Round up

Citation

(2011), "Round up", Drugs and Alcohol Today, Vol. 11 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dat.2011.54411daa.004

Round up

Article Type: Round up From: Drugs and Alcohol Today, Volume 11, Issue 4

Compiled by Christine Goodair is Chair-Elect, of SALIS, The International Organisation for Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists.

Alcohol

Binge drinking – behind the headlines: under the influence. This report from Demos investigates how far parenting style affects children’s drinking behaviour in later life. Through the analysis of data, it finds that parenting style is one of the most statistically reliable influences on a child’s drinking patterns in adolescence and adulthood. Tough love – parenting which combines affection with firm boundaries – results in children being less likely to have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol in later life. It recommends that the government ensure parents are central to the forthcoming alcohol strategy, and makes it easier for parents to provide the consistent warmth and discipline that averts harmful drinking. Overall, the findings presented are positive for parents: the setting and enforcing of clear boundaries, mixed with high levels of attachment, can and do make a major difference. www.demos.co.uk/publications/undertheinfluence

New media new problem? Alcohol, young people and the internet. A report from Alcohol concern that looks at the growing importance to alcohol companies of social networking sites like Facebook and video sharing sites such as YouTube as a means of promoting their products. It also highlights the frequent practice of users of posting pictures and descriptions of themselves drinking and being drunk, and asks why so many of us choose to publicise our alcohol consumption in this way. www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/publications/policy-reports/new-media-new-problem

NIH study finds doctors miss many alcohol screening opportunities. Physicians often fail to counsel their young adult patients about excessive alcohol use, according to a study led by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. In the current study, Ralph W. Hingson, Sc.D., director of NIAAA’s division of epidemiology and prevention research, and colleagues at Boston University School of Public Health and Boston Medical Center conducted a random survey of more than 4,000 people in the USA between the ages of 18 and 39. The researchers asked survey participants about their drinking habits and whether they had been seen by a doctor during the past year. Those who had seen a doctor were asked additional questions to determine whether the doctor had assessed their alcohol use and advised them about safe-drinking practices during the visit. The researchers report that 16 per cent of those surveyed were non-drinkers, 24 per cent drank at or below daily or weekly limits, 47 per cent exceeded daily or weekly limits, and 13 per cent exceeded both. The findings are online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Reference

Hingson, R.W., Heeren, T., Edwards, E.M. and Saitz, R. (2011), “Young adults at risk for excess alcohol consumption are often not asked or counseled about drinking alcohol”, Journal of General Internal Medicine, available at: www.niaaa.nih.gov/NewsEvents/NewsReleases/Pages/alcoholscreeningopportunities.aspx

Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner’s Guide, has been produced by the NIAAA. Developed in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, clinical researchers and health practitioners, the guide introduces a two-question screening tool and an innovative youth alcohol risk estimator to help clinicians overcome time constraints and other common barriers to youth alcohol screening. The guide outlines different levels of intervention, with tips for topics to cover. It also presents an overview of brief motivational interviewing, an interactive, youth-friendly intervention that is considered to have the best potential effectiveness for the adolescent population. www.niaaa.nih.gov/Publications/EducationTrainingMaterials/YouthGuide

Pub crawl – alcohol use among students attending organised drinking events. The Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University has produced a report about the amounts of alcohol consumed by students by measuring and monitoring alcohol consumption, blood alcohol levels and drunkenness amongst students on pub crawls across three English cities Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University, UK. www.nwph.net/nwpho/Publications/pubcrawlreportApril2011.pdf

Topography of Drinking Behaviours in England Synthetic estimates of numbers and proportions of abstainers, lower risk, increasing risk and higher risk drinkers in local authorities in England August 2011 presents updated model-based figures (known as synthetic estimates) for the numbers and proportions of abstainers, lower risk (sensible), increasing risk (hazardous) and higher risk (harmful) drinkers for all local authorities in England for 2008. http://lape.org.uk/downloads/alcoholestimates2011.pdf

Drugs

A summary of the health harms of drugs: a reference document summarising, for a non-medical audience, the latest scientific evidence about the health-related harms of emerging and established licit and illicit drugs commonly used in the UK | NTA, UK.

A summary of the health harms of drugs – technical document: This technical document accompanies “A summary of the health harms of drugs”. It summarises methodological aspects of the work; articles identified through literature searches; and references for literature used | NTA, UK. www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_129624

Drug Policy in Portugal: The Benefits of Decriminalizing Drug Use – explores the effects of Portugal’s experiment with drug policy by looking at research into the change of policy and the survey’s that have gathered the views and reactions of the Portuguese. Open Society Foundations, USA www.soros.org/initiatives/drugpolicy

ECDC and EMCDDA guidance. Prevention and control of infectious diseases among people who inject drugs. This joint guidance document from EU agencies ECDC and the EMCDDA identifies seven interventions to reduce and prevent infectious diseases in this vulnerable population. The interventions proposed range from the supply of injection equipment, testing and vaccination to the treatment of infections and drug dependence. www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/ecdc-emcdda-guidance

2011 Afghan Opium Survey Opium poppy-crop cultivation in Afghanistan reached 131,000 hectares in 2011, 7 per cent higher than in 2010, due to insecurity and high prices, according to the findings of the 2011 survey released by the Ministry of Counter Narcotics and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/Executive_Summary_2011_web.pdf

Amphetamine Type Stimulants and Harm Reduction Experiences from Myanmar, Thailand and Southern China in this Drug Policy Briefing no. 37 from the Transnational Institute, The Netherlands, the author Tom Blickman considers the issues relating to the methamphetamine market(of which little is known) in the region, but comments that there are strong indications that the situation is deteriorating with substances becoming stronger, methods of use more harmful and the number of users steadily increasing. There is a need for governments to introduce effective harm reduction measures. www.tni.org/briefing/amphetamine-type-stimulants-and-harm-reduction

Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) – Evaluation Research Study.

The FDAC Evaluation Project – The Nuffield Foundation and Home Office funded Brunel University to carry out an independent first stage evaluation of FDAC. The aims were: […] to describe the FDAC pilot and identify set-up and implementation lessons; to make comparisons with standard court proceedings involving parental substance misuse, including a comparison of costs, and to indicate whether this different approach might lead to better outcomes for children and parents. This report and related documents, including a free-standing executive summary and details of the next-stage evaluation of FDAC, are available at: www.brunel.ac.uk/fdacresearch

New report published from the Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs (UK)

www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/agencies-public-bodies/acmd1/acmdnps2011?view=Binary

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) was requested to consider the issue of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) as one deserving careful and priority consideration. This issue has been a priority for the ACMD and of this government. This report provides high-level advice to the government on various practicable policy and legislative options that would tackle the on-going sale, supply and consequential harms associated with NPS and considers areas for research.

Other media – films, journals e-learning resources and databases

Wobblystan a film and web site produced as part of a benzodiazepine awareness campaign based on the experiences of service users in Redcar and Cleveland. The film and booklet offer advice for new benzo users or for those thinking about using benzos for the first time from experienced benzo users.

www.wobblystan.co.uk/benzodiazepines.html

Parental substance misuse e-learning resource produced by The Social Care Institute for Excellence’s is designed to support social workers responsible for “children in need” when working with families where a parent or parents are misusing drugs or alcohol and provides social workers with enough information to be able to make judgements about the possible impact on children that they are responsible for. The resource is modular and covers defining and recognising substance misuse, the effects on people, health and treatment options, and relationships with families. www.scie.org.uk/news/mediareleases/2011/121011.asp

Addiction Research Monthly (ARM) is the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse’s monthly index of recently published peer reviewed articles on addiction and the use or misuse of alcohol and illicit drugs. It includes review articles, meta-analyses as well as peer-reviewed articles from CCSA staff. Formerly developed to guide the work of CCSA and its key working groups, it is now being made more widely available via its web site. www.ccsa.ca/Eng/NewsAndEvents/Information_Share/AddictionResearchMonthly/Pages/default.aspx

Australian Drug Information Network., ADIN is a federated search engine of Alcohol and other drugs material across Australia. It provides a central point of access to quality Internet-based AOD information provided by prominent organizations in Australia and inter-nationally. ADIN is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing as part of the National Drug Strategy, and is managed by the Australian Drug Foundation. ADIN delivers alcohol and drug information to its web site visitors who search it’s large collection of quality-assessed websites and databases. Organisations and individuals can search and share relevant information on licit and illicit drug issues. www.adin.com.au/

The Journal of Addiction Research and Therapy (ISSN: 2155-6105) is an open-access, international, peer-reviewed journal publishing an overview of human research on substance abuse which includes contents geared towards behavioural, psycho-logical, genetic, neurobiological and pharmacological aspects. It is published as an open access journal with the aim of advancing our understanding of the action of drugs and their addictive processes, diagnosis, harmful effects as well as assist in prevention and treatments of addiction. Authors are charged a publication fee (based on a sliding scale) to cover the costs of peer reviewing and publishing their articles in order to make their article available to the public at no cost. Features of this journal include an audio version of articles and a language translator. http://omicsonline.org/JARThome.php; www.niaaa.nih.gov/Publications/EducationTrainingMaterials/YouthGuide, 17 October 2011.