Hot topic search results

You have found 51 entries after clicking the GO button or a search link in a hot topic. Starting with analyses of the most recently published documents, the list shows in orange the type of entry, year the original document was published (or if one of our own documents, the year last updated), and the type of file you will download when you click on the title. In blue is the document’s title followed by a brief description.

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HOT TOPIC 2018 HTM file
Computerised therapies: sacrificing effectiveness for wider access?

‘Hot topics’ offer background and analysis on important issues which sometimes generate heated debate. Among culturally accepted vehicles for delivering substance use interventions, computers, mobile phones and tablets are joining face-to-face work. Are we sacrificing effectiveness for convenience and economy?

STUDY 2018 HTM file
Alcohol prevention for school students: Results from a 1-year follow up of a cluster-randomised controlled trial of harm minimisation school drug education

Strong argument for harm reduction to be the basis of standard drug education within schools from this large-scale Australian trial. Alcohol-related findings 15 months after the two-year programme ended showed its residual effectiveness in reducing pupils’ alcohol consumption and related harm.

HOT TOPIC 2016 HTM file
‘Everyone’s not doing it’ message offers hope for prevention

‘Hot topics’ offer background and analysis on important issues which sometimes generate heated debate. ‘Normative education’ comparing the recipient’s use levels to population norms retains some of its shine as the great hope for school- and college-based prevention, but accumulating data demands a reappraisal.

STUDY 2015 HTM file
Alcohol prevention and school students: findings from an Australian 2-year trial of integrated harm minimization school drug education

Substance use education in schools targeting harm reduction rather than prevention of use gains ground with the alcohol-related results from this large-scale Australian trial; the researchers call for the approach to replace ineffective usual lessons.

REVIEW 2015 HTM file
Electronic interventions for alcohol misuse and alcohol use disorders: a systematic review

Computerisation promises to spread the consumption-moderating benefits of alcohol screening and brief advice or treatment across the population, overcoming resource and access limitations to in-person interventions, but small and transient effects may not be enough to mitigate the health and social consequences of drinking.

REVIEW 2015 HTM file
Effects of 21st birthday brief interventions on college student celebratory drinking: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Randomised trials of brief interventions sent by email or letter to moderate 21st birthday drinking by US college students collectively failed to show consequent reductions in amounts drunk at these events, though they may have modestly reduced risks by lowering peak blood alcohol levels.

STUDY 2015 HTM file
Improving social norms interventions: rank-framing increases excessive alcohol drinkers’ information-seeking

‘Social norm’ interventions which aim to reduce consumption by telling heavy drinkers how their drinking compares to their peer-group norm have a patchy record, but this British study suggests for students they might be improved by ranking against peers (eg, ‘You drink more than 80% of students’) rather than comparing how many units of alcohol they consume.

REVIEW 2015 HTM file
Prevention of addictive behaviours

Based largely on existing reviews, this report for the German Federal Centre for Health Education comprehensively assesses substance use prevention approaches. Among its many conclusions are that approaches based solely on information provision are ineffective, in contrast to the more positive evidence for lifeskills and multi-component community programmes.

REVIEW 2015 HTM file
Single-session alcohol interventions for heavy drinking college students: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Personalised, interactive, and motivational approaches dominate in this study of the effectiveness of single-session brief interventions for heavy-drinking college students. But, overall the effects of brief interventions remain modest in clinical terms.

STUDY 2014 HTM file
Alcohol screening and brief interventions for offenders in the probation setting (SIPS trial): a pragmatic multicentre cluster randomized controlled trial

The probation arm of the largest alcohol screening and brief intervention study yet conducted in Britain found that the proportion of offenders drinking at risky levels fell just as much after the most minimal of screening and intervention methods as after more sophisticated and longer alternatives.

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