Substance abuse : official publication of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse
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About 40 years since the first controlled study, screening and brief intervention (SBI) are being disseminated into practice. But many unanswered questions remain. ⋯ The best evidence for efficacy of SBI is that it can lead to decreased consumption in primary care patients with non-dependent unhealthy alcohol use. But further research is needed on brief drug screening tools, efficacy of SBI for drugs, effectiveness in real world settings, integration of SBI for alcohol and drugs with other health behaviors, effects of SBI on alcohol and drug consequences, effects on dependence among those not seeking help, and on how to best disseminate the efficacious elements of SBI into practice.
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This paper describes a community-based substance abuse prevention program utilizing a cognitive-behavioral curriculum to children and adolescents affected by a substance use disorder in a parent or caretaker.
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An accurate national listing of substance abuse treatment programs is essential for reporting data about the nation's treatment system and the clients entering that system. The National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (NSSATS) is thought to provide the most comprehensive list of treatment providers. Therefore, we report a partial test of the concurrent validity of the NSSATS in a single mid-sized city. ⋯ With all sources, including NSSATS, we identified 96 separate listings that met the operational definition of adult treatment within the geographic bounds of the city. The NSSATS identified 70 of those 96 programs (73%), the 5-source compilation identified a sample of 83 (86%). While these findings from a single city cannot be considered a full test of the validity of the NSSATS, the data presented offer at least one partial but promising indication that the NSSATS may be a valid national listing and may serve as satisfactory national frame.
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Our objective was to examine attitudes on reporting alcohol-impaired drivers by physicians of different specialties who are most likely to treat motor vehicle crash (MVC) patients. Specific objectives included examining 1) degree of comfort with reporting to police or Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), 2) variability in attitudes across specialties surveyed, 3) perceived barriers to reporting, and 4) general attitudes on treating alcoholism. ⋯ There was no difference between specialties in comfort with reporting, though emergency medicine physicians were less likely to screen and refer patients for counseling. The primary reasons given for not reporting an alcohol-impaired driver were physician-patient confidentiality and perceived threat of civil action by patients.
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There is extensive theoretical and empirical evidence linking substance abuse and marital violence. However in batterer populations, researchers have not compared hazardous and nonhazardous drinkers' substance use characteristics, marital aggression, extramarital violence (i.e., general violence), depressive symptomatology, marital satisfaction, and other relevant variables. In addition, much of the previous research on substance use and abuse in batterer populations employed a single, nonstandardized measure of substance use, and no previous research has examined substance use in court-mandated batterers' relationship partners. ⋯ Relative to the NHD group, the HD group scored significantly higher on measures of general violence, depressive symptomatology, alcohol use, alcohol problems, and drug problems. The HD group also reported significantly higher partner alcohol and drug use and abuse scores, relative to the NHD group. The results of the study suggest that substance use and abuse should routinely be assessed as part of batterer interventions and that batterer programs would be improved by offering adjunct or integrated alcohol treatment.