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For former alcoholics and illicit drug users, only a small per cent relapse into their addictions again once they receive organ transplants according to new research.

Only about six per cent of former alcoholics and four per cent of drug users will relapse according to the journal Liver Transplantation.

Demographics and pre-transplant characteristics showed little correlation with relapse, yet researchers did find that those who did relapse had poor social support, a history of alcohol abuse in the family and pre-transplant abstinence of less than six months showed small but significant associations.

Researchers looked at 54 studies that looked at more than 3,600 former substance abusers who had received transplants with the following outcomes: alcohol relapse, heavy alcohol use, illicit drug relapse, tobacco use, non adherence to immunosuppressants and nonadherence to clinic appointments.

The authors concluded that "future research should focus on improving the prediction of risk for substance abuse relapse, and on testing interventions to promote continued abstinence post-transplant".

Article published on 07/02/2008 by DryOutNow.com

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