Harrison Act

Research Exercise 3-1

1. What was the purpose of the Harrison Act of 1914?

The purpose of the Harrison Act of 1914 is to prevent physicians treat opioid addicted patients with opioid. The government considered that this technique was not a real treatment in order to eliminate the addiction of opioid.

2. What did methadone clinics do for the stigma of opioid addiction?

Methadone clinics came up with an office-based treatment with buprenorphine. This new treatment has lessened the stigma developed with the previous treatment with opioid but there is still bias support against these patients.

3. What new medication has lessened the stigma?

The new medication that has lessened the stigma is buprenorphine.

4. What are the problems with the DSM-IV-TR in terms of those receiving agonist therapy?

The DSM-IV-TR doesn’t allow patients receiving agonist therapy to be in remission until they are at least one month without receiving the agonist therapy.

5. Does the DSM-IV-TR specify what is considered remission for any of the substance abuse disorders?

The DSM-IV-TR does not specify under what circumstances a patients is under remission by most of the substance abuse disorders.

6. Compare and contrast the DSM-IV-TR and the ICD-10.

Both, the DSM-IV-TH and the ICD-10 are systems to diagnose substance abuse disorders. Both provide a separate qualifier for patients addicted to opioid. Both, do not consider in remission or currently abstinent accordingly patients who are under methadone treatment. At the same time, ICD-10 uses the term “currently abstinent” while the DSM-IV-TR uses “in remission”.

7. Why should a patient be considered in remission, despite the lack of criteria in the DSM-IV-TR and the ICD-10?

First, there is an increasing amount of patients with opioid addiction who are in a full or partial agonist therapy. These increases require a rethink on whether patients should be considering being in remission or not. Also, opioid patients...