Factors associated with HCV test uptake in heroin users entering substitution treatment in Greece.

Objectives: People who inject drugs (PWID) represent the main risk group for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in most middle and high-income countries. Testing PWID is considered as an important prevention measure. Identification of PWID characteristics associated with HCV testing may contribute to strategies targeting the containment of the HCV and HIV epidemics in Greece.

Treatment and primary prevention in people who inject drugs for chronic hepatitis C infection: is elimination possible in a high-prevalence setting?

Aims: To project the impact of scaling-up oral anti-viral therapy and harm reduction on chronic hepatitis C (CHC) prevalence and incidence among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Greece, to estimate the relationship between required treatment levels and expansion of harm reduction programmes to achieve specific targets and to examine whether hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination among PWID is possible in this high-prevalence setting.

Design: A dynamic discrete time, stochastic individual-based model was developed to simulate HCV transmission among PWID incorporating the effect of HCV treatment and harm reduction strategies, and allowing for re-infection following treatment.

Setting/participants: The population of 8300 PWID in Athens Metropolitan area.

A network intervention that locates and intervenes with recently HIV-infected persons: The Transmission Reduction Intervention Project (TRIP).

Early treatment, soon after infection, reduces HIV transmissions and benefits patients. The Transmission Reduction Intervention Project (TRIP) evaluated a network intervention to detect individuals recently infected (in the past 6 months). TRIP was conducted in Greece (2013-2015) and focused on drug injector networks.

Assessing personality traits by questionnaire: psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman personality questionnaire and correlations with psychopathology and hostility.

Background: The Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ) was developed in an attempt to define the basic factors of personality or temperament. We aimed to assess the factor structure and the psychometric properties of its Greek version and to explore its relation to psychopathological symptoms and hostility features.

Methods: ZKPQ was translated into Greek using back-translation and was administered to 1,462 participants (475 healthy participants, 619 medical patients, 177 psychiatric patients and 191 opiate addicts).

D-amphetamine, cocaine and caffeine: a comparative study of acute effects on locomotor activity and behavioural patterns in rats.

Although open-field behaviour has been considered a valid and reliable index of locomotor activity in rodents, the simple measures traditionally recorded in this test do not readily allow for differentiation between compounds of the same general class, e.g. psychostimulants.