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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December 2016
Behavioural tasks sensitive to acute abstinence and predictive of smoking cessation success: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Compared with satiated smokers, acutely abstinent smokers display higher delay discounting, lower response inhibition, and impaired arithmetic and recognition memory performance.
Buprenorphine compared with methadone to treat pregnant women with opioid use disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis of safety in the mother, fetus and child
Buprenorphine treatment of opioid use disorder during pregnancy appears to result in lower risk of preterm birth, greater birth weight and larger head circumference compared with methadone treatment, and no greater harms.
Finding success in failure: using latent profile analysis to examine heterogeneity in psychosocial functioning among heavy drinkers following treatment
Current US Food and Drug Administration guidance to use heavy drinking as indicative of treatment ‘failure’ does not to take into account substantial psychological and social improvements made by individuals who continue occasionally to drink heavily post-treatment.
Alcohol-induced place conditioning in moderate social drinkers
Non-dependent consumers of alcohol appear to develop a behavioral preference for locations paired with alcohol consumption, more so for those who experience sedative effects from alcohol in those locations.
The party effect: prediction of future alcohol use based on exposure to specific alcohol advertising content
Adolescents and young adults in the USA appear to have higher rates of alcohol use and binge drinking onset associated with higher exposure to alcohol advertisements using a partying theme, independently of exposure to alcohol advertisements with non-party themes.
Community pharmacist knowledge, attitudes and confidence regarding naloxone for overdose reversal
Community pharmacists in Australia appear to be willing to supply naloxone but have low levels of knowledge about naloxone pharmacology and administration.
Developmental course of non-medical use of prescription drugs from adolescence to adulthood in the United States: national longitudinal data
The non-medical use of prescription opioids, sedatives, stimulants and tranquilizers appears to peak during late adolescence. The developmental course of non-medical use is not the same among all four classes of drugs.
Estimations and predictors of non-compliance in switchers to reduced nicotine content cigarettes
Among smokers volunteering to smoke only very low nicotine cigarettes for 6 weeks, non-compliance was common and biochemical assessments detected more cases of non-compliance than self-report. Despite this, smokers reduced their intake of nicotine by an average of 60%.
Gambling and violence in a nationally representative sample of UK men
Among UK men, self-reports of problem/pathological gambling are predictive of violent behaviour after adjusting for alcohol and drug dependence, comorbid mental disorder and impulsivity.
How does state marijuana policy affect US youth? Medical marijuana laws, marijuana use and perceived harmfulness: 1991–2014
While perceived harmfulness of marijuana use appears to be decreasing nationally among adolescents in the USA, the passage of medical marijuana laws (MML) has been associated with increases in perceived harmfulness among young adolescents and marijuana use has decreased among those who perceive marijuana to be harmful after passage of MML.
Using Bayes factors for testing hypotheses about intervention effectiveness in addictions research
Use of Bayes factors when analysing data from randomized trials of interventions in addiction research can provide information allowing more precise conclusions than are typically obtained using current methods.
Long-term effectiveness of a combined student–parent and a student-only smoking prevention intervention among 7th grade school children in Berlin, Germany
A combined student–parent smoking prevention intervention delivered via secondary schools in Berlin, Germany, did not significantly reduce regular smoking compared with a control group or a student-only intervention. The student-only intervention did not significantly reduce regular smoking compared with the control group.
The Australian experience following plain packaging: the impact on tobacco branding
The introduction of plain packaging of cigarettes in Australia did not deter the introduction of new brands and variants of cigarettes.