The Department of Health have published an updated guide summarising the health harms of drug and alcohol misuse, which is aimed at supporting non-medical practitioners working with substance misuse issues. The document updates the 2003 “Dangerousness of Drugs” guide. It’s an 80-page PDF report and it outlines acute and chronic problems associated with each substance, [read the full story…]
Screening for alcohol misuse in the emergency department needs to be done quickly and accurately, so it makes sense to find the best instrument for this purpose. This systematic review of diagnostic cohort studies searched a range of databases and journals and also conducted citation searching because of a lack of relevant literature found by [read the full story…]
This report from the NHS Information Centre contains results from an annual survey of secondary school pupils in England in years 7 to 11 (mostly aged 11 to 15). 7,296 pupils in 246 schools completed questionnaires in the autumn term of 2010. The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and the National Foundation for Educational Research [read the full story…]
The Department of Health in conjunction with the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse has issued guidance on commissioning prison based substance misuse services for 2011/12. The guidance takes the form of a letter with an appendix from Richard Bradshaw (Director, Offender Health), Ian Poree (Director of Service Development NOMS) and Rosanna O’Connor (Director of [read the full story…]
There’s an interesting article in the New England Journal of Medicine today, all about the relationship between mental health and smoking cessation. The author provides some historical perspective and also highlights the recommended treatments for tobacco dependence and the evidence base for use in smokers with mental illness. Judith J. Prochaska, Ph.D., M.P.H. Smoking and [read the full story…]
More than 76 million people worldwide have alcohol problems, and another 15 million have drug problems. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a psychological treatment that aims to help people cut down or stop using drugs and alcohol. The drug abuser and counsellor typically meet between one and four times for about one hour each time. The [read the full story…]
‘Suicide and homicide in Northern Ireland’ is a new report from the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness. The report shows that there are links between alcohol use and the increased suicide rate that has been seen in Northern Ireland over recent years. Suicide has been falling elsewhere in the [read the full story…]
This meta-analysis adds more weight to the argument that cannabis use plays a causal role in the development of psychosis in some patients. The review pooled 83 studies that reported on age at onset of psychotic illness in substance-using and non–substance-using groups. The study found that: Age at onset of psychosis for cannabis users was [read the full story…]
The Centre for Policy Studies have published a report, which concludes that despite being well-intentioned, plans to introduce Payment by Results (PbR) trials are unlikely to succeed. The report by leading drugs analyst Kathy Gyngell claims that: New Labour’s approach to drug addiction – prescribing addicts with methadone in an attempt to reduce crime and [read the full story…]
The NHS must wise up to the “growing problem” of drug and alcohol misuse among older people, according to a new report published today by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The report, written by the Older People’s Substance Misuse Working Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, warns that not enough is being done to [read the full story…]
