Drug and Alcohol Misuse

This paper discusses the language surrounding addiction and recovery and the New Recovery Advocacy Movement.

This review aims to address the question: 'What are the harmful health effects of taking ecstasy(MDMA) for recreational use?' It does not examine the harmful indirect and/or social effects, such as effects on driving and road traffic accidents and the consequences of any effect MDMA may have on sexual behaviour.

The first comprehensive overview of how and why heroin is prescribed in the UK. Prescribing heroin is the first overview of how and why heroin is prescribed in the UK. It brings together research evidence from the UK and elsewhere to provide a comprehensive review of the benefits and drawbacks of heroin prescription. Currently only a small number of UK doctors prescribe heroin. The government is planning a cautious and modest expansion of this treatment. This study considers whether heroin prescription is effective in the short and the long term.

Mixing alcohol and cocaine is probably one of the most common drug combinations in modern culture. But is the mix a recipe for violence? Max Daly investigates.

outline the huge literature on the potentially negative impact on children of growing up with a parent who has an alcohol or drug problem, the risk factors that can exacerbate this effect, and resilience and the protective factors that can reduce it. Clear ways that practitioners can intervene to reduce risk and to increase resilience are discussed.

An essay on the definition of 'recovery' in substance misuse.

A learning resource on alcohol and drugs. This handout is used as pre-course reading for the STRADA course 'Working with Drug and Alcohol Users'.

Motivational interviewing is a dynamic intervention that finds its base in the principles of motivational psychology. It is an intervention which employs strategies that are person-centred and aim to mobilise the person’s own change resources rather than advising or training in a specific direction towards a specific outcome.

Naltrexone is a medication which blocks the effects of heroin and other opiate-type drugs. Its considerable potential in helping to prevent post-detoxification relapse has not been realised because patients generally refuse to take it or quickly discontinue.

Guidelines developed for the Behavioral Health Recovery Management Project. Relapse Prevention Therapy is based on a cognitive-behavioural model of the relapse process. This approach focuses on the immediate precipitating circumstances of relapse as well as on the chain of events that may precede and set-up a relapse.