31 August 2007

110333
Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England in 2006.
Bates B., Blenkinsop S., Clemens S., Deverill C., Hills A., Li N., Mackenzie H., Wilson S. Fuller E. (ed.) UK. National Health Service. Information Centre, UK. Office for National Statistics.
London: NHS, Spiral bound 210p.
ISBN 9781846361517
This is the latest in a series of surveys of secondary school children which provides the national estimates of the proportion of young people aged 11-15 who smoke, drink alcohol or take illegal drugs.

DESK 110335
Drug related deaths in Scotland in 2006.
UK. Scotland. General Register Office for Scotland.
Edinburgh: General Register Office for Scotland, 2007. 13p.
This paper describes the system by which the Registrar General for Scotland collects information on drug-related deaths in Scotland and presents selected statistical information covering the period 1996 to 2006.

(more…)

Like the new monitoring services but wondering how many times you’ll have to check the website to keep up with what’s new? Or like the idea of monitoring the headlines but not for every blog and journal we’ve identified? If the answer to either of these questions is “Yes”, then it’s time you signed up for a newsreader.

I’ve already posted about newsreaders and RSS feeds and how they can help to keep up-to-date, and uptake has been really good. In fact, one of my observations is that a lot of drugs workers find “Web 2.0″ stuff like newsreaders much easier and more convenient than standard web services. Advantages you’ve told me you experience include:

• web-based newsreaders mean you can access updates from any computer
• the updates “wait for you” - if you login every day, you get a day’s worth of updates; every week, you get a week’s worth - ideal if you’re not desk-based all the time
• their folder structure means you can organise them to suit how your mind works
• it’s quicker to skim through headlines on your reader than to open lots of emails
• some of you like to have some news emailed to you from your reader
• others find it useful that your news is not in your email as it stops you overlooking it by accident when you’re busy

Still not convinced? Worried it might be too ’techie’ for you? This jargon-busting video explains how it works in 3.5 minutes:

So, by setting youself up with a Bloglines, Google, or other reader, you can track the headlines from our monitoring service, or any of the individual blogs etc. in your own time, from your own desktop.

Give it a try and then tell me if it doesn’t make keeping up-to-date a whole lot easier.

Anne Welsh
Information Officer

You can download the images from the Department of Health website.

DESK 99566
The essential guide to drugs and alcohol.
Shapiro S. DrugScope.
(Essential series).
London: DrugScope, New ed. 2007. 149p. ISBN 1904319483
The latest incarnation of the Druglink guide to drugs (formerly Drug abuse briefing) includes sections on drug-taking and risk-taking, UK drug laws, drug terms, drug jargon, basic statistics, and drug and alchol treatment. A new section lists further resources, both online and printed.
Available from: Hit

Full-text free to download as at 19 August 2007:

Substance use during sexual and physical assault in HIV-infected persons.
Chuang C.H., Liebschutz J.M., Cheng D.M., Raj A., Samet J.H.
Violence and Victims: 22(2), 2007, p. 216–225.
The authors used data from the HIV-Alcohol Longitudinal Cohort to determine the prevalence of substance use by victims and assailants during physical and sexual assault against HIV-infected persons, and to determine if the findings differed by gender. Of the sexually assaulted participants, 31% of victims and 70% of assailant(s) had used drugs/alcohol during sexual assault.

Theory-based processes that promote the remission of substance use disorders.
Moos R.H.
Clinical Psychology Review: 27(5), June, p.537-551.
Four related theories about the personal and social resources that shield individuals from developing substance use disorders and foster the process of remission from these disorders are described. These theories are social control theory, behavioral economics and behavioral choice theory, social learning theory, and stress and coping theory. A review of the literature considers evidence about the association between the personal and social resources specified by the four theories and remission from substance use disorders. The discussion highlights several issues that need to be addressed to enhance our understanding of the protective resources involved in stable remission, such as how to develop integrated measures of the key resources and specify their associations with substance use outcomes, the extent to which the resources amplify or compensate for the influence of treatment, and how treatment and continuing care can be tailored to strengthen the protective resources that promote remission.

Dying on the streets.
Jackson J.L., Sessums L.
Journal of General Internal Medicine: 22(4), 2007, p.554-555.
Article on deaths among homeless people in the United States.

Long-term opioid contract use for chronic pain management in Primary Care practice: a five year experience.
Hariharan J., Lamb J.C., Neuner J.M.
Journal of General Internal Medicine: 22(4), 2007, p.485-490.
This article describes the long-term outcomes of a medication contract agreement for patients receiving opioid medications in a primary care setting.

Patient satisfaction with Primary Care office-based Buprenorphine/Naloxone treatment.
Barry D.T., Moore B.A., Pantalon M.V., Chawarski M.C., Sullivan L., O’Connor P.G., Schottenfeld R.S., Fiellan D.A.
Journal of General Internal Medicine: 22(2), 2007, p.242-245.
This study aimed to identify factors related to patient satisfaction in patients receiving primary care–based buprenorphine/naloxone that varied in counseling intensity (20 vs 45 minutes) and office visit frequency (weekly vs thrice weekly).

Statutory Instrument 2007 No. 2154. The Misuse of Drugs and Misuse of Drugs (Safe Custody) (Amendment) Regulations 2007.
UK. Parliament.
London: TSO, 2007.