Smyth, Bobby P.
Elmusharaf, Khalifa
Cullen, Walter
Article History
Received: 19 December 2017
Accepted: 30 April 2018
First Online: 4 May 2018
Ethics approval and consent to participate
: The study received ethical approval from the research ethics committee of the National Drug Treatment Centre, and this committee agreed that consent from individual patients was not required for this study. Only routinely gathered patient information was obtained. Patient specific information was not made available to anyone external to the clinical service where they were treated. This approach to consent is consistent with national data protection guidelines (see ExternalRef removed).
: BPS has received lecture fees from Pfizer, Shire and Eli Lilly. BPS was a co-PI in a RCT examining buprenorphine induction which recruited patients from the NDTC. That RCT was funded by Schering-Plough (now Merck), a distributor of buprenorphine worldwide. BPS was the lead clinician at the treatment service (the YPP) where this study was conducted. BPS has no other competing interest. Neither KE nor WC has any competing interest.
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