Recent bulletins from the Findings drug and alcohol bank:
Realising the potential of the 2003 UK alcohol licensing act
Seen as excluding health concerns and requiring an individualistic and ‘premises by premises’ approach, interviews with stakeholders and a revisiting of the 2003 Licensing Act for England and Wales suggest it could nevertheless be used to address public health and to implement licensing policies and decisions based on likely overall local impact.
Achieve reductions in drink/drug-driving while conserving treatment resources
San Joaquin county in California has pointed the way forward to a system which conserves treatment resources yet achieves greater reductions in drink/drug-driving incidents. The first evaluation of systematically escalating offenders to treatment if they fail a less intensive sentence found significantly reduced recidivism and accidents, and evidence that related injuries also fell.
Can a GP-led brief intervention reduce young patients’ substance use?
In French-speaking Switzerland researchers investigated whether training doctors to deliver a brief motivational intervention could reduce binge drinking and excessive cannabis use among 15–24-year olds. Though a year later fewer young people were excessively using these substances, the brief intervention was no more effective than usual care. So why did it seemingly fail to deliver?
Parent-child intervention reduces teenage drinking in poor US families
Long-term results from an alcohol use prevention programme developed for poor black US families with 11-year-old children reinforce the potential of an approach which engages parents and children to improve parenting and change the children’s perceptions in ways which curb the growth of drinking. Results were consistently positive, but methodological issues limit confidence in the findings.
Time for a résumé of the 2017 refresh of the Alcohol Treatment Matrix. Released fortnightly, the 25 cells and ‘bite’ commentaries cumulated to a course reflecting on the most significant research underpinning practice, leading you through seminal and key studies on brief alcohol interventions and the treatment of problem drinking. All the instalments remain available for you to dip in to by clicking on cells in the matrix, or by choosing a row to focus on.
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