BNP worsens 12 days after alcohol cessation while other cardiovascular risk biomarkers improve: An observational study.

Subjects with alcohol use disorder (AUD) display a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (CRFs), and a high incidence of cardiovascular diseases associated with an earlier mortality. Abstinence has long-term cardiovascular and global health benefits. However, few studies have examined the short-term effect of alcohol cessation on cardiac function and key CRFs.

[Benzodiazepine cessation in ambulatory practice. A review].

Seven studies evaluated pharmacological treatments and 12 studies evaluated non-pharmacological interventions including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), minimal interventions toward patients, pharmacists or physicians, or dedicated visits, in order to discontinue benzodiazepines treatments. Among pharmacological treatments, only melatonin was significantly efficacious in patients suffering from insomnia alone. BCT showed efficacy in increasing self-efficacy feeling toward BZD cessation and in patients with sleep disorders.

QT length during methadone maintenance treatment: gene × dose interaction.

Methadone is known to be a risk factor for sudden death by enlarging ECG QT corrected (QTc) interval. For other medical conditions, QTc lengthening has been described as the result of interactions between pharmacological treatments and genetic factors. Former heroin-dependent subjects under methadone maintenance treatment in remission for at last 3 months were recruited.

[Temporary approval for intranasal naloxone: Setting up in a French addiction center].

Intranasal naloxone aims at preventing opioid overdose related deaths in active drug users. In France, it has been available since July 2016 through a temporary approval which requires a hospital-based pharmacy and a nominative registration of each patient. We present the characteristics of the first patients who could receive this prescription in our hospital-based addiction center and how they used naloxone during follow-up.