Effectiveness Bank web site Collection
Supported by  Alcohol Change UK web site   Society for the Study of Addiction web site
IWD_2018_square_logo International Women’s Day 2019

The theme for International Women’s Day 2019 is #BalanceForBetter – promoting “collective action and shared responsibility for driving a gender-balanced world”.

In the field of substance use there are a number of ways to try and even out the scales:
• Giving more prominence to women in addiction – both as researchers, and as people with lived experiences of drug and alcohol problems.
• Highlighting studies that specifically test interventions among female populations.
• Critiquing the parts of our evidence base that are overly reliant on male populations for understanding substance use problems and determining the effectiveness of interventions.

Two years ago Drug and Alcohol Findings launched a new collection in honour of International Women’s Day. This ‘mini-library’ showcases studies in the Effectiveness Bank catalogue that further our understanding of how sex and gender can influence the course of addiction and treatment, with a particular focus on women.

Each week throughout the rest of March we will promote a different study from the Effectiveness Bank – extracting the key pieces of learning for services providing treatment and support for women. Next Friday’s email will feature a new study about the maternal and infant safety outcomes of methadone and buprenorphine in populations of pregnant women.

To visit the International Women’s Day collection, click the button below.

View collection
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Highlights from the collection
Rare randomised trial finds female prisoners benefit from gender-specific treatment
From the USA, a rare randomised controlled trial of prison-based substance use treatment for women finds substantial benefits from replacing a standard prison therapeutic community programme with one based on extensive trauma-informed and gender-responsive elements, delivered in an entirely woman-only environment.

Preventing alcohol- and tobacco-exposed pregnancies
In the USA the CHOICES Plus trial tested a bundle of ‘pre-conception’ services for risky drinking, smoking, and ineffective contraception. Significant reductions in the risk of pregnancies exposed to alcohol and tobacco suggest the package may be feasible and effective, but would it transfer to the UK context?

Female drinkers benefit from couples therapy
Women whose treatment included couples therapy drank or used drugs on fewer days during the year after treatment. From the woman’s point of view, interpersonal problems related to drinking declined more after couples therapy and both partners reported fewer days marred by threats or violence from the other partner.

Further resources
An Effectiveness Bank hot topic examines family-focused interventions, and what issues beyond drugs and alcohol might shape the family dynamic. For women who are often the ‘linchpin’ of the family, problems may be more inter-related and harder to disentangle.

Audio recordings from the Society for the Study of Addiction annual conference in 2018: Dr Sharon Cox and Dr Sally Marlow discuss gender equality among professionals in the field of substance use, Dr Qiana Brown talks about women-centered treatment and prevention strategies, and Dr Moira Plant explores the history of women and alcohol including issues relating to the suffragette movement.

Share your discovery of the Effectiveness Bank by sending an email to your colleagues.

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 Change UK and the Society for the Study of Addiction and advised by the National Addiction Centre.