Key Findings
This is a quick summary of the main discovery for each research paper we have published, organized issue by issue. Each key finding is below the article title, with a link to the abstract.
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September 2018
Perception of Physical Attractiveness When Consuming and Not Consuming Alcohol: A Meta‐Analysis
Consuming alcohol may have a small effect of increasing a person’s perception of the attractiveness of people of the opposite sex.
Alcohol industry involvement in policy making: A systematic review
Those who act on behalf of the alcohol industry are highly strategic, rhetorically sophisticated, and well organised in influencing national policy‐making.
Texting to Reduce Alcohol Misuse (TRAM): main findings from a randomized controlled trial of a text message intervention to reduce binge drinking among disadvantaged men
A text‐messaging intervention to reduce binge drinking in disadvantaged men did not appear to reduce prevalence of binge drinking at 12‐month follow‐up.
Reducing the standard serving size of alcoholic beverages prompts reductions in alcohol consumption
Reducing the serving size of alcoholic beverages in the United Kingdom appears to lead to a reduction in alcohol consumption within single drinking occasions.
Sickness absence diagnoses among abstainers, low‐risk drinkers and at‐risk drinkers: consideration of the U‐shaped association between alcohol use and sickness absence in four cohort studies
People from Finland, France and the UK who reported not drinking any alcohol over several years were absent from work due to illness more often than low-risk drinkers.
Sexual‐orientation differences in alcohol use trajectories and disorders in emerging adulthood: results from a longitudinal cohort study in the United States
In the US, throughout emerging adulthood several sexual‐minority subgroups appear to have higher odds of belonging to heavier alcohol use trajectories than those who are completely heterosexual.
Effects of a Prior Authorization Policy for Extended‐release/Long‐acting Opioids on Utilization and Outcomes in a State Medicaid Program
Oklahoma’s 2008 prior authorization policy for extended‐release/long‐acting (ER/LA) opioids may have reduced the number of opioid‐naive patients initiating ER/LA opioid use by more than half while increasing short‐acting opioid prescriptions by 7%.
Are changes in drinking related to changes in cannabis use among Swedish adolescents? A time–series analysis for the period 1989–2016
From 1989 to 2016 there appears to be a positive association (becoming weaker over time) between alcohol and cannabis consumption among Swedish adolescents who use cannabis.
An RCT with the combination of varenicline and bupropion for smoking cessation: clinical implications for front line use
The addition of bupropion to varenicline treatment does not appear to increase smoking abstinence rates above that of varenicline alone.
Testing associations between cannabis use and subcortical volumes in two large population‐based samples
In exploratory analyses based on young adult and middle‐aged samples, normal variation in cannabis use is unrelated statistically to individual differences in brain morphology as measured by subcortical volume.
Cannabidiol reverses attentional bias to cigarette cues in a human experimental model of tobacco withdrawal
A single 800‐mg oral dose of cannabidiol reduced the salience and pleasantness of cigarette cues, compared with placebo, after overnight cigarette abstinence in dependent smokers. It did not influence tobacco craving or withdrawal.
A randomized controlled evaluation of the tobacco status project, a Facebook intervention for young adults
Compared with referral to a smoking cessation website, a USA‐focused Facebook smoking cessation intervention did not improve abstinence over 1 year, but increased abstinence at the end of treatment and participants found it engaging.
Impact of current and scaled‐up levels of hepatitis C prevention and treatment interventions for people who inject drugs in three UK settings—what is required to achieve the WHO's HCV elimination targets?
Current opioid substitution therapy and high‐coverage needle and syringe provision is averting substantial hepatitis C transmission in the UK. Maintaining this coverage while getting current drug injectors into treatment can reduce incidence by 90% by 2030.
Does early exposure to caffeine promote smoking and alcohol use behavior? A prospective analysis of middle school students
Caffeine may promote early use of other types of substances among middle school‐aged adolescents.
Keeping Secrets: Leslie E. Keeley, the Gold Cure and the Nineteenth‐Century Neuroscience of Addiction
Dr Leslie E. Keeley was a famous addiction cure doctor at the turn of the twentieth century, but mainstream medicine dismissed him as a quack. The article examines the role of contextual issues in the acceptance or rejection of theories of addiction, particularly the neuroscientific theories of the early twenty first century.