Newly started primary care opioid prescriptions plateaued in 2018-2019
Our new study published in the Canadian Journal of Addiction found plateauing rates of new starts of opioid analgesics in British Columbia in 2018-2019. We wanted to find out how many and what kind of opioid prescriptions were started to opioid naïve patients by family physicians in British Columbia. (more…)
Can intentional substance use reduce illicit opioid use?
Have you ever intentionally used an alternate substance to control or reduce your use of illicit (non-prescribed) opioids?
Self-managed use is one way to reduce the psychological, social and physical harms related to substance use. While chronic addiction interferes with self-control, even people living with the most severe addictions can self-manage their use.
Thrive supports caregivers coping with family substance use issues
Thrive is a supportive network for family and friend caregivers of older adults who use substances or alcohol.
Authors: Michee-Ana Hamilton, MSc and Jan Klimas, MSc, PhD.
Reprinted from the Supporting Parents issue of Visions Journal, 2021, 17 (1), pp. 12-13
Moving on: helping young people
In this 2009 Insight article, Gemma Turner, Cobh Community Based Drugs Worker, provides a brief history of the project while Jano Klimas gives a sense of the impact of the youth initiative from its evaluation.
Expanding opioid agonist therapy while learning from HIV/AIDS
Accessing opioid agonist therapy (OAT) and maintaining good adherence faces many barriers which can be geographical, financial, regulatory, situational or logistic. This post elaborates on the ideas from a recent freely-available commentary published in the journal Addiction.