Evaluation of two Web-based alcohol interventions for mandated college students
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment Volume 36, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 65-74


This study evaluated the efficacy of two Web-based interventions aimed at reducing heavy drinking in mandated college students. Mandated students were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: Web-based personalized normative feedback (WPNF) or Web-based education (WE).

As predicted, results indicated that mandated students in the WPNF condition reported significantly greater reductions in weekly drinking quantity, peak alcohol consumption, and frequency of drinking to intoxication than students in the WE condition at a 30-day follow-up. Although not statistically significant, there was a similar trend for changes in alcohol-related problems. Mandated students in the WPNF group also reported significantly greater reductions in estimates of peer drinking from baseline to the follow-up assessment than students in the WE group. In addition, changes in estimates of peer drinking mediated the effect of the intervention on changes in drinking.

Findings provide support for providing Web-based personalized normative feedback as an intervention program for mandated college students.

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Patient predictors of alcohol treatment outcome: A systematic review
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment Volume 36, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 75-86


Patient characteristics as predictors of alcohol use disorder treatment outcome were examined on three levels, identifying whether or not variables were significant predictors of drinking-related outcome in univariate analysis, in multivariate analysis, and in multivariate analyses limited to studies including several “key predictors.” Also, a model was developed to predict total percentage of variance in treatment outcome accounted for in each study using each of the key predictors and a range of methodological factors.

The most consistent univariate predictors were baseline alcohol consumption, dependence severity, employment, gender, psychopathology rating, treatment history, neuropsychological functioning, alcohol-related self-efficacy, motivation, socioeconomic status/income, treatment goal, and religion.

When these key predictors were combined into multivariate analyses, baseline alcohol consumption and gender showed substantial reductions in predictive consistency whereas the remaining variables were not greatly affected.

The most consistent predictors overall were dependence severity, psychopathology ratings, alcohol-related self-efficacy, motivation, and treatment goal. The two predictor variables most associated with greater variance accounted for in predictive models, when controlling for broader methodological variables, were baseline alcohol consumption and dependence severity.

Few predictor variables were examined in more than a third of studies reviewed, and few variables were found to be significant predictors in a clear majority of studies. However, a subset of variables was identified, which collectively could be considered to represent a consistent set of predictors.

Too few studies controlled for other important predictor variables. Attempts to synthesize findings were often hampered by lack of agreement of the best measure for predictor variables.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: simon.adamson@otago.ac.nz
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'Drink responsibly' slogans could become more polite

By Kate Devlin Medical Correspondent
28 Nov 2008

Slogans exhorting drinkers to watch their alcohol intake could soon become more polite, under plans being considered by ministers.

The Department of Health is considering adding the word "please" to those that tell consumers to "drink responsibly" on labels and alcohol advertisements, amid concerns that the original phrase could be discourteous.

The Government has said it will "consider constructively" adding the request as part of a voluntary agreement they have with drinks companies.

But alcohol experts warn that the move will do little or nothing to prevent binge drinking.

. . . . .

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The cost-effectiveness of increasing alcohol taxes: a modelling study
BMC Medicine 2008, 6:36

Excessive alcohol use increases risks of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease and several types of cancer, with associated losses of quality of life and life-years. Alcohol taxes can be considered as a public health instrument as they are known to be able to decrease alcohol consumption.

In this paper, we estimate the cost-effectiveness of an alcohol tax increase for the entire Dutch population, from a health care perspective focusing on health benefits and health care costs in alcohol users.

To extrapolate from decreased alcohol consumption due to tax increases to effects on health care costs, life years gained and quality-adjusted life years (QALYS) gained, the RIVM Chronic Disease Model was used. A Dutch scenario in which tax increases for beer are planned, and a Swedish scenario representing one of the highest alcohol taxes in Europe, were compared to the current practice in the Netherlands. To estimate cost-effectiveness ratios, yearly differences in model outcomes between intervention and current practice scenarios were discounted and added over the time horizon of 100 years to find net present values for incremental life years gained, QALYs gained, and health care costs.

In the Swedish scenario much more QALYs were gained than in the Dutch scenario, but both scenarios have almost equal incremental cost-effectiveness ratios: E 5,100 per QALY and E 5,300 per QALY, respectively.

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Alcoholism and the Coming Social Crisis in Ghana
Feature Article of Monday, 24 November 2008



The young person staggering home, evidently drunk and struggling to avoid the gutter near the “drinking spot”, couldn’t have been older than 20. That it was a woman, well-dressed with hair beautifully coiffed, was even more shocking. She was followed by a group of young men who taunted her. One even tried to grab her breasts, but she clumsily brushed him off, raining slurred insults on them as she zigzagged away.

From the drinking spot, her male drinking partners, seemingly weighed down by their own drunken stupor, tried to call her back but she would have none of that. She hurled some insults at them and then continued on her tortured and tortuous journey away from them.

This spectacle, which I witnessed during a recent visit to the Eastern Region, is indicative of the moral quagmire that the nation finds itself in today and the disproportionate effect that it is having on our youth, the putative future leaders of Ghana.
. . . . .

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Alcoholics Anonymous attendance following 12-step treatment participation as a link between alcohol-dependent fathers' treatment involvement and their children's externalizing problems
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment Volume 36, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 87-100

We investigated longitudinal associations between alcohol-dependent fathers' 12-step treatment involvement and their children's internalizing and externalizing problems (N = 125, M_age = 9.8 ± 3.1), testing the hypotheses that fathers' greater treatment involvement would benefit later child behavior and that this effect would be mediated by fathers' posttreatment behaviors.

The initial association was established between fathers' treatment involvement and children's externalizing problems only, whereas Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) results supported mediating hypotheses. Fathers' greater treatment involvement predicted children's lower externalizing problems 12 months later, and fathers' posttreatment behaviors mediated this association: Greater treatment involvement predicted greater posttreatment Alcoholics Anonymous attendance, which in turn predicted greater abstinence.

Finally, fathers' abstinence was associated with lower externalizing problems in children. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: jba@brown.edu
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To what factors do clients attribute change? Content analysis of follow-up interviews with clients of the UK Alcohol Treatment Trial
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment Volume 36, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 49-58


The UK Alcohol Treatment Trial compared outcomes after a social treatment (Social Behavior and Network Therapy) and a motivational treatment (Motivational Enhancement Therapy). As part of the process element of the trial, a subsample of clients were interviewed 3 months after treatment allocation and another subsample 12 months after allocation (N = 397) to explore the factors to which clients attributed positive changes that might have occurred in their drinking.

Postinterview reports were content analyzed using three types of code: social, motivational, and general. At 3 months, Social Behavior and Network Therapy clients made significantly more social attributions and Motivational Enhancement Therapy clients more motivational attributions, and the difference for motivational attributions was maintained at 12 months (with a trend for social attributions).

Overall, the factors to which change was most frequently attributed were involvement of others in supporting behavior change (a social factor), awareness of the consequences of drinking (a motivational factor), and three general factors—determination, commitment, and decision; detoxification or medication; and feeling comfortable talking.

Change was more frequently attributed to general factors than it was to either social or motivational ones. Some of the difficulties in eliciting and coding attribution material are referred to.

The results may help understand the absence of between-treatment type outcome differences in UK Alcohol Treatment Trial and other trials.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: j.f.orford@bham.ac.uk
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A quantitative review of the ubiquitous relapse curve
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment Volume 36, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 8-17


The primary goal of this study is to ascertain whether relapse to drug dependence, in terms of continuous abstinence assessment, exhibits a typical pattern that can be characterized by a common quantitative function. If the relapse curve is indeed ubiquitous, then some underlying mechanism must be operating to shape the curve that transcends variables such as drug class, population, or treatment type.

Survival analyses are performed on 20 alcohol and tobacco treatment studies using the proportions of individuals remaining abstinent after a period of initial abstinence. Several parametric models of relapse are compared, and the results demonstrate that a log-logistic distribution is the most accurate reflection of the available data and the basic shape of the relapse curve is uniform.

In most reports examined, the rate of relapse decelerates after initial abstinence has been achieved, and therefore, the amount of accumulated time abstinent may be the transcending variable that operates to shape the relapse curve.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: akirshenbaum@smcvt.edu
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Commentary - Holidays, triggers, and willpower—Is there a role for medications?: A commentary on “The effects of extended-release naltrexone on holiday drinking in alcohol-dependent patients”
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment Volume 36, Issue 1, January 2009, Page 7


The public health significance of the findings by Lapham et al. in this issue is huge. These authors found that individuals who received extended release naltrexone treatment were significantly better able to avoid episodes of heavy drinking during the holiday periods that have been shown to be triggers for relapse, risky drinking, and alcohol-related accidents. Here are two of the most significant implications from these findings.
. . . . .

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The effects of extended-release naltrexone on holiday drinking in alcohol-dependent patients
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment Volume 36, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 1-6


A post hoc analysis examined the effect of extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) treatment combined with psychosocial support on alcohol consumption during holiday and nonholiday periods in a cohort of alcohol-dependent patients who had maintained at least 4 days of continuous abstinence before receiving their first treatment.

Three parameters of drinking behavior were examined: percentage of drinking days, percentage of heavy drinking days, and the number of drinks per day.

Patients receiving XR-NTX 380 mg reported significantly lower median percentages of drinking days, heavy drinking days, and the number of drinks per day compared with the placebo group. Patients treated with XR-NTX 190 mg reported similar results overall.

The results suggest that treatment with XR-NTX 380 mg in combination with psychosocial intervention leads to significant reductions in alcohol consumption, with some measures indicating abstinence in alcohol-dependent patients with initial abstinence during holiday periods.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: slapham@bhrcs.org
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Alcohol Learning Centre (ALC)

Alcohol Learning Centre (ALC) is an on-line one-stop-shop which collates, co-ordinates and disseminates learning and promising practice from across the NHS and the Third Sector. It contains alcohol specific policy documents, guidance and tools and provides training resources to support frontline practitioners in delivering Identification and Brief Advice (IBA).

Alcohol Improvement Programme

The Alcohol Learning Centre (ALC) is part of the Alcohol Improvement Programme. It is the repository of policy and promising practice identified through the following:

• Screening and Intervention Trailblazers Research Programme for Sensible Drinking (SIPS)
• Database of local implementation strategies and initiatives
• the E-learning module to train health care professionals to deliver Identification and Brief Advice (IBA)
• the experiences of the Regional Alcohol Offices (RAO/M's) working with local delivery partners.

For more information on:

• Primary Care
• Supporting PCT's
• High Impact Changes
• National Indicators
• National Support Team

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Calling time on Britain's binge-drinking epidemic


PaolaTotaro London
November 29, 2008

WHEN London's most famous blond, Boris Johnson, was battling Labour for the mayoral ermine earlier this year, one of his most popular — and clinching — pledges was to ban booze on the Tube.

The notion that it remained legal to crack open a coldie on the train home at night — or on the way to work in the morning, for that matter — seemed bizarre, an oversight from the days when drink-driving wasn't a crime and a fag in public wasn't an act of social rebellion.

Six months later, that pre-election promise has taken on a chilling significance: Britain is in the grip of a social crisis, an epidemic of binge-drinking and booze-fuelled violence that the Brits seem only now to have truly recognised.

. . . . .

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-Opioid Receptor Expression in the Ventral Tegmental Area Protects Against Elevated Alcohol Consumption
The Journal of Neuroscience, November 26, 2008, 28(48):12672-1268


Alcoholism is a complex and debilitating syndrome affecting 140 million people worldwide. However, not everyone who consumes ethanol develops abuse, raising the possibility that some individuals have a protective mechanism that inhibits elevated alcohol consumption. We tested the hypothesis that the -opioid receptor (DOR) plays such a protective role.

Here we show that DOR activity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) robustly decreases ethanol consumption in rats and that these effects depend on baseline ethanol consumption. Intra-VTA microinjection of the DOR agonist DPDPE decreases drinking, particularly in low-drinking animals.

Furthermore, VTA microinjection of the DOR selective antagonist TIPP- increases drinking in low, but not high, drinkers and this increase is blocked by comicroinjection of the GABA_A antagonist bicuculline. Using electrophysiological techniques we found that in VTA brain slices from drinking rats DPDPE presynaptically inhibits GABA_A receptor mediated IPSCs in low drinkers, but not in high drinkers or naive animals, most likely through activation of DORs on GABA terminals. This DOR-mediated inhibition of IPSCs also correlates inversely with behavioral correlates of anxiety measured in the elevated plus maze. In contrast, presynaptic inhibition of VTA GABA_A IPSCs by the µ- opioid receptor agonist DAMGO is significantly reduced in both high- and low-drinking rats (<30%)>70%).

Together, our findings demonstrate the protective nature of VTA DORs and identify an important new target for therapeutic intervention for alcoholism.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: elyssam@gallo.ucsf.edu
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Assessing alcohol-involved adolescents: Toward a developmentally-relevant diagnostic taxonomy
Journal of Substance Use 24 November 2008

Although recent assessment and diagnostic advancements have been made to better reflect the developmental uniqueness of alcohol-involved adolescents, there remains lacking a comprehensive taxonomy to describe the diversity of this large and often at-risk population.

This paper presents a taxonomy comprising five typologies of adolescent drinkers based on a continuum of use severity. Each typology is described in terms of alcohol consumption variables, salient risk factors for alcohol problems, and problem symptoms.

We argue that the taxonomy provides a useful heuristic for clinicians conducting assessment or screening with alcohol-involved adolescents, and we offer conceptual improvements for making the DSM-IV Alcohol Use Disorder criteria more developmentally relevant to adolescents.

Implications for matching typologies to service levels are discussed.


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Request Reprnt E-Mail: hesselb@psychiatry.uchc.edu
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Alcohol consumption and sickness absence: evidence from microdata
The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access published online on November 25, 2008


Aggregate time-series evidence has shown that overall per capita alcohol consumption is associated with sickness absence.

This study re-examines the relationship between alcohol consumption and sickness absence by using individual-level microdata and methods that yield results which are less likely to be due to spurious correlations.

The estimates show that alcohol consumption is associated with sickness absence. The positive relationship between alcohol consumption and sickness absence is particularly pronounced for low-educated males.

Aggregate time-series evidence for the relationship between alcohol consumption and sickness absence is confirmed by using individual-level microdata. The policy lesson is that it is important to take into account the effects of alcohol consumption on the prevalence of sickness absence (i.e. labour supply on an intensive margin) when one is considering the level of taxation of alcoholic beverages.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: edvard.johansson@etla.fi
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Alcohol use amongst children is rooted in complex societal issues, says DCSF report

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) have released a comprehensive report; 'Use of alcohol among Children and Young People', and a summarising research brief, both available here. The full 373 page report explores influences and barriers to young people's involvement with alcohol and factors influencing various attitudes. The project also examined the role of current advertising and communication campaigns in the choices of children and young people whilst aiming to inform the design of interventions to young people and parents.

. . . . .

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A Wake Up for Westminster: Economic trends in the beer and pub sector


A report highlighting the fact that pub beer sales have sunk to the lowest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s and that pub closures at five a day have reached unprecedented levels.

But, it says, Government policies on tax and regulation have severely restricted business flexibility and are hampering the sector’s ability to respond to economic change. And there are more in the pipeline.

Wake up for Westminster

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Australians debate government battle against booze

The Associated Press

Published: November 27, 2008

SYDNEY, Australia: The blood oozes crimson from a jagged gash in the man's head onto the starched white hospital sheet. A booze-fueled bar brawl has left his face shredded, his brain damaged.

Across the emergency room, a clammy-skinned patient who smells like a brewery curls into a fetal position on his gurney, recovering from a near-fatal combination of alcohol and pills.

On a Saturday, St. Vincent's Hospital in the heart of Sydney's nightlife district becomes, in Dr. Gordian Fulde's weary words, "a war zone" of Australia's alcohol casualties.

This is Monday.

Australia has long been known as a nation of beer-loving boozers. But now the government, fed up with what it sees as a growing crisis of out-of-control drinking and subsequent violence, has decided it's time for a change.

. . . . .

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Press Notice - Duties on Alcohol

26 November 2008

In the Pre-Budget Report on Monday 24 November, the Government announced that it would increase duties on tax paid on tobacco, alcohol and petrol to offset the temporary cut in VAT to 15 per cent so that prices remained broadly unchanged.

The Government is today making an order to amend the previously announced increase in the rate for spirits from 8 percent to 4 percent, to leave spirits in broadly the same position as other alcoholic products. Orders giving effect to these changes have been laid before Parliament.

The Alcoholic Liquor (Surcharge on Spirits Duty) Order 2008 was laid on 26 November 2008. This order, together with the Alcoholic Liquor Duties (Surcharges) and Tobacco Products Duty Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/3026) laid on 24 November 2008 will give effect to the rate increases below.

Details of the new duty rates for alcohol are available on the HMRC website:

• Adjustments to amounts of alcohol duty payable

Read Full Press Notice
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Press Release - Researchers Identify How Binge Drinking May Drive Heart Disease

As the holidays arrive, a group of researchers has identified the precise mechanisms by which binge drinking contributes to clogs in arteries that lead to heart attack and stroke, according to a study published today in the journal Atherosclerosis. The works adds to a growing body of evidence that drinking patterns matter as much, if not more, to risk for cardiovascular disease than the total amount consumed.

. . . . .

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Acetaldehyde stimulates monocyte adhesion in a P-selectin- and TNFα-dependent manner
Atherosclerosis Published online 26 Novewmber 2008

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of acetaldehyde on various steps of the monocyte recruitment cascade.

Acetaldehyde dose-dependently increased the number of CCR2 positive THP-1 monocytes, with a maximal increase of ∼50% observed in the presence of 10μM acetaldehyde. There was a significant increase in both the number of P-selectin positive cells and P-selectin receptor density when HUVEC were incubated with acetaldehyde. HUVEC TNFα mRNA expression and secretion were enhanced by acetaldehyde.

Moreover, acetaldehyde increased THP-1 and PBM adhesion to HUVEC. Inhibition of P-selectin or TNFα, using antibodies or siRNA-directed gene knockdown, attenuated acetaldehyde-induced monocyte adhesion.

In conclusion, acetaldehyde increased the number of CCR2 positive monocytes and stimulated endothelial cell P-selectin and TNFα expression. Moreover, acetaldehyde increased monocyte adhesion to endothelial cells, an effect that was both P-selectin- and TNFα-dependent.

These effects of acetaldehyde may contribute, in part, to the increase in coronary heart disease that is associated with binge patterns of alcohol consumption.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: john_cullen@urmc.rochester.edu
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Ovarian structure and hormonal status of the UChA and UChB adult rats in response to ethanol
Maturitas Article in Press 18 November 2008

In females, chronic alcoholism has a current and dangerous incidence to fertility. This work had the goal of elucidating the alterations on the ovary of UChA and UChB adult rats (ethanol 10% (v/v) voluntary drinkers).

The UChB rats showed an increase in body mass gain index and the ovaries relative weight was significantly lower comparing to the other groups. UCh rats presented the longest estral cycle durations and also persistent oestrous phasis, with uninterrupted cycles. Advanced follicular atresia was common in UCh animals, and degenerating intracellular fragments could be observed through acid phosphatase and electron microscopy techniques.

There were some estral cyclicity irregularities caused by chronic ethanol intake in the UCh groups which were consequently reflected as morphologic injury in the ovary structure.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: martinez@ibb.unesp.br

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BC Alcohol and Other Drug Monitoring Project
A Research and Knowledge Transfer Hub of the BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Network

The BC Alcohol and Other Drug Monitoring Project collects and organizes multiple streams of data related to risky substance use and associated harms in BC.

Every dataset in the system is coordinated and managed by a team of researchers. The information is routinely updated based on substance-related research from a wide variety of mental health and addictions organizations.

This BC-based project is paving the way for developing a comprehensive national system that can be applied in various jurisdictions to collect and compare substance-related trends and harms across the country.

Through maps and other graphics, the project offers easy access to information on alcohol and other drugs as well as analyses of significant relationships related to substance use.

More...

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Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia 2006-07: report on the National Minimum Data Set

Drug treatment series no. 8

Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia 2006-07: report on the National Minimum Data Set presents national, state and territory data on publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment services and their clients, including information about the types of drugs for which treatment is sought and the types of treatment provided. This is the seventh report in the series of annual publications on the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS-NMDS). This report, along with others in the Drug Treatment series, is useful for policy-makers, planners, researchers and the broader community.

Read Full Report (PDF)

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Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia 2006-07: findings from the National Minimum Data Set

AIHW bulletin no. 65

Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia 2006-07: findings from the National Minimum Data Set presents data on publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment services and their clients, including information about the types of drugs for which treatment is sought and the types of treatment provided. The data contained in this bulletin are derived from the comprehensive AODTS-NMDS 2006-07 annual report.

Read Full Report (PDF)

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Age of first drink on the slide: report

November 25, 2008

Most teenagers have downed their first stiff drink before their 14th birthday, according to new figures showing Australians are drinking younger.

And girls are no longer lagging behind boys in their enthusiasm to get acquainted with alcohol.

Addiction specialists are urging parents to be more vigilant in delaying the age their child is introduced to alcohol on the back of changing drinking trends.

Research to be presented at a drug conference in Sydney shows the average age to start drinking has dropped more than five years in the past three decades.
. . . . .

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Call for tougher laws on alcohol

By Ben Russell, Home Affairs Correspondent
Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Government drugs advisers demand warnings on ads

Drinks firms should be forced to post warnings on alcohol ads as part of wide-ranging measures to cut binge drinking, the Government's official drugs advisers have warned.

Laws should also ban alcohol advertisements on television between 6pm and 9pm, and link taxes and prices to the strength of drinks, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs said.
. . . . . .

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Separate and Joint Effects of Alcohol and Smoking on the Risks of Cirrhosis and Gallbladder Disease in Middle-aged Women
American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on November 25, 2008


The examined were separate and joint effects of alcohol and smoking on incidences of liver cirrhosis and gallbladder disease in a prospective study of 1,290,413 United Kingdom women (mean age, 56 years) recruited during 1996–2001.

After a mean follow-up of 6.1 years (1996–2005), incidence rates of cirrhosis and gallbladder disease were 1.3 per 1,000 persons (n = 2,105) and 15 per 1,000 persons (n = 23,989), respectively, over 5 years. Cirrhosis risk increased with increasing alcohol consumption, while the risk of gallbladder disease decreased (P_trend < src="http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/math/ge.gif" alt="≥" border="0">15 units/week with those who drank 1–2 units/week, the relative risk was 4.32 (95% confidence interval (CI): 3.71, 5.03)) for cirrhosis and 0.59 (95% CI: 0.55, 0.64) for gallbladder disease.

Increasing numbers of cigarettes smoked daily increased the risk of both conditions (P_trend <> current smokers of 20 cigarettes/day with never smokers, the relative risk was 3.76 (95% CI: 3.25, 4.34) for cirrhosis and 1.29 (95% CI: 1.22, 1.37) for gallbladder disease.

Effects of alcohol and smoking were more than multiplicative for cirrhosis (P_interaction = 0.02) but not for gallbladder disease (P_interaction = 0.4).

Findings indicate that alcohol and smoking affect the risks of the 2 conditions in different ways. For cirrhosis, alcohol and smoking separately increase risk, and their joint effects are particularly hazardous. For gallbladder disease, alcohol reduces risk and smoking results in a small risk increase.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: bette.liu@ceu.ox.ac.uk
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Pub operators say their woes have been ignored


Simon Bowers
The Guardian, Tuesday November 25 2008

The pub industry has accused the chancellor of "turning a deaf ear" to their plight of by ensuring alcohol sales do not benefit from the 2.5 percentage point reduction in VAT.

Alistair Darling said yesterday that duty on alcohol and tobacco would be increased to offset the VAT cut, with a "neutral" impact on the average cost of a pint of beer, bottle of spirits, bottle of wine and packet of cigarettes.

Excise duty on all alcohol products will increase by 8% to offset the VAT reduction - and the chancellor made clear that, unlike the VAT move, this was a permanent measure. This will put 3p on a pint, 13p on a bottle of wine. and 53p on a bottle of spirits. The duty on a pack of 20 cigarettes will rise by 17p.

. . . . . .

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Milford schools rethinking policies on alcohol, drugs

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

By Brian McCready, Milford Bureau Chief

MILFORD — The Board of Education is helping write a new alcohol, drugs and tobacco policy that will, for the first time, make social service programs available to affected students immediately.

School board members recently held a lengthy discussion about the current policy, and Majority Leader Greta Stanford, D-1, asked that suspensions for a first offense be cut from 10 to five days.

Several administrators objected to the proposal, but supported a new policy that would make social service programs available to students immediately after an offense. According to the proposal, a suspended student will be required to come to school at 2:30 p.m. for each of the 10 days and begin a program aimed at seeking help. The current policy only refers students to counseling once their out-of-school suspension is over, and it is not required.
. . . . .

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Estimating Alcohol Content of Traditional Brew in Western Kenya Using Culturally Relevant Methods: The Case for Cost Over Volume
AIDS and Behavior Online First November 18, 2008

Traditional homemade brew is believed to represent the highest proportion of alcohol use in sub-Saharan Africa. In Eldoret, Kenya, two types of brew are common: chang’aa, spirits, and busaa, maize beer. Local residents refer to the amount of brew consumed by the amount of money spent, suggesting a culturally relevant estimation method.

The purposes of this study were to analyze ethanol content of chang’aa and busaa; and to compare two methods of alcohol estimation: use by cost, and use by volume, the latter the current international standard.

Laboratory results showed mean ethanol content was 34% (SD = 14%) for chang’aa and 4% (SD = 1%) for busaa. Standard drink unit equivalents for chang’aa and busaa, respectively, were 2 and 1.3 (US) and 3.5 and 2.3 (Great Britain). Using a computational approach, both methods demonstrated comparable results.

We conclude that cost estimation of alcohol content is more culturally relevant and does not differ in accuracy from the international standard.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: Rebecca.papas@yale.edu
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Certain People Need Extended Care

Tuesday, November 25, 2008; Page HE04

Not everyone with a substance abuse disorder needs to commit to three months or more in an inpatient program, but certain people tend to require more care.

Among those are teenagers, young adults, longtime addicts, high-functioning professionals and people with psychological or mental health problems. Also, people with eating disorders and a history of abuse need to have those issues addressed during treatment or they're likely to have more difficulty recovering, says Harry Haroutunian of the Betty Ford Center.

. . . . .

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LDAN REPORT HIGHLIGHTS ALCOHOL RESOURCE ISSUE

An LDAN report suggests alcohol services in London are not adequately funded to cope with the growing levels of alcohol misuse. The London Alcohol Statistics Project indicates that alcohol misusers are waiting twice as long as drug users for treatment, while staff struggle to keep on top of data collection and outcome monitoring. Data on almost 7000 service users in 27 London boroughs was collected in the project.

Read Full Report (PDF)
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Inversion of Melatonin Circadian Rhythm in Chronic Alcoholic Patients during Withdrawal: Preliminary Study on Seven Patients
Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access published online on November 22, 2008


The inversion of melatonin circadian rhythm secretion in some alcoholics during both intake and acute withdrawal has been widely reported. In the same way, what happens to this inversion when these patients are in long-term withdrawal is not known. To document this abnormality in alcoholics after withdrawal we investigated melatonin secretion observed during chronic alcoholization and after withdrawal.

Our results show that this reversed rhythm of melatonin secretion as seen by the diurnal excretion of 6SM (6SM/creatinine ratio) persists during acute withdrawal in more than half of the patients and is still present 15 days after withdrawal in three patients.

It is remarkable that the inversion of the melatonin rhythms gets corrected in four out of seven patients after withdrawal. But, the circadian disorganization of melatonin secretion in three patients could underline a desynchronization in some alcoholic patients and may indicate more widespread circadian temporal structure disturbances in these patients.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: ocottencin@chru-lille.fr
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5-HT_1A Receptors in the Frontal Cortical Brain Areas in Cloninger Type 1 and 2 Alcoholics Measured by Whole-Hemisphere Autoradiography
Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access published online on November 22, 2008


The Cloninger type 1 alcoholics are prone to anxiety, and in many cases patients have begun to use alcohol in order to relieve their anxiety. We have previously reported a decrease of the serotonin transporter density in the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC) in type 1 alcoholics. The 5-HT_1A receptors are the binding sites for anxiolytic drug buspirone. We aimed to investigate the alteration in the density of 5-HT_1A receptors, that may also alter the effect of serotonin in the pACC in alcoholics.

Substantially sparser 5-HT_1A (by –31%, P = 0.010) density was observed in the pACC of alcoholic subjects in relation to non-alcoholic comparison subjects. In a secondary analysis for the difference between the alcoholic subtypes and controls, the 5-HT_1A density was decreased significantly by –32% (P = 0.015) in the upper level of pACC in type 1 alcoholics.

The detected decrease of 5-HT_1A receptor density on the pACC suggests further that the serotoninergic system is defected in the so-called affect region, especially in the type 1 alcoholics.


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Request Reprint E-Mail: markus.storvik@uku.fi
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Know Your Limits festive campaign packs released

The national Know Your Limits campaign team have released a series of resources to help deliver a range of alcohol awareness messages to support unit awareness and responsible drinking.

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Risk factors for treatment failure in smokers: Relationship to alcohol use and to lifetime history of an alcohol use disorder
Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Volume 10, Issue 12 December 2008 , pages 1793 - 1809


Little is known about the impact of alcohol involvement on smoking cessation relapse or possible mechanisms for these associations.

We addressed these issues using data from a randomized clinical trial of two types of framed messages (gain vs. loss) in conjunction with open label sustained-release (SR) bupropion (Toll et al., 2007) (N = 249). Participants were categorized according to whether or not they were diagnosed with a lifetime alcohol use disorder (AUD; i.e., current or past alcohol abuse or past alcohol dependence) and according to three levels of alcohol use: abstinence, moderate, or hazardous use. Alcohol use categories were established for drinking at baseline, during the 6-week treatment period and through 12 weeks post-quit.

There were few significant differences by baseline alcohol use level or AUD history for a series of predictors of smoking cessation failure (e.g., depressive symptoms). During treatment and follow-up, the probability of any smoking on heavy drinking days was significantly higher than the probability of smoking on moderate drinking or abstinent days. AUD history did not predict smoking cessation relapse in any analysis, nor were any alcohol useAUD history interactions significant. Moderate alcohol users and, to a lesser extent, abstainers from alcohol at baseline were less likely than hazardous drinkers to have relapsed at 12 weeks post-quit.

Based on these findings, it appears that risk of any smoking and of relapse was associated primarily with heavy drinking days and a hazardous pattern of use respectively, rather than with moderate drinking.


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Request Reprint E-Mail: robert.leeman@yale.edu
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Pre-Budget report: VAT cut to 15pc but alcohol and tobacco taxes increased

By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor
24 Nov 2008

The cost of beer, wine and spirits is set to rise to help fund the cut in Value Added Tax.

Alcohol duty has been increased by almost 8 per cent in changes which will add 3p to a pint of beer, 13p to a bottle of wine and 53p to a bottle of spirits.

The increases, which come into force on Monday, are expected to offset the cut in VAT from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent.

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Press Release - New Nationwide Report Reveals that 5 Million People Participate in Self-Help Groups Each Year

New data indicate that 2.3 million people who participate in self-help groups for alcohol or illicit drug use currently abstain from use of these substances. Based on a nationwide survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the report offers other data highlighting the use and benefits of these groups.

Among the report’s notable findings:

• An annual average of 5 million persons aged 12 or older attended a self-help group in the past year because of their use of alcohol or illicit drugs

• 45.3 percent attended a group because of their alcohol use only and 21.8 percent attended a group because of their illicit drug use only, while 33.0 percent attended a group because of their use of both alcohol and illicit drugs

• 45.1 percent of past year self-help group participants did not use alcohol or illicit drugs in the past month

• Almost one third (32.7 percent) of individuals who attended a self-help group for their substance use during the past year also received specialty treatment for substance abuse in the past year. Specialty treatment refers to substance abuse treatment received at a hospital as an inpatient, at a rehabilitation facility (either inpatient or outpatient), or at a mental health center


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Secular Trends in Poisonings Leading to Hospital Admission among Finnish Children and Adolescents between 1971 and 2005
The Journal of Pediatrics Volume 153, Issue 6, Pages 820-824.e1 (December 2008)

To investigate the secular trends in childhood poisonings leading to hospitalization in Finland.

All children and adolescents age 0 to 19 years hospitalized in Finland with the primary diagnosis of poisoning between 1971 and 2005 were identified using the International Classification of Diseases.

During the study period, there were 41 862 hospitalizations with 96 427 hospital bed days for poisoning in 38 582 children and adolescents. The incidence of hospitalization declined from 91.3 admissions per 100 000 person-years in boys and 105.2 per person-years in girls in 1971 to 64.8 in boys and 83.5 in girls in 2005. In the 0- to 4-year age group, admissions declined by 51%. Hospitalizations for alcohol poisoning increased 1.7-fold (95% confidence interval = 1.4 to 2.2) in boys and 2.4-fold (95% confidence interval = 1.8 to 3.3) in girls. Alcohol poisoning was the primary diagnosis in 53% of those in the 10- to 14-year age group.

Poisoning remains an important cause of morbidity in Finnish children and adolescents despite the decreased overall incidence of poisonings leading to hospitalization between 1971 and 2005. The increasing trend of hospital admissions for alcohol poisoning, especially in 10- to 14-year-olds, is noteworthy. Effective primary prevention programs and adult supervision should be targeted at reducing alcohol consumption and alcohol-related poisonings in youth

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Request Reprint E-Mail: juho.kivisto@uta.fi

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