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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June 2021

The association of smoking status with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, hospitalization and mortality from COVID‐19: a living rapid evidence review with Bayesian meta‐analyses (version 7)

Compared with people who have never smoked, current smokers appear to be at reduced risk of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, while former smokers appear to be at increased risk of hospitalization, increased disease severity and mortality from COVID‐19.

Link to Abstract

Adolescent income and binge drinking initiation: prospective evidence from the MyLife study

Norwegian adolescents with higher disposable income have a greater risk of subsequent binge drinking initiation than those with lower disposable income.

Link to Abstract

Shifts in alcohol consumption during the COVID‐19 pandemic: early indications from Australia

The closure of licensed premises and social distancing measures in Australia in response to the COVID‐19 outbreak appears to have reduced harmful alcohol consumption in younger drinkers, particularly women.

Link to Abstract

Alcohol‐related harm in emergency departments: linking to subsequent hospitalizations to quantify under‐reporting of presentations

Among young people in Western Australia, twice as many alcohol-related emergency department presentations could be identified by using diagnosis information from subsequent hospitalizations compared with emergency department data alone.

Link to Abstract

Recovery from alcohol problems in the absence of treatment: a qualitative narrative analysis

People who resolve an alcohol use disorder in the absence of treatment or mutual aid appear to explain their recovery in terms of at least four different life narratives: emancipation, discovery, mastery or coping.

Link to Abstract

Cross‐country differences in age trends in alcohol consumption among older adults: a cross‐sectional study of individuals aged 50 years and older in 22 countries

Use and harmful use of alcohol among older adults appears to vary widely across age and countries.

Link to Abstract

Effect of a 1‐year short message service in detoxified alcohol‐dependent patients: a multi‐center, open‐label randomized controlled trial

In Germany, a mobile phone message intervention enhanced the reduction in heavy drinking for 1 year in routine care among adults with alcohol dependence discharged from inpatient detox.

Link to Abstract

Applying Bayesian cognitive models to decisions to drive after drinking

In a hypothetical alcohol‐impaired driving (AID) decision task, individuals who considered both consumption level and ride service cost were more likely to report recent AID than those who made decisions based entirely on consumption level.

Link to Abstract

Risk of overdose‐related death for people with a history of incarceration

Previous incarceration appears to be a major risk factor for overdose‐related death.

Link to Abstract

Effect of alcohol label designs with different pictorial representations of alcohol content and health warnings on knowledge and understanding of low‐risk drinking guidelines: a randomized controlled trial

Labels with enhanced pictorial representations of alcohol content improved knowledge and understanding of the UK's low‐risk drinking guidelines compared with industry‐standard labels.

Link to Abstract

Perceptions of injectable opioid agonist treatment (iOAT) among people who regularly use opioids in Australia: findings from a cross‐sectional study in three Australian cities

Interest in injectable opioid agonist treatment does not appear to be universal among people who regularly use opioids.

Link to Abstract

Does correctional supervision of amphetamine users reduce the risk of re‐offending?

Correctional supervision does not appear to have been effective in New South Wales, Australia, in reducing the risk of reoffending among people convicted of amphetamine use/possession.

Link to Abstract

Availability of buprenorphine/naloxone films and naloxone nasal spray in community pharmacies in Texas, USA

Most pharmacies in Texas do not appear to be willing and able to dispense prescribed buprenorphine/naloxone films and naloxone nasal spray to patients with opioid use disorder promptly.

Link to Abstract

Age‐based preferences for risk communication in the fentanyl era: ‘A lot of people keep seeing other people die and that's not enough for them’

People who engage in illicit fentanyl use prefer fentanyl‐related risk communication that is compassionate and uses trust‐building approaches.

Link to Abstract

Experimenting first with e‐cigarettes versus first with cigarettes and transition to daily cigarette use among adolescents: the crucial effect of age at first experiment

Among older French adolescents, experimenting with e‐cigarettes first (as opposed to tobacco first) appears to be associated with a reduction in the risk of daily tobacco smoking.

Link to Abstract

Impact of policy changes on the provision of naloxone by pharmacies in Ontario, Canada: a population‐based time–series analysis

Changes to the Ontario Naloxone Program for Pharmacies to add intranasal naloxone and remove the government health card requirement appeared to increase pharmacy‐based naloxone dispensing uptake in Ontario, Canada.

Link to Abstract

Socio‐economic distribution of e‐cigarette use among recent former regular smokers and current smokers at ages 25–26 in England

Among young adult smokers in England, lower‐status occupational groups were more likely to use e‐cigarettes on a non‐daily basis than to have never used compared with higher status occupational groups.

Link to Abstract

Risk of neuropsychiatric and cardiovascular adverse events following treatment with varenicline and nicotine replacement therapy in the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink: a case–cross‐over study

There appear to be positive associations between use of (1) nicotine replacement therapy and myocardial infarction, death and risk of self‐harm and (2) varenicline and increased risk of self‐harm and suicide, as well as a negative association between varenicline use and all‐cause death.

Link to Abstract

The rewarding recovery study: a randomized controlled trial of incentives for alcohol and drug abstinence with a rural American Indian community

Contingency management incentives were associated with increased alcohol abstinence in American Indian adults living on a rural reservation, diagnosed with alcohol dependence who also used drugs.

Link to Abstract

Evaluation of the London Smoking Cessation Transformation Programme: A time-series analysis

The Sep 2017 promotion of the London Smoking Cessation Transformation Programme was associated with a significant increase in quit attempts compared with the rest of England.

Link to Abstract

Carfentanil and the rise and fall of overdose deaths in the United States

The 2016–2017 acceleration and 2018 decline in drug overdose deaths in the US was associated with the sudden rise and then fall of carfentanil availability.

Link to Abstract

A cluster randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of the school‐based drug prevention program #Tamojunto2.0

The drug prevention program #Tamojunto 2.0 reduced alcohol initiation but not past‐month binge drinking among students in Brazil.

Link to Abstract

Changes in alcohol consumption associated with social distancing and self‐isolation policies triggered by COVID‐19 in South Australia: a wastewater analysis study

Wastewater analysis suggests that COVID‐19 social distancing and isolation policies in Adelaide, South Australia, were associated with a decrease in population‐level weekend alcohol consumption.

Link to Abstract

Essential tobacco dependence medicines in 137 countries

Tobacco dependence medicines do not appear on the essential medicines lists of most countries.

Link to Abstract