Welcome to Effectiveness Bank alerts, a service provided by Drug and Alcohol Findings to alert you
to site updates and recent evaluation research with important practice implications.

HOT TOPICS
The more important an issue is, the more likely it is to be contested. These are the hot topics,
some new, some perennial, plus some which ought to be hot but have been neglected. Our selection
gives you one-click access to relevant Findings analyses. Topics are renewed every two months. The
latest set (itemised below) are at:
http://findings.org.uk/hot_topics.htm
The previous set have been archived at:
http://findings.org.uk/hot_topics_archive.htm

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NO REASON FOR PESSIMISM OVER TREATING COCAINE PROBLEMS
In recent years an increasing proportion of the British drug treatment population has sought help
for problems involving cocaine (powder or crack). Since that especially applies to the younger
patients, it is likely that cocaine will figure even more in the future. Serial disappointment in
the search for a medicine or specific psychosocial therapy has led some to conclude that nothing
works in the treatment of cocaine addiction. Run this hot topic search and you will find that is far
from the case. It may not be easy, but neither is controlling your crack use uniquely difficult.
http://findings.org.uk/hot_topics.htm#hot_cocaine_treat

MAGIC: PREVENT SUBSTANCE USE PROBLEMS WITHOUT MENTIONING DRUGS
Child development and parenting programmes which do not mention substances at all have recorded some
of the most substantial preventive impacts. There was for example the classroom management technique
implemented in the first years of primary schooling. From data collected at age 19-21 it was
estimated that this could cut rates of alcohol use disorders from 20% to 13% and halve drug use
disorders among the boys. For this search we specially identified and coded such studies - because
we think they are important. Run the search and see if you agree.
http://findings.org.uk/hot_topics.htm#hot_no_drugs

THE IMPORTANCE OF PEOPLE
For most research the impact of the therapist is noise in the system to be eliminated so it can
focus on the therapy. We think this risks eliminating important components of effective treatment.
So we stretched our hot topics to an issue which arguably ought to be sizzling in the research, but
is not. The search combines documents relating to the development and recruitment of the workforce
and of how they relate to patients and clients. Highlights from the (currently) 49 documents include
an investigation of British treatment services which found staff working in an atmosphere of
support, respect, and concern for their development, tended to have clients who also felt
understood, respected, supported and helped.
http://findings.org.uk/hot_topics.htm#hot_workforce

RESIDENTIAL REHABILITATION; THE BEST ROUTE TO RECOVERY?
Recent treatment policy emphases on recovery, reintegration and abstinence have focused attention on
what has traditionally been seen as the royal route to all three - the intensive, all-enveloping
environment of residential rehabilitation. Add the claim that this has been sidelined in the pursuit
of less ambitious objectives, and its expense at a time of financial cutbacks, and you indeed have a
combustible mixture. Our reading of the research is that non-residential care is sufficient for many
clients, but residential care is preferable for some who are severely affected - and access to it
may not be so constricted as it seems from monitoring data. See if you agree.
http://findings.org.uk/hot_topics.htm#hot_resrehab

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Drug and Alcohol Findings is managed by DrugScope, Alcohol Concern and the National Addiction
Centre, the two leading UK drug and alcohol information charities and its leading clinical/research
centre. The Effectiveness Bank project is supported by the J. Paul Getty Jr. Charitable Trust
(http://www.jpgettytrust.org.uk) and the Pilgrim Trust (http://www.thepilgrimtrust.org.uk).