Publications

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has recently released its European Drug Report for 2017. The document offers an overview of the drug situation across the continent. It covers drug supply and use as well as public health issues and drug policy/responses.

A key objective of Facing Addiction’s Action Agenda is to spread the awareness and adoption of youth prevention activities in your communities, examples of which include evidence-based prevention programming highlighted in the 2016 U.S.

Key studies on the role of management in the treatment of problem drinking in criminal justice settings and/or to safeguard the community. Just as for practitioners, for managers the challenge is to extract therapeutic benefit out of a coercive, punishment-oriented context.

‘High-risk drug use and new psychoactive substances’, a new report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), takes a look at the emergence of more problematic forms of new psychoactive substance use among a range of demographics.

The final row of the Alcohol Treatment Matrix enters the domain of treatment organised not primarily for the patient, but to safeguard the wider community, encountering what seems a core contradiction depicted on the cover of WHO guidance on alcohol treatment in prison.

A free online training course from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now available.

The course addresses the CDC recommendations with respect to the prescription of opioids for chronic pain as well as their treatment implications.

The aim is to improve decision-making and best practice while the overall health and well-being of the patient remains the number one priority.

A recently published White Paper by the Addiction Technology Transfer Centre Newtork (ATTC) starts with the premise that the substance use disorder (SUD) prevention, treatment and recovery workforce is currently undergoing an evolution as a result of changes to health care laws and advances in science.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) has released a new report detailing possible effects of psychoactive prescription drugs while driving. The study was carried out with the effort to inform policy decisions aimed at reducing the injuries as a result of driving impairment.

The following conclusions were reached:

The European Facility Survey Questionnaire (EFSQ) can be used for data collection in any country by those looking to investigate facilities that provide interventions for drug users.

Its aim is to collect information on facilities in respect to treatment systems, administrative characteristics, client usage, staff and quality management and core interventions.

The Talking Route to Recovery

Crack emerged in the late 1980s in Brazil. This emergence was a critical moment for public health; the growing AIDS epidemic led intravenous cocaine users to migrate toward crack use to avoid the use of injection drugs.

Psychosocial interventions are psychological or social interventions used to tackle issues related to substance abuse and behavioural addictions. They can be employed to identify and treat problems, as well as to assist with user reintegration back into wider society.

An updated version of the publication Prevention of Substance Abuse by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is now available in English. Global in scope, it provides an up-to-date review of prevention science and, in its considerations, covers drug abuse – including alcohol and tobacco – as well as behavioural addictions, notably gambling.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has released a number of new resources.

These are aimed at those working within the criminal justice system and other environments where people in recovery from drug addiction are ready to return to their daily lives.

This is one of 25 cells in the Alcohol Treatment Matrix. The cell discusses key research relating to the roles of psychosocial therapies in local treatment systems.

This document provides evidence for arguments supporting alcohol marketing regulation, and suggests key elements that can be considered by countries in planning, developing, implementing, and evaluating effective regulation. It also provides legislative language that can assist governments in developing or modifying existing laws and implementing monitoring mechanisms.

Latest instalment of online course on alcohol treatment research. See if you agree with influential US researchers that “organizational climate underlies the entire process of innovation adoption”, appreciate the effect of high staff turnover and how to reduce it, and ask yourself: Is my service even ready for change? Is change driven by targets just as good for patients as change motivated by the desire to improve their lives?

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has published an extended overview detailing the impact of certain drugs on brain functioning, as well as the most common experimental methods used in related research.

Neuroscientists primarily focus on two issues:

This manual is designed to teach cultural competence concepts, values, and strategies for engagement and treatment with Hispanics and Latinos with substance use disorders (SUD).

Fortnightly instalment of online course on alcohol treatment research starts with a study which concluded that “leaders have a cascading impact on their staff in ways other than through mandate”. Findings that post-training ‘coaching’ is needed to produce competent therapists mean management is critical to staff development and client progress.

Robust messages for the government from the UK’s official drug policy advisers: