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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July 2021

Association between opioid agonist therapy use and HIV testing uptake among people who have recently injected drugs: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Opioid agonist therapy may increase uptake of HIV testing among people who inject drugs, providing further evidence that opioid agonist therapy improves the HIV treatment care cascade.

Link to Abstract

Are psychosocial interventions effective in reducing alcohol consumption during pregnancy and motherhood? A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Psychosocial interventions appear to increase abstinence rates in pregnant women identified as consuming alcohol compared with usual care or no intervention and reduce alcohol consumption in mothers with dependent children.

Link to Abstract

A co‐twin–control analysis of adolescent and young adult drinking effects on learning and memory

An association between drinking and learning can be reproduced across cohorts, is not easily accounted for by confounding factors or concurrent cannabis use and is consistent with a causal influence of drinking.

Link to Abstract

Impact of reducing alcohol consumption through price‐based policies on cancer incidence in Germany 2020–50—a simulation study

Simulations suggest that a substantial number of alcohol‐related cancer cases could be avoided in Germany by applying price‐based policies to reduce consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Link to Abstract

Subjective alcohol responses in high‐ and low‐risk adolescents: results from the Dresden Longitudinal Study on Alcohol Use in Young Adults

High‐risk adolescent drinkers appear to have heightened sensitivity to alcohol‐induced stimulation and tonic (longer-term) high levels of wanting compared with low‐risk adolescent drinkers.

Link to Abstract

When the pubs closed: beer consumption before and after the first and second waves of COVID‐19 in Australia

Restricting the availability of alcohol from on‐premises during the first and second waves of the COVID‐19 pandemic in Australia was associated with significant reductions in on‐premises beer consumption, but not significant changes in off‐premises beer consumption.

Link to Abstract

Prevalence and patterns of hospital use for people with frequent alcohol‐related hospital admissions, compared to non‐alcohol and non‐frequent admissions: a cohort study using routine administrative hospital data

People with repeated admissions for alcohol‐related problems in England appear to be a high‐cost, high‐need, complex group of patients that makes up more than a quarter of the country's alcohol admissions.

Link to Abstract

Transfer of incentive salience from a first‐order alcohol cue to a novel second‐order alcohol cue among individuals at risk for alcohol use disorder: electrophysiological evidence

Alcoholic beverage odor, a proximal cue for alcohol consumption, appears to reinforce conditioning of neurophysiological responses to a novel cue among low alcohol sensitivity (LS) individuals.

Link to Abstract

An N‐of‐1 study of daily alcohol consumption following minimum unit pricing implementation in Scotland

Adapting N‐of‐1 methods for an observational study uncovered differences in alcohol consumption change before and after minimum unit pricing implementation in Scotland.

Link to Abstract

A US national randomized study to guide how best to reduce stigma when describing drug‐related impairment in practice and policy

There does not appear to be one single medical term for opioid‐related impairment that can meet all desirable clinical and public health goals.

Link to Abstract

Association between poverty exposure during childhood and adolescence, and drug use disorders and drug‐related crimes later in life

In Sweden, poverty exposure early in life seems to increase the risk of drug use problems in adulthood.

Link to Abstract

Heterogeneities in administration methods among cannabis users by use purpose and state legalization status: findings from a nationally representative survey in the United States, 2020

Cannabis users whose purposes are medical, recreational or both tend to differ in their selected administration methods: combustion, vaporization, ingestion, and/or topical.

Link to Abstract

First‐time offenders for recreational ketamine use under a new penalty system in Taiwan: incidence, recidivism and mortality in national cohorts from 2009 to 2017

Recreational ketamine use in Taiwan appears to lead to both high risk for drug‐related re‐offence and excess mortality.

Link to Abstract

Buprenorphine physician–pharmacist collaboration in the management of patients with opioid use disorder: results from a multisite study of the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network

A collaborative care model for people with OUD appears to be feasible and have high acceptability to patients.

Link to Abstract

Craving mediates the association between momentary pain and illicit opioid use during treatment for opioid‐use disorder: an ecological momentary assessment study

Among people receiving opioid agonist treatment, momentary pain appears to be indirectly associated with illicit opioid use via momentary opioid craving.

Link to Abstract

Association between age at first reported e‐cigarette use and subsequent regular e‐cigarette, ever cigarette and regular cigarette use

Adolescents in England who report using e‐cigarettes at 13–14 years have higher rates of subsequently initiating cigarette use than adolescents who report using e‐cigarettes at 14–15 years.

Link to Abstract

Factors associated with severity, incidence or persistence of internet gaming disorder in children and adolescents: a 2‐year longitudinal study

Among adolescents in South Korea, ADHD symptoms and more than 4 hours per day of on‐line games were associated with the occurrence or persistence of high risk for internet gaming disorder.

Link to Abstract

Laws limiting prescribing and dispensing of opioids in the United States, 1989–2019

The number of US states with opioid limitation laws nearly quadrupled between 2016 and 2019, with a great amount of heterogeneity between state restrictions and changes over time.

Link to Abstract

Dependence on nicotine in US high school students in the context of changing patterns of tobacco product use

Among US high school students, increases in the prevalence of nicotine product use from 2012 to 2019 do not appear to have been accompanied by a similar increase in the population burden of nicotine dependence.

Link to Abstract

Trends in electronic cigarette use and conventional smoking: quantifying a possible ‘diversion’ effect among US adolescents

A simulation model shows that a substantial diversion effect is needed to explain observed nicotine use trends among US adolescents, and it must be larger than any possible opposing catalyst effect.

Link to Abstract

Alcohol and tobacco consumption: What is the role of economic security?

In Australia, smoking and drinking appear to exhibit different socio‐behavioural characteristics and household unemployment appears to be a strong determinant of smoking.

Link to Abstract

Education tracking and adolescent smoking: a counterfactual and prospective cohort study

Education tracking (placing students into different curricula based on learning needs or abilities) appears to be a risk factor for adolescent smoking among Taiwanese adolescents.

Link to Abstract

Building a hospital‐based addiction medicine consultation service in Vancouver, Canada: the path taken and lessons learned

After a hospital was restructured into a large, interdisciplinary addiction medicine consultation service (AMCS), the AMCS saw a 228% increase in the number of consultation requests.

Link to Abstract

Availability of medical cannabis dispensaries and cannabis abuse/dependence‐related hospitalizations in California

In California, USA, the increasing density of medical cannabis dispensaries appears to be positively associated with same‐year but not next‐year hospitalizations for cannabis use disorder.

Link to Abstract

Emergence of wasp dope in rural Appalachian Kentucky

Among people who use drugs in rural Kentucky, USA, more than one in six people surveyed reported using wasp dope (made from insecticides) in the past 6 months, nearing the percentage using cocaine/crack (20%) and fentanyl/carfentanil (25%).

Link to Abstract