BACKGROUND: The role of physicians is crucial in the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders and addiction. The quality of addiction-specific medical education varies, as do postgraduate and continuing medical education programmes in different countries. In order to ensure a high level of quality education, it is necessary to name and define competency-based quality standards that enable physicians to provide the highest quality care to patients.

METHODS: The objective of the study will be the identification of quality standards in competency-based postgraduate and continual...

BACKGROUND: The dropout rate from the treatment of patients with substance use disorders (SUD) negatively affects overall treatment outcomes. Little is known about the specific role of various psychiatric and psychosocial factors in the individual patients. Limited data is available in regards to mindset and addiction treatment, giving the opportunity of testing such interventions in the future.

AIM: To identify the key psychological, psychosocial, and other treatment related factors in the patients from the inpatient substance use treatment with addiction who have dropped out of the program...

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: Heated tobacco products along with electronic cigarettes represent the current trend in nicotine use. These novel products are appealing to teenagers and young adults especially. Generation Z representatives are characterized as native digital and internet users who are exposed to online marketing intensively including tobacco and nicotine products marketing. AIM: The purpose of this study was to explore how Generation Z perceives the promotional techniques of HTP products (IQOS and glo) in the Czech Republic.

METHODS: We conducted qualitative research using semi-structured...

INTRODUCTION: Smoking and tobacco products are long-term tolerated and socially accepted in many societies. In some socioeconomic groups and regions, this is considered standard practice. One of the ways to limit not only direct but also secondary smoking is an increase in the tax burden and an effective antismoking campaign. Adults exposed to secondhand smoke have a higher chance of acquiring coronary heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer as they age. Secondhand smoking has significant negative effects on the cardiovascular system and has been related to coronary heart disease and stroke in...

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV) among women who use drugs (WWUD) is reportedly two to five times higher than among those who don’t use. This study aimed to analyse GBV experienced by WWUD in 6 EU countries.

METHODS: A survey was carried out with 261 WWUD, and additionally, 492 professional staff working with WWUD were surveyed. Fifteen focus groups with WWUD and staff and 120 interviews with staff and key informants were also conducted.

RESULTS: WWUD reported a high lifetime prevalence of GBV (97.69%) of all types and in many contexts. Migrant, ethnic minorities...

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...

Background: Physical health problems are common in people receiving opioid agonist treatment (OAT). A study was conducted on these health issues in OAT patients in the Czech Republic and Norway from 2010 to 2019, with a focus on gender differences.

Methods: In this study, it was a population-based cohort study that linked multiple health records to investigate physical diseases (using ICD-10 codes) in patients receiving OAT in the Czech Republic (4,280 patients) and Norway (11,389 patients) from 2010 to 2019. A gender-stratified analysis was performed.

Results: The study found that both male...

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.

INTRODUCTION: In Spain, the offer of prevention programmes is very varied and structured, but today the challenge remains how to put evidence into practice. European Commission define a best practice as “a relevant policy or intervention implemented in a real-life setting which has been favourably assessed in terms of adequacy (ethics and evidence) and equity as well as effectiveness and efficiency related to process and outcomes”. The aim of the study was to describe the Spanish Project of Best Practice Portal in Drug Demand Reduction and Behavioural Addictions (the BBPPA portal).

METHODS...

INTRODUCTION: Prevention science and quality standards of drug prevention in the EU and in the world have developed in recent decades. Progress has been made in quality development in Croatia, but the experience of the process of improving the field of drug prevention and the implementation of quality standards in Croatia has not been described in detail in the literature. This case study is an example of adaptation of the European QS and the emergence of other quality assurance components in the field of addiction prevention in the Republic of Croatia. The study describes the Croatian example...

BACKGROUND: Implementing quality measurement is still a challenge in the field of drug treatment and harm reduction. In this case study, we investigate which strategies can be used to enhance the implementation of a policy in which quality indicators are made public.

METHODS: Building on an evidence-based methodology, this case study shows how an organisation in Flanders – the Flemish Institute for Quality of Care – develops quality indicators along with its strategies to implement the measurement of the indicators.

RESULTS: The study shows three types of quality indicators in the field of...

ВСТУП: У сприятливому політичному кліматі середини 2010-х років стандарти оцінки та відбору профілактичних програм, видані з огляду EDPQS (ASPIRE), були розроблені для підтримки планування проектів з профілактики наркотиків.

МЕТОДИ: Цей приклад є розповіддю головного координатора, відповідального за підготовку цього матеріалу для забезпечення якості.

РЕЗУЛЬТАТИ: Описано структуру, яка призвела до створення стандартів ASPIRE. Потім пояснюється виробничий процес і, таким чином, представлені 12 стандартів ASPIRE, що випливають з нього. Ці стандарти якості та пов'язані з ними атрибути утворюють...

BACKGROUND: Coolmine’s implementation of quality standards involves a period of change management, strategic planning, and national policy development.

METHODS: A narrative case study focusing on national policy and internal strategic planning.

CONCLUSIONS: From 2000, Coolmine embarked on a change management journey that kept the organisation at the forefront of drug and alcohol treatment in Ireland and internationally while maintaining fidelity to the Therapeutic Community. The strategy for quality assurance is replicable across similar organisations.

INTRODUCTION: The Cyprus National Addictions Authority (NAAC) is the main coordinating body for all matters related to licit and illicit substances as well as pathological gambling in Cyprus and it is responsible, inter alia, for the licensing, evaluation, funding (where possible), coordination, and reinforcement of all programmes, actions, and activities related to substances and gambling. Licensing and funding are based on the fulfilment of certain criteria and a certain level of quality.

METHODS: The process that led to the establishment of a quality standards system for licensing and...

BACKGROUND: The implementation of quality standards in the treatment of substance use disorders in Lithuania is not well documented in the literature. AIMS: To describe the process of the development of quality standards from grassroots initiatives to their integration into mainstream healthcare under the leadership of the Ministry of Health.

METHODS: Narrative review of retrieved documents, including related legal acts, followed by a subsequent content analysis.

RESULTS: The implementation was divided into three stages characterised by specific activities, leading stakeholders, and the...