Main problems experienced by the neighbors of open drug scenes, Tehran, Iran: a mixed-method study.

Background: Despite law enforcement and health interventions, open drug scenes have led to problems in many countries. The problems are, however, insufficiently explored. There are different types of drug scenes in Iran.

A caregiver's perspective on clinically relevant symptoms in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia: tools for disease management and trial design.

Background: Adequate detection of symptoms and disease progression in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is complex. Dementia cohorts usually utilize cognitive and functional measures, which fail to detect dominant behavioural and social cognitive deficits in bvFTD. Moreover, since patients typically have a loss of insight, caregivers are important informants.

Mortality, Causes of Death, and Predictors of Death among Patients On and Off Opioid Agonist Treatment: Results from a 19-Year Cohort Study.

Background: Mortality is increased among people with opioid use disorder but reduced while on opioid agonist treatment (OAT). However, the impact of patient and treatment characteristics on mortality and causes of death is insufficiently studied.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to explore mortality and causes of death and examine the impact of patient and treatment characteristics on mortality in an OAT cohort with high retention in treatment.

Indicators of Drug-Related Community Impacts of Open Drug Scenes: A Scoping Review.

Introduction: Places where people deal and/or use drugs publicly are known as open drug scenes (ODSs). Drug-related community impacts (DRCIs) refer to drug-related issues that negatively influence public and individual health, communities, businesses, and recreational and public space enjoyment. There are no well-established criteria for identification of DRCIs.

Organ pathologies detected post-mortem in patients receiving opioid agonist treatment for opioid use disorder: a nation-wide 2-year cross-sectional study.

Aims: To document organ pathologies detected post-mortem in patients receiving opioid agonist treatment for opioid use disorder and estimate the extent to which individual characteristics are associated with pulmonary, cardiovascular, hepatic or renal pathologies.

Design: Two-year cross-sectional nation-wide study.

Setting: Norway.

Post-mortem toxicological analyses of blood samples from 107 patients receiving opioid agonist treatment: substances detected and pooled opioid and benzodiazepine concentrations.

Aims: To present the substances and their concentrations detected post-mortem in patients receiving opioid agonist treatment (OAT) stratified by cause of death, estimate the pooled opioid and benzodiazepine concentrations using established conversion factors for blood concentrations from the Norwegian Road Traffic Act, and explore the association between drug-induced cause of death and the pooled opioid and benzodiazepine concentrations.

Design: Cross-sectional nationwide study.

Setting: Norway.

Reproducibility of EEG functional connectivity in Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Although numerous electroencephalogram (EEG) studies have described differences in functional connectivity in Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to healthy subjects, there is no general consensus on the methodology of estimating functional connectivity in AD. Inconsistent results are reported due to multiple methodological factors such as diagnostic criteria, small sample sizes and the use of functional connectivity measures sensitive to volume conduction. We aimed to investigate the reproducibility of the disease-associated effects described by commonly used functional connectivity measures with respect to the amyloid, tau and neurodegeneration (A/T/N) criteria.

The Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey: an analysis of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in 25 UK medical schools relating to timing, duration, teaching formats, teaching content, and problem-based learning.

Background: What subjects UK medical schools teach, what ways they teach subjects, and how much they teach those subjects is unclear. Whether teaching differences matter is a separate, important question. This study provides a detailed picture of timetabled undergraduate teaching activity at 25 UK medical schools, particularly in relation to problem-based learning (PBL).

Drug-related community issues and the required interventions in open drug scenes in Tehran, Iran: a qualitative study protocol.

Background And Objectives: Many low-income and middle-income countries experience problems with open drug scenes and drug-related community issues (DRCIs). These experiences occur in settings with varying levels of health and law enforcement initiatives, and accordingly a range of approaches are implemented to curb the problem. Most of the published literature stems from Western and high-income societies.

Mortality and causes of death among patients with opioid use disorder receiving opioid agonist treatment: a national register study.

Background: Mortality rates and causes of death among individuals in opioid agonist treatment (OAT) vary according to several factors such as geographical region, age, gender, subpopulations, drug culture and OAT status. Patients in OAT are ageing due to effective OAT as well as demographic changes, which has implications for morbidity and mortality. Norway has one of the oldest OAT populations in Europe.

The LASSO Program in Oslo: Harm Reduction Using Buprenorphine-Naloxone (Suboxone®) in a Low Threshold Setting.

Background: This is a 6-year retrospective quality control study of the LASSO Program (Low Threshold Substitution Treatment in Oslo), using exclusively Suboxone® (buprenorphine-naloxone [BPNX]) in out-patient settings. Adequate abstinence prior to induction is necessary to avoid acute onset opioid withdrawal symptoms; thus, its use in low threshold settings is far less common than methadone.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine if BPNX is a safe and feasible medication to use in a low threshold setting.

Differences in combinations and concentrations of drugs of abuse in fatal intoxication and driving under the influence cases.

Background: In toxicology, international classification systems focus on single intoxicants as the cause of death. It is, however, well known that very few drug related deaths are caused by a single substance and that information concerning the drug concentrations as well as the combinations of drugs are essential in order to ascertain the cause of death. The aim of the study was to assess whether those prone to fatal intoxications differ significantly from chronic drug users - in terms of demographics and drug exposure patterns.

The impact of individual Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (iCST) on cognition, quality of life, caregiver health, and family relationships in dementia: A randomised controlled trial.

Background: Cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) is a well-established group psychosocial intervention for people with dementia. There is evidence that home-based programmes of cognitive stimulation delivered by family caregivers may benefit both the person and the caregiver. However, no previous studies have evaluated caregiver-delivered CST.