low mood/depression ('the mind in crisis') and improved mood, greater positivity and reduced craving ('feeling psychologically better'). Whereas most negative effects reported are widely recognized, the early benefits of treatment described are less well-documented and may be an overlooked distinctive feature of LAIB. CONCLUSIONS During the first 72 h after initiating long-acting injectable buprenorphine, new patients report experiencing a range of interconnected positive and negative short-term effects. Providing new patients with information about the range and nature of these effects can prepare them for what to expect and help them manage feelings and reduce anxiety. In turn, this may increase medication adherence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joanne Neale
- National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, SE5 8BB, UK.,Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Stephen Parkin
- National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, SE5 8BB, UK
| | - John Strang
- National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, SE5 8BB, UK.,South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust, London, SE5 8AZ, UK
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Rhodes T, Kyaw KWY, Harris M. Precarious Lives, Precarious Treatments: Making Drug Treatment Work in Northern Myanmar. Med Anthropol 2023; 42:4-20. [PMID: 36306464 DOI: 10.1080/01459740.2022.2133706] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
We explore how precarious livelihoods intersect with precarious treatments for heroin dependency in a setting affected by longstanding conflicts and an illicit drug economy as well as by recent events of pandemic and political change. Working with 33 qualitative interviews with people who inject drugs in Kachin State, northern Myanmar, we explore how drug dependency treatment, especially methadone substitution, is made to work in efforts to sustain everyday livelihoods. Our analysis attends to the work that is done to enable therapeutic trajectories to emerge as "generous constraints" in precarity. We trace methadone substitution as an emergent intervention of livelihood survival.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim Rhodes
- Department of Public Health, Environments and Society, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Khine Wut Yee Kyaw
- Department of Public Health, Environments and Society, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Magdalena Harris
- Department of Public Health, Environments and Society, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
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Treloar C, Lancaster K, Gendera S, Rhodes T, Shahbazi J, Byrne M, Degenhardt L, Farrell M. Can a new formulation of opiate agonist treatment alter stigma?: Place, time and things in the experience of extended-release buprenorphine depot. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2022; 107:103788. [PMID: 35816790 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103788] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2022] [Revised: 06/04/2022] [Accepted: 06/30/2022] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Stigma has corrosive effects on all aspects of care and can undermine individual and population health outcomes. Addiction-related stigma has implications for opiate agonist treatment (OAT) and the people who receive, provide and fund it. It is important to understand how stigma is made in OAT and the political purposes that it serves, in order to change the relations of stigma and avoid the reproduction of stigma in the delivery of new treatment formulations, such as extended release buprenorphine (BUP-XR). METHODS Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted at two time points with participants in a prospective single-arm, multicentre, open-label trial of monthly BUP-XR. Thirty-six participants (25 men, 11 women) were interviewed, and of these 32 participated in a second interview to explore their experience of transition from other treatment to BUP-XR. RESULTS Participants were highly aware of the of the social and material effects of stigma through the negative stereotypes attached to OAT and those who receive it. Participants narrated examples of how stigma governed as a biopower in the relations and practices of OAT provision at numerous levels: structural (such as in public discourse about OAT and the people who receive it, in media, in perceptions about the decisions of investment in medical technologies); organisational (policies about legitimate access to OAT); interpersonal (with health workers) and individual (self-identities). BUP-XR allowed greater freedom and normalcy for clients. The experience of BUP-XR drew attention to the stigmatising potential of time, place and things associated with other OAT requiring daily (or frequent) dosing, accentuating how stigma comes to be materialised as a relational effect of everyday practices. CONCLUSIONS Receiving BUP-XR allowed participants to avoid some of the everyday biopolitical powers of other forms of OAT and to reshape self-identities. The altering of relations between time, place and things associated with other forms of OAT allowed participants to feel as though they "pass as normal" . However, the negative public discourse and stigma of OAT is a potential threat to BUP-XR to realise its potential for individual and population benefits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carla Treloar
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Australia.
| | - Kari Lancaster
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Australia
| | | | - Tim Rhodes
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Australia
| | - Jeyran Shahbazi
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Australia
| | - Marianne Byrne
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Australia
| | | | - Michael Farrell
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Australia
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Jaguga F, Kiburi SK, Temet E, Barasa J, Karanja S, Kinyua L, Kwobah EK. A systematic review of substance use and substance use disorder research in Kenya. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0269340. [PMID: 35679248 PMCID: PMC9186181 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269340] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2022] [Accepted: 05/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Objectives The burden of substance use in Kenya is significant. The objective of this
study was to systematically summarize existing literature on substance use
in Kenya, identify research gaps, and provide directions for future
research. Methods This systematic review was conducted in line with the PRISMA guidelines. We
conducted a search of 5 bibliographic databases (PubMed, PsychINFO, Web of
Science, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Professionals (CINAHL) and
Cochrane Library) from inception until 20 August 2020. In addition, we
searched all the volumes of the official journal of the National Authority
for the Campaign Against Alcohol & Drug Abuse (the African Journal of
Alcohol and Drug Abuse). The results of eligible studies have been
summarized descriptively and organized by three broad categories including:
studies evaluating the epidemiology of substance use, studies evaluating
interventions and programs, and qualitative studies exploring various themes
on substance use other than interventions. The quality of the included
studies was assessed with the Quality Assessment Tool for Studies with
Diverse Designs. Results Of the 185 studies that were eligible for inclusion, 144 investigated the
epidemiology of substance use, 23 qualitatively explored various substance
use related themes, and 18 evaluated substance use interventions and
programs. Key evidence gaps emerged. Few studies had explored the
epidemiology of hallucinogen, prescription medication, ecstasy, injecting
drug use, and emerging substance use. Vulnerable populations such as
pregnant women, and persons with physical disability had been
under-represented within the epidemiological and qualitative work. No
intervention study had been conducted among children and adolescents. Most
interventions had focused on alcohol to the exclusion of other prevalent
substances such as tobacco and cannabis. Little had been done to evaluate
digital and population-level interventions. Conclusion The results of this systematic review provide important directions for future
substance use research in Kenya. Systematic review registration PROSPERO: CRD42020203717.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florence Jaguga
- Department of Mental Health, Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital,
Eldoret, Kenya
- * E-mail:
| | | | - Eunice Temet
- Department of Mental Health & Behavioral Sciences, Moi University
School of Medicine, Eldoret, Kenya
| | - Julius Barasa
- Population Health, Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare,
Eldoret, Kenya
| | - Serah Karanja
- Department of Mental Health, Gilgil Sub-County Hospital, Gilgil,
Kenya
| | - Lizz Kinyua
- Intensive Care Unit, Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi,
Kenya
| | - Edith Kamaru Kwobah
- Department of Mental Health, Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital,
Eldoret, Kenya
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Farrell M, Shahbazi J, Byrne M, Grebely J, Lintzeris N, Chambers M, Larance B, Ali R, Nielsen S, Dunlop A, Dore GJ, McDonough M, Montebello M, Nicholas T, Weiss R, Rodgers C, Cook J, Degenhardt L. Outcomes of a single-arm implementation trial of extended-release subcutaneous buprenorphine depot injections in people with opioid dependence. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2021; 100:103492. [PMID: 34736130 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2021] [Revised: 09/29/2021] [Accepted: 10/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) is an effective intervention for opioid dependence. Extended-release buprenorphine injections (BUP-XR) may have additional potential benefits over sublingual buprenorphine. This single-arm trial evaluated outcomes among people receiving 48 weeks of BUP-XR in diverse community healthcare settings in Australia, permitting examination of outcomes when BUP-XR is delivered in standard practice. METHODS Participants were recruited from a network of specialist public drug treatment services, primary care and some private practices in three states. Following a minimum 7 days on 8-32 mg of sublingual buprenorphine (±naloxone), participants received monthly subcutaneous BUP-XR injections administered by a healthcare practitioner and completed monthly research interviews. The primary endpoint was retention in treatment at 48 weeks. FINDINGS Participants (n = 100) were 28% women, mean age 44 years with a long history of OAT (median 5.8 years); heroin was the most common opioid of concern (58%). Treatment retention at 24 and 48 weeks was 86% and 75%, respectively. Participants with past-month injecting drug use (OR 0.23; 95%CI: 0.09-0.61) or heroin use (OR 0.23; 95%CI: 0.08-0.65) at baseline had lower odds of being retained in treatment to 48 weeks. Reductions in multiple forms of extra-medical drug use were observed. Improvements in quality of life, participation in employment, and treatment satisfaction measures were also observed. INTERPRETATION This real-world implementation study of BUP-XR demonstrated high retention and treatment satisfaction. This study provides important additional data on the uptake and experience of clients, with relevance for policy makers, health service planners, administrators, and practitioners. FUNDING Indivior. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03809143.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Farrell
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
| | - Jeyran Shahbazi
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Marianne Byrne
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Jason Grebely
- The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Nicholas Lintzeris
- Discipline of Addiction Medicine, University of Sydney, Surry Hills, NSW, Australia; The Langton Centre, South East Sydney Local Health District, Surry Hills, NSW, Australia
| | - Mark Chambers
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Briony Larance
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia; Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
| | - Robert Ali
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Suzanne Nielsen
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Monash Addiction Research Centre and Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University Peninsula Campus, Frankston, Victoria, Australia
| | - Adrian Dunlop
- Drug and Alcohol Services, Hunter New England Local Health District, Newcastle, NSW, Australia; Hunter Medical Research Institute, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia
| | - Gregory J Dore
- The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Michael McDonough
- Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Mark Montebello
- Discipline of Addiction Medicine, University of Sydney, Surry Hills, NSW, Australia; Drug and Alcohol Services, North Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Thomas Nicholas
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Rob Weiss
- Frankston Healthcare, Frankston, Victoria, Australia
| | - Craig Rodgers
- Rankin Court Treatment Centre, The O'Brien Centre, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
| | - Jon Cook
- Drug and Alcohol Clinical Advisory Service, Western Health, Victoria, Australia
| | - Louisa Degenhardt
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Barnett A, Savic M, Lintzeris N, Bathish R, Arunogiri S, Dunlop AJ, Haber P, Graham R, Hayes V, Lubman DI. Tracing the affordances of long-acting injectable depot buprenorphine: A qualitative study of patients' experiences in Australia. Drug Alcohol Depend 2021; 227:108959. [PMID: 34450472 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2021] [Revised: 07/06/2021] [Accepted: 07/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Long-acting injectable depot buprenorphine is an important new treatment option for the management of opioid dependence, delivering therapeutic doses in weekly or monthly formulations. Depot buprenorphine aims to overcome challenges associated with traditional opioid agonist therapy (OAT), including: poor patient adherence; inconvenience of regular attendance for dosing; and, risk of non-medical use of takeaway doses. However, little is known about patients' experiences of depot buprenorphine. This qualitative study aimed to explore patients' experiences of the practical and social affordances of depot buprenorphine. METHODS Participants were recruited from sites in Sydney, regional New South Wales, and Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Thirty participants (16 men, 14 women; mean age 47.3 years) participated in semi-structured interviews. Participants had histories of both heroin and prescription opioid use, and previous OAT including daily dosing of buprenorphine and methadone. FINDINGS Depot buprenorphine afforded positive benefits for many participants, including: opportunities to avoid stigma experienced at pharmacies/clinics; time to engage in activities (e.g., travel, work) by releasing participants from previous OAT treatment regimens; and, cost savings by not having to pay pharmacy fees associated with daily dosing. However, for some participants, moving to depot buprenorphine: disrupted engagements with important social/practical supports available at pharmacies/clinics; constrained their control over dosing; and, constrained their ability to generate income via the sale of takeaway doses. CONCLUSIONS While generally experienced as affording benefits, depot buprenorphine can have differing social and practical impacts. Clinicians should monitor patients receiving depot buprenorphine to reduce the risk of unintended consequences including disruption to clinical supports.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anthony Barnett
- Monash Addiction Research Centre, Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, VIC, Australia; Turning Point, Eastern Health, Richmond, VIC, Australia
| | - Michael Savic
- Monash Addiction Research Centre, Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, VIC, Australia; Turning Point, Eastern Health, Richmond, VIC, Australia
| | - Nicholas Lintzeris
- South Eastern Sydney Local Heath District Drug and Alcohol Service, NSW, Australia; Sydney School of Medicine (Central Clinical School), Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Ramez Bathish
- Monash Addiction Research Centre, Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, VIC, Australia; Turning Point, Eastern Health, Richmond, VIC, Australia
| | - Shalini Arunogiri
- Turning Point, Eastern Health, Richmond, VIC, Australia; Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Adrian J Dunlop
- Drug & Alcohol Clinical Services, Hunter New England Local Health District, Newcastle, NSW, Australia; University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia
| | - Paul Haber
- Drug Health Services, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and Sydney Medical School, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
| | - Robert Graham
- Drug Health, Western Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, Australia; School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Vicky Hayes
- South Eastern Sydney Local Heath District Drug and Alcohol Service, NSW, Australia; School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia
| | - Dan I Lubman
- Monash Addiction Research Centre, Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, VIC, Australia; Turning Point, Eastern Health, Richmond, VIC, Australia.
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Fomiatti R, Moore D, Fraser S, Farrugia A. Holding 'new recovery' together: Organising relations and forms of coordination in professional sociomaterial practices of addiction recovery. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2021; 97:103357. [PMID: 34280606 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103357] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2020] [Revised: 02/24/2021] [Accepted: 06/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Questions about what addiction recovery is and the mechanisms by which people 'recover' have long animated alcohol and other drug research and policy. These debates became even more intense following the advent, and increasing influence in some quarters, of the 'new recovery'. Starting from the position that recovery is ontologically multiple (Mol & Law, 2002), we trace how alcohol and other drug professionals attempted to make sense of 'new recovery' as a concept and set of professional practices during a period of Australian drug treatment system reform. Drawing on Annemarie Mol's (2002) account of organising relations and forms of coordination (addition, translation and distribution), we explore how the new recovery was enacted and coordinated in alcohol and other drug professionals' sociomaterial practices, and highlight the ontological work involved in holding such an unstable object together. First, we argue that the addition of multiple enactments of addiction and recovery contributed to the formation of a singular and serviceable problem (that was simultaneously heterogeneous and complex), making the 'disease-to-be-treated' amenable to diverse treatment approaches, including new recovery. Second, we analyse the role of metaphor in translating authoritative logics and obligations into an enactment of new recovery suitable for application in clinical settings. Lastly, we track how incompatible enactments of recovery, both new and old, were kept apart through distribution. Although new recovery ultimately failed to gain policy traction in the Australian context, we focus on the ontological work undertaken by professionals in response to its introduction as such case studies can be useful for analysing other powerfully governing policy objects and their operations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renae Fomiatti
- Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australiam.
| | - David Moore
- Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australiam
| | - Suzanne Fraser
- Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australiam
| | - Adrian Farrugia
- National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Melbourne, Australia
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12
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Jin H, Restar A, Beyrer C. Overview of the epidemiological conditions of HIV among key populations in Africa. J Int AIDS Soc 2021; 24 Suppl 3:e25716. [PMID: 34190412 PMCID: PMC8242974 DOI: 10.1002/jia2.25716] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2020] [Revised: 03/30/2021] [Accepted: 04/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Despite extraordinary progress in HIV treatment coverage and expanding access to HIV prevention services and that multiple African countries are on track in their efforts to reach 90-90-90 goals, the epidemic continues to persist, with prevalence and incidence rates too high in some parts of the continent to achieve epidemic control. While data sources are improving, and research studies on key populations in specific contexts have improved, work on understanding the HIV burdens and barriers to services for these populations remains sparse, uneven and absent altogether in multiple settings. More data have become available in the last several years, and data published in 2010 or more recently are reviewed here for each key population. This scoping review assesses the current epidemiology of HIV among key populations in Africa and the social and political environments that contribute to the epidemic, both of which suggest that without significant policy reform, these epidemics will likely continue. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Across Africa, the HIV epidemic is most severe among key populations including women and men who sell or trade sex, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, transgender women who have sex with men and prisoners and detainees. These groups account for the majority of new infections in West and Central Africa, and an estimated 25% of new infections in East and Southern Africa, despite representing relatively small proportions of those populations. The HIV literature in Africa emphasizes that despite significant health needs, key populations experience barriers to accessing services within the healthcare and legal justice systems. Current shortcomings of surveillance systems in enumerating key populations impact the way funding mechanisms and resources are allocated and distributed. Adapting more equitable and epidemiologically sound frameworks will be necessary for current and future HIV programming investments. CONCLUSIONS Through this review, the available literature on HIV epidemiology among key populations in Africa brings to light a number of surveillance, programmatic and research gaps. For many communities, interventions targeting the health and security conditions continue to be minimal. Compelling evidence suggests that sweeping policy and programmatic changes are needed to effectively tackle the persistent HIV epidemic in Africa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Harry Jin
- Department of EpidemiologyJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
| | - Arjee Restar
- Department of EpidemiologyJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
| | - Chris Beyrer
- Department of EpidemiologyJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
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13
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Hellman M. Understanding addiction: The shift from epistemology to ontology. Behav Brain Res 2021; 412:113416. [PMID: 34144084 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2020] [Revised: 03/18/2021] [Accepted: 06/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
This essay contrasts a late modernist epistemological paradigm with an ontology-oriented Anthropocene-conscious Approach (ACA) as frameworks for understanding the coming into being and the making of addiction. Operationalizable theories and concepts of addiction have been crucial in an era with a great demand for compartmentalizing and systemically defining psychological struggles and social problems. In the modernistic progress story, the addiction phenomenon materializes through the conceptual division between capacity and non-capacity, with those capable of mastering their urges on one side and those incapable of doing so on the other. The ACA strives actively to move beyond artificial divides between agency/structure, culture/nature, mind/matter and instead explore phenomena ecologically across these continuums. This entails a conscious re-focus away from authoritative human-made assumptions towards new types of knowledge and knowing. In the ACA assemblage-like ontology, different elements are brought together in their capacities to affect each other into entities. Due to its claims of practical uses, I predict that the ACA will become as influential as Foucauldian genealogy in the field of addiction studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matilda Hellman
- Centre for Research on Addiction, Control and Governance (CEACG), Faculty of Social Sciences, PL 9 (Siltavuorenpenger 1A), University of Helsinki, Finland.
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14
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Ghiabi M. Ontological journeys: The lifeworld of opium across the Afghan-Iranian border in/out of the pharmacy. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2021; 89:103116. [PMID: 33485741 PMCID: PMC7611031 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2020] [Revised: 12/28/2020] [Accepted: 12/31/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
How can we conceive alternative policy models that embrace the empirical potentialities emerging from the lifeworld of drugs? The article reflects on this question, concluding that to reassess and to reinvent current policies on drugs, we need to think with a political ontology. Incidentally, the article also responds to the critique dismissing ontological inquiries as obstructing - or, at best, not informing - alternative drug policies. In an archaeological approach inspired by the work of Giorgio Agamben, the article unearths the case study of opium maintenance programme in Iran (1969-79), a forgotten policy experiment in an understudied and yet crucial geo-cultural environment for the global study of drugs. Mobilising the conceptual framework of ontological journeys, the article recomposes the lifeworld of opium within the horizons of transformative cultural practices, international borders, policy regimes and public ethics. Here, the materiality of drug consumption under the maintenance policy links with the changes in opium's transnational political economy and with shifting regimes of health and bioethical orthodoxy. Ontological journeys, hence, develop in a fluid space and time, making it possible to illuminate the lifeworld of drugs in places and times hitherto deserted by global policy studies. In building theoretical reflections upon a non-Western case, the article also incites the possibility of theory beyond Eurocentric knowledge and Euromerican cases. In this way, the article's purpose is to analyse the be-coming of opium beyond 'good' or 'evil', as a 'medicine' or a 'drug' and its real or perceived classification as 'licit' or 'illicit' across the Afghan-Iranian border. In conclusion, the article reflects upon the significance of this forgotten policy experiment, understood as an ontological journey, for contemporary drug policy and drug studies, but also for reinventing notions of care, welfare and health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maziyar Ghiabi
- SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG, UK; College of Social Sciences and International Studies, University of Exeter, UK.
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Rhodes T, Harris M, Sanín FG, Lancaster K. Ecologies of drug war and more-than-human health: The case of a chemical at war with a plant. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2021; 89:103067. [DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.103067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2020] [Revised: 11/11/2020] [Accepted: 11/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
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Duff C. A geology of drug morals. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2020; 88:103023. [PMID: 33202324 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.103023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 11/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Cameron Duff
- Associate Professor, Centre for People, Organisation and Work, College of Business and Law, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria. 3000, Australia.
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Sultan A, Duff C. Assembling and diversifying social contexts of recovery. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2020; 87:102979. [PMID: 33096366 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2020] [Revised: 09/08/2020] [Accepted: 09/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Recovery from drug use is receiving increased attention in critical drug studies. Researchers point out the importance of scrutinizing the term and its meanings anew in order to better understand drug use treatment policies and their effects on the individuals they target. Informed by relational ontological thinking, this article analyses a series of empirical accounts of recovery experiences, and offers a critical assessment of the social contexts of recovery. Qualitative data collected in Azerbaijan and Germany provide distinctive reports of the differentiated experiences of youth as they make and re-make sense of their recovery within specific recovery contexts. Discussions reveal how recovery advances in relations between human and nonhuman actors including spaces, bodies, affects, and practices. On the basis of this analysis, we argue that recovery may be framed as an emergent and dynamic context that becomes with and from drug use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aysel Sultan
- Postdoctoral researcher, University of Haifa, Minerva Center on Intersectionality in Aging, Haifa, Israel; Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Institute for Addiction Research, Frankfurt, Germany.
| | - Cameron Duff
- Associate Professor, Fellow, Future Social Services Institute, College of Business and Law, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
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Lancaster K, Rhodes T. What prevents health policy being 'evidence-based'? New ways to think about evidence, policy and interventions in health. Br Med Bull 2020; 135:38-49. [PMID: 32897357 DOI: 10.1093/bmb/ldaa026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2019] [Revised: 07/06/2020] [Accepted: 07/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Evidence-based policy decision-making is a dominant paradigm in health but realizing this ideal has proven challenging. SOURCES OF DATA This paper conceptually maps health policy, policy studies and social science literature critically engaged with evidence and decision-making. No new data were generated or analysed in support of this review. AREAS OF AGREEMENT Barriers to evidence-based policy have been documented, with efforts made to increase the uptake of evidence. AREAS OF CONTROVERSY Evident complexities have been regarded as a problem of translation. However, this assumes that policy-making is a process of authoritative choice, and that 'evidence' is inherently valuable policy knowledge, which has been critiqued. GROWING POINTS Alternative accounts urge consideration of how evidence comes to bear on decisions made within complex systems, and what counts as evidence. AREAS TIMELY FOR DEVELOPING RESEARCH An 'evidence-making intervention' approach offers a framework for conceptualizing how evidence and interventions are made relationally in practices, thus working with the politics and contingencies of implementation and policy-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kari Lancaster
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Sydney, Australia
| | - Tim Rhodes
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Sydney, Australia.,London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, Kings Cross, London WC1H 9SH, UK
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Lancaster K, Rhodes T. Towards an ontological politics of drug policy: Intervening through policy, evidence and method. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2020; 86:102932. [PMID: 32912826 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102932] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2020] [Revised: 08/30/2020] [Accepted: 08/31/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Increasing attention has been paid to matters of ontology, and its accompanying politics, in the drug policy field. In this commentary, we consider what an 'ontological politics' might mean for how we think about what drug policy is and what it might become, as well as for how we think about (and do) research in drug policy. Thinking ontopolitically questions the tacitly accepted status of 'drug problems', calls into question the realist presumptions which underpin much drug policy analysis, and provokes thinking about what counts as 'evidence' and the 'evidence-based policy' paradigm itself. We call attention to the inventive possibilities of method when grappling with the challenges thrown forth by the ontological turn, with a renewed focus on practice and relations. An ontological politics disrupts consensual claims and draws critical attention to objects that might otherwise appear 'finished' or 'ready-made', not least the things we call 'drugs' and 'drug policy'. Working with 'drug policy multiples' invites new thinking and dialogue to provoke an ethico-political mode of intervention in the field of drug policy and drugs research.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Tim Rhodes
- University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
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20
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Long KQ, Thinh OP, Thao TTK, Van Huy N, Lan VTH, Mai VQ, Van Minh H. Relationship between family functioning and health-related quality of life among methadone maintenance patients: a Bayesian approach. Qual Life Res 2020; 29:3333-3342. [PMID: 32766941 DOI: 10.1007/s11136-020-02598-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE To examine the relationship of family functioning on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among methadone maintenance patients using the Bayesian approach. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted on 182 patients at Go Vap Methadone Clinic, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Family functioning and HRQoL were measured by the APGAR scale and World Health Organization Quality of Life short-form instrument (WHOQoL-BREF), respectively. Directed Acyclic Graphs were used to present the conceptual framework and to identify a set of confounders of the relationship between family functioning and HRQoL. Bayesian multivariable linear regressions were fitted with four different priors to determine the effect size of the relationship of interest. RESULTS The mean score of APGAR was 6.0 (SD = 3.3), and the mean scores of HRQoL were from 47.1 (SD = 17.6) in the social relationships dimension to 69.0 (SD = 10.3) in the environment dimension. Patients with a higher score of family functioning were likely to have a higher score of HRQoL, with coefficients and 95% highest density interval (HDI) greater than 0 in all priors. Family functioning had the most substantial impact on the psychological health dimension, with 99.9% to 100% and 44.6% to 83.7% of posterior distribution greater than 1 and 2, in different priors, respectively. CONCLUSION Family functioning is intimately associated with HRQoL. Treatment plans for patients undergoing methadone maintenance treatment should aim to involve the families appropriately and effectively to maximize the benefits for patients and improve their overall well-being.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Trinh Thi Kim Thao
- University of Medicine and Pharmacy At Ho Chi Minh City, 217 Hong Bang Street, Ward 11, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
| | - Nguyen Van Huy
- Graduate School of Public Health, St. Luke's International University, Tokyo, Japan
| | | | - Vu Quynh Mai
- Hanoi University of Public Health, Hanoi, Vietnam
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Fraser S. Doing ontopolitically-oriented research: Synthesising concepts from the ontological turn for alcohol and other drug research and other social sciences. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2020; 82:102610. [DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.102610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2019] [Revised: 11/10/2019] [Accepted: 11/13/2019] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
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Larance B, Byrne M, Lintzeris N, Nielsen S, Grebely J, Degenhardt L, Shahbazi J, Shanahan M, Lancaster K, Dore G, Ali R, Farrell M. Open-label, multicentre, single-arm trial of monthly injections of depot buprenorphine in people with opioid dependence: protocol for the CoLAB study. BMJ Open 2020; 10:e034389. [PMID: 32737087 PMCID: PMC7398105 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034389] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Opioid agonist treatment is effective for opioid dependence and newer extended-release buprenorphine (BUP-XR) injections represent a significant development. The Community Long-Acting Buprenorphine (CoLAB) study aims to evaluate client outcomes among people with opioid dependence receiving 48 weeks of BUP-XR treatment, and examines the implementation of BUP-XR in diverse community healthcare settings in Australia. METHODS AND ANALYSIS The CoLAB study is a prospective single-arm, multicentre, open-label trial of monthly BUP-XR injections in people with opioid dependence. Participants are being recruited from a network of general practitioner and specialist drug treatment services located in the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia in Australia. Following a minimum 7 days on 8-32 mg of sublingual buprenorphine (±naloxone), participants will receive monthly subcutaneous BUP-XR injections administered by a healthcare practitioner at intervals of 28 days (-2/+14 days). The primary endpoint is participant retention in treatment at 48 weeks after treatment initiation. Secondary endpoints will evaluate dosing schedule variations, craving, withdrawal, substance use, health and well-being, and client-reported treatment experience. Qualitative and costing substudies will examine implementation barriers and facilitators at the client and provider level. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION The study has received ethics approval from the St Vincent's Hospital Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref. HREC/18/SVH/221). The findings will be disseminated via publication in peer-reviewed journals, presentations at national and international scientific conferences, and in relevant community organisation publications and forums. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER NCT03809143 PROTOCOL IDENTIFIER: CoLAB1801, V.4.0 dated 01 August 2019.
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Affiliation(s)
- Briony Larance
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Marianne Byrne
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Nicholas Lintzeris
- Discipline of Addiction Medicine, University of Sydney, Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia
- The Langton Centre, South East Sydney Local Health District, Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Suzanne Nielsen
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Monash Addiction Research Centre and Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University Peninsula Campus, Frankston, Victoria, Australia
| | - Jason Grebely
- The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Louisa Degenhardt
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Jeyran Shahbazi
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Marian Shanahan
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Kari Lancaster
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Gregory Dore
- The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Robert Ali
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Michael Farrell
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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Duff C. WITHDRAWN: A Geology of Drug Morals. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2020:102852. [PMID: 32709555 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102852] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2020] [Revised: 07/02/2020] [Accepted: 07/06/2020] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
This article has been withdrawn at the request of the author(s) and/or editor. The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cameron Duff
- Centre for Social Organisation and Work, RMIT University, Building 80, Level 9, 445 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia.
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Jaguga F, Kwobah E. A review of the public sector substance use disorder treatment and prevention systems in Kenya. SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT PREVENTION AND POLICY 2020; 15:47. [PMID: 32690036 PMCID: PMC7372891 DOI: 10.1186/s13011-020-00291-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2020] [Accepted: 07/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Background The burden of substance use disorders in sub-Saharan Africa has been projected to increase by an estimated 130% by 2050. Despite this, little is known about the substance use disorder treatment and prevention systems in the region. Objectives The objective of this review is to describe the public sector substance use disorder treatment and prevention systems in Kenya guided by the World Health Organization health systems framework model, with the aim of informing decision-making. Methods We reviewed official government documents obtained from hand-searching the websites of relevant governmental organizations including: Ministry of Health, National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Parliament of Kenya, Ministry of Treasury & National Planning, National Law Reporting Council, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the National Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Coordination Board and the 47 County Governments. We augmented those searches with official documents that the authors were aware of by virtue of being practitioners in the field. Draft and retired documents were excluded. The findings of the search are presented as a narrative review. Discussion The Mental Health Act 1989, the main legislative framework governing substance use disorder treatment and prevention, focuses on institutional care only. While there are only three public health facilities offering substance use disorder treatment in Kenya, several non-public sector actors are involved in SUD treatment and prevention activities. Unfortunately, there is limited cross-sector collaboration. The Ministry of Health has no specific budget for substance use disorder treatment and prevention, while the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse has an annual resource gap of about US$ 5,000,000. The substance use disorder workforce in Kenya has not been characterized. Conclusion We propose five key strategies for strengthening substance use disorder treatment and prevention systems in Kenya including: (1) Enactment of the Mental Health (Amendment) bill 2018. (2) Integration of substance use disorder treatment and prevention into primary health care to increase access to care. (3) Utilization of money from taxation of alcohol, tobacco and betting to increase funding for substance use disorder treatment and prevention. (4) Characterization of the substance use disorder workforce to inform planning. (5) Enhanced collaboration between the government and non-state actors in order to increase access to SUD treatment and prevention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florence Jaguga
- Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital, P.O. BOX 3-30100, Eldoret, Kenya.
| | - Edith Kwobah
- Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital, P.O. BOX 3-30100, Eldoret, Kenya
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Larance B, Degenhardt L, Grebely J, Nielsen S, Bruno R, Dietze P, Lancaster K, Larney S, Santo T, Shanahan M, Memedovic S, Ali R, Farrell M. Perceptions of extended-release buprenorphine injections for opioid use disorder among people who regularly use opioids in Australia. Addiction 2020; 115:1295-1305. [PMID: 31860767 PMCID: PMC7292758 DOI: 10.1111/add.14941] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2019] [Revised: 10/11/2019] [Accepted: 12/16/2019] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
AIMS To examine perceptions of extended-release (XR) buprenorphine injections among people who regularly use opioids in Australia. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey prior to implementation. XR-buprenorphine was registered in Australia in November 2018. SETTING Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart. Participants A total of 402 people who regularly use opioids interviewed December 2017 to March 2018. MEASUREMENTS Primary outcome concerned the proportion of participants who believed XR-buprenorphine would be a good treatment option for them, preferred weekly versus monthly injections and perceived advantages/disadvantages of XR-buprenorphine. Independent variables concerned the demographic characteristics and features of current opioid agonist treatment (OAT; medication-type, dose, prescriber/dosing setting, unsupervised doses, out-of-pocket expenses and travel distance). FINDINGS Sixty-eight per cent [95% confidence interval (CI) = 63-73%] believed XR-buprenorphine was a good treatment option for them. They were more likely to report being younger [26-35 versus > 55 years; odds ratio (OR) = 3.16, 95% CI = 1.12-8.89; P = 0.029], being female (OR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.04-2.69; P = 0.034), < 10 years school education (OR = 1.87, 95% CI = 1.12-3.12; P = 0.016) and past-month heroin (OR = 1.81, 95% CI = 1.15-2.85; P = 0.006) and methamphetamine use (OR = 1.90, 95% CI = 1.20-3.01; P = 0.006). Fifty-four per cent reported no preference for weekly versus monthly injections, 7% preferred weekly and 39% preferred monthly. Among OAT recipients (n = 255), believing XR-buprenorphine was a good treatment option was associated with shorter treatment episodes (1-2 versus ≥ 2 years; OR = 3.93, 95% CI = 1.26-12.22; P = 0.018), fewer unsupervised doses (≤ 8 doses past-month versus no take-aways; OR = 0.50; 95% CI = 0.27-0.93; P = 0.028) and longer travel distance (≥ 5 versus < 5 km; OR = 2.10, 95% CI = 1.20-3.65; P = 0.009). Sixty-nine per cent reported 'no problems or concerns' with potential differences in availability, flexibility and location of XR-buprenorphine. CONCLUSIONS Among regular opioid users in Australia, perceptions of extended-release buprenorphine as a good treatment option are associated with being female, recent illicit drug use and factors relating to the (in)convenience of current opioid agonist treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Briony Larance
- School of PsychologyUniversity of WollongongWollongongNSWAustralia
- National Drug and Alcohol Research CentreUNSW SydneySydneyNSWAustralia
| | - Louisa Degenhardt
- National Drug and Alcohol Research CentreUNSW SydneySydneyNSWAustralia
| | | | - Suzanne Nielsen
- National Drug and Alcohol Research CentreUNSW SydneySydneyNSWAustralia
- Monash Addiction Research Centre, Eastern Health Clinical SchoolMonash UniversityMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
| | - Raimondo Bruno
- National Drug and Alcohol Research CentreUNSW SydneySydneyNSWAustralia
- School of MedicineUniversity of TasmaniaHobartTasmaniaAustralia
| | | | - Kari Lancaster
- Centre for Social Research in HealthUNSW SydneySydneyNSWAustralia
| | - Sarah Larney
- National Drug and Alcohol Research CentreUNSW SydneySydneyNSWAustralia
| | - Thomas Santo
- National Drug and Alcohol Research CentreUNSW SydneySydneyNSWAustralia
| | - Marian Shanahan
- National Drug and Alcohol Research CentreUNSW SydneySydneyNSWAustralia
| | - Sonja Memedovic
- National Drug and Alcohol Research CentreUNSW SydneySydneyNSWAustralia
| | - Robert Ali
- National Drug and Alcohol Research CentreUNSW SydneySydneyNSWAustralia
- Faculty of Health and Medical SciencesUniversity of AdelaideAdelaideSouth AustraliaAustralia
| | - Michael Farrell
- National Drug and Alcohol Research CentreUNSW SydneySydneyNSWAustralia
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Dennis F, Rhodes T, Harris M. More-than-harm reduction: Engaging with alternative ontologies of 'movement' in UK drug services. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2020; 82:102771. [PMID: 32513623 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102771] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2020] [Revised: 04/18/2020] [Accepted: 04/21/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Over the last ten years, UK drug policy has moved towards making abstinence-based recovery rather than harm reduction its primary focus. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork involving participant observations and interviews at two London drug services, we explore how this shift towards recovery materialises through the practices of drug service delivery as an 'evidence-making intervention'. We understand recovery's making in terms of 'movement'. Where previous policies performed harm reduction through 'getting people into treatment' and 'keeping them safe in treatment', new policies were said to be about 'moving people through treatment'. Approaching movement as a sociomaterial process, we observe how movement is enacted in both narrow ways, towards abstinence from drugs, and more open ways, in what we call 'more-than-harm reduction'. We think of the latter as a speculative practice of doing or 'tinkering with' recovery to afford a care for clients not bound to abstinence-based outcomes. This is important given the limits associated with a recovery-orientated policy impetus. By engaging with these alternative ontologies of movement, we highlight an approach to intervening that both subverts and adheres to perceptions of recovery, embracing its movement, while remaining critical to its vision of abstinence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fay Dennis
- Goldsmiths, University of London, London, United Kingdom.
| | - Tim Rhodes
- London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom; The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Magdalena Harris
- London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
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Critical studies of harm reduction: Overdose response in uncertain political times. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2019; 76:102615. [PMID: 31837567 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.102615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2019] [Revised: 11/14/2019] [Accepted: 12/02/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
North America continues to witness escalating rates of opioid overdose deaths. Scale-up of existing and innovative life-saving services - such as overdose prevention sites (OPS) as well as sanctioned and unsanctioned supervised consumption sites - is urgently needed. Is there a place for critical theory-informed studies of harm reduction during times of drug policy failures and overdose crisis? There are different approaches to consider from the critical literature, such as those that, for example, interrogate the basic principles of harm reduction or those that critique the lack of pleasure in the discourses surrounding drug use. Influenced by such work, we examine the development of OPS in Canada, with a focus on recent experiences from the province of Ontario, as an important example of the impacts associated with moving from grassroots harm reduction to institutionalised policy and practice. Services appear to be most innovative, dynamic, and inclusive when people with lived experience, allies, and service providers are directly responding to fast-changing drug use patterns and crises on the ground, before services become formally bureaucratised. We suggest a continuing need to both critically theorise harm reduction and to build strong community relationships in harm reduction work, in efforts to overcome political moves that impede collaboration with and inclusiveness of people who use drugs.
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Rhodes T, Azbel L, Lancaster K, Meyer J. The becoming-methadone-body: on the onto-politics of health intervention translations. SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH & ILLNESS 2019; 41:1618-1636. [PMID: 31310008 PMCID: PMC7700701 DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.12978] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
In this paper, we reflect on health intervention translations as matters of their implementation practices. Our case is methadone treatment, an intervention promoted globally for treating opioid dependence and preventing HIV among people who inject drugs. Tracing methadone's translations in high-security prisons in the Kyrgyz Republic, we notice the multiple methadones made possible, what these afford, and the onto-political effects they make. We work with the idea of the 'becoming-methadone-body' to trace the making-up of methadone treatment and its effects as an intra-action of human and nonhuman substances and bodies. Methadone's embodied effects flow beyond the mere psycho-activity of substances incorporating individual bodies, to material highs and lows incorporating the governing practices of prisoner society. The methadone-in-practice of prisoner society is altogether different to that imagined as being in translation as an intervention of HIV prevention and opioid treatment, and has material agency as a practice of societal governance. Heroin also emerges as an actor in these relations. Our analysis troubles practices of 'evidence-based' intervention and 'implementation science' in the health field, by arguing for a move towards 'evidence-making' intervention approaches. Noticing the onto-politics of health intervention translations invites speculation on how intervening might be done differently.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim Rhodes
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Lyuba Azbel
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
- Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, Connecticut, USA
| | - Kari Lancaster
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Jaimie Meyer
- Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, Connecticut, USA
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Evidence-making interventions in health: A conceptual framing. Soc Sci Med 2019; 238:112488. [DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2018] [Revised: 08/07/2019] [Accepted: 08/09/2019] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
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Collins AB, Boyd J, Cooper HLF, McNeil R. The intersectional risk environment of people who use drugs. Soc Sci Med 2019; 234:112384. [PMID: 31254965 PMCID: PMC6719791 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2018] [Revised: 06/19/2019] [Accepted: 06/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Current conceptual models for examining the production of risk and harm (e.g. syndemics, 'risk environment') in substance use research have been fundamental in emphasizing broader environmental factors that shape health outcomes for people who use drugs (PWUD). However, the application of these frameworks in ways that highlight nuance and complexity has remained challenging, with much of this research focusing on select social positions (e.g. race, gender) and social-structural factors (e.g. poverty, drug policies). It is crucial that we move to better accounting for these relations in the context of substance use research to enhance equity in research and ensure understanding of diverse and complex needs. Building on the risk environment framework and complementary approaches, this article introduces the 'intersectional risk environment' as an approach to understanding the interconnected ways that social locations converge within the risk environment to produce or mitigate drug-related outcomes. This framework integrates a relational intersectional lens to examine how differential outcomes across populations of PWUD are produced in relation to social location and processes operating across social-structural dimensions. In doing so, the intersectional risk environment highlights how outcomes are products of processes and relations that are embodied, reflected, and challenged while situated within social, historical, and geographic contexts. Incorporating this framework into future research may improve understandings of health outcomes for PWUD and better orient structural interventions and public health approaches to address differential risks and experiences of PWUD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra B Collins
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada; British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, 400 - 1045 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2A9, Canada
| | - Jade Boyd
- British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, 400 - 1045 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2A9, Canada; Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, St. Paul's Hospital, 400 - 1045 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2A9, Canada
| | - Hannah L F Cooper
- Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA, 30322, United States
| | - Ryan McNeil
- British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, 400 - 1045 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2A9, Canada; Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, St. Paul's Hospital, 400 - 1045 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2A9, Canada.
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Evidence-making hepatitis C cure: Towards a science that knows more carefully. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2019; 72:40-46. [PMID: 31307851 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.06.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2019] [Revised: 06/27/2019] [Accepted: 06/28/2019] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
There has been some controversy concerning the curative potential of new treatments for hepatitis C. This follows a systematic review of the Cochrane Collaboration questioning the clinical benefits of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). This controversy has been debated as a matter of methods regarding how best to evidence treatment in an evidence-based medicine (EBM) approach. Drawing from science and technology studies (STS), we offer an alternative perspective. We propose a different way of thinking with evidence; one which treats 'evidencing as performative'. Using the Cochrane review and its linked published responses as a resource for this analysis, we consider how hepatitis C cure is differently made-up through the knowledge-making practices performing it. We show how matters of apparent fact in evidence-based science are enacted as matters of clinical, social and ethico-political concern. We notice hepatitis C cure as a fluid object in negotiation. We highlight the limits of current debate to advocate a more critical and careful practice-based approach to knowing hepatitis C cure. This calls upon public health researchers to reflect on the performative work of their evidencing. We propose a 'more-than' EBM approach which treats 'evidence-based' science as an 'evidence-making intervention'. We consider the implications of such an approach for the evidencing of public health interventions and for treating hepatitis C in the DAA era of 'viral elimination'.
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Dennis F. Making problems: The inventive potential of the arts for alcohol and other drug research. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2019; 46:127-138. [PMID: 33408425 DOI: 10.1177/0091450919845146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The arts and arts-based methods are rare in critical studies of alcohol and other drugs. This article explores the potential role of the arts for allowing alcohol and other drug problems to develop in more collaborative (with participants, broadly conceived) and thus more generative ways. Following turns in the field toward the performativity of alcohol and other drug realities, this article instead asks: what happens if we take the 'experimentality of social life' (Marres, Guggenheim & Wilkie, 2018) as our starting point for research rather than our object? That is to say, how can we work with our already inventive alcohol and other drug worlds to know and intervene with them in closer, more intimate ways? Through ethnographic engagement with a community theatre group for people who identify has having experiences of dependency or addiction, the article looks at how they 'set up' and 'stage' the problem they seek to research and enact through embodied, sensorial and relational modes of knowing that are created speculatively together and with the audience and environment. As we now accept that our methods in critical drug studies are entwined with the realities they make, this article intends to awaken our methodological imagination and attentiveness to the arts as the discipline that has always made things to know things, in order to enable problems to not only be known in new ways but to emerge in new ways.
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Struggling to achieve a 'normal life': A qualitative study of Vietnamese methadone patients. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2019; 68:18-26. [PMID: 30978641 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.03.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2018] [Revised: 02/27/2019] [Accepted: 03/11/2019] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Methadone maintenance treatment, initially introduced in Vietnam for HIV harm reduction, has marked a significant switch in the country's drug policy - from addiction as a moral issue to addiction as a brain disease. After the some initial outstanding achievements, the programme is facing a high dropout rate that threatens both goals of HIV prevention and drug treatment. This sociological study, as part of an HIV intervention research project, explores the challenges and opportunities that individuals who use drugs are faced with in relation to addiction treatment. METHODS A qualitative study among drug users with and without methadone maintenance treatment experiences recruited by peer outreach workers. We conducted 58 in-depth interviews and 2 focus groups between 2016 and 2017. RESULTS The start of treatment brought about significant feelings of success as heroin use was no longer compulsive. However, being in treatment programmes is also challenging with respect to continuing the recovery process. Barriers to retention include a popular fear of methadone as another harmful drug, a feeling of dependence related to the current practices of methadone treatment programmes and a poor therapeutic relationship. In the face of such challenges, the two major motivations that keep patients in care come from the desire to completely break up with heroin and the pursuit of family happiness. CONCLUSION The current practices of methadone programmes pose challenges to patients' recovery efforts from addiction and threaten treatment retention. Prompt interventions are needed to help Vietnam attain its objective of providing better care for larger vulnerable populations.
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Lancaster K, Rhodes T, Rance J. "Towards eliminating viral hepatitis": Examining the productive capacity and constitutive effects of global policy on hepatitis C elimination. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2019; 80:102419. [PMID: 30975593 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.02.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2018] [Revised: 01/19/2019] [Accepted: 02/05/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
In 2016 the World Health Organization published the first global health strategy to address viral hepatitis, setting a goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a major public health threat by 2030. While the field has been motivated by this goal, to date there has been little critical attention paid to the productive capacity and constitutive effects of this policy. How is governing taking place through the mechanism of this global strategy, and how are its goals and targets shaping what is made thinkable (indeed, what is made as the real) about hepatitis C and its elimination? And with what effects? Taking the Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis, 2016-2021 as a text for analysis, we draw on poststructural thinking on problematisation and governmental technologies to examine how 'elimination' - as a proposal - constitutes the problem of hepatitis C. We critically consider the conceptual logics underpinning the elimination goal and targets, and the multiple material-discursive effects of this policy. We examine how governing takes place through numbers, by analysing 'target-setting' (and its accompanying practices of management, quantification and surveillance) as governmental technologies. We consider how the goal of elimination makes viral hepatitis visible and amenable to structuring, action and global management. Central to making viral hepatitis visible and manageable is quantification. Viral hepatitis is made as a problem requiring urgent global health management not through the representation of its effects on bodies or situated communities but rather through centralising inscription practices and comparison of estimated rates. It is important to remain alert to the multiple makings of hepatitis C and draw attention to effects which might be obscured due to a primary focus on quantification and management. To do so is to recognise the ontopolitical effects of governmental technologies, especially for communities 'targeted' by these strategies (including people who inject drugs).
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Affiliation(s)
- Kari Lancaster
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Australia.
| | - Tim Rhodes
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Australia; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
| | - Jake Rance
- Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Australia
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Guise A, Ndimbii J, Igonya EK, Owiti F, Strathdee SA, Rhodes T. Integrated and differentiated methadone and HIV care for people who use drugs: a qualitative study in Kenya with implications for implementation science. Health Policy Plan 2019; 34:110-119. [PMID: 30789208 PMCID: PMC6481284 DOI: 10.1093/heapol/czz002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/11/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Integrating methadone and HIV care is a priority in many low- and middle-income settings experiencing a growing challenge of HIV epidemics linked to injecting drug use. There is as yet little understanding of how to integrate methadone and HIV care in these settings and how such services can be implemented; such a gap reflects, in part, limitations in theorizing an implementation science of integrated care. In response, we qualitatively explored the delivery of methadone after its introduction in Kenya to understand integration with HIV care. Semi-structured interviews with people using methadone (n = 30) were supplemented by stakeholder interviews (n = 2) and participant observation in one city. Thematic analysis was used, that also drew on Mol's logic of care as an analytical framework. Respondents described methadone clinic-based care embedded in community support systems. Daily observed clinic care was challenging for methadone and stigmatizing for HIV treatment. In response to these challenges, integration evolved and HIV care differentiated to other sites. The resulting care system was acceptable to respondents and allowed for choice over locations and approaches to HIV care. Using Mol's logic of care as an analytical framework, we explore what led to this differentiation in integrated care. We explore co-production and experimentation around HIV care that compares with more limited experimentation for methadone. This experimentation is bounded by available discourses and materials. The study supports continued integration of services whilst allowing for differentiation of these models to adapt to client preferences. Co-location of integrated services must prioritize clinic organization that prevents HIV status disclosure. Our analysis fosters a material perspective for theory of implementation science and integration of services that focuses attention on local experimentation shaped by context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andy Guise
- Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, USA
- School of Population Health and Environmental Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK
| | - James Ndimbii
- Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium, Regent Management Suites, Argwings Kodhek Road, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Emmy Kageha Igonya
- School of Medicine, University of Nairobi, Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Frederick Owiti
- School of Medicine, University of Nairobi, Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Steffanie A Strathdee
- Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Tim Rhodes
- Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London, UK
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“A more accurate understanding of drug use”: A critical analysis of wastewater analysis technology for drug policy. THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 2019; 63:47-55. [DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.10.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2018] [Revised: 10/29/2018] [Accepted: 10/29/2018] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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Abstract
Purpose of review Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a global phenomenon and is on the rise in Africa, denoting a shift from historical patterns of drug transport to internal consumption. In contrast, opioids for clinical pain management in Africa remain among the least available globally. This region also has the highest HIV and HCV disease burden, and the greatest shortages of health workers and addiction treatment. We undertook a systematic review of the literature to describe opioid use in Africa and how it is being addressed. Recent findings A total of 84 articles from 2000 to 2018 were identified. Descriptions of country-specific populations and patterns of opioid misuse were common. A smaller number of articles described interventions to address OUD. Summary OUD occurs in sub-Saharan Africa, with attendant clinical and social costs. Evidence-based policies and health system resources are needed to promote OUD prevention and management, and infectious disease transmission reduction.
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Rhodes T, Lancaster K, Harris M, Treloar C. Evidence-making controversies: the case of hepatitis C treatment and the promise of viral elimination. CRITICAL PUBLIC HEALTH 2018. [DOI: 10.1080/09581596.2018.1459475] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Tim Rhodes
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- Department of Public Health, Environments and Society, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Kari Lancaster
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Magdalena Harris
- Department of Public Health, Environments and Society, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Carla Treloar
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
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