Recent Findings alcohol bulletins: does raising taxes save lives?; Should dependent drinkers always try for abstinence?; recovery & families 'hot topics'

Recent bulletins and hot topics from the drug and alcohol bank:

Does raising alcohol tax rates save lives?

The multiple ups and downs of alcohol tax rates in New York state generally could not be shown to have prevented deaths from alcohol-related diseases, but there were exceptions. The message seems to be that tax rises need to be both substantial and across the major types of alcohol to affect fatal disease.

Should dependent drinkers always try for abstinence?

The bitterest series of disputes in the history of alcohol treatment research is explored in this new ‘hot topic’ entry. It came to a head in 1973 when the orthodoxy that abstinence is the only acceptable and feasible drinking goal for alcoholics was decisively cracked by findings that even physically dependent patients could learn to drink in moderation. Controversy was fierce, reaching to the US Congress, TV networks and the courts.

The therapeutic potential of patients and clients

Hard times and thoughts turn to ways to make resources go further. Ally this with the new recovery agenda and the emphasis on getting people out of treatment, and it is no surprise that mutual aid groups, recovery champions, and recovery networks have moved up commissioning agendas. Visit this hot topic for what we know about the impact and feasibility of turning problem users in to solutions to problem use.

Focus on the families

For once the focus is not on problem drinkers or drug users themselves, but on the welfare of their families – their children, partners, and parents, and what a UK report called the “forgotten carers”. Less forgotten certainly than they were, but still under-emphasised in policy and practice.