Andrew Jones summarises a recent Canadian cohort study, which explores the extent of substance misuse and addictive disorders among adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
[read the full story...]Cognitive bias modification for addiction: are we flogging a dead horse?
Matt Field considers a recent meta-analysis that explores the effectiveness of Cognitive Bias Modification interventions for substance addictions.
[read the full story...]Sex matters: why have females been excluded from addiction research?
Ian Hamilton explores two recent articles that consider the shocking sex and gender inequities in addiction research.
[read the full story...]Social work, prevention and multiple exclusion homelessness
Ian Cummins examines research on multiple exclusion homelessness and finds that social work may have an important role for prevention.
[read the full story...]Placebo effect in psychiatry: what do we really know?
David Steele summarises a review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which looks at the mediators and moderators of the placebo effect in psychiatry.
[read the full story...]Addiction is a brain disease…but does it matter?
Matt Field reviews a recent Lancet Psychiatry paper that explores whether the brain disease model of addiction is supported by evidence and has delivered on its promises.
[read the full story...]Impaired inhibitory control in addiction
Maartje Luijten, Assistant Professor at the Behavioural Science Institute at Radboud University, writes her debut blog on a recent meta-analysis of deficits in behavioural inhibition in substance abuse and addiction.
[read the full story...]NICE evidence update: Interventions to reduce substance misuse among vulnerable young people
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have recently searched for any new evidence that may be relevant to a public health guideline published in 2007; ‘Interventions to reduce substance misuse among vulnerable young people’. In this blog I summarise the new evidence that has emerged and highlight whether or not it is likely [read the full story…]
US policy on prescription drug abuse: tackling an unique and significant problem
The fact that drug overdoses are the second largest cause of premature death from unintentional injuries in the US (for example, in 2010 there was 38,329 drug overdose deaths) is not a surprising statistic. What may surprise readers is that of these deaths 22,134 were attributed to prescription drugs. Indeed, almost one and a half [read the full story…]
Illicit drug use: personality and poverty
A considerable amount of research has attempted to shed light on the key antecedents of drug use. The role of personality traits, in particular, has been explored in great detail; indeed the idea of “the addictive personality” has often been discussed. Although we elves feel that the addictive personality is a simplification of a much [read the full story…]