Aims

To support the free and open dissemination of research findings and information on alcoholism and alcohol-related problems. To encourage open access to peer-reviewed articles free for all to view.

For full versions of posted research articles readers are encouraged to email requests for "electronic reprints" (text file, PDF files, FAX copies) to the corresponding or lead author, who is highlighted in the posting.

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Friday, May 8, 2009

The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) as a screening instrument for adolescents
Drug and Alcohol Dependence Article in Press 6 May 2009

The Chilean version of the AUDIT is a valid and reliable tool for identifying adolescents with hazardous, harmful, and dependent alcohol use. The suggested cut-off points make screening with the AUDIT more accurate for adolescent populations.


Request Reprint E-Mail: rsantis@med.puc.cl
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Evaluation of the Alcohol Craving Questionnaire-Now factor structures: Application of a cue reactivity paradigm
Drug and Alcohol Dependence Article in Press 6 May 2009


The current study compared the psychometric properties and clinical/research utility of four distinct factor/subscale models of alcohol craving (three factor-derived models, and one rationally derived model) as measured by the Alcohol Craving Questionnaire-Now



Request Reprint E-Mail: kconnol@gmail.com

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Confounding by Dietary Patterns of the Inverse Association Between Alcohol Consumption and Type 2 Diabetes Risk
American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on May 8, 2009

The data suggest that alcohol intake, not dietary patterns associated with alcohol intake, is responsible for the observed inverse association with type 2 diabetes mellitus risk.


Request Reprint E-Mail: paul.jacques@tufts.edu

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Diverse alcohol drinking patterns in 20 African countries
Addiction Published Online: 6 May 2009

African drinking patterns are diverse, and although life-time abstinence dominates in African countries, a single typical pattern of drinking for the African continent, such as the alleged 'all-or-none' pattern, was not observed.


Request Reprint E-Mail: thomas.clausen@medisin.uio.no ____________________________________________________
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Preclinical Evaluation of Riluzole: Assessments of Ethanol Self-Administration and Ethanol Withdrawal Symptoms
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research Published Online: 4 May 2009
These results demonstrate that riluzole decreases ethanol self-administration and may reduce ethanol withdrawal severity in mice. Thus, riluzole may have utility in the treatment of problems associated with alcoholism.
Request Reprint E-Mail: chodge@med.unc.edu
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SBIRT Outcomes in Houston: Final Report on InSight, a Hospital District-Based Program for Patients at Risk for Alcohol or Drug Use Problems

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research Published Online: 7 May 2009


Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) services have been implemented as the standard of care for patients in the Harris County Hospital District (HCHD). The present analysis addresses alcohol and drug use for patients admitted over a 39-month period from July 1, 2005 through September 30, 2008.


The results were consistent with but of greater magnitude than most other studies reporting positive outcomes for SBIRT patients. Drug use and heavy alcohol use were found to decrease substantially from admission to follow-up. This finding holds good for all levels of drug or alcohol misuse severity, with the highest severity patients showing the largest decreases. Future studies are needed to control for potential regression to the mean effects and to develop improved understanding of differences in outcomes by race/ethnicity.




Request Reprint E-Mail: utattc@mail.utexas.edu

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New approaches to studying problem behaviors: A comparison of methods for modeling longitudinal, categorical adolescent drinking data.
Developmental Psychology. Vol 45(3), May 2009, 652-676.


Analyzing problem-behavior trajectories can be difficult. The data are generally categorical and often quite skewed, violating distributional assumptions of standard normal-theory statistical models. In this article, the authors present several currently available modeling options, all of which make appropriate distributional assumptions for the observed categorical data. .




Request Reprint E-Mail: b.feldman@berkeley.edu
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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Are Americans ‘Nutty’ About Drinking?
By Mark Willenbring, M.D.

Dr. Mark L. Willenbring, director of the Treatment and Recovery Research Division of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, took readers’ questions in the Consults blog, “A New View of Alcoholism.”
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VideoCast - Brain Stress Systems and Addiction
Presented by: George Koob, Ph.D., Committee of the Neurobiology of Addictive Disorders, The Scripps Research Institute


Previous studies of alcohol dependent, opiate dependent and cocaine dependent animals during acute withdrawal have shown enhanced stress-like responses that are reversed by selective competitive corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) antagonists. Studies with animals exposed to chronic administration of cocaine, alcohol and cannabinoids have shown increases in CRF activity in the amygdala as measured by in vivo microdialysis. Even more exciting are results showing that CRF antagonists gain the ability to reduce alcohol drinking in animals with a history of dependence, but are inactive in animals with no history of dependence. These results suggest that the increased drug intake associated with drug dependence may involve not only decreases in the function of transmitter systems that are associated with the acute reinforcing (rewarding) effects of drugs of abuse (previous work from our group), but also with the recruitment of the brain neuropeptide systems associated with behavioral and neurobiological responses.






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Apparent Consumption of Alcohol, Australia, 2007-08

The total quantity of pure alcohol available for consumption in alcoholic beverages produced in Australia continues to increase. Between 2006–07 and 2007–08, the total quantity of pure alcohol available for consumption increased by 1.4% from 168.1 million to 170.5 million litres of alcohol. Of the total litres of alcohol available for consumption in 2007-08, beer contributed 46%, wine 31%, spirits 12% and ready to drink pre-mixed products 11.0%.

The apparent per capita consumption of pure alcohol by persons aged 15 years and over decreased slightly by 0.5% between 2006-07 and 2007–08, after an increase of 1.7% between 2005-06 and 2006-07.



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Problem gamblers share deficits in impulsive decision-making with alcohol-dependent individuals
Addiction Volume 104 Issue 6, Pages 1006 - 1015

Gambling and alcohol-dependent groups shared deficits in tasks linked to ventral prefrontal cortical dysfunction. Tasks loading on dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were selectively impaired in the alcohol-dependent group, presumably as a consequence of long-term alcohol use.
Request Reprint E-Mail: lc260@cam.ac.uk
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Progressive stage transition does mean getting better: a further test of the Transtheoretical Model in recovery from alcohol problems
Addiction Volume 104 Issue 6, Pages 949 - 958
In contrast to a previous study by Callaghan and colleagues, our findings largely support the TTM account of recovery from alcohol problems in treatment. The discrepancy can be explained by the use in our study of a more reliable and valid method for assigning stage of change.
Request Reprint E-Mail: nick.heather@unn.ac.uk
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Lifetime alcohol use, abuse and dependence among university students in Lebanon: exploring the role of religiosity in different religious faiths
Addiction Volume 104 Issue 6, Pages 940 - 948

Students belonging to conservative religious groups may be shielded from the opportunity to try alcohol. Once an ever drinker, however, religion is not related to the odds of an alcohol use disorder. Religiosity (i.e. belief in God and religious practice) is, nevertheless, related inversely to alcohol-related problems, even among drinkers. Findings from this culturally and religiously diverse Arab country corroborate the international literature on religion, religiosity and alcohol use, highlighting potential differences between Christians and Muslims.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: lilian@ghandours.com
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Twelve-Step affiliation and 3-year substance use outcomes among adolescents: social support and religious service attendance as potential mediators
Addiction Volume 104 Issue 6, Pages 927 - 939

The findings suggest the importance of 12-Step affiliation in maintaining long-term recovery, and help to understand the mechanism through which it works among adolescents.


Request Reprint E-Mail: felicia.w.chi@kp.org

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Urinary ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and ethyl sulphate (EtS) assessment: valuable tools to improve verification of abstention in alcohol-dependent patients during in-patient treatment and at follow-ups
Addiction Volume 104 Issue 6, Pages 921 - 926

Urinary EtG and EtS improve verification of abstinence in studies of alcohol-dependent patients.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: klaus.junghanns@psychiatrie.uk-sh.de
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Ethyl glucuronide in hair. A sensitive and specific marker of chronic heavy drinking
Addiction Volume 104 Issue 6, Pages 915 - 920

Our results confirm further that HEtG is a sensitive and specific marker of chronic heavy drinking.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: luca.morini@unipv.it
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Gene–environment interactions and alcohol use and dependence: current status and future challenges
Addiction Volume 104 Issue 6, Pages 907 - 914

Challenges for future gene–environment studies are abundant, and consist of, for example, the development of clear theoretical assumptions about neurobiological mechanisms and the recruitment of large longitudinal samples that already start in childhood. Replication is essential to prevent an overload of false-positive results. Despite the difficulties, it is crucial to include gene–environment interactions in future studies in order to unravel the aetiological factors of human alcohol outcomes.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: c.vanderzwaluw@bsi.ru.nl
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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Alcohol Intoxication in Pediatric Age: Ten-year Retrospective Study
Croat Med J. 2009; 50: 151-6


The alarming increase in the number of hospitalizations due to alcohol intoxication in children, especially among girls and in the adolescent age group, represents a serious problem, which requires further attention and research.


Read Full Text (PDF)

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Gender, acculturation, and other barriers to alcohol treatment utilization among Latinos in three National Alcohol Surveys
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment Volume 36, Issue 4, Pages 446-456 (June 2009)

Whereas men and women differed little on perceived barriers, analyses showed greater barriers among Spanish (vs. English) interviewees. Latina women's underutilization of alcohol treatment requires further research but may be partially explained by stigma. Associations between language of interview and treatment utilization imply a need for outreach and culturally sensitive programming.


Request Reprint E-Mail: szemore@arg.org
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Outcomes from primary care management of alcohol dependence in France
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment Volume 36, Issue 4, Pages 457-462 (June 2009)


In this French sample, management by the general practitioners appears to be a positive predictor of outcome in alcohol dependence. Future research could (a) enlighten the relationship between detoxification and frequency or circumstances of the visits and (b) tell whether formal planned follow-up by general practice physicians could improve outcome in alcohol dependence.


Request Reprint E-Mail: lmalet@chu-clermontferrand.fr
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