Key Findings
This is a quick summary of the main discovery for each research paper we have published, organized issue by issue. Each key finding is below the article title, with a link to the abstract.
Search key findings View Previous Lists
July 2018
Extended‐release injectable naltrexone for opioid use disorder: a systematic review
Many people who intend to start extended‐release naltrexone do not do so, and most who do start discontinue treatment prematurely.
Unrecorded alcohol use: a global modelling study based on nominal group assessments and survey data
A new method for modelling country-level proportion of unrecorded alcohol use shows that lower-income countries have a higher proportion of unrecorded alcohol than higher-income countries.
The future of the international drug control system and national drug prohibitions
International drug treaties will need reform as more countries legalise cannabis.
Alcohol, pattern of drinking and all‐cause mortality in Russia, Belarus and Hungary: a retrospective indirect cohort study based on mortality of relatives
Drinking frequency is associated positively with mortality among men and women in Russia, Belarus and Hungary. The mortality risk is higher among frequent drinkers who exhibit binge and hazardous drinking patterns.
Impacts of licensed premises trading hour policies on alcohol-related harms
An agent-based simulation model suggests that restricting trading hours of licensed venues reduces rates of alcohol-related harm and extending trading hours of bottle shops increases rates of alcohol-related harm.
The relationship between methamphetamine use and heterosexual behaviour: evidence from a prospective longitudinal study
Methamphetamine use is associated with an increase in being sexually active, having multiple and casual sex partners, and having condomless sex with casual partners, but is not associated with a change in condom use per se.
Cost‐effectiveness of hydromorphone for severe opioid use disorder: findings from the SALOME randomized clinical trial
Injectable hydromorphone appears to provide similar outcomes to injectable diacetylmorphine and might provide greater benefit than methadone alone as well as being cost‐saving.
Do predictors of smoking relapse change as a function of duration of abstinence? Findings from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia
Among adult smokers in the US, Canada, UK and Australia, factors associated with smoking relapse differ between the early and later stages of quit attempts, suggesting relapse determinants change as a function of abstinence duration.
Neonatal outcomes after fetal exposure to methadone and buprenorphine: national registry studies from the Czech Republic and Norway
Two national cohorts of women (Czech Republic and Norway) receiving opioid maintenance treatment during pregnancy showed small but not statistically significant differences in neonatal outcomes in favour of buprenorphine compared with methadone.
‘Are the Times A‐changin’? Trends in adolescent substance use in Europe
From 1999 to 2015 European adolescents showed strong decreasing trends in cigarette use and moderate decreases in alcohol use. Cannabis use increased in southern Europe and the Balkans.
Estimating the health-care costs of children born to pregnant smokers in England: cohort study using primary and secondary health-care data
In England, maternal smoking in pregnancy is associated with increased child health-care costs over the first 5 years of life, driven primarily by greater hospital in-patient care.
Corrected US opioid-involved drug poisoning deaths and mortality rates, 1999–2015
Death certificate reports understate the prevalence of and changes over time in opioid and heroin/synthetic opioid-involved drug mortality in the United States.
Investigating causal associations between use of nicotine, alcohol, caffeine and cannabis: a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization study
Two-sample Mendelian randomization analyses (which can test for causal effects in observational data) have found little evidence for causal relationships between nicotine, alcohol, caffeine and cannabis use.
‘Addressed to you not as a smoker… but as a doctor’: doctor-targeted cigarette advertisements in JAMA
Analysis of doctor-targeted tobacco ads in US medical journals from 1936 to 1953 suggest that tobacco companies targeted physicians as a potential sales force to asshttps://journal.wjh.stagingserver.live/admin/posts/chooseuage the public's fear of health risks and to recruit them as allies against negative publicity.