Consortium on Vulnerability to Externalizing Disorders and Addictions (cVEDA): A developmental cohort study protocol.

Background: Low and middle-income countries like India with a large youth population experience a different environment from that of high-income countries. The Consortium on Vulnerability to Externalizing Disorders and Addictions (cVEDA), based in India, aims to examine environmental influences on genomic variations, neurodevelopmental trajectories and vulnerability to psychopathology, with a focus on externalizing disorders.

Methods: cVEDA is a longitudinal cohort study, with planned missingness design for yearly follow-up.

All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among People Using Extramedical Opioids: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: Extramedical opioid use has escalated in recent years. A better understanding of cause-specific mortality in this population is needed to inform comprehensive responses.

Objective: To estimate all-cause and cause-specific crude mortality rates (CMRs) and standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) among people using extramedical opioids, including age- and sex-specific estimates when possible.

Interim effect evaluation of the hepatitis C elimination programme in Georgia: a modelling study.

Background: Georgia has a high prevalence of hepatitis C, with 5·4% of adults chronically infected. On April 28, 2015, Georgia launched a national programme to eliminate hepatitis C by 2020 (90% reduction in prevalence) through scaled-up treatment and prevention interventions. We evaluated the interim effect of the programme and feasibility of achieving the elimination goal.

Frequency of injecting among people who inject drugs: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: People who inject drugs (PWID) do so at varying frequencies. More frequent injecting is associated with skin and soft tissue infection, blood borne viruses, and overdose. The aims of this review are to estimate the prevalence of injecting frequency among PWID and compare these estimates to current needle-syringe distribution coverage estimates, and identify socio-demographic and risk characteristics, and harms associated with daily or more injecting.

Associations between national development indicators and the age profile of people who inject drugs: results from a global systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Globally, an estimated 15·6 million people inject drugs. We aimed to investigate global variation in the age profile of people who inject drugs (PWID), identify country-level factors associated with age of PWID, and assess the association between injecting drug use (IDU) in young people and rates of injecting and sexual risk behaviours at the country level.

Methods: We derived data from a previously published global systematic review done in April, 2016 (and updated in June, 2017) on the percentage of young PWID, duration of IDU, average age of PWID, average age at IDU initiation, and the percentage of PWID reporting sexual and injecting risk behaviours.

Evaluation of a primary care-based opioid and pain review service: a mixed-methods evaluation in two GP practices in England.

Background: Opioid prescribing to treat chronic non-cancer pain has rapidly increased, despite a lack of evidence for long-term safety and effectiveness. A pain review service was developed to work with patients taking opioids long-term to explore opioid use, encourage non-drug-based alternatives, and, where appropriate, support dose reduction.

Aim: To evaluate the service and its potential impact on opioid use, health and wellbeing outcomes, and quality of life (QoL).

Hepatitis C reinfection after successful antiviral treatment among people who inject drugs: A meta-analysis.

Background & Aims: HCV reinfection following successful treatment can compromise treatment outcomes. This systematic review assessed the rate of HCV reinfection following treatment among people with recent drug use and those receiving opioid agonist therapy (OAT).

Methods: We searched bibliographic databases and conference abstracts for studies assessing post-treatment HCV reinfection rates among people with recent drug use (injecting or non-injecting) or those receiving OAT.

The cost-effectiveness of an HCV outreach intervention for at-risk populations in London, UK.

Background: HCV disproportionately affects marginalized communities such as homeless populations and people who inject drugs (PWID), posing a challenge to traditional health services. The HepFriend initiative in London is a model of care utilizing HCV outreach screening and peer support to link vulnerable individuals to HCV treatment in secondary care.

Objectives: To assess the cost-effectiveness of the HepFriend initiative from a healthcare provider perspective, compared with standard-of-care pathways (consisting of testing in primary care and other static locations, including drug treatment centres, and linkage to secondary care).

Prescription of benzodiazepines, z-drugs, and gabapentinoids and mortality risk in people receiving opioid agonist treatment: Observational study based on the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink and Office for National Statistics death records.

Background: Patients with opioid dependency prescribed opioid agonist treatment (OAT) may also be prescribed sedative drugs. This may increase mortality risk but may also increase treatment duration, with overall benefit. We hypothesised that prescription of benzodiazepines in patients receiving OAT would increase risk of mortality overall, irrespective of any increased treatment duration.

Externalising pathways to alcohol-related problems in emerging adulthood.

Background: Both 'early-onset persistent' and 'adolescent-onset' conduct problems (CPs) are associated with alcohol-related problems in emerging adulthood. The escalation of early CPs into criminal behaviour and heavy alcohol consumption prior to emerging adulthood are both likely to be important pathways.

Methods: Data were analysed from 3,038 young people in a UK birth cohort, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Cost-Effectiveness of One-Time Birth Cohort Screening for Hepatitis C as Part of the National Health Service Health Check Program in England.

Background And Objectives: Birth cohort screening for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been implemented in the US, but there is little evidence of its cost-effectiveness in England. We aim to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of one-time HCV screening for individuals born between 1950 and 1979 as part of the National Health Service health check in England, a health check for adults aged 40 to 74 years in primary care.

Methods: A Markov model was developed to analyze add-on HCV testing to the National Health Service health check for individuals in birth cohorts between 1950 and 1979, versus current background HCV testing only, over a lifetime horizon.

Alcohol use in late adolescence and early adulthood: The role of generalized anxiety disorder and drinking to cope motives.

Background: The relationship between anxiety and alcohol use is unclear, and moderating factors, such as drinking to cope (DTC) motives, may explain mixed findings.

Methods: Using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), we examined associations between generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) at age 18 and frequent drinking, frequent bingeing, hazardous drinking, and harmful drinking at ages 18 (unadjusted n = 3462) and 21 (unadjusted n = 2076), in a sample of late adolescent drinkers. Analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic, parental, and adolescent confounders.

Detachable low dead space syringes for the prevention of hepatitis C among people who inject drugs in Bristol, UK: an economic evaluation.

Background And Aims: Traditional detachable syringes used by people who inject drugs (PWID) retain larger volumes of blood when the plunger is depressed than syringes with fixed needles-referred to as high (HDSS) and low dead space syringes (LDSS), respectively. Evidence suggests that using HDSS may result in greater hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission risk than LDSS. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of an intervention to introduce detachable LDSS in a needle and syringe programme (NSP).

A comparison of trends in wastewater-based data and traditional epidemiological indicators of stimulant consumption in three locations.

Aims: To compare long-term trends in wastewater data with other indicators of stimulant use in three locations and to test the reliability of estimates based on 1 week of sampling.

Design: Comparison of trends in quantities ('loads') of stimulants or their metabolites in wastewater with trends in other indicators of stimulant use (e.g.

Monitoring liver transplant rates in persons diagnosed with hepatitis C: a data linkage study, England 2008 to 2017.

IntroductionLiver transplantation is an important measure of burden from hepatitis C virus (HCV)-associated liver disease.AimsTo describe transplant rates and survival in individuals with HCV infection from 2008 to 2017 in England through data linkage.MethodsThis is a retrospective observational cohort study.

Acceptability of a primary care-based opioid and pain review service: a mixed-methods evaluation in England.

Background: Primary care opioid prescribing to treat chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) has progressively increased despite a lack of evidence for long-term safety and effectiveness. Developing primary care interventions to reduce opioid dependence in patients with CNCP is a public health priority.

Aim: To report the acceptability of the South Gloucestershire pain and opioid review service for patients with CNCP, which aimed to help patients understand their relationship with prescribed opioids and support non-drug-based pain management strategies.

The Magnitude of Stress-Induced Genome Instability Results from an Interaction Between Ploidy and Antifungal Drugs.

Organismal ploidy and environmental stress impact the rates and types of mutational events. The opportunistic fungal pathogen , serves as a clinically relevant model for studying the interaction between eukaryotic ploidy and drug-induced mutagenesis. In this study, we compared the rates and types of genome perturbations in diploid and tetraploid following exposure to two different classes of antifungal drugs; azoles and echinocandins.

Evaluating the population impact of hepatitis C direct acting antiviral treatment as prevention for people who inject drugs (EPIToPe) - a natural experiment (protocol).

Introduction: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the second largest contributor to liver disease in the UK, with injecting drug use as the main risk factor among the estimated 200 000 people currently infected. Despite effective prevention interventions, chronic HCV prevalence remains around 40% among people who inject drugs (PWID). New direct-acting antiviral (DAA) HCV therapies combine high cure rates (>90%) and short treatment duration (8 to 12 weeks).

Data linkage to monitor hepatitis C-associated end-stage liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma inpatient stays in England.

Persons with chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection are at increased risk of end-stage liver disease (ESLD) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The impact of hepatitis treatment scale-up and elimination strategies on ESLD and HCC incidence is a critical measure of progress towards WHO targets. Data from national laboratory surveillance of HCV diagnoses were linked to inpatient care records in Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).