ArticlePloS one2016
Elevated Hair Cortisol Levels among Heroin Addicts on Current Methadone Maintenance Compared to Controls.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Opioids and Their Endocrine Effects: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2020Pooled it
- Differences in anxiety, depression, and heart rate variability between patients with methamphetamine use disorder and heroin use disorder patients on methadone maintenance treatment.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Metabolic profiles associated with opioid use and opioid use disorder: a narrative review of the literature.Current addiction reports · 2023Article
- Evaluation of Serum Cortisol Levels and Response to Cosyntropin Test in Methadone-treated Opium Addicts.Anesthesiology and pain medicine · 2023Article
- The Role of Physical Exercise in Opioid Substitution Therapy: Mechanisms of Sequential Effects.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Naloxone precipitated withdrawal increases dopamine release in the dorsal striatum of opioid dependent men.Translational psychiatry · 2021Article
- Metabolic and Addiction Indices in Patients on Opioid Agonist Medication-Assisted Treatment: A Comparison of Buprenorphine and Methadone.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Minimally-invasive methods for examining biological changes in response to chronic stress: A scoping review.International journal of nursing studies · 2020Article
- The role of substance use, smoking, and inflammation in risk for suicidal behavior.Journal of affective disorders · 2019Article
- Long-Term Effects of Tai Chi Intervention on Sleep and Mental Health of Female Individuals With Dependence on Amphetamine-Type Stimulants.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Whether methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) can improve the basal function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is suppressed by long-term heroin consumption, is a matter of debate. The stress state and depression and anxiety symptoms may affect the basal activity of the HPA axis in MMT patients. However, the effect of psychological factors on HPA activity was not simultaneously controlled in previous studies. This study investigated differences in HPA basal activity between MMT patients and controls using psychological variables as covariates. The participants included 52 MMT patients and 41 age-matched, non-heroin-dependent controls. Psychological states were self-reported with the Perceived Stress Scale, Self-Rating Depression Scale and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale. The hair cortisol level was adopted as a biomarker of HPA basal activity and was determined with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. The results revealed that MMT patients had significantly higher hair cortisol levels than the controls (p<0.05), but the difference was not significant (p>0.05) when the perceived stress, depression and anxiety scores were used as covariates. We concluded that patients with long-term MMT showed higher basal activity of the HPA axis. The high chronic stress state and increase in depression and anxiety symptoms may mask the suppression effect of methadone on the HPA activity.
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