Welcome to Effectiveness Bank alerts, a service provided by Drug and Alcohol Findings to alert you
to site updates and evaluation research with important practice implications. This message alerts
you to a new bulletin collecting together recently analysed studies and reviews. Though tailored for
the UK, it will be of international interest.
To view entries click on a link or paste it in to your web browser address box, being sure to enter
the whole address. This link:
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=bulletins/Bull_26_02_10.php
takes you to the bulletin as a whole. The links below take you to your chosen entry.
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BROADEN ACCESS TO 12-STEP GROUPS BY DE-EMPHASISING PHILOSOPHY, EMPHASISING SOCIAL SUPPORT
Treatment services do not have to ask patients to adopt the belief system on which 12-step groups
are founded in order to encourage patients to tap in to the social support offered by these groups
and improve their chances of sustained abstinence. Though that was the main message of this US
study, there was also the intriguing finding that incentivising this approach with material rewards
was not just ineffective, but actually counterproductive.
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=Litt_MD_6.txt
WHEN FEASIBLE, COUPLES THERAPY HELPS ALCOHOL-DEPENDENT WOMEN SUSTAIN THEIR RECOVERY
Compared to being treated on their own, alcohol dependent women experienced more lasting
improvements when couples-based therapy embedded therapeutic processes in a committed relationship
with a willing husband or partner. This new study extends an impressive research portfolio for the
therapy; key limitations are the supply of suitable and willing partners and therapists.
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=McCrady_BS_4.txt
CAN TRADITIONAL HERBAL REMEDIES OR ACUPUNCTURE HELP TREAT ADDICTION?
This China-North America collaboration found some promising studies. Best established is their role
in relieving opiate withdrawal, though tapering doses of opiate-type drugs remain the most effective
strategy. Other applications are generally at the potential stage only, and other reviewers argue
that acupuncture is at best a placebo or a vehicle for extra therapist contact time.
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=Lu_L_2.txt
UN GUIDANCE ON HOW TO MOUNT FAMILY-BASED PREVENTION PROGRAMMES
UN-commissioned guidance from international experts on how to mount prevention programmes involving
parents and children in a joint effort to improve family dynamics and child development. Engaging
parents seems the major barrier. For Britain, high-risk families rather than families across the
board are the most likely targets.
http://findings.org.uk/count/downloads/download.php?file=Kumpfer_KL_13.txt
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