Hot topic search results
You have found 35 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.
Click blue titles to view full text in a new window Use the selectors at the bottom to turn to the next page in the list of documents Re-order the list by the most recently added or updated entries or by the main topic addressed
If you have not found what you want you could: Select from the full range of topics and search options available on our topic search page.
Instead try a free text search for documents which contain the words you specify.
Or try browsing back issues of the magazine or the more recent email bulletins.
Try the information services provided by partner agencies.
Tried everything? E-mail the Findings editor for help by clicking on this logo 
MATRIX CELL 2020 HTM file
Alcohol Treatment Matrix cell A4: Interventions; Psychosocial therapies
Key studies on the ‘common factors’ underlying psychosocial therapies for problem drinking and the effectiveness of specific approaches. Explores the famous ‘Dodo bird’ hypothesis that all bona fide therapies are equivalent, examines the legacy of the UK’s most ambitious treatment trial, asks whether therapy can really make things worse, and questions how research amalgamating impacts from many patients can be applied to the treatment of an individual in their individual circumstances.
Instead of a set programme, a clinic in London tried offering methadone or buprenorphine patients still using heroin or cocaine a selection from a suite of well-supported psychological interventions tailored to the patient and then systematically re-tailored in the light of how they responded. It worked – but did it work well enough, and would the findings be replicated in more typical circumstances?
STUDY 2018 HTM file
Remote alcohol monitoring to facilitate incentive-based treatment for alcohol use disorder: a randomized trial
Can new digital technologies do anything to boost the ‘limited, yet promising’ evidence base for incentivising abstinence among people with alcohol use disorders?
MATRIX CELL 2018 HTM file
Drug Treatment Matrix cell B4: Practitioners; Psychosocial therapies
Seminal and key studies on the impact of the practitioner in psychosocial therapies. Takes Carl Rogers’s seminal theories as its starting point and guides you through the complexities which obscure the impact of client-worker relationships despite their patent important to the clients.
MATRIX CELL 2018 HTM file
Drug Treatment Matrix cell A4: Interventions; Psychosocial therapies
Seminal and key studies shedding light on the general principles underpinning psychosocial therapies and the effectiveness specific approaches. ’Individualise,’ is the overarching theme … and the consequent dangers of inflexibly following guidelines and research findings.
HOT TOPIC 2016 HTM file
Prizes for not using drugs?
‘Hot topics’ offer background and analysis on important issues which sometimes generate heated debate. Contingency management programmes reward patients for complying with treatment or not engaging in undesired substance use. It works, but often only temporarily – and perhaps at the cost of eroding the patient’s confidence and motivation.
REVIEW 2016 HTM file
How can contingency management support treatment for substance use disorders? A systematic review
Rewarding people dependent on illegal drugs for not using those drugs is a controversial tactic, one this review from the EU’s drug misuse centre found patchily effective in extending retention and reducing substance use as a supplement to medication-based treatments.
HOT TOPIC 2016 HTM file
Are the drugs enough? Counselling and therapy in substitute prescribing programmes
One of our hot topics offering background and analysis on important issues which sometimes generate heated debate. Explore the somewhat heretical proposition that the counsellor can virtually be dispensed with in opiate substitute prescribing programmes with little loss of impact. The gain would be that methadone could be spread ‘thin and wide’, reaching more potential patients.
REVIEW 2015 HTM file
Psychological and psychosocial interventions for cannabis cessation in adults: a systematic review short report
Conclusions supportive of cognitive-behavioural therapy for problem cannabis use from this authoritative UK assessment seem to conflict with earlier UK guidelines, though both query whether extended cognitive-behavioural therapy offers added value compared to briefer approaches.
REVIEW 2014 HTM file
Prize-based contingency management for the treatment of substance abusers: a meta-analysis
Systematically giving substance use patients a chance to win valuable prizes if they test abstinent offers a lower-cost alternative to ‘contingency management’ systems which provide rewards each time, but does it work? Across 18 studies the answer was ‘Yes,’ though effects soon faded.
Select search results page
NEXT
1 2 3 4