Hot topics
Below is a list of all 45 hot topics – essays by Drug and Alcohol Findings explaining the background and evidence relating to topics which sometimes prompt heated debate. They are a popular way to get up to speed on the issues which matter in drug and alcohol policy and practice in Britain, and often too internationally. Sorted by the main topic addressed, the list shows in orange the type of entry, the year the hot topic was last updated, and the type of file you will download when you click on the title. In blue is the hot topic’s title followed by a brief description.
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HOT TOPIC 2018 HTM file
Measuring alcohol-related harm; politics and science
At a national level, alcohol-related harm and especially the net cost of harm versus benefits are slippery concepts. Malleability and policy salience combine to make the estimates contested territory.
HOT TOPIC 2016 HTM file
What makes for an effective treatment service?
Different treatment services can vary hugely in their outcomes. What characterises an effective treatment service, and how can these attributes be boosted?
HOT TOPIC 2020 HTM file
What about evidence-based commissioning?
In the UK the landscape of drug and alcohol service commissioning to meet need in an area has radically altered – a leap in the dark illuminated only dimly by prior evidence and current evaluations.
HOT TOPIC 2020 HTM file
How many drinkers should be in treatment?
What proportion of England’s problem drinkers might be in treatment, how far does that fall short of the number who should be – and how do we judge ‘should’? The proportion varies to a surprising degree depending on assumptions about who needs treatment.
HOT TOPIC 2016 HTM file
‘Everyone’s not doing it’ message offers hope for prevention
‘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.
HOT TOPIC 2016 HTM file
Drug education yet to match great (preventive) expectations
Once relied on as the best way to prevent substance use and related problems across a population, drug education in schools has failed to deliver on this agenda: wrong agenda, or wrong education?
HOT TOPIC 2017 HTM file
It’s magic: prevent substance use problems without mentioning drugs
Analyses the evidence leading to the realisation that focusing on drugs is not necessarily the best way to prevent problem drug use; youth programmes addressing underlying vulnerabilities and structural influences have growing research support.
HOT TOPIC 2016 HTM file
Should we start prevention in the cradle?
Focusing on the early years to avert substance use problems makes sense, but does it work?
HOT TOPIC 2018 HTM file
A minimum price for drink?
Politics and evidence relating to the most important and controversial public health issue of recent times – eliminating the cheap drink heavy drinkers rely on by setting a high minimum per unit price for alcohol. Scotland has done it and other UK nations are following suit – but not yet England.
HOT TOPIC 2017 HTM file
Hepatitis C ‘giant’ still growing
For a time it seemed impossible to reverse the epidemic of injecting-related hepatitis C infection. Now we know that aided by new treatments which clear the infection, it can be done – but will we?
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