Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly最新文献

Last week, a report from the Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling concluded that gambling industry growth has been fueled by the rise of online betting. Gamblers, including young people who are not allowed into casinos, can now easily gamble. The commission also found, alarmingly, that the spread is notable in low-income countries.

The Substance Use Disorders and Mental Health Interest Group of the American Bar Association's Health Law Section fosters attorney and public participation in innovative programs in health care, alternative medicine, education, family dynamics, business and in the criminal justice system to address these conditions. It promotes practices that support prevention, education, treatment, recovery and management of substance use disorders and mental health conditions, including the removal of legal barriers to successful addiction and mental health recovery; and access to and delivery of health care services at the state and federal levels.

Cody Nagle, once an intravenous drug user, is now a lawyer. Last week, she talked to ADAW about her trajectory from a drug court in Washington state to an internship at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), where she worked in public engagement on issues of substance use disorder (SUD) recovery, to her current position at the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association (LAPPA) in Washington, D.C., where she focuses on criminal justice reform and stigma reduction. Nagle was one of the first formerly incarcerated individuals to serve in the Executive Office of the President. A recent graduate of Syracuse University College of Law, Nagle is heading back to Washington state to work as a lawyer, where shewas sworn in to the Washington state bar by the same drug court judge who sentenced her 12 years ago.

Andre L. Johnson, Psy.D., founder and CEO of the Detroit Recovery Project, shared his vision of a “recovery ecosystem” at the annual meeting of the Association of Addiction Professionals (NAADAC) in Washington, D.C. last week. “The world has changed, it's not the world of the 80s,” he said. Johnson, after he was sober for two years, went to Morehouse for an undergraduate psychology degree and went on to work at a hospital in Detroit, where he “sat down with CEOs and CFOs and learned how money is moved around and how programs are designed based on resources,” he said. After completing a clinical internship at Tarzana Treatment Center treating 12-18-year-olds, he received a doctorate in clinical psychology from the Michigan School of Psychology. What he stressed at NAADAC was this: “we needed to develop a recovery support program.” Treatment alone wasn't working in the drug-ravaged city. The time of 120 days in treatment was over.

Called the “Third Space Project,” Idaho libraries will provide space for telehealth treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs), with an emphasis on serving rural and high-need communities. The state Division of Behavioral Health Substance Use Disorder Unit is leading the project in partnership with the Idaho Commission for Libraries (ICfL), with funding by a $500,000 grant from the American Rescue Plan Act's 2021 Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant supplemental.

Last week Robert Morrison, executive director of the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Agency Directors (NASADAD) received the 2024 Tom Fellows Award for service from Oxford House Inc. at the world convention held in Orlando, Florida.

Two categories of medications that have soared in popularity in addressing weight loss could eventually become impactful strategies in the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD). But the findings that suggest this potential has been observational to this point, meaning more targeted trials will be necessary before these therapies can be seen as a breakthrough.

The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test–Consumption (AUDIT-C) is a validated screen, but until recently has not been evaluated in routine conditions for adult primary care patients. A new study has found that AUDIT-C screens have “excellent” test-retest reliability, which assesses the consistency of results when given at two different times. Excellent test-retest reliability means that there are similar results across separate test administrations, and the study, supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), shows that the AUDIT-C can be used reliably in adult primary care patients. The study, led by Claire B. Simon, M.D., of the University of Washington in Seattle, used electronic health record (EHR) data from Kaiser Permanente. For the study, more than 18,000 adult primary care patients completed two AUDIT-C screens at 1 to 21 days apart as part of routine care in 2021. Screen results were reliable whether completed in person or online through patient portals. However, reliability was higher when the patient completed both screens using online patient portals, compared to completing both screens in the clinic or one in the clinic and one online. Therefore, completing two screens may be a better option than just doing one. The study, High test–retest reliability of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test–Consumption (AUDIT-C) questionnaire completed by primary care patients in routine care, is published in the February 2024 issue of Alcohol, Clinical and Experimental Research. The researchers also found that reliability was lower for American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) patients and multiracial patients.

Last week NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC) met in Washington for its annual conference and Hill Day, when members of the group go to Capitol Hill to make specific asks of their representatives. Held in a different location each year, the conference site this year made visits to Congress essential. So does the state of the organization, which is now under the leadership of Terrence D. Walton, who came to the organization from Rise Up (formerly called the National Association of Drug Court Professionals).

Now in research phases, an armband that senses opioid overdose and automatically injects naloxone is hoped to prevent deaths, which now number 100,000 a year. Naloxone must be administered almost immediately after an overdose to prevent brain damage. With almost half of opioid overdose deaths occurring when the victim is totally alone, it may be essential to move this technology forward, according to AltruMed, which is seeking federal funding for its DOVE device. It detects opioid overdose via pulse oximetry and accelerometry. A current grant is testing the harness, sensor and injector components of DOVE.