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1. PREGNANCY: High Dose Methadone Beneficial,
in Pregnancy as in all patients! Higher doses of maintenance methadone, over 100mg, associated with less illicit drug use and with no increase in neonatal withdrawal symptoms. Among all patients, with avg. dose 101mg, 81% of prenatal toxicologies were totally negative for illicit drugs. Of these patients, 46% of their babies required treatment for abstinence syndrome, compared to 78% of one study where avg. dose was 50mg and another where mean maternal dose was 20 mg and 46% of babies required treatment. BOTTOM LINE: Expectant mothers should be treated as all other patients, with dosages determined by optimal impact on minimizing illicit drug use. (Source: Am J OBGYN 2005, vol. 193)
2. LEBANON: Ministerial Calls for Compassion, Harm Reduction, Substitution Treatment - A conference was just concluded in Beirut which appears to be a first ever to focus on the problem of addiction in Lebanon. The title of the meeting says it all: New perspectives for the prevention and treatment of addiction. It reflects the openness – indeed, the eagerness – of Lebanese government officials, academicians and clinicians to cast an analytical eye on the policies and practices that have reigned to date, and consider candidly and without prejudice other alternatives. Sadly, such openness and candor are lacking in some of the countries of the world with the biggest addiction problems and with the least success to date in addressing them.
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3. BEIRUT: Resolution on Addiction and Harm Reduction by
Mid-East Regional Conference of Ministers of Health
An inter-ministerial conference of ministers of the mid-East region of WHO has just adopted (Sept 2005)a resolution calling for: Making a wide range of approaches available to address prevention, care and harm reduction; and legislation to consider drug dependent patients and not criminals. (Presented to an International Conference in Beirut in Oct. 20056 by Ahmad Mohit, MD, Dir. of Div. of Health Protection and Promotion for the Regional Office for Eastern Mediterranean, WHO).
4. USA, Florida: Methadone-Related Deaths All quotes and data taken from Palm Beach Post (Florida), Oct. 2, 2005, p. 1A.
“METHADONE-RELATED DEATHS” is apparently a major – and still growing – problem about which much seems to be known but very little is reported. Case in point: Florida, where 4 years ago the “Department of Law Enforcement began analyzing methadone related deaths”. This county leads the state in “methadone-related deaths,” with 168 so far in 2005. In other counties methadone-related deaths have dropped, but Statewide there are said to have been 849 deaths in 2004 “linked to methadone.”
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5. SPAIN, Valencia Region: Study of Patients' Perspectives on Methadone - A study of patient perspectives on Methadone in Valencia just published in Alc Drug Dep (vol 79-2005
-405-412). The most surprising finding is that patients on less than 60mg "felt more satisfied than those treated with 60-100 mg." The study gives an interesting summary of how patients view the treatment in this part of Spain.
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6. AFRICA, Tanzania: IVDU A New Major Vector for HIV-AIDS in Africa - There is an alarming report that heroin injecting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is "an emerging risk factor for HIV transmission." The many factors that "facilitated the movement to injecting "are enumerated”. For more information click here.
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7. IRAN: Extensive News Report on Iranian Opiate Addiction -
Has appeared in Wash. Post 23 Sept. It describes the extraordinarily high rate of opiate dependence in the country - primarily opium but with heroin a growing problem. It quotes authorities who describe the futile "zero tolerance" approach of the past two decades following the revolution, an approach for which a "high price" was paid. On a more hopeful note it then describes the new national policies "grounded in pragmatism." For full story click here
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