1,658 Results Found

Introduction: Although electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and other tobacco-related products are becoming widely popular as alternatives to tobacco, little has been published on the knowledge of healthcare workers about their use. Thus, the aim of...

The phenomenon of chemsex has emerged as an essential public health issue in recent years. This systematic review aimed to investigate currently available harm reduction strategies and to evaluate the efficacy of the corresponding interventions. Meth...

Alcohol abuse is one of the most important risk factors for health and is a major cause of death and morbidity. Despite this, only about one-tenth of individuals with alcohol abuse disorders receive therapeutic intervention and specific rehabilitatio...

The controversy of tobacco harm reduction in the United States persists despite evidence that an important audience of tobacco prevention and control, i.e., the people who use or are likely to use nicotine and tobacco products, are engaging in practi...

A carefully structured Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) initiative, with e-cigarettes as a prominent THR modality, added to current tobacco control programming, is the most feasible policy option likely to substantially reduce tobacco-attributable illnes...

While substance use disorders (SUD) continue to be a global concern, harm reduction approaches can provide sustainable harm minimization to people who inject drugs (PWID) without requiring abstinence. Yet, the evidence for the sustainable implementat...

Background: Internet gambling may increase rates of gambling harm. This current study aimed to assess Internet poker players’ views on various harm-reduction (HR) strategies. It also examined differences in these views according to the games pl...

Concerns about negative consequences of gambling diffusion are increasing. Prevention and harm reduction strategies play a crucial role in reducing gambling supply and harms. This study aims to conduct an umbrella review of the effectiveness of gambl...

Many countries, including the UK, recommend nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for smoking cessation during pregnancy. However, adherence to NRT is generally low, smoking lapse or relapse is common and using NRT to reduce the harm from the number of...

Purpose: This exploratory study investigated worker experiences of utilising the Before During After (BDA) harm reduction instrument to engage well with service users in a residential mental health service setting. Stakeholder interviews were conduct...

Chemsex is a growing public health concern, with little evidence-based care and support available. The aim of this study is to understand current risk reduction practices, and the information and care needs of gay, bisexual, and other men who have se...

While the construct of food addiction has been controversial, there is growing evidence that certain foods can activate biobehavioral and neurological mechanisms consistent with addiction to other substances. Despite increased evidence and acceptance...

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a chronic autoimmune condition in children that often requires long-term pain management, which can include opioid use. In the context of Canada’s ongoing overdose crisis, youth with JIA face risks due to...

This study aimed to identify and synthesize the success metrics used to assess hepatitis C elimination among people who inject drugs (PWID) through harm reduction strategies. A scoping review was performed by searching across three databases to ident...

The street homeless, those who spend their nights either in shelters or unofficial camps, whether in tents on a street or in society’s hidden spaces such as beneath an overpass, face multiple challenges beyond finding a safe place to sleep. Of...

Safe spaces are increasingly utilized to reduce alcohol-related harm, violence, crime and improve public safety in nightlife settings. This study aimed to determine the impact and return on investment of the Take Kare Safe Space (TKSS) program—a harm...

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) are marketed as safer alternatives to tobacco cigarettes and have shown to reduce their consumption. Here we report for the first time the effects of e-cigs on subjective and objective asthma parameters as well as tole...

Harm reduction drug checking utilizing paper spray mass spectrometry (PS-MS) has been the focus of ongoing research since 2017 and has seen many refinements. The presented work is the result of this research and has led to the public-facing PS-MS use...

In recent years, there has been an increase in the practice of chemsex, which is becoming an increasingly serious public health problem. The complex interaction between chemsex and mental health underscores the need to understand the psychological, s...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the opioid overdose crisis in the US. Rural communities have been disproportionately affected by opioid use and people who use drugs in these settings may be acutely vulnerable to pandemic-related disrup...

Harm Reduction (HR) was introduced in Mauritius in 2006 to mitigate the local Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic mainly driven by injecting drug use. With an estimated population of 55,000 drug users and an estimated population of 6600 injec...

New approach methodologies (NAMs) are emerging chemical safety assessment tools consisting of in vitro and in silico (computational) methodologies intended to reduce, refine, or replace (3R) various in vivo animal testing methods traditionally used f...

Smoking is a leading cause of morbidity and premature mortality among people living with HIV (PLHIV), who have high rates of tobacco smoking. Vaporised nicotine products (VNPs) are growing in popularity as a quit aid and harm reduction tool. However,...

Hepatitis C (HCV) treatment for people who use drugs (PWUD) decreases injection drug use and injection equipment sharing. We examined changes in injection drug use and injection equipment sharing following HCV treatment in a randomized trial comparin...

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who inject drugs face persistent health inequities, highlighting the need for programs that meet the needs of these groups. This study explored how intersectional stigma and discrimination affect Aborigina...

Taxes are a demonstrably effective method to suppress tobacco use. This study examined the effects of the tobacco parity (i.e., imposing taxes equally on all tobacco products) and the harm reduction (i.e., applying taxes in proportion to the products...

Background: Alcohol use is a major risk factor in premature death and disability, especially among youth. Evidence-based policies to prevent and control the detrimental effect of alcohol use have been recommended. In countries with weak alcohol contr...

Khat chewing/use, a green leaf with amphetamine-like effects is socially integrated in the Middle East and Africa. Khat chewing is often associated with tobacco smoking and occurs in closed places, such as a family home setting where the smoke-free l...

Background: Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is a dissociative anaesthetic that is sometimes used recreationally. The prevalence of N₂O use is difficult to quantify but appears to be increasing. Research on N₂O harms and application of harm reduction strategies a...

Aims and Background: People living with mental disorders experience a disproportionately higher burden of tobacco-related disease than the general population. Long-term substitution with less harmful nicotine products could reduce the tobacco-related...

Joint injuries are highly associated with the development of post-traumatic osteoarthritis. Previous studies revealed cell- and matrix-protective effects of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) after ex vivo cartilage trauma, while chondroanabolic stimulation with...

Epidemiological studies suggest cigarette smoking as a probable environmental factor for a variety of congenital anomalies, including low bone mass, increased fracture risk and poor skeletal health. Human and animal in vitro models have confirmed hyp...

Community Pharmacy Needle Exchanges are a harm reduction measure that have been established in a number of countries to provide access to sterile injecting equipment for people who inject drugs (PWID). To ensure that they are meeting needs, it is imp...

Community-level overdose prevention interventions often require collaboration among organizations from various sectors including emergency medicine, criminal justice, harm reduction, and drug treatment organizations, yet little is known about ways to...

People experiencing homelessness and alcohol dependence are at increased risk of a range of harms, including from COVID-19. Managed Alcohol Programmes (MAPs) are an alcohol harm reduction intervention specifically for this group. In this paper we rep...

With rising numbers of drug-related deaths in the UK and globally, exploration of interventions that seek to reduce drug-related harm is essential. Drug checking services (DCS) allow people to submit drug samples for chemical analysis and receive fee...

Research suggests that many people in the US are misinformed about the relative harms of various tobacco and nicotine products. Concerns about public misinformation have often been framed as relevant only to the degree that public health institutions...

Background: Smoking reduction remains a pivotal issue in public health policy, but quit rates obtained with traditional quit-smoking therapies remain disappointingly low. Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR), aiming at less harmful ways of consuming nicotine...

It is often claimed that low-risk drugs still create harm because of “gateway effects”, in which they cause the use of a high-risk alternative. Such claims are popular among opponents of tobacco harm reduction, claiming that low-risk tobacco products...

Across the world, the interest in point-of-care drug checking as a harm-reduction intervention is growing. This is an attempt to improve intelligence about current drug trends and reduce drug-related morbidity and mortality. In the UK, drug-related h...

People who use drugs are highly marginalized communities and are disproportionately affected by environmental changes—e.g., neighborhood gentrification—that affect housing availability and stability, particularly in urban locations. These...

(1) Background: homeless people are characterized by serious social vulnerability and difficulty in accessing health services worldwide. In Brazil, this population is supported by the Street Clinic teams who are challenged to establish intersectoral...

Background: The opioid crisis in the US is a severe public health issue, prompting pharmacists to adopt various strategies for prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery. Despite progress, barriers persist. Results: This commentary examines...

Preventing alcohol-related harm in drinking environments is a growing international priority. Factors relating to the physical, social and staffing environments in bars can contribute to increased alcohol consumption and harm. Understanding the relat...

Background: Overdose is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among people who inject drugs. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is now a major driver of opioid overdose deaths. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 participants...

Background: The tobacco industry has actively advocated for electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and heated tobacco products (HTPs) as harm-reduction alternatives to traditional cigarettes. Around 40% of smoking physicians have adopted HTPs. This stu...

The year 2021 was the most deadly year for overdose deaths in the USA and Canada. The stress and social isolation stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with a flood of fentanyl into local drug markets created conditions in which people who use...

We carried out a scoping review to characterize the primary quantitative evidence addressing changes in key individual/structural determinants of substance use risks and health outcomes over the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United...

We explored primary care physicians’ (PCPs’) beliefs and practices about e-cigarettes. Cross-sectional, semi-structured interviews with PCPs in 2014 were conducted and audio-recorded. Participants were 15 general internal and family medicine physicia...

Four arguments have been used to support smokeless tobacco (ST) for harm reduction: (1) Switching from cigarettes to ST would reduce health risks; (2) ST is effective for smoking cessation; (3) ST is an effective nicotine maintenance product; and (4)...