Cochrane

People who are addicted to opioids have high risks of receiving an overdose of opioid, HIV, hepatitis B and C infections and criminal activity. This has led to a harm reduction treatment approach to drug addiction. Treatment is aimed at a reduction in these risks and relapses to opioid and polysubstance use and promoting psychosocial adjustment. Methadone ...

Although intervention communities often showed substantial awareness of their programme, this rarely led to higher quit rates. Similarly, increased knowledge of health risks, changes in attitudes to smoking, more quit attempts, and better environmental and social support for quitting were not accompanied by reductions in community smoking levels. In ...

Opiate drugs are used to help people reduce their dependence on heroin (an opiate drug). Methadone needs daily doses, but the effects do not last 24 hours for many people. A dose of LAAM (levomethadyl acetate hydrochloride) works for two or three days. LAAM is not as widely available internationally as methadone, and may be withdrawn from the market ...

Anxiety can contribute to increased smoking, and may be a smoking withdrawal symptom. Medications to reduce anxiety (anxiolytics) may theoretically help smokers trying to quit. There have not been many trials, and none of them showed strong evidence of an effect on quitting.

Mecamylamine is a drug originally marketed for lowering blood pressure, which was found to block the rewarding effects of nicotine. At doses high enough to do this, though, mecamylamine can have significant adverse effects, including drowsiness, hypotension and constipation. It has been suggested that smaller doses may work well with nicotine replacement ...