The ASSIST package, which consists of a brief questionnaire, a guide for health professionals on how to use the questionnaire in detecting and responding to substance use and also a self-help manual for cutting down or stopping substance use, is the result of more than 10-years work by WHO and an international group of researchers in the framework of the WHO ASSIST project. It is WHO’s response to the growing demand for guidance on how to best manage problems of substance use in non specialist health care settings. This approach, quick and easy to learn, useful for all substances including...

This manual introduces the AUDIT, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, and describes how to use it to identify persons with hazardous and harmful patterns of alcohol consumption. It is distributed with "Brief intervention for hazardous and harmful drinking : a manual for use in primary care" in a folder entitled "Screening and brief intervention for alcohol problems in primary care"

The AUDIT was developed as a simple method of screening for excessive drinking and to assist in brief assessment. It can help identify excessive drinking as the cause of the presenting illness. It...

Background

Harmful alcohol use is more prevalent among sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) than their cisgender/heterosexual counterparts. The reasons for this are complex, incorporating alcohol’s normalization and availability in social settings, its importance to identity construction, and drinking to cope with stigma and discrimination. However, commercial determinants have been underexplored, particularly how alcohol is marketed to SGM communities.

Methods

Scoping review methodology was employed. Searches were conducted in MEDLINE, Web of Science, Google Scholar, CINAHL, ASSIA, PsycInfo...

INTRODUCTION: In recent years, the governments of several countries around the world have focused on consumption taxes, which they use from two important points of view – the first point of view is the state budget, where through the increase of the point of consumption tax, revenues to the budget are increased. The second, no less important point of view is health and the environment. These political goals and the structure of consumption taxes as a means of influencing the consumption behavior of the population are, in many ways, the same in OECD countries. However, the difference is in the...

Background
Data concerning driving under the influence of alcohol (DUIA) are frequently characterised by their lack of availability, accuracy, or reliability. This inherent limitation poses challenges in the examination of the influence of alcohol policies on road traffic outcomes. The study pursued a dual objective:

1) delineating the methodologies employed in evaluating road traffic outcomes attributable to alcohol policies in instances where DUIA data are absent, and

2) scrutinising the impact of alcohol policies under conditions of missing DUIA data.

Methods
A scoping review was...

Abstract

Background

Frequent binge drinking is a known contributor to alcohol-related harm, but its impact on systemic and hepatic inflammation is not fully understood. We hypothesize that changes in immune markers play a central role in adverse effects of acute alcohol intake, especially in patients with early liver disease.

Aim

To investigate the effects of acute alcohol intoxication on inflammation-related markers in hepatic and systemic venous plasma in people with alcohol-related liver disease (ArLD), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and healthy controls.

Methods

Thirty...

In this bulletin, data on treated problem alcohol use for the year 2022 are presented, followed by trends for the seven-year period from 2016 to 2022.

The data are from the National Drug Treatment Reporting System (NDTRS), the national surveillance system that records and reports on cases of drug and alcohol treatment in Ireland.

Included in the NDTRS are cases treated in all types of services: outpatient, inpatient, low threshold, general practitioners (GPs), and those treated in prison.