Recent bulletins and hot topics from the 
drug and alcohol bank:
Increase alcohol prices or taxes, decrease alcohol-related harm
Review confirms that alcohol-related harm has been curbed by increasing alcohol prices or taxes, but what happens to overall mortality remains unclear - and there is more to why people do or do not drink than health and harm
Authoritative review reveals limitations of medicating dependence
From the British Association for Psychopharmacology, authoritative, evidence-based and practitioner-friendly review and guidelines on drug-based treatments for substance dependence. Possibly arguable is their call for medications to be the default response to alcohol dependence. Arguably too, by comprehensively exploring what can be done with medications, in the end they demonstrate their limitations and the primacy of psychosocial approaches.
UK practice standards for treating under-18s
Practice standards developed by the UK’s Royal College of Psychiatrists on working with young people aged 18 or under with substance misuse problems, intended (if followed) to promote high quality screening, assessment and treatment for these young people.
Service safeguards welfare yet avoids children being taken in to care
Avoiding children at serious risk being taken in to care can jeopardise their welfare, but in Wales Option 2 seems to have avoided that pitfall by working intensively with substance using parents commonly facing imminent care proceedings. This second evaluation found the cost-saving service helps keep children at home without inadvertently causing harm.
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