Home > BAP updated guidelines: evidence-based guidelines for the pharmacological management of substance abuse, harmful use, addiction and comorbidity: recommendations from BAP.

Lingford-Hughes, AR and Welch, S and Peters, L and Nutt, DJ (2012) BAP updated guidelines: evidence-based guidelines for the pharmacological management of substance abuse, harmful use, addiction and comorbidity: recommendations from BAP. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 26, (7), pp. 899-952. DOI: 10.1177/0269881112444324.

External website: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/026988111...

The first British Association for Psychopharmacology evidence-based guidelines for ‘the pharmacological management of substance misuse, addiction and comorbidity’ were published in 2004 (Lingford-Hughes et al., 2004). This is a substantial revision of that original document but using the same criteria and taking into account a number of recent documents from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and other organ isations which significantly enhanced the knowledge base. As before, the guidelines are not intended to provide an equivalent com prehensive review of psychosocial interventions since this is a major topic in its own right. In addition, the word ‘patient’ is used through- out the document for consistency, although it is acknowledged that in many treatment centres, ‘client’ or ‘user’ is the preferred term.

Scope of these guidelines
Our aim is to provide helpful and pragmatic guidelines for clinicians such as psychiatrists and GPs involved in prescribing to people with substance abuse or harmful use or addiction alone and with psychiatric comorbidity. However, the update should also be of interest to other practitioners in the substance misuse field, non- specialists, patients and their families. This revision was undertaken to update the guidelines in the light of new evidence focussing on areas not covered by guidelines published since the original BAP guidelines (e.g. from NICE). We have searched for new evidence concerning pharmacological management of alcohol, nicotine, opioids, benzodiazepines, stimulants and associated comorbidity with mental health problems and substance use or abuse in pregnancy.

In addition we have covered pharmacotherapy for younger and older people, for those with personality disorder, as well as for ‘club drugs’ and cannabis and polydrug users. We review pharmacotherapies in common clinical use as well as those with limited but promising evidence and highlight important areas of ‘key uncertainty’. We have reviewed the evidence in as brief a format as possible and refer readers to the other guidelines such as NICE, where more detail is provided. Whilst some avenues have developed, it is notable that many key uncertainties remained unchanged since 2004.


Item Type
Article
Publication Type
International, Open Access, Guideline, Article
Drug Type
Alcohol, All substances, Cannabis, CNS depressants / Sedatives, CNS stimulants, Cocaine, Opioid, Tobacco / Nicotine
Intervention Type
Drug therapy, Treatment method, Rehabilitation/Recovery
Date
May 2012
Identification #
DOI: 10.1177/0269881112444324
Pages
54 p.
Page Range
pp. 899-952
Publisher
Sage
Volume
26
Number
7
EndNote
Accession Number
HRB (Electronic Only)
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