Recent bulletins from the Findings drug and alcohol bank:
No clear role for medications in less dependent drinkers
In 2013 nalmefene was authorised for moderating drinking among patients not in need of detoxification, extending pharmacotherapy to less dependent drinkers. Though uniquely authorised for this purpose, this review found other (and probably cheaper) drugs have been just as or possibly more effective, but for none was there high quality evidence, and for some substantial safety concerns.
Can drinking be reduced in a single session?
Review finds that heavy-drinking college students respond best to single-session brief interventions that use motivational and/or personalised feedback approaches. Key question is whether the drinking reductions – which the authors acknowledge are ‘modest’ in clinical terms – would be replicated in real life (as opposed to study) settings.
It pays to incentivise screening among patients with schizophrenia
UK study of how Quality and Outcomes Framework incentives for primary care boosted alcohol screening among patients with severe mental illness shows what could have happened had the incentives been extended across the entire primary care caseload.
The Alcohol and Families collection
Constructed for Alcohol Awareness Week 2017 on the theme of ‘Alcohol and Families’, this collection embraces two major roles for the families of problem drinkers – as recipients of support and therapy to promote their own welfare, and as therapeutic agents engaged in promoting the drinker’s welfare through family therapy or less formal involvement in treatment.
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