Methadone Medical Maintenance: An Early 21st-Century Perspective.

Methadone medical maintenance is the treatment of stable methadone-maintained patients in primary care physicians' offices under an exemption from federal methadone regulations. Reports from seven such programs in six states show high retention and low frequencies of illicit drug use. Patients and physicians indicate high levels of satisfaction.

Lack of Clostridium difficile infection in patients treated with rifaximin for hepatic encephalopathy: a retrospective analysis.

Goals: The purpose of this study was to assess the incidence of Clostridium difficile infection in patients who received rifaximin for the treatment of hepatic encephalopathy (HE).

Methods: Medical charts of patients who received rifaximin for the treatment of HE were reviewed. The number of patients who developed diarrhea during treatment with rifaximin and results of latex agglutination assays to detect C.

Durability of rifaximin response in hepatic encephalopathy.

Goals: To evaluate the durability of the response to rifaximin for treatment of hepatic encephalopathy (HE).

Background: The nonsystemic antibiotic rifaximin has been approved for maintenance of HE remission, and several studies have indicated the efficacy of rifaximin for acute HE; however, the duration of therapeutic response for >6 months remains unknown.

Study: Medical records of patients with cirrhosis who received rifaximin maintenance therapy for HE between January 2004 and May 2009 were reviewed.

Critical issues in the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection in methadone maintenance patients.

Aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a common chronic complication of injection drug use. Methadone maintenance programs contain large numbers of patients infected with HCV. This paper reviews HCV infection with emphasis on the medical care of HCV-infected, or HCV and human immunodeficiency virus co-infected, patients on methadone or buprenorphine maintenance.