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Treatment
Applying interventions designed to reduce and manage the symptoms of substance use disorders.
Parent-Child Relationships and Substance Use in Adolescence
Past research has often suggested parent-child connectedness and communication to be important for the prevention of substance, particularly alcohol, misuse among adolescents. A new study recently published in Drugs: Education, Prevention...
75% of Teens See E-Cigarettes as a Safer Alternative to Tobacco
Almost 3 out of 4 teenagers in the United States think that e-cigarettes are less harmful or addictive than smoking tobacco, a new study has found. The researchers also found that increases in the perceived safety of what has become known...
The Cambridge Handbook of International Prevention Science
The Cambridge Handbook of International Prevention Science provides readers with a comprehensive global overview of the current status of prevention science. The handbook includes up-to-date research from more than 100 scholars from 27...
Mental Health Issues and Drug Use Disorder in Young People
This new report analyses treatment services provided to youth with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders across Australia. Awareness of the complex relationship between mental health problems and substance abuse can help...
Weaker Bones Linked to Cannabis Use
Research conducted at the University of Edinburgh has found a link between cannabis use and bone mass density. More specifically, the findings, recently published in the American Journal of Medicine, report that frequent cannabis users are...
Smoking and Depression: What's the Relationship?
Almost 20% of American adults smoke cigarettes. Those diagnosed as having a moderate mental health problem are approximately twice as likely to smoke, whereas for those diagnosed as severely ill the risks are roughly three times greater...
Health Benefits from Stopping Smoking
Within as little as twenty minutes after your last cigarette your body begins to feel the effects of quitting. Health benefits from stopping smoking include, amongst other things, a decrease in heart rate and blood pressure, better...
Expanding Drug Markets in Australia
Recently sixteen people were hospitalised on the Gold Coast, Australia, after taking a new synthetic drug known as Flakka. One of those taken ill is said to be in a critical condition. Flakka takes the form of a white/pink crystal-like...
Lethal Highs: How U.S. Customs and Border Protection Laboratories Are Protecting America from Designer Drugs
This article summarizes the work of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) in the area of counternarcotics. The CBP describes the challenges to addressing substance use when molecular...
Rescued from Hell: Life after the High
This photo story documents the lives of children at a rehabilitation centre in Delhi. The majority of young drug users in India's capital city are addicted to marijuana and heroin. Rajesh Kumar, Executive Director of the Society for...
Contingency Management and Drug Disorders
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) defines contingency management as “a general behavioural intervention technique used in the treatment of drug dependence … designed to weaken drug use and strengthen...
What are the Second-Hand Effects of Alcohol Consumption?
The ‘second hand effects’ of alcohol use can be defined as the negative consequences of drinking experienced by people other than the drinker. They can include, for example, serious acts of sexual and physical violence as well as more...
Scottish Courts Rule in Favour of Minimum Price for Alcohol
After more than four years of industry delay tactics, yesterday’s ruling from the Court of Session in Edinburgh has finally paved the way for the introduction of a minimum price for alcohol in Scotland, a policy approved by MSPs back in...
Parenting Styles and Alcohol Use
Alcohol use is common among children and adolescents despite the fact that this particular form of risk-behaviour can have a negative impact on one’s psychological and social development. A recent article published in the journal Drugs...
Alcohol Abuse Interventions in Primary Care Settings
A recent review of studies focusing on excessive drinkers identified and counselled in primary care settings has found that, when combined with screenings and assessments, brief, regular intervention sessions lead to greater reductions in...
Is There a Biological Link Between Anti-Depressants and the Effects of Alcohol on the Body?
The ‘self-medication hypothesis’ is commonly known to refer to a human behaviour which sees people with depression turn to alcohol as a way of coping. New research published in the journal Nature Communications has now discovered a...
Australia: Social Pressures and Alcohol Consumption
Almost 20% of Australians exceed two alcoholic drinks on average per day. However, the will to cut down or quit drinking can lead to social stigmatisation. A new study published in Drug and Alcohol Review reports that, in many social...
Marijuana and Maternity: What Are the Effects?
Four US states currently allow r
ecreational marijuana use and twenty-four allow medical marijuana. However, little research has been carried out to uncover the drug’s effect on the development of human embryos if smoked or consumed in...
Opioid Abuse Linked to Heroin Use
New research published in the journal Addictive Behaviors has found the likelihood of 18- to 34-year-old nonmedical prescription opioid users having a prescription opioid use disorder has increased between 2002 – 2014. More specifically...
Identifying At-Risk Personalities
A new substance abuse prevention programme called Preventure uses personality tests to identify children most at risk of indulging in harmful drug-taking behaviour. The traits it has identified amongst at-risk children include: sensation...