Research
Bioethical differences between drug addiction treatment professionals inside and outside the Russian Federation
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Correspondence: Vladimir D Mendelevich mend@tbit.ru
Kazan State Medical University, Department of Medical and General Psychology, 49 Butlerova Street, Kazan 420012, Russia
Harm Reduction Journal 2011, 8:15 doi:10.1186/1477-7517-8-15
Published: 10 June 2011Abstract
This article provides an overview of a sociological study of the views of 338 drug addiction treatment professionals. A comparison is drawn between the bioethical approaches of Russian and foreign experts from 18 countries. It is concluded that the bioethical priorities of Russian and foreign experts differ significantly. Differences involve attitudes toward confidentiality, informed consent, compulsory treatment, opioid agonist therapy, mandatory testing of students for psychoactive substances, the prevention of mental patients from having children, harm reduction programs (needle and syringe exchange), euthanasia, and abortion. It is proposed that the cardinal dissimilarity between models for providing drug treatment in the Russian Federation versus the majority of the countries of the world stems from differing bioethical attitudes among drug addiction treatment experts.