Recent bulletins from the drug and alcohol bank:
Australia tries bar lockouts to curb alcohol-related disorder
For drinkers and businesses it sounds like a relatively painless solution to one form of alcohol-related disorder: instead of cutting outlets and hours, raising prices and controlling serving, simply ban late-night drinking venues admitting customers during final opening hours. The aim is to prevent disturbance-generating movement between bars without restricting business and drinking hours. The tactic has become popular in Australia and in one distinctive area it may have worked, but generally the evidence is weak. Perhaps there is no gain without some pain.
LSD 'as effective' as approved alcoholism medications
Could a single LSD trip provoke such a radical re-evaluation of their lives that it precipitates remission among dependent drinkers? According to this synthesis of the research, across six randomised trials it can and it has, and the results rival approved medications. Nevertheless, LSD seems unlikely to be welcomed in to the alcohol treatment pharmacopeia.
For most research, the impact of the therapist is noise in the system – a nuisance to be adjusted out of the analysis in order to focus on the therapy. This risks sacrificing what matters for what so often does not, so we stretched our hot topics to an issue which arguably ought to be sizzling in the research, offering a reminder of lessons from the past and from general psychotherapy.
Feasible intervention for short-sentence heavy drinkers
Short sentences precluding lengthy treatment are common among female prisoners, but often a single brief intervention session could be fitted in, a tactic tried by this US study to moderate the drinking of very heavy drinking women prisoners. The surprise was not that there were few benefits, but that there were some, especially after a reinforcing session usually conducted after the prisoners' release.
See the Alcohol Learning Centre, Alcohol Research UK, NHS Evidence alcohol page or NICE alcohol guidance and resources for further resources and information.
Comments