Addiction Flashcards
Define Recreational Drug Use
Use either alone or with other drugs to induce or enhance a drug experience for performance enhancement or for cosmetic purposes
Define Illicit Drug Use
Use of illegal drugs, misuse of pharmaceutical drugs and/or use of other psychoactive substances in a harmful way
What is Addiction?
Chronic, relapsing disorder characterised by compulsive drug seeking and use despite adverse consequences
What are the Characteristics of Addition?
- Tolerance to effect of the drug – need greater amounts to maintain the same effect
- Loss of control of the frequency and amount of use
- Excessive time spent using or obtaining the drug at the expense of other activities
- Continued drug use despite associated problems
- Withdrawal when drug is ceased
Define Substance Use Disorder
Current DSM-V term for a spectrum of problematic drug use patterns, encompassing drug abuse, through to drug addiction
Drug addiction is considered what?
What does it involve?
- Drug addiction is considered a brain disorder
- It involves functional changes to brain circuits involved in reward, stress and self-control and those changes may last a long time after a person has stopped taking drugs
What plays a key role in mediating reward in drug addiction?
- Dopamine release in the mesolimbic pathway plays key role in mediating reward
- These regions involved in learning of environmental cues and feeling of reward
What are the Risk Factors that Contribute to Developing Addiction?
- Aggressive behaviour in childhood
- Lack of parental supervision
- Poor social skills
- Drug experimentation
- Availability of drugs at school
- Community poverty
What are the Protective Factors that Contribute to Developing Addiction?
- Good self-control
- Parental monitoring and support
- Positive relationships
- Good schooling grades
- School anti-drug policies
- Neighbourhood resources
What factors contribute to harm minimisation?
- Demand reduction
- Prevent uptake and delay first use
- Reduce harmful use
- Supply reduction
- Control illicit drug and precursor availability
- Reduce illicit drug availability and accessibility
- Harm reduction
- Reduce risk behaviours
- Safer settings
What is Motivational Interviewing?
- Instead of directing/advising patients on what they should do, guide patients to make a decision themselves
- Reflect with patient on their current situation, aim to develop discrepancy between current state and desired state
What are Opium, Opiates and Opioids?
Where do they come from and what do they contain?
- Opium is a naturally occurring substance derived from the poppy plant
- The opium latex contains opiates, morphine and codeine
- Opioids are natural or synthetic drugs that bind to and agonise opioid receptors
Is an opioid withdrawal life threatening?
- Withdrawal extremely uncomfortable but not life threatening
What are the 2 Approaches for Managing an Opioid Use Disorder?
- Withdrawal/detoxification ‘detox’
- Symptomatic treatment to help manage symptoms of withdrawal
- Bridging substitution therapy (+ maintenance of abstinence)
- Longer acting opioid to help during the time coming off opioid
- Harm minimisation approach (substitute problematic opioid use with prescribed opioid)
- Opioid substitution therapy
- Take home naloxone
- Safe injecting practices if they still want to inject
- Pharmacological interventions should be combined with psychosocial interventions such as counselling, CBT and social support
Buprenorphine
- MOA?
- Duration of action?
- Characteristics for Opioid Withdrawal?
- High affinity, partial opioid receptor agonist (binds to same receptors as morphine, heroin, but when it binds, doesn’t activate to same degree)
- Long duration of action
- Buprenorphine for Opioid Withdrawal
- Defined tapering course can be used to assist detoxification
- Long half-life minimises symptoms due to acute withdrawal
- Fixed daily dose OR flexible dose range
- Don’t administer until objective signs of withdrawal, start with small test dose
Naltrexone
- MOA?
- Duration of action?
- Use for opioid use disorder?
- Issues?
- Long acting, orally active opioid antagonist
- Rarely used for opioid use disorder due to limited efficacy
- Issues:
- Requires person to be committed and only a small proportion of patients are actually adherent
- Additional increased risk of overdose (if go back to using) as may accelerate loss of tolerance that occurs when people are abstinent from opioids
Illicit Opioid Substituted for Prescribed Opioid aims to:
- Reduce risks associated with overdose and IV administration
- Reduce use of illicit opioids
- Reduce criminal behaviour to finance habit
- Reduce the severity of withdrawal symptoms
- Enable access to psychosocial support
- Manages craving to allow patient to get the rest of their life back on track
What are Opioid Substitution Therapy Programs?
- Individual attends clinic or pharmacy to collect prescribed dose of methadone or buprenorphine most days
- Dose taken on the spot, observed by health professional
- When stabilised patient can apply for ‘take away’ doses
Are Opioid Substitution Therapy Programs effective?
Treatment duration?
- More effective in decreasing illicit opioid use than no treatment, placebo treatment, detoxification
- Better outcomes achieved when higher doses are used for longer periods
- Usual treatment duration: 2-3 years but can be life long
Methadone
- MOA?
- Position in OST?
- Duration of action?
- Risk of overdose?
- Strength Available?
- Dosing?
- Opioid agonist, some affinity for NMDA receptors
- Gold standard for OST
- Longer duration of action than heroin
- Greater risk of overdose and more sedation compared to buprenorphine (because methadone is full agonist)
- Available as 5mg/1mL syrup or oral liquid
- Individualised dosing – start low and taper up according to withdrawal symptoms and tolerability
Monitoring with Methadone
- Liver function to be assessed before treatment
- Can cause prolongation of QT interval with high doses
- Consider interactions
Methadone Regulations - T/A doses
- Regulations on how take-away doses are dispensed
- Child proof containers required
- Make dose up to specific volume with water
What is the Purpose of Buprenorphine-Naloxone Sublingual?
- Buprenorphine will enter the body and partially bind to opioid receptors with a high affinity
- Naloxone attenuates the effects of buprenorphine if injected and precipitate withdrawal in individuals dependent on full opioid agonists
Buprenorphine-Naloxone Sublingual
- Half-life? What does this sllow?
- Initiate at?
- When is stabilisation required?
- Long half-life can allow alternative day dosing
- Initiate at 2-8mg sublingual, titrate to relieve withdrawal
- Stabilisation usually required 2-3 weeks
Buprenorphine alone also available in SL tablets - What is the purpose of these?
- Pregnancy or allergy
What are the Drivers of Long Acting Depot Buprenorphine?
- Current focus on supervised daily dosing
- Can be onerous and restrictive for patients
- Can be counterproductive to ‘normalised’ life
- May be const benefits for patients, dosing and transport
- Reduced opportunity for diversion, misuse, poisoning
How is Opioid Withdrawal Managed?
- Tapering doses of buprenorphine now mainstay for bridging during opioid withdrawal (replaced clonidine and tapering methadone)
- Under supervision: patient can consider diazepam for anxiety/agitation or temazepam for insomnia
- Avoid in outpatient setting
Symptomatic Medication to treat opioid withdrawal symptoms:
- Diarrhoea
- Nausea or vomiting
- Muscle cramps or pain
- Insomnia
- Agitation and anxiety
- Diarrhoea – loperamide
- Nausea or vomiting – metoclopramide
- Muscle cramps or pain – ibuprofen, paracetamol, hyoscine butylbromide
- Insomnia – psychological support
- Agitation and anxiety – psychological support
What are the 2 Products in Long Acting Depot Buprenorphine?
- Buvidal
- Sublocade
Long Acting Depot Buprenorphine: 2 Products - Buvidal
- How often is it administered?
- Vs. Suboxone?
- Weekly or monthly administration by health professional
- Less cumulative illicit opioid use vs suboxone
Long Acting Depot Buprenorphine: 2 Products - Sublocade
- How often is it administered?
- Vs. Placebo?
- Requires?
- Monthly administration by health professional
- Significantly higher percentage of patients abstinent vs. placebo
- Requires cold chain transport, refrigerate, stable at room temperature for max 7 days