'Planning for a healthy baby and a healthy pregnancy': A critical analysis of Canadian clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of opioid dependence during pregnancy

As opioid fatalities rise in North America, the need to improve the supports available to those who are dependent on opioids and pregnant has become more urgent. This paper discusses the social organisation of drug treatment supports for those who are pregnant, using Canadian clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) as a case study. Pregnant patients are a priority population for MMT, both in Canada and internationally; the regulatory bodies that oversee MMT in Canada are the provincial Colleges of Physician and Surgeons and Health Canada. The paper analyses MMT CPGs published by these agencies, comparing their general recommendations to those specific to pregnant patients. We demonstrate that the guidelines address few treatment considerations for pregnant patients, other than improved birth outcomes and child welfare, despite acknowledging their more complex needs. Drawing on social science studies of gender and drugs, we argue that MMT CPGs therefore perpetuate the intensified surveillance and foetal prioritisation that have long generated barriers to care for opiate-dependent pregnant patients. We also discuss how and why the CPGs ultimately only reinforced these current limitations in the drug treatment sector.

Engaging with motherhood and parenthood: A commentary on the social science drugs literature

The majority of qualitative social scientific research on the topic of parenthood and substance use focuses on mothers who use illicit drugs and their experiences of social marginalization and stigmatization. This commentary argues that new and important insights might be gained about parenting in the context of substance use by engaging more closely with everyday experiences of mothering and with contemporary theorising around motherhood and parenthood. Drawing on recent sociological studies of family life influenced by late-modern individualism and by new expert attention on the quality of parent-child relationships, the commentary proposes directions for future social research on the identities and experiences of mothers and fathers who use alcohol and other drugs.

A “Special Population” with “Unique Treatment Needs”: Dominant Representations of “Women's Substance Abuse” and Their Effects

A number of studies suggest that the lack of “gender sensitive” drug treatment services for women represents a pressing social problem, second only to the problem of “women's substance abuse” itself. This article interrogates these “problem representations” by asking on what basis they are considered uniquely problematic. Through a critical analysis of research on women published between 1990–2012 in relevant high impact journals, the article identifies a dominant view of women in the drug field as a “special population” with “unique treatment needs.” The article suggests that this view not only reinforces a limited understanding of the harms associated with women's substance abuse, but might also paradoxically enable programs and services for women to remain as “add-ons” and/or narrow the range of “gender sensitive” approaches adopted.

Asymmetric adsorption of alanine by quartz

Radioactive D- and L-alanine hydrochloride in 10(-5) molar dimethylformamide solution was adsorbed by d- and 1-quartz to the extent of 20 to 30 percent, as shown by radioactivity loss. d-Quartz preferentially adsorbs D-alanine and 1-quartz adsorbs L-alanine. The extent of asymmetric preferential adsorption is about 1.0 to 1.8 percent, at the 99.9 percent confidence level.

Identification of genes that encode Fasciola-specific arc 2 antigens

Previous studies have shown that serum from humans with fascioliasis had precipitating antibodies that identified a line of precipitation as specific for Fasciola. This Fasciola-specific band was designated arc 2. The specificity of a Fasciola-specific anti-arc 2 antiserum, evaluated by Western blot analysis, reveals a mosaic of antigens with molecular weights in the range of 10-43 kD. In the current study, the antibodies reacting with a subset of antigens in the 10-21-kD range were eluted from nitrocellulose and used to probe an F. hepatica cDNA library. Four clones were purified and amplified by the polymerase chain reaction. The DNA hybridizations among these clones revealed different groups of clones derived from different mRNAs. The finding of multiple genes supports the observation that F. hepatica arc 2 is a mosaic of antigens. The studies show that molecular cloning technology can be used to identify potential genes, each of which encode distinct antigens that may be used for the specific immunodiagnosis of fascioliasis.

Asymmetric adsorption by quartz: a model for the prebiotic origin of optical activity

One mechanism previously proposed for the abiotic accumulation of molecules of one chirality in nature is asymmetric adsorption on the chiral surfaces of optically active quartz crystals. Earlier literature in this field is reviewed, with the conclusion that previous investigations of this phenomenon, using optical rotation criteria, have afforded ambiguous results. We now have studied the adsorption of radioactive D- and L-alanine on powdered d- and l-quartz, using change in radioactivity level as a criterion for both gross and differential adsorption. d-Quartz preferentially adsorbed D-alanine from anhydrous dimethyl-formamide solution, and l-quartz L-alanine. The differential adsorption varied between 1.0 and 1.8%. The implications of these observations are discussed from the viewpoint of early chemical evolution and the origin of optically active organic compounds in nature.