All Effectiveness Bank analyses to date of documents related to use and problem use of illegal drugs starting with the analyses most recently added or updated, totalling today 815 documents.
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REVIEW 2009 HTM file
Guide to implementing family skills training programmes for drug abuse prevention
Kumpfer K.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2009.
UN-commissioned guidance from international experts on how to mount prevention programmes based on family skills training involving parents and children in a joint effort to improve family dynamics and child development. Engaging parents seems the major barrier.
REVIEW 2009 HTM file
Traditional medicine in the treatment of drug addiction
Lu L., Liu Y., Zhu W. et al.
American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse: 2009, 35(1), p. 1–11.
A China-North America funding and authorship collaboration has assessed the evidence for the main traditional herbal remedies in addiction treatment, and made a new assessment of the role of acupuncture; generally, 'promising' was most positive verdict it could reach.
NOTES 2002 PDF file 166Kb
Residential versus non-residential treatment
Ashton M.
Notes on whether and for whom residential care improves on (generally intensive) non-residential alternatives.
STUDY 2008 HTM file
Effects of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign on youths
Hornik R., Jacobsohn L., Orwin R. et al.
American Journal of Public Health: 2008, 98(12), p. 2229-2236.
Could the US government's biggest ever attempt to use the media to turn US youth away from cannabis actually have done the reverse? At best it was a disappointment; at worst, it counterproductively fostered the impression that 'Everyone's doing it'.
STUDY 2009 HTM file
Evaluating mediators of the impact of the Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers (LIFT) multimodal preventive intervention on substance use initiation
DeGarmo D.S., Eddy J.M., Reid J.B. et al.
Prevention Science: 2009, 10(3), p. 208–220.
Again an early schools programme which does not mention substance use at all but focuses on overall child development has later impacts on substance use (plus other benefits) as great as targeted drug education is typically able to produce.
STUDY 2007 HTM file
A randomized controlled trial of intensive referral to 12-step self-help groups: one-year outcomes
Timko C., DeBenedetti A.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence: 2007, 90, p. 270–279.
Even in a largely 12-step oriented programme, this US study showed that persistent and practical efforts can modestly strengthen 12-step group involvement after treatment and improve outcomes.
STUDY 2009 HTM file
Improving clinical outcomes in treating heroin dependence: randomized, controlled trial of oral or implant naltrexone
Hulse G.K., Morris N., Arnold-Reed D. et al.
Archives of General Psychiatry: 2009, 66(10), p. 1108–1115.
The first trial of implanted versus oral naltrexone found that the implants' extended opiate-blocking action helps avoid relapse to regular opiate use – but the action was not as extended as hoped, non-opiate use was greater, and there were more unpleasant side-effects.
STUDY 2009 HTM file
Blueprint drugs education: the response of pupils and parents to the programme
Blueprint Evaluation Team.
Blueprint Evaluation Team, 2009.
In the British context, it was expected to decide whether an evidence-based, well structured and well resourced drug education programme could contribute to reducing youth substance use, yet the multi-million pound Blueprint study never got near fulfilling its promise.
REVIEW ABSTRACT 2009 HTM file
Continuing care research: what we have learned and where we are going
McKay J.R.
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment: 2009, 36, p. 131–145.
Are alcohol and drug dependence best treated as chronic conditions needing extended care, or should we expect patients to recover and leave treatment? Whatever the answer, this review finds that generally the offer of long-term continuing care leads to better outcomes.
STUDY 2005 PDF file 104Kb
Drug prevention best done by school's own teachers not outside specialists
McNeal R.B.
in the Drug and Alcohol Findings magazine
An evaluation of the US All Stars programme for early secondary school provided a rare opportunity to test whether drug prevention is best done by outside specialists or a school's own teachers; the teachers won out, despite needing less training.
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