Recent bulletins and hot topics from the 
drug and alcohol bank:
Combine medications for depressed dependent drinkers
First evidence that combining sertraline for depression with naltrexone for drinking is more effective than either medication alone when dependent drinking is complicated by clinical depression.
Hot topics:
Can brief alcohol interventions improve health population-wide?
In Britain the ambition to implement universal screening of adult primary care patients has been scaled back to targeted screening of new patients or those thought possibly at risk. Unchanged was the insistence that risky drinkers should then be offered brief but well structured and scientifically developed advice. Then came the government-funded SIPS project, which called both targeted screening and the need for advice in to question.
Mental illness and substance use: which is chicken, and which egg?
With as many as three quarters of their clients suffering from mental health problems, deciding how to respond is a major and long-standing concern for British drug and alcohol services. Should they or psychiatric services take the lead, and should dependence be treated first, or treatment run in parallel?
Can 12-step mutual aid bridge recovery resources deficit?
Paralleling the rise in abstinence-based recovery in UK national strategies has been a rise in the profile of the best-known programme for achieving this – the 12 steps of mutual aid fellowships and allied treatments. For the UK, these offer a way to reconcile diminished resources with the desire to get more patients safely out of treatment, but is the resurgence of interest matched by evidence of effectiveness?
Job opportunity – Findings editorial assistant
Drug and Alcohol Findings is seeking a full-time Editorial assistant to work with the Editor collecting and analysing research evaluating treatment and prevention interventions. Read more about job requirements and application process here [pdf] - closing date 13th July.
Comments