An overview of recommendations from the Australian Guidelines for the Treatment of Alcohol Problems was recently published in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA). The supplementary document to the main guidelines presents a number of recommendations designed to improve current practices for the prevention and treatment of alcohol use disorders. The recommendations outlined […]

    The Alcohol and Drug Foundation have developed an online screening, brief information and location-specific referral service called Path2Help.    Path2Help uses the ASSIST questionnaire to assess an individual’s level of risk (low, moderate, high) of dependence, and then through a clever algorithmic system, connects the individual to information about how to reduce risk, […]

Administration of the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) among high school students in the Peruvian Amazon. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse By: Friso et al., 2021 WHAT WAS THE STUDY ABOUT? In some areas of Peru, drug use has, and continues to present a significant challenge among young people, due in […]

    The effects of screening brief intervention referral to treatment (SBIRT) training on health professional trainees’ regard, attitudes, and beliefs towards patients who use substances.   Published in: Substance Abuse By: Lukowitsky et al., 2021   WHAT WAS THE STUDY ABOUT? This study evaluated the attitudes and beliefs of healthcare trainees towards people who […]

    Risk factors for new-onset bipolar disorder in a community cohort: A five-year follow up study. Published in: Psychiatry Research By: de Lima Bach et al., 2021   WHAT WAS THE STUDY ABOUT? The aim of this study was to assess sociodemographic and clinical risk factors for new-onset Bipolar Disorder (BD) among a community […]

Validation of the Alcohol Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) in acute psychiatric inpatients   Published in: Adicciones (Addictions) By: López-Lascano, López-Pelayo, Barcells-Oliveró, Segura, and Gual Solé. 2021   WHAT WAS THE STUDY ABOUT? The aim of this study was to validate the use of ASSIST amongst a cohort of psychiatric inpatients in a […]

      Associations of cannabis use frequency and cannabis use disorder with receiving a substance use screen and healthcare professional discussion of substance use.   Published in: The American Journal on Addictions By: Moore, DiNitto, & Choi. 2021   WHAT WAS THE STUDY ABOUT? The aim of this study was to assess the relationship […]

MANAGING RESISTANCE: RESPONDING TO CLIENTS WHO DON’T WANT TO CHANGE   Do you come across clients who don’t feel the need to change their substance use, despite experiencing health, social, financial or legal harms? Are you unsure of what to say, or frustrated with their ‘yes……but…’ type of responses? ould you like to learn how […]

New heroin treatment option yielding positive results among patients at Melbourne injecting rooms (ABC).   Recently, there was an article posted on the ABC regarding a trial of long-acting injectable buprenorphine in a clinic in Richmond, Victoria, as part of a push to improve outcomes for medication-assisted treatment of opioid dependence. The article is written […]