PREVALENCE AND CURRENT SITUATION

Horan JA and Van Hout MC (2019) Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems, Early online.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30540/  

The aim of the study was to map the location of current injecting practices of people who inject drugs (PWID) in Cork, Ireland, and to document the related high-risk behaviours, ahead of a planned supervised injecting facility [SIF].

The study provides an understanding of PWID profile and risk behaviours, alongside a geospatial analysis of injecting, overdose and potential location of a SIF in Cork, Ireland. The findings are intended to inform SIF location, and would allow dynamic comparison of both geographic and behavioural changes injecting drug use over time, post SIF provision.

O'Carroll A and Wainwright D (2019) International Journal for Equity in Health, 18(113).

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30847/   

Homeless people have poor health and mortality indices. Despite this they make poor usage of health services. This study sought to understand why they use health services differently from the domiciled population.

An explanatory critical realist model integrating the identified generative mechanisms, external and internalised barriers was developed to explain why the health service utilization of homeless people differs from the domiciled populations. This new model has implications for health service policy makers and providers in how they design and deliver accessible health services to homeless people

McCann M, Jordan J-A, Higgins K and Moore L (2019) Journal of Adolescent Health, 65(3): 350–358.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30795/  

The aim of the study was to identify the mechanisms relating to parental control, adolescent secrecy, and school context that shape patterns of adolescent drinking frequency and appraise the implications for systems-level intervention.

Our results suggest that the optimal strategy for selecting seed nodes in a diffusion of innovations network intervention may vary according to school context, and that targeting family interventions around parent characteristics may modify the wider school network, potentially augmenting network intervention processes.

Darcy C (2019) Gender, Place & Culture, Early online.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30766/  

This article explores one dimension of Ireland’s illicit drug landscape: men’s predominance as recreational users of illicit psychoactive substances. It uses a gender lens on Irish men’s drug taking practices, to reveal how men’s drug use and drug intoxication converge with masculinities in paradoxical ways.

By employing a masculinities lens to analyse men’s recreational use of illicit psychoactive substances, men’s drug taking interactions reveal intricacies within the gender order. I argue that illicit drugs are resources that some men utilise to navigate conventional understandings of masculinity, albeit in paradoxical ways.

Devenney LE, Coyle KB and Verster JC (2019) Addictive Behaviors Reports, 10 (100197).

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30756/   

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a normal night of alcohol consumption on next-day cognitive performance in a non-student sample.

The current study in a non-student sample confirms previous findings in student samples that cognitive functioning and mood are significantly impaired during alcohol hangover.

Cleary E, Kelleher CC, Lane A and Malone K (2019) Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, Early online.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30659/  

This study aimed to assess the quantity, toxicity and potential lethality of psychotropic medication being prescribed on discharge from psychiatric care to those with and without indices of suicidality.

Patient discharge from inpatient psychiatric care presents a golden opportunity to moderate access to potentially fatal psychotropic medication. Iatrogenic provision of lethal means for suicide during a period of increased risk and in a group at increased suicide risk may impact suicide prevention efforts and requires further in-depth research. Current prescribing practices may be a missed opportunity to intervene in this regard.

Devenney LE, Coyle KB, Roth T and Verster JC (2019) Journal of Clinical Medicine, 8(5): 752.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30603/  

The current study examined the impact of an evening of alcohol consumption on sleep, and next day activity levels and alcohol hangover.

The outcome of this study underlines that, in addition to retrospectively reported data, real-time objective assessments are needed to fully understand the effects of heavy drinking.

Reynolds CME, Egan B, O'Malley EG, McMahon L, Sheehan SR and Turner MJ (2019) European Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, 236: 148-153.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30588/  

The relationship between light maternal alcohol consumption and fetal outcome remains contentious and the professional advice women receive is conflicting. The aim of this large epidemiological study was to examine the relationship between fetal growth and maternal alcohol behaviour before and during early pregnancy.

Women who consume alcohol should continue to be advised of the fetal and maternal risks of heavy consumption and, if applicable, of the need to quit smoking and avoid illicit drugs. However, women who have consumed alcohol before realising that they were pregnant, or who consumed alcohol in light amounts during early pregnancy, may be reassured that their alcohol consumption did not impact adversely on their baby's growth.

O'Malley EG, Cawley S, Kennedy RAK, Reynolds C, Molloy and Turner MJ (2019) European Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, 234: e159.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30587/  

In this prospective study, we compared the dietary intakes of micronutrients and macronutrients at the first prenatal visit of women who reported continuing to smoke during pregnancy with the intakes of women who were non-smokers.

We found that women who continue to smoke during pregnancy have serious dietary inadequacies which potentially may aggravate fetal growth restriction. This provides a further reason to promote smoking cessation interventions in pregnancy and highlights the need for dietary and supplementation interventions in women who continue to smoke.

Ferris J, Puljević C, Labhart F, Winstock A and Kuntsche E (2019) Alcohol and Alcoholism, 54(4): 378–385.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30519/  

This exploratory study aims to model the impact of sex and age on the percentage of pre-drinking in 27 countries, presenting a single model of pre-drinking behaviour for all countries and then comparing the role of sex and age on pre-drinking behaviour between countries.

Pre-drinking is a worldwide phenomenon, but varies substantially by sex and age between countries. These variations suggest that policy-makers would benefit from increased understanding of the particularities of pre-drinking in their own country to efficiently target harmful pre-drinking behaviours.

Manthey J, Shield KD, Rylett M, Hasan OSM, Probst C and Rehm J (2019) Lancet, 393 (10190): 2493–2502.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30508/  

Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for global disease burden, and data on alcohol exposure are crucial to evaluate progress in achieving global non-communicable disease goals. We present estimates on the main indicators of alcohol exposure for 189 countries from 1990–2017, with forecasts up to 2030.

Based on these data, global goals for reducing the harmful use of alcohol are unlikely to be achieved, and known effective and cost-effective policy measures should be implemented to reduce alcohol exposure.

Evans DS, O'Farrell A, Sheridan A and Kavanagh P (2019) Child: Care, Health and Development, 45(5): 694–701.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30503/  

The study aimed to determine the association between smoking and health and wellbeing indicators among Irish school-aged children.

The findings can be utilised to counteract positive perceptions of smoking among schoolchildren. This, combined with providing supports to help children quit may help achieve government targets to reduce smoking prevalence.

POLICY

Wincup E (2019) Addictive Behaviors, 98: 105995.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30789/  

Highlights

• Both strategies use vulnerability to understand women's pathways into/out of drugs.
• The UK strategy concentrates on ‘victimized’ women who are vulnerable to drug use.
• The Irish strategy focuses on women's continuing drug use due to poor service provision.
• Both strategies fall short of a gender-responsive approach to drug policy.
• Gender mainstreaming is needed to develop more inclusive drug policies.

Roman-Urrestarazu A, Yang J, Robertson R, McCallum A, Gray C, McKee M and Middleton J (2019) Health Policy, 123(6): 521–525.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30580/   

The decision by the UK government to leave the European Union comes at a time when parts of the UK are experiencing a marked rise in reported gun and knife crimes. The health effects of Brexit will have serious consequences as to how the UK tackles this upsurge in drug-related crime.

The scale of collaboration between the UK and European institutions is extensive. It is not clear how this might be replicated after Brexit. Yet an alternative framework of collaboration between the UK and the EU is clearly needed to facilitate shared and agreed approaches to data sharing and drug surveillance after Brexit.

RESPONSES

Crowley D, Murtagh R, Cullen W, Keevans M, Laird E, McHugh T, et al. (2019) Harm Reduction Journal, 16(1): 42.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30754/    

This study's primary aim is to evaluate peer-supported screening as a model of active HCV [hepatitis C virus] case finding with a secondary aim to describe the HCV cascade among those infected including linkage to care and treatment outcomes.

Peer-supported screening is an effective active HCV case-finding model to find and link prisoners with untreated active HCV infection to HCV care. 

Manning RM and Greenwood RM (2019) Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 42(2): 147–157.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30634/    

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that choice in housing and services would predict recovery in a number of domains, and that these relationships would be mediated by mastery.

Findings add further support to the growing body of evidence that suggests choice is centrally important to recovery experiences among individuals in homelessness.

Lowry-Lehnen T (2019) Update Respiratory Medicine, 5(5): 35-38.

https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/30569/  

The number of smokers in Ireland has decreased by an estimated 80,000 people over the past three years. The prevalence of smoking dropped from 23 per cent in 2015 to 20 per cent in 2018. So about 20 per cent of the population are current smokers; 17 per cent are daily smokers, down from 19 per cent in 2017, and 44 per cent of all smokers have made an attempt to quit in the past 12 months (Healthy Ireland 2018). While much progress has been made, tobacco use is still the leading cause of preventable death in Ireland with almost 6,000 smokers dying each year from tobacco-related diseases.