Effectiveness Bank Bulletins

Our archive of bulletins sent out to subscribers alerting them to the latest evaluation studies, reviews and other documents relevant to improving outcomes from drug or alcohol interventions in the United Kingdom. Latest bulletin listed first. Move mouse over date to see contents list. Click on date for full bulletin or in contents list for selected items.

Enter and send e-mail address below for alerts of bulletins and studies added to the Effectiveness Bank.

2013

• 8 May
  What is 'recovery'? ... Ways to extend cocaine treatment gains ... Starting methadone in prison promotes treatment on release ... Teenage peer influence on drinking is no illusion ...
• 11 April
  'Treatment-resistant' skid-row alcoholics react to organised empathy ... Clinician training little use if it falls on stony organisational ground ... Socially skilled alcohol counsellors reduce relapse rate ... Motivate rather than confront problem drinkers ...
• 26 March
  New public health objectives for England including drugs and alcohol ... Engaging partners in treatment aids patient and family ... Gains fade from specialist youth therapeutic community ... Nurse-led hepatitis education cost-effective way to curb drinking in methadone patients ...
• 18 March
  Therapeutic relationships and meeting needs at heart of treatment process ... Prescribing injectable heroin benefits women as well as men ... Slow-release morphine offers alternative for methadone-intolerant heroin addicts ... Post-emergency visit text message advice moderates drinking ...
• 25 February
  Getting the right people from the start is key to effective training and therapy ... The client is walking towards a hole; do you shout 'Stop' or suggest they consider the pros and cons? ... Methadone doctors have to learn to be patient-centred and relinquish control ... Overcoming staff bias against maintenance and harm reduction ...
• 20 February
  Electronic prompts mean more primary care patients get advised about drinking ... Leadership commitment needed to implement electronic alcohol advice prompts ... Most risky drinkers missed in primary care because patients underreport drinking ... How to assess progress in implementing screening and brief alcohol interventions ... What it takes to implement alcohol screening and brief intervention ...
• 15 February
  Addiction treatment numbers fall in Scotland but hepatitis C is on the rise ... Unmet need undermines contribution of alcohol treatment in England ... UK clinical guidance on treating dependent drinkers ... Young treatment refusers can be engaged in treatment ... Top-level evidence-based advice on national illegal drug policy ...
• 28 January
  First major report from crucial English alcohol screening and brief intervention trials ... Rapid withdrawal and opiate-blockers work for Iranian addicts ... Give injectors foil to promote smoking instead say UK advisers ... No youth health benefits after alcopops tax hike in Australia ... Switching erodes impact of doubling alcopops price in Germany ...
• 17 January
  Single question identifies most problem drinkers ... Half-hour of advice may cut drinking in repeat drink-driving offenders ... Scottish randomised trial tests need to supervise methadone ... Troubled families improve after family intervention ...
• 8 January
  Enforcing youth smoking ban also reduced drinking and drug use ... Tough love for Baltimore's non-compliant methadone patients ... Bronx heroin addicts manage their own buprenorphine induction ... Rare randomised trial finds female prisoners benefit from gender-specific treatment ...

2012

• 20 December
  Real-world Canadian evidence supports minimum alcohol pricing ... Minimum price for alcohol has reduced consumption ... Scotland exceeds national brief alcohol interventions target ... Transformative potential of first EU prevention standards ...
• 28 November
  PROMETA drug protocol does not help treat methamphetamine dependence ... Retention universal marker of successful opiate addiction treatment ... No quick way out of treatment for prescription opioid addicts ... Motivational interviewing works but no better than other therapies ...
• 6 November
  Fewer under-18s need specialist treatment in England ... Road-tested good ideas to prevent underage alcohol sales ... Too little evidence to recommend drug/alcohol testing lorry drivers ... Lock them up and throw away the key laws costly and unnecessary ...
• 30 October
  Extend methadone and needle exchange but more needed to fight hepatitis C ... Hepatitis C can be prevented by methadone plus needle exchange ... Hepatitis C curbed by needle exchange but still rampant ... Needle exchange closure demonstrates its worth ...
• 22 October
  Social cost of drinking totals little better than nonsense ... Mailed alcohol screening feedback more realistic for emergency departments ... Evidence for positive psychology and overlaps with recovery movement ... First trial finds positive psychology aids troubled young drinkers ...
• 8 October
  Expert advice on how to get the treatment system working better ... Global performance feedback no use to counsellors ... Feedback on individuals helps counsellors reverse poor progress ... Common treatment quality yardstick poor reflection of patient progress ... US payment-by-results scheme did not improve engagement with treatment ... Acid test for implementing evidence-based treatment ...
• 19 September
  Cochrane review confirms methadone maintenance prevents spread of HIV ... Canadian guidelines on prescribing buprenorphine/naloxone for opioid dependence ... Brief intervention makes no difference to heart disease risk ... Arranging an abstinence-promoting social life aids Spanish cocaine users ...
• 10 September
  Extra therapy does not improve on methadone plus counselling ... Therapy means more complete opiate detoxification ... Substance using pupils cut back after health promotion session ... Few sustained gains from health promotion session with college students ...
• 30 August
  School-based alcohol prevention best when it does not target alcohol ... Working with families helps prevent adolescent drinking ... More does not always mean better in preventing youth drinking ...
• 11 August
  Early drop-out typical at residential therapeutic communities ... Residential rehabilitation in England weakened by early drop-out ... Scottish drug strategy needs to show concrete evidence of recovery ... Lessons of test bed for alcohol harm reduction innovations ...
• 9 August
  Overdose death risk low with opiate-blocking implants ... Take-home methadone common in British addiction treatment ... Whole team training may counter detox ward staff burn-out ... How to achieve positive change in Welsh drinking culture ...
• 24 July
  Single question enough to identify most heavy drinking offenders ... Despite senior support most detainees not screened for risky drinking ... Screening offenders for risky drinking not a priority in Scotland ... EU calls for widespread methadone and syringes to prevent disease ...
• 18 July
  Crucial report aims to rehabilitate methadone as a recovery tool ... No need for heart tests on all methadone patients ... Heart tests reveal no heightened risk at London methadone clinic ... Cocaine aggravates any methadone-related heart risk ...
• 5 July
  Successful completion really does indicate successful treatment ... More drug addicts overcoming dependence and leaving treatment ... Crime cut among offenders entering addiction treatment ... Crime dividend makes cutting addiction treatment a false economy ... More under-18s successfully complete alcohol/drug treatment...
• 21 June
  Simple feedback intervention dramatically improves treatment retention ... Half century of evidence on which drugs aid alcohol treatment ... Community involvement and law enforcement safeguard pub/clubgoers ... Scottish health service cautious about computer-based alcohol advice and therapy ...
• 15 June
  Heroin prescribing rescues methadone failures ... No community detriment from London heroin prescribing clinic ... Heroin trial patients disappear from street drinking register ... Why prescribe heroin? (PDF download) ... Not treatment, but humane and medically advisable (PDF download) ...
• 10 June
  Threat of aversive disulfiram reaction does deter drinking ... Disulfiram as post-detoxification norm rather than niche option ... Danish patients just stop taking the tablets ... Major UK trial finds supervised disulfiram cuts drinking ... Landmark US study suggests compliance is key to disulfiram treatment (PDF download) ...
• 23 May
  More QALYs to the pound from brief warning in primary care ... Emergency departments need specialist support ... From offenders on probation, hints of the value of extended advice ... US guide to emergency unit alcohol screening and brief advice ...
• 8 May
  10-minute web alcohol check-up and advice leads 1000s to cut back ... CBT programme for harmful drinkers passes lab and real-world tests ... Too soon to get rid of the therapists ... Internet self-help low-cost way to extend public health impact of alcohol interventions ... On-line alcohol interventions would improve health care value for money ...
• 21 April
  New UK alcohol strategy opts for unit pricing ... How well does Britain support the families of problem drug users? ... No crime reduction dividend from counselling drunk arrestees ... Dependent crack smokers respond well to drug counselling ...
• 10 April
  Crime lower among clients of probation officers trained to tailor supervision ... Adjusting sentencing to offender need and risk reduces crime ... Extensive review bemoans evidence quality but supports drug courts ... US Congress expenditure watchdog endorses drug courts ... Ways to make drug courts more effective and more cost-effective ...
• 28 March
  Motivational interviewing helps heavy drinking US students cut down ... Inform and exhort not enough to improve hospital screening rate ... How therapists can engage parents in family therapy ... Month-long opiate-blocking injections help Russian addicts stay off heroin ...
• 15 March
  Below-cost ban would stop fewer than 1 in 50 alcohol discount offers ... Remarkable preventive impacts from grade 1 good behaviour programme ... Advocacy for problem drug users; optional extra rather than an essential ... Aftercare phone calls need to do more than check progress to make a difference ...
• 5 March
  UK clinical guidance on treating dependent drinkers ... UK clinical guidance on treating acute alcohol withdrawal ... UK guidance on commissioning services for problem drinkers ... UK health quality standards on identifying and caring for problem drinkers ... UK public health guidance on preventing problem drinking ...
• 29 February
  Inpatients often gain little more from alcohol advice than from screening ... Alcohol screening/brief advice: it can work, but how do you get it to happen? ... How many hazardous drinkers are identified and advised in London hospitals? ... Group CBT fails to reduce reconviction rate among UK offenders ...
• 27 February
  Implants help sustain heroin abstinence after detoxification ... Implants equal methadone as a prison-community bridging treatment ... False confidence leads formerly addicted prisoners to reject in-prison treatment ... Despite implants a quarter of patients repeatedly used opiates ... Half implanted patients opt for a second implant ...
• 16 February
  Late opening for pubs and bars aggravates alcohol-related harm ... Weekend alcohol sales equals more weekend alcohol-related harm ... Naloxone empowers carers to save lives of overdosing heroin users ... Naloxone-based overdose prevention training spread slowly in England ...
• 9 February
  Scottish drug education fell short of evidence-based practice ... When schools prevent bullying, do they also prevent problem drinking? ... Motivational interviewing works for teenagers as well as adults ... Pros and cons of supervised methadone consumption in Scotland ...
• 25 January
  Home visits cost-effectively aid alcohol treatment ... Group therapy wins on cost-effectiveness grounds ... Dual diagnosis patients benefit from heroin prescribing ... Brief motivational interviewing works best for thinkers ...
• 19 January
  Group motivational interviewing works for college drinkers ... Drink moderation strategies ineffective unless students want to cut down ... The vital task of promoting post-detox treatment ... Should legal heroin be reserved for methadone failures? ...
• 10 January
  US emergency department alcohol intervention disappoints in first European trial ... Anti-overdose media campaign targets injectors in Australia ... Long-term benefits of legal heroin for heroin addicts in Spain ... Do men and women need different sorts of employment help? ...

2011

• 20 December
  Patients want to be drug free – but from what and when? ... CBT pulls some of the right levers but few methadone patients participate ... Style not content seems key to matching therapy to the patient ... Large preventive impacts from primary school character development programme ...
• 5 December
  Even dependent drinkers respond well to alcohol brief interventions ... Alcohol brief interventions: doing without the doctor ... Lasting relief for partners and parents coping with addiction in the family ... Anti-drug ads do not work and can be counterproductive ...
• 18 November
  What it takes to implement alcohol screening and brief intervention ... Most comprehensive and systematic attempt yet to map treatment processes ... Upgrading to evidence-based therapies ... How to make aftercare the rule rather than the exception ...
• 3 November
  Methadone improves as well as saves lives ... Methadone both a platform for and limit on a good quality of life ... Methadone plus syringes strong harm reduction combination ... Commissioning guidance from English treatment improvement authority ... No long-term substance use prevention impacts from early years support ...
• 24 October
  1 in 6 therapists make substance use problems worse ... Counselling not essential to initial impact of methadone maintenance ... Hepatitis C can be prevented by methadone plus needle exchange ... Promising results from pilot UK family drug and alcohol court ...
• 6 October
  Treatment staff in job centres modestly increase treatment access ... Go-for-it approach helps US dual diagnosis patients find jobs ... School-based alcohol prevention best when it does not target alcohol ... Legal curbs did restrict cannabis availability and use in Switzerland ...
• 16 September
  Public health least successful licensing aim in Scotland ... London makes progress in reducing alcohol-related harm but GPs under-used ... Limited take up for online GP alcohol intervention support in Germany ... Longer therapies no better than five-session option for young cannabis users ...
• 12 September
  Young Hertfordshire alcohol offenders pay for their own alcohol education ... Drinking and problems fall after educating young alcohol offenders in Derbyshire ... Blockages to adequate alcohol-related services for offenders ... No prison-community care pathway in north east England ...
• 5 September
  Probation resources too stretched to adequately tackle huge drink problem ... Probation and NHS alcohol team working well in West Yorkshire ... Better lives for problem-drinking offenders in Lancashire ... Crime cut and drinking less but still too much in the Midlands ...
• 2 September
  Review of ways to identify risky drinkers ... More clues to how best to do motivational interviewing ... UN says heroin addiction treatment should be based on substitute prescribing ... Safer injecting facility in Vancouver saved lives ...
• 24 August
  Over half Scottish alcohol treatment exits were drop-outs ... Use quality of life yardstick to assess alcohol treatment ... Blood chemicals reveal who is dependent and who has managed to stop drinking ... UK trial of web-based alcohol prevention program for college students ...
• 19 August
  Benefits of fine-tuning prevention to high risk personality traits ... Benefits fade after fine-tuning prevention to high risk personality traits ... Motivational interviewing leaves college students unmoved ... Aftercare associated with better treatment outcomes in Scotland ...
• 16 August
  Parenting intervention has remarkable impact on teen drunkenness ... New Swedish trial fails to replicate initial findings ... Supplementing parent intervention with alcohol lessons works for Dutch teens ...
• 27 July
  Injectors respond as well to sex risk counselling as non-injectors ... Moderate drinking over the web: therapy programme bolsters mutual aid ... Review confirms that computer-based alcohol interventions do cut drinking ... Spanish GPs target binge-drinking patients ...
• 22 July
  Opioid antagonists useful supplement in alcohol treatment ... New Zealand commission calls for alcohol price rises and licensing reform ... US system offers model for assessing service quality ... Intensive 12-step rehabilitation promoted by substitute prescribing ...
• 15 July
  Opiate blocker does not help most heroin addicts stay abstinent ... Improving alcohol treatment saved lives in Sweden ... Review of studies on what works best with young drinkers ... Emergency department nurses can screen for risky drinking ...
• 30 June
  UK youth substance misuse treatment saves society money ... First-month attendance better outcome predictor than retention ... Putting patients in the co-pilot seat boosts confidence ... Family therapies effective but not always most cost-effective ...
• 22 June
  SMART Recovery groups offer AA alternative to UK problem drinkers ... Controversial amphetamine prescribing treatment trialled in Australia ... Is a specific therapy needed to tackle dependence plus PTSD? ...
• 10 June
  Leading US school-based prevention programme fails independent test ... No success for school counselling/education for troubled US teens ... US college uses internet to start new students drinking more safely ... Prison alternative turns round lives of child substance users with multiple problems ... Productivity savings for US firms which counsel risky drinking staff ...
• 27 May
  Evidence-based psychotherapy relationships: Psychotherapy relationships that work II ... Evidence-based psychotherapy relationships: Alliance in individual psychotherapy ... Evidence-based psychotherapy relationships: The alliance in child and adolescent psychotherapy ... Findings abstract: Evidence-based psychotherapy relationships: Alliance in couple and family therapy ... Evidence-based psychotherapy relationships: Cohesion in group therapy ... Evidence-based psychotherapy relationships: Empathy ... Evidence-based psychotherapy relationships: Goal consensus and collaboration ... Evidence-based psychotherapy relationships: Positive regard ... Evidence-based psychotherapy relationships: Congruence/genuineness ... Evidence-based psychotherapy relationships: Collecting client feedback ... Evidence-based psychotherapy relationships: Repairing alliance ruptures ... Evidence-based psychotherapy relationships: Managing countertransference ... Evidence-based therapy relationships: Research conclusions and clinical practices ...
• 13 May
  UK evidence-based guidance on alcohol problem prevention ... UK evidence-based guidance on alcohol dependence treatment ... Re-analysis questions benefits of interactive drug education ...
• 26 April
  Guidance for British GPs on prescribing for heroin addicted patients ... Local alcohol-related public health measures in England lack commitment and coherence ... Why some drinkers prefer global on-line AA groups to face-to-face meetings ... Fragmented attempt to help US parents with substance use problems ... Electrically stimulating brain reduced cravings for alcohol ...
• 5 April
  Unmet need for alcohol services in English prisons ... Scottish Prisons leave many problem drinkers without help ... Not enough money for problem drinking offenders in the community ... Review of what works best in treating adolescent cannabis use ... How to prevent violence marring a night at the pub ...
• 31 March
  More harm reduction needed to curb hepatitis C in England ... Male and female depressed drinkers react best to different therapies ... Enforcement crackdowns make drug markets more violent ...
• 21 March
  Inside story of UK national youth substance use prevention guidance ... Routine school meetings for parents used to help prevent adolescent drinking ... Implications of the polarisation of UK drinking patterns ... Drug misuse and associated statistics for Scotland ... How English drug/alcohol services can help clients gain employment ... What is the baseline rate of recovery from drug dependence? ... Reducing risky sex among substance use patients ...
• 15 March
  Intensive monitoring offers new paradigm for long-term recovery ... Remarkable success rates of physician health programmes ... Drug using offenders tested intensively do well without treatment ... US drink-drivers respond to threat of imprisonment for substance use ... 99% tests alcohol-free among monitored drink-drive defendants ... Intensive testing and sanctions cut drink-drive re-offending ... Originator explains drink-drive testing and sanctions programme ...
• 11 March
  What works for whom: tailoring psychotherapy to the person ... Adapting psychotherapy to the individual patient: Stages of change ... Adapting psychotherapy to the individual patient: Preferences ... Adapting psychotherapy to the individual patient: Culture ... Adapting psychotherapy to the individual patient: Coping style ... Adapting psychotherapy to the individual patient: Expectations ... Adapting psychotherapy to the individual patient: Attachment style ... Adapting psychotherapy to the individual patient: Resistance/reactance level ... Adapting psychotherapy to the individual patient: Religion and spirituality ...
• 25 February
  Problem drinking curbed by EU-funded drug education curriculum ... Young Swiss binge drinkers cut back after just 16 minutes advice ... Real-world study of emergency department alcohol advice ...
• 11 February
  UK policy recommendations for pre-school prevention ... Whether after inpatient or outpatient detox, opiate abstinence rarely lasts ... 4 in 10 who die from drugs in Scotland were recently in treatment ... How the pilot English and Welsh drug courts are working ... Swiss dissect brief intervention to find out what makes it tick (or not) ... Providing injecting paraphernalia may reduce sharing of this equipment ...
• 10 February
  UK government assesses the likely impacts of alcohol price rises ... How alcohol pricing might affect the health of the British population ... Higher prices and taxes on alcohol help prevent crime ... Economic impacts of alcohol pricing policy options in the UK ... Will the poor be most affected by an end to cheap alcohol? ...
• 26 January
  Price rises will cut alcohol-related death, illness and injury ... Buprenorphine suits minority aiming for make-or-break cure to opiate addiction ... One-off buprenorphine implants curb heroin use for six months ...
• 20 January
  Visible minority drug users in the European criminal justice system ... Review of medications to reduce craving for heroin ... The relationships between drinking and disease across a population ... Short and long-term impacts of alcohol taxes on mortality rates ... Enforcement crackdowns fail to reduce drink-driving in France ... Ethnicity affects who cuts back after emergency department brief alcohol intervention ... Matching ethnicity of patients and counsellors maximises impact of brief alcohol intervention ... Emergency department brief alcohol intervention works only for dependent patients ...
• 12 January
  Whole person recovery: a user-centred systems approach ... Is the therapeutic community an evidence-based treatment? ... The Patel report: Reducing drug-related crime and rehabilitating offenders ... A meta-analytic review of school-based prevention for cannabis use ... How classic Vietnam veterans addiction study changed our view of heroin ... Community reinforcement and family training engage treatment-resistant individuals ... Review of user perceptions of treatment staff training requirements ...

2010

• 31 December
  Supervising consumption cut UK methadone death rate ... Extended methadone prescribing needed to save lives ... Clues to what to say and not to say in motivational interviewing sessions ...
• 21 December
  Drug strategy 2010. Reducing demand, restricting supply, building recovery ... Drugs, crime and public health: the political economy of drug policy ... Problem drug users: experiences of employment and the benefit system ... Alcohol misusers: experiences of employment and the benefit system ... Population estimates of alcohol misusers who access DWP benefits ... Incentives raise participation in a family drug-use prevention programme ... Screening and assessment in adolescent substance abuse treatment programmes ... Community prevention intervention to reduce adolescent use of harmful legal products ... Cognitive enhancement as a pharmacotherapy target for stimulant addiction ... Heroin-assisted treatment in Switzerland: a case study in policy change ...
• 30 September
  Acamprosate helps prevent lapse to drinking ... Listen well, reflect back - key ingredients in changing drinking ... Evidence on the best way to run needle exchanges ... Review confirms a role for heroin prescribing when methadone fails ...
• 27 August
  Internet-based alcohol advice helps risky drinkers cut back ... Comprehensive analysis of drug-based treatments for heroin addiction ... CBT plus drugs most effective cocaine addiction treatment ... Mindfulness meditation promising but unproven addiction therapy ...
• 29 July
  Heroin prescribing rescues previously treatment-resistant heroin addicts ... Probation resources too stretched to adequately tackle huge drink problem ... Brief alcohol advice works with psychiatric patients ... Mass needle exchange helped reverse HIV epidemic in New York ...
• 28 June
  Reserve heroin prescribing for methadone failures ... Can opiate substitute prescribing also curb cocaine use? ... British drug courts yet to prove their worth ... Enforcement crackdowns make drug markets more violent ...
• 28 May
  Why anti-drug campaigns can have the reverse impact ... Limited impacts in seven-nation European drug education trial ... Ask heavy drinkers to make plans to drink less ... and they do! ... Best evidence yet for web-based alcohol self-help ...
• 31 March
  Should addiction services treat co-morbid depression and anxiety? ... Little long-term disadvantage from choosing non-abstinence drinking goals ... Largest analysis to date offers practice insights in to motivational interviewing ... Buprenorphine is most effective detoxification medication ...
• 26 February
  Broaden access to 12-step groups by de-emphasising philosophy ... Couples therapy helps alcohol-dependent women sustain their recovery ... Can traditional herbal remedies or acupuncture help treat addiction? ... UN guidance on how to mount family-based prevention programmes ...
• 5 February
  Crucial study delivers mixed scorecard for drug treatment in England ... Youth anti-drug campaign boomeranged say official evaluators ... US experts recommend alcohol tax rises as an important public health measure ... US task force says cutting alcohol outlets improves public health ...

2009

• 23 December
  English national evaluation fails to support drug education programme ... Primary school behaviour and parenting programme curbs teenage substance use ... Holistic family therapy helps younger teens and their families get back on track ... Long-acting naltrexone holds heroin at bay more effectively than pills ...
• 26 November
  Long-term continuing care improves treatment outcomes ... Modest support for drug-based treatments for alcohol dependence ... Methadone maintenance outperforms alternatives in randomised trials ... Target enforcement to reduce harm ...
• 21 October
  £0.40 per unit of alcohol plus discount ban would save a life a day in Scotland ... Intensive family support reduces need for children to be taken in to care ... Popular community prevention process cuts adolescent smoking and drinking ... Starting methadone in prison improves post-release treatment uptake ...
• 28 September
  Remarkable impact from alcohol parenting advice at parent-school meetings ... Counsellor skill influences outcomes of brief motivational interventions ... The power of walking in the client's shoes ... UK study supports naloxone-based opiate overdose reversal training ...
• 21 August
  Acupuncture does not aid treatment of alcohol dependence ... Unproven verdict on hospital-based brief alcohol interventions ... Guidance on managing pregnant opiate-dependent women ... Effective strategies for extending evidence-based practice ...
• 5 August
  Confirmation that tax rises are key alcohol harm reduction measure ... Practical research-based handbook for peer-based recovery in the UK ... Counterproductive to expect too much from homeless addicts ... Surprisingly small advantage for cognitive-behavioural therapies ...
• 20 July
  Opiate-blocking implants reduce post-detoxification relapse ... Unique head-to-head trial of opiate blocker versus substitute drug ... Foil packs extend harm reduction reach of needle exchanges ... School and family prevention programmes benefit high risk youngsters most ...
• 2 July
  NICE-recommended couples therapy endorsed by synthesis of findings ... Brief alcohol advice in relatively normal primary care reduces drinking ... Cochrane review confirms methadone maintenance prevents spread of HIV ... Still no silver-bullet drug to treat stimulant dependence ...
• 18 June
  Intercept and treat relapse by checking how former patients are doing ... Mentally ill patients particularly benefit from aftercare enhancements ... Harm reduction case for crack kits from needle exchanges ... Health service saves by vaccinating needle exchange users for hepatitis B ...
• 3 June
  Brief alcohol advice in A&E can reduce drinking and injuries ... No reason to deny hepatitis C treatment to methadone patients ... Is public health best served by targeted or universal prevention? ... Respected review process finds no case for special dual diagnosis care ...
• 26 May
  Compulsory testing and assessment nets few treatment entrants at high cost ... Computerised cognitive-behavioural therapy cuts substance use by a third ... Limits on methadone treatment in Norway reveal its lifesaving potential ... Intensive support helps drug problem welfare applicants quit using ...
• 27 April
  Scotland's auditors spotlight lack of system and clarity in drug policy ... Delaware commissioners engineer innovative and engaging services ... Persistent and practical efforts promote engagement in self-help groups ... Remarkable prevention outcomes from primary school good behaviour strategy ...
• 15 April
  Call to extend recovery vision beyond time-limited treatment ... UK government advisers call for major expansion of needle exchange ... Methamphetamine dependence reacts well to psychosocial therapies ... Drug testing school pupils is ineffective and risky ...
• 6 April
  Pupils use substances less in attachment-generating schools ... English drug treatment patients engage best with open, innovative services ... Acupuncture fails to ease opiate detoxification ... British drug courts yet to demonstrate crime or cost-benefit gains ...
• 18 March
  Most reliable estimate yet that raising the price of drink cuts consumption ... UK commission calls for less prison, more treatment ... Brief advice in emergency departments cuts alcohol-related injuries ... Not just high methadone dose or individualising dose – both help ...
• 14 March
  Human beings don't just react to rewards for abstinence – they interpret them ... Responsiveness and unfailing optimism aid primary care alcohol treatment ... Do hedonistic non-conformists really make the best British drug workers? ... Feedback really does aid motivational brief interventions ...
• 1 March
  English health advisory body recommends high coverage needle exchange ... Needle exchange works in prison; bleach second best ... Methadone maintenance works for prisoners too ... Heroin maintenance review portrays the practice reality as well as the outcomes ...
• 26 February
  Accreditation drives up treatment outcomes, cost-containment drives them down ... Intensive, continuing, holistic, practical support helps welfare mothers escape dependency ... Housing and work help homeless and workless; benefits of yoking to abstinence less clear ... GPs save time by 'as needed' consultations after brief alcohol interventions ...
• 23 February
  Rare review of the evidence on whether drug law enforcement works ... Britain's doctors tell government what they should do about problem drinking ... Is all it takes to tell people how their drinking compares to the norm? ... Leading UK clinicians offer evidence-based guidance on managing drinking problems ...
• 19 January
  UK project enables at-risk children of (former) drug using parents to safely live at home ... Choice of alcohol therapy matters little ... Needy clients do as well in day hospital as in residential care ... First randomised trial finds little benefit and some risks in testing pupils for drugs ...
• 8 January
  Minimum alcohol pricing and promotion controls will bring major benefits for UK ... Methadone-maintained do just as well as opioid-free therapeutic community residents ... Universal provision versus targeting prevention at high risk youth ... Too few syringe disposal sites? Cafes, churches and shop toilets can plug the gap ...

2008

• 17 December
  ‘Real world’ trial finds emergency patients drink less after brief intervention ... Multi-national WHO study trials primary care brief intervention for illegal drug use ... Should methadone maintenance be started before prisoners are released? ... Does residential rehabilitation deliver more heroin abstinence per £ than methadone? ...
• 8 December
  Reducing alcohol harm: health services in England ... Measuring performance of brief alcohol counselling in medical settings ... Screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment for drug and alcohol use ... Network support for drinking and client-treatment matching ... Primary care alcohol intervention: ranking health impact and cost effectiveness ...
• 7 November
  Benefits of residential care preserved by systematic, persistent and welcoming aftercare prompts ... Internationally proven community alcohol crime and harm reduction programmes feasible in Britain ... Brief contact and written advice as effective as a longer talk for heavy drinking hospital patients ... International review and UK guidance on merits of buprenorphine versus methadone maintenance ...
• 7 August
  Universal screening for alcohol problems in primary care fails in Denmark ... School-based smoking prevention: popular peers can help ... Needle exchange helps prevent bacterial as well as viral infections ... Home visits reduce risk to children of drug treatment patients ...
• 9 April
  Style not content key to matching patients to therapeutic approaches ... Still hard to find reasons for matching patients to therapies ... Helping drug treatment patients find work pays (some) dividends in Scotland ... Substance-focused initiatives not only way schools help prevent risky substance use ...
• 14 February
  High risk of death for opiate detoxification completers ... Female drinkers also benefit from couples therapy ... Harnessing peer interaction in school-based drug prevention can backfire ... Needle exchange coverage key to reducing infection risk ...
• 7 January
  Patchy performance of UK offender treatment initiatives ... Botched response to crack using offenders ... Treatment on bail makes little discernable difference ... Testing on arrest scatter gun nets some extra treatment entrants ... Testing children pointless but arrest referral offers early intervention opportunities ... ‘Most promising' alcohol prevention programme tried with poor black US families ... Self-financing resident-run houses maintain recovery after treatment ... Concern over abstinence outcomes in Scotland's treatment services ...