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Effectiveness Bank web site Additions
Supported by  Alcohol Change UK web site   Society for the Study of Addiction web site
Effectiveness Bank additions 11 March 2019
Current needle exchange provision in the UK will cost-effectively save lives by reducing spread of hepatitis C but it will take scaled-up provision of these and other services to eliminate new infections. New evidence questions the mantra that referring heroin users to treatment prevents crime, though long-acting heroin substitutes may help. How to overcome the weakness in screening and brief interventions for risky drinking – poor implementation.

Choose analyses to view by scrolling down and clicking the blue titles.

Impact on hepatitis C means needle exchanges save lives and can reduce costs
What would happen to rates of infection with hepatitis C and resultant ill-health if we closed down all the needle exchanges? In three UK areas, the answers led researchers to judge these services among the best investments UK health systems can make.

Can the UK achieve the WHO hepatitis C eradication target?
Cirrhosis and liver cancer await many chronically infected with hepatitis C. Challenging this apparent inevitability, the World Health Organization has urged countries to pledge to eliminate new cases of chronic infection by the end of the next decade. Across three diverse UK cities, the study assessed what it would take to reach this ‘ambitious but achievable’ goal.

Abandon treatment referral as a crime-prevention tactic?
At issue was whether by referring heroin users to treatment, probation services in England would protect them from fatal overdose and prevent drug-related crime. Yes to one, but not the other, were the answers; unexpectedly, crime went up. Enough to warrant abandoning treatment referral as a crime-prevention tactic?

Long-acting buprenorphine an advance on daily doses
UPDATED with UK licensing information and advice released in February 2019 by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
What could prove a technical advance in the medication-based treatment of opiate dependence was rigorously tested and partially vindicated among hundreds of patients at over 30 US clinics.

Can the disappointing roll-out of brief alcohol interventions be cost-effectively turned around?
In a bid to reach the estimated ‘19 in 20 eligible patients’ not currently being screened for risky drinking in Europe, this study tested the cost-effectiveness of different levers to improve implementation of brief interventions. It identified optimally cost-effective strategies in England, the Netherlands and Poland – but an ‘Achilles heel’ issue seems to undermine the reliability of the calculations.

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Sent by the Drug and Alcohol Findings Effectiveness Bank to alert you to site updates and UK-relevant evaluations of drug/alcohol interventions. Findings is supported by Alcohol Change UK and the Society for the Study of Addiction and advised by the National Addiction Centre.
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