European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction annual report 2007: positive assessment of HIV in IDUs though hepatitis C still very high

Attitudes of Irish patients with chronic pain towards medicinal cannabis

BACKGROUND

Medicinal cannabis use is topical in the media in Ireland. A recent Health Products Regulatory Authority review, however, has recommended against its use for patients with chronic pain. This is despite evidence for its effectiveness in this patient's cohort and the inadequate pain management of these patients.

AIM

The aim of this study was to evaluate the attitudes of Irish patients with chronic pain towards medicinal cannabis.

METHODS

After institutional ethics committee approval, a 12-item questionnaire (excluding demographics) was randomly assigned to patients attending a chronic pain clinic (University Hospital Limerick). The questionnaire was designed to incorporate patient's attitudes on a variety of medicinal cannabis related topics.

RESULTS

Ninety-six adult patients were surveyed. 88.54% agreed that cannabis should be legalised for chronic pain medicinal purposes. 80.21% believed it would have health benefits for them and 73.96% agreed it would be socially acceptable to use cannabis for this purpose. 33.33% perceived cannabis to be addictive while 68.75% would be willing to try it if prescribed by a medical professional.

CONCLUSIONS

The study highlights the attitudes of chronic pain patients in Ireland towards medicinal cannabis. It shows their desire to have medical cannabis legalised for chronic pain and that they view it as a reasonable pain management option.

Injecting Drug Users Retention in Needle-Exchange Program and its Determinants in Iran Prisons

BACKGROUND

Participation and to stay in a health program depends on many factors. One of these programs is Needle Exchange Program (NEP) in prisons.

OBJECTIVES

The current study aimed to evaluate the retention of injecting drug prisoners and find the related factors in Iran.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

This cohort study analyzed data about injecting drug male prisoners who were participated in NEP in three Iranian prisons. Data was collected from October 2009 to June 2010. A proper approach of survival analyses including Kaplan-Meier method, Log-Rank test, and Cox Proportional Hazard Model were used to evaluate Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) retention in NEP and its determinants.

RESULTS

Out of 320 prisoners, 167 were from Isfahan Central Prison, 82 from Tehran-Ghezel-Hesar Prison, and 71 from Hamadan Central Prison. Two-hundred and fifty prisoners (78.4%) had history of drug injection; and drug injection was the most common choice for 115 persons (35.9%). Participants were followed up for 29 weeks, the mean (SD) time of retention in the program was 24.1 (0.6) weeks. There was a significant relationship between age, number of used needles per week, duration of addiction, age of addiction onset, as well as imprisonment age, main method of drug use, type of main using drug, Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection, job status, reason of arrestment, history of involvement in harm reduction programs, and the length of retention (P < 0.05). There was also significant relationship between the history of using harm reduction services (P = 0.007), tattooing (P = 0.01), longer durations of addiction (P = 0.048), and retention.

CONCLUSIONS

Tattooing and longer duration of addiction were two important factors that significantly increased retention in the program. In contrast, history of using harm reduction services was the factor that decreased persistence. The risk of quitting the program may decrease about 68% in those who did not involve in harm reduction programs.

Hepatitis C virus antibody status, sociodemographic characteristics, and risk behaviour among injecting drug users in Croatia

The study was conducted among 76 injecting drug users (IDU) from seven Croatian cities during a three-year period (2005-2007). Each participant completed a questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics and potential risk factors for hepatitis C virurs (HCV) infection followed by anti-HCV and anti-HIV antibody testing. The mean patient age was 30. The majority of patients (69.8%) reported more than one potential exposure to HCV: 97.1% had shared injecting equipment, 75% reported risk sexual behaviour, and 56.3% reported a history of travelling abroad. The overall HCV seroprevalence was 51.3% (95% CI = 40-63%). HCV seroprevalence increased with increasing number of risk behaviours (p = 0.026). Needle sharing frequency was the most important risk factor for hepatitis C. The HCV seroprevalence rate ranged from 27.3% in IDUs who answered that they shared needles occasionally to 100% in IDUs who always shared needles (p < 0.001). No other risk factors (age, gender, educational level, marital and employment status, history of travelling abroad and sexual risk behaviour) were associated with HCV seropositivity.