Blattler Et Al Describe

Question 1

What was the aim of the study?

Answer 1

To investigate the success of giving maintenance doses of heroin to heroin users who also use cocaine, in order to see the effects of the heroin maintenance programme on their cocaine use.

Question 2

How many patients were in the sample?

Answer 2

266

Question 3

How many of the sample were male?

Answer 3

168

Question 4

How many of the sample were female?

Answer 4

98

Question 5

How long did the sample have to be addicted to heroin for?

Answer 5

18 months or more

Question 6

How old were the sample?

Answer 6

Atleast 20 with a mean age of 30

Question 7

How many attempts did the sample have to make to treat their addiction previously to the study?

Answer 7

At least two previous unsuccessful attempts

Question 8

Had the sample given informed consent?

Answer 8

Yes

Question 9

What year was this study?

Answer 9

2002

Question 10

Why were some potential participants excluded?

Answer 10

Some were excluded if they were found dealing drugs in the treatment centre, selling prescribed medication or using violent behaviour.

Question 11

What setting was used?

Answer 11

A naturalistic setting

Question 12

How long was the treatment programme.

Answer 12

At least 18 months

Question 13

How many clinics were followed and where?

Answer 13

6 different clinics in Switzerland.

Question 14

What were the heroin users given?

Answer 14

The participants were given maintenance doses of narcotics (and all received heroin though some received methadone)

Question 15

How much heroin was supplied?

Answer 15

The mean dosage of heroin supplied was 479mg daily and this was self injected under supervision.

Question 16

How often did patients attend the clinics?

Answer 16

2 or 3 times a day.

Question 17

When were participants interviewed?

Answer 17

They were interviewed at intake and every six months, which provided an initial and ongoing, self-report of cocaine use.

Question 18

How were interviews used?

Answer 18

Interviews were conducted by independent interviewers using a standardised questionnaire and consisted of questions about drug use and symptoms.

Question 19

What other tests were conducted?

Answer 19

Urine tests for drug use were conducted on entry to the programme and randomly, without warning approximately every other month. They were also tested regularly for hepatitis and HIV.

Question 20

What therapy were particpants required to attend?

Answer 20

Participants were also required to attend psychosocial therapy, such as counselling and to receive health care.

Question 21

What percentage of participants reported taking cocaine in the 6 months prior to intake?

Answer 21

84%

Question 22

What results were taken by the end of the study about cocaine use?

Answer 22

By the end of the study, the number of cocaine users taking cocaine on a daily basis had dropped by more than 80%, and the number of non users had almost trebled.

Question 23

By what percentage had the number of cocaine users taking cocaine on a daily basis dropped by?

Answer 23

80%

Question 24

What factor allowed the experimenter to give validity to his findings?

Answer 24

The fact that the price of cocaine had remained stable during the study.

Question 25

How many participants had this not worked for?

Answer 25

15 participants had increased the amount of cocaine they used.

Question 26

What was the correlation between self-reported cocaine use and level found by urine samples at the beginning and end of the study?

Answer 26

0.66 at the beginning and by the end was 0.82 which shows that the addicts had become more honest as the programme progressed

Question 27

What else dropped in numbers in the results?

Answer 27

The amount of addicts working in the sex trade dropped dramaticlly

Question 28

CONCLUSION What was concluded?

Answer 28

It was concluded that heroin maintenance in a high monitoring situation does help to reduce cocaine use.

Question 29

CONCLUSION how did the programme help?

Answer 29

The programme helped many addicts reduce their cocaine use and for some to completely stop taking cocaine.

Question 30

CONCLUSION what was also concluded about illegal behaviours.

Answer 30

It was also concluded that as cocaine use went down so did contact with the drug scene, sex industry and illegal income.