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Public Health
The intersection of substance use with broader public health concerns.
How to Implement Effective School-Based Drug Education
The United Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) outlines a number of methods that can be adopted by schools.
Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder: What's There to Learn?
This misuse of prescription opioids is a major public health challenge. Buprenorphine-naloxone (bup-nx) is typically used to treat opioid use disorders. However, the drug’s clinical trial primarily involved heroin users. It was therefore...
ISSUP at the Society for Prevention Research Annual Meeting
Last week Joanna Travis-Roberts, ISSUP's Deputy Executive Director, and Livia Edegger, ISSUP’s Communications and Research Manager, attended the Annual Meeting of the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) in Washington, D.C. Prior to the...
Socioeconomic Status and Alcohol-Related Harm: What's the Link?
New research published in The Lancet Public Health has examined the link between alcohol-related health effects and socioeconomic status.
The study suggests that the less affluent a person is, the less likely they are to suffer from...
How Do We Tackle the Opioid Epidemic?
The over-prescription of opioids is a significant public health issue in the United States. For example, opioids are often prescribed for minor injuries unnecessarily. This, in turn, increases the risk of addiction.
New research presented...
'Pre-Drinks': The Possible Dangers of a Growing Cultural Phenomenon
Preloading with alcohol, or ‘pre-drinking’, before a night out is becoming more and more common. New research carried out in a night-life district in Queensland, Australia, has looked to gauge the extent of ‘pre-drinking’. The study reports...
Receptivity to Tobacco Ads Linked to Smoking Susceptibility Among Youth
There is a strong link between receptivity to tobacco product advertisements and susceptibility to smoking cigarettes later in life, according to new research published in the journal Pediatrics. Put simply, the study suggests that the more...
Parental Absence in Early Childhood and Onset of Smoking and Alcohol Consumption before Adolescence
Abstract
Background: Parental absence, due to death or separation from a parent, has been associated with smoking and alcohol consumption in adolescence and adulthood. The aim of this study was to investigate whether parental absence in...
Current Tobacco Smoking and Desire to Quit Smoking among Students — Global Youth Tobacco Survey 2012–2015
Summary
What is already known about this topic?
Smoked tobacco products, such as cigarettes and cigars, are the most common form of tobacco consumed worldwide and most tobacco smokers begin smoking during adolescence.
What is added by...
Do α2-Adrenergic Agonists Decrease the Symptoms Associated With Opioid Withdrawal?
Study Selection
This systematic review included randomized controlled clinical trials that compared the administration of an α2-adernergic agonist with other interventions such as placebo or methadone to reduce symptoms of opioid...
Estimating the Cost-Effectiveness of Brief Interventions for Heavy Drinking in Primary Health Care across Europe
Background
Screening and brief interventions for alcohol are an effective public health measure to tackle alcohol-related harm, however relatively few countries across the European Union (EU) have implemented them widely. This may be due...
Non-Medicinal Ritalin Use: Study Enhanced, But Taking a Chance
New research published in the Journal of Neural Transmission highlights a number of potential adverse side-effects from using the stimulant drug Ritalin without a prescription. Ritalin (Methylphenidate) is medically used to treat Attention...
Effectiveness Bank Matrix Bite: Treatment not for the Patient but for the Community
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...
Gender-Specific Predictors of At-Risk Adolescents’ Hazardous Alcohol Use
Abstract
Background
Previous research has found strong associations between adolescents’ hazardous alcohol use and their perception of peer behavior, as well as own spending money and a range of antisocial behaviors. However, there is...
The European Drinking Table: Who Tops the List?
The recently published results from the European Social Survey provide us with an indication of who in Europe consumes the most alcohol.
Among the findings, notable are:
- The more well-off you are, the more you drink.
- The worse-off you...
Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids: A Free Online Training Course
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...
Excessive Drinking: More a Result of Low Socioeconomic Status Than Access to Alcohol?
Among US neighbourhoods, poverty and disorganisation, that is high levels of crime, drug trafficking and graffiti etc., may increase the risk of problem drinking, more so than the presence of bars or stores that sell alcohol.
In other...
State HCV Incidence and Policies Related to HCV Preventive and Treatment Services for Persons Who Inject Drugs — United States, 2015–2016
Summary
What is already known about this topic?
The United States has experienced a sharp increase in hepatitis C virus (HCV) incidence that can be attributed to injection drug use. Some states have used public health laws and treatment...
Current and Binge Drinking Among High School Students — United States, 1991–2015
Summary
What is already known about this topic?
Each year from 2006 to 2010, excessive alcohol consumption was responsible for approximately 4,300 deaths among persons aged <21 years, and, in 2010, underage drinking cost the United States...
Prescription Opioids and Risk of Dementia or Cognitive Decline: A Prospective Cohort Study
Abstract
Objectives
To determine whether prescription opioid use is associated with higher dementia risk or greater cognitive decline.
Design
Prospective cohort study.
Setting
Group Health, an integrated healthcare delivery system.