Effectiveness Bank web site Additions
Supported by  Alcohol Research UK web site   Society for the Study of Addiction web site
Effectiveness Bank additions 5 May 2017
What causes substance use issues to take hold in some young people, and what can be done to prevent or treat? Three studies look at this from different standpoints: starting with whether personality-relevant coping skills can delay or reduce cannabis use; to the moderating potential of telling students ‘your peers don’t drink as much as you think they do’; and finally, to the apparent edge of family therapies over other non-residential programmes for already substance-using teenagers.

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Intervention targets personality traits of high-risk London pupils
Can tailoring school-based drug use prevention to the personalities of high-risk pupils improve on generally poor results from drug education? A study in London gives a partial ‘yes’ in respect of cannabis use, though there are reasons to question the findings and whether such programmes can be widely implemented.
See our analysis of the short-term drinking outcomes from the same trial here.

Responsible drinking ‘social norms’ messages not credible, say students
A study set in a UK university found telling students that their peers drink less than they might think did not reinforce their intentions to drink responsibly. Though the message that most students have ‘six drinks or less’ on each occasion was clear, students did not believe, trust or relate to it.

Family therapies best for substance using teenagers
Multi-prong therapies centred on the family emerge as probably the most effective in this comprehensive and careful synthesis of the results of trials of non-residential programmes for substance using teenagers – but do the outcomes warrant the extra costs?

The Alcohol and Drug Treatment Matrices: core research selected and explored
Alcohol matrix for alcohol brief interventions and treatment
Drug matrix for harm reduction and treatment in relation to illegal drugs

The Drug and Alcohol Findings Effectiveness Bank offers a free mailing list service updating subscribers to UK-relevant evaluations of drug/alcohol interventions. Findings is supported by Alcohol Research UK and the Society for the Study of Addiction and advised by the National Addiction Centre.