Effectiveness Bank web site Bulletin
Supported by  Alcohol Research UK web site   Society for the Study of Addiction web site
Effectiveness Bank additions 14 September 2015
Alcohol is the focus, including a new study and review on brief interventions, a high-profile Australian study of alcohol control in sports clubs, and how a Dutch school-based parent and child intervention achieve its striking impact. More on brief interventions in ‘Also added’ section below, plus alcohol tax rises really do save lives as can cleaning injecting equipment with bleach.
Choose analyses to view by scrolling down and clicking the blue titles.
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Computerised drinking interventions lack power
Computerisation promises to spread the 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 consequences of heavy drinking.
Also see these Effectiveness Bank hot topics for more on computerised treatment, brief alcohol interventions, and the tactic of feeding back to the participant how much their drinking exceeds population norms.

Brief advice prompts reduced drinking in GP and emergency patients
Amalgamation of results from relevant studies finds that in high-income nations brief alcohol advice to emergency or primary care patients is no less effective whether trials take place in European or non-European drinking cultures and health service contexts. Is this because in both contexts they are only marginally effective?

‘No need for enforcement’ to control sports-club drinking
An Australian study portrayed as offering hope to governments and communities around the world found an alcohol management code voluntarily adopted and policed by sports clubs can turn the tide on risky drinking without having to strengthen formal enforcement, but are study and results strong enough to support these implications?

Parental limit-setting was key to alcohol use prevention
How did a low-resource Dutch school-based parent and child intervention achieve its striking impact on adolescent drinking? Implications are that it is important first to prompt parents to set and communicate strict limits on their children’s drinking, setting the context for substance use education.
From same study see overall findings and impacts on children at most risk.
Also added to the Effectiveness Bank
Computerised brief intervention improved alcohol abstinence and pregnancy outcomes
No significant effects of brief interventions to curb 21st birthday drinking
Increased alcohol taxes reduced alcohol-related driving deaths
Bleach best way to clean hepatitis C contaminated syringes

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 and the Federation of Drug and Alcohol Professionals.