Drug and Alcohol Findings, a UK substance misuse research bank, has published some recent bulletins relevant to the alcohol field:
Ongoing support encourages European GPs to advise heavy drinkers
Screening and brief intervention for risky drinking is a major plank in the English alcohol strategy. A WHO trial in six countries including England has shown that personal contact and ongoing support are needed to encourage even modest levels of intervention by GPs. Dowload pdf summary
Should addiction services treat co-morbid depression and anxiety?
Most patients at drug and alcohol services suffer depression and/or anxiety, far too many and usually not severely enough to engage mental health teams. Faced with this huge problem, should services offer special mental health therapies, or is substance-focused treatment sufficient? According to this review, the answers may be different for the two types of emotional problems. Download pdf summary
Little long-term disadvantage from choosing non-abstinence drinking goals
the largest alcohol treatment trial in Britain is used to address possibly the most contentious issue in the field - whether services should offer moderation as well as abstinence goals to dependent clients. Advise then let the patient choose, seems the general conclusion.
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Largest analysis to date offers practice insights in to motivational interviewing
Better than treatment as usual but not than other specific therapies are the headlines from the most comprehensive synthesis of motivational interviewing studies to date. Along the way are insights in to the equivocal value of manuals and of feeding back assessment results to patients. Download pdf summary
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