Addiction Audio

The strengthening association between youth cannabis use and psychological distress over time with André McDonald

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 01:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr André McDonald, postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University’s Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research, Canada. The interview covers André’s research article looking at adolescent cannabis use and psychological distress from 2013 to 2023 using a population-based study in Ontario, Canada.

Psychological distress and why it is important with regards to cannabis [01:19]
Why cannabis potency is important in the relationship between psychological distress and cannabis [02:06]
The prevalence of youth cannabis use over the decade of the study [03:54]
The Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey [04:45]
The key findings of the study [05:24]
The results of additive and multiplicative interactions [07:07]
Unpacking the dose-response curve among females [09:07]
The implications of the findings for policy [11:31]
The limitations of the study [12:29]
Take home messages of the study [14:00]

About André McDonald: André, PhD, MPH, is an epidemiologist and postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University’s Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research. André’s research examines the intersection between mental health and addictions among youth, with a focus on the link between cannabis use and risk of mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders. André completed his PhD at the University of Toronto and is currently supported by a Fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Original article: Adolescent cannabis use and psychological distress from 2013 to 2023: A population-based study in Ontario, Canada https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70333

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.

Music provided by Jack Shakespeare.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Smoking and drinking among Gypsy and Traveller communities with Eve Taylor

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 01:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Eve Taylor, a research fellow at University College London, UK. The interview covers Eve’s research article looking at smoking and drinking among the Gypsy and Traveller communities in England.

The Gypsy and Traveller community in the UK [01:24]
The importance of studying this community with regards to smoking and drinking [02:28]
The underrepresentation of the Gypsy and Traveller communities in national data [03:27]
The Smoking Toolkit study [03:59]
How the Smoking Toolkit study addresses limitations found in previous studies [04:55]
The key findings from the study: smoking [05:44]
The key findings from the study: drinking [06:17]
The key findings from the study: smoking and drinking interaction [07:23]
Whether the findings were expected [08:00]
The implications of the findings [09:38]
Examples of good practice within the community [12:40]
The stark difference in the smoking rates between ethnicities in England [14:00]
The take home messages from the study [14:39]

About Eve Taylor: Eve is a Research Fellow at University College London, specialising in tobacco and nicotine research. Her research uses methods ranging from biomarker collection to population-level survey analysis with the aim of supporting harm reduction and reducing health inequalities associated with tobacco and nicotine use. Eve’s current work focuses on barriers and facilitators to cessation support among people who use non-cigarette tobacco, with a focus on inequality among minority ethnic communities. Eve has no conflicts of interest to declare.

Original article: Smoking and drinking among the Gypsy and Traveller communities: A population study in England https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70330

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How people decide to consume alcohol when feeling stressed with Jonas Dora

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 01:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to Dr Jonas Dora, an Acting Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, US. The interview covers Jonas’ article examining how people decide to consume alcohol when feeling stressed.

Why Jonas wanted to study the “tension reduction hypothesis” [01:18]
The gaps in literature that led to the study [01:58]
The importance of understanding the nuance of the “tension reduction hypothesis” [03:50]
How Jonas approached the research question [04:40]
Speculation of the factors that influence the continuation of drinking alcohol [08:16]
The participants of the study [10:35]
Whether those with an alcohol use disorder would behave differently in the experiment [07:17]
How we can build on Jonas’ findings for future research [13:20]
The next steps for Jonas [15:55]

The tension reduction hypothesis is the idea that people consume alcohol to alleviate aversive states of psychological stress and negative emotions.

About Tsen Vei Lim: Tsen Vei is an academic fellow supported by the Society for the Study of Addiction, currently based at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. His research integrates computational modelling, experimental psychology, and neuroimaging to understand the neuropsychological basis of addictive behaviours. He holds a PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bath (UK).

About Jonas Dora: Jonas is an Acting Assistant Professor at the University of Washington. Most of his recent work is focused on understanding the affect regulation function of alcohol use, and the contribution of this function to the etiology of alcohol use disorders. He approaches this topic with a combination of experimental and intensive longitudinal research designs.

Original article: How people decide to consume (more) alcohol when feeling stressed https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70213

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Music provided by Jack Shakespeare.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Advertising cannabis in legal markets with Caitlin McClure-Thomas

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to Caitlin McClure-Thomas, a PhD Candidate at the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, the University of Queensland, Australia. The interview covers Caitlin’s systematic review and meta-analysis of self-reported exposure to cannabis advertising and its association with cannabis use and intentions.

The different forms of cannabis advertisements available [1:33]
Legal framework surrounding cannabis advertisements [03:10]
The hidden risks and harms of advertising cannabis [04:57]
The importance of studying the relationship between cannabis advertisements and cannabis use [05:57]
The key findings of the study [07:17]
Whether the relationship differs between different forms of advertisements [09:30]
Advertisements and attitudes towards cannabis [11:24]
The implications of the findings for policy [13:00]
Regulating social media advertising [15:00]
The next steps in cannabis advertising research [16:39]

About Caitlin McClure-Thomas: Caitlin is a PhD candidate at The University of Queensland’s National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research. Her research explores how cannabis messaging shapes people’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours. She examines how exposure to cannabis promotions, including advertising and broader media messaging is associated with cannabis use and intentions. Through systematic reviews and empirical research, Caitlin aims to better understand the public health implications of cannabis communication in a rapidly changing policy landscape. Her work seeks to inform evidence-based approaches to harm reduction and contribute to discussions about cannabis regulation.

Original article: A systematic review and meta-analysis of self-reported exposure to cannabis advertising and its association with cannabis use and intentions https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70310

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Music provided by Jack Shakespeare.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The future of e-cigarette research with Monserrat Conde

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Chloe Burke talks to Dr Monserrat Conde, a researcher at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Sciences, University of Oxford, UK. The interview covers a short report on the results of a consultation exercise creating recommendations for future research exploring e-cigarette use and later cigarette smoking in young people.

The background of work on e-cigarettes that led to this current study [1:06]
The evidence and gap map [03:14]
Monserrat’s iterative approach to set up the consultation exercise [04:49]
A surprising aspect from the stakeholder engagement [06:41]
The lessons learned from integrating existing research with stakeholder engagement [09:03]
Discussing two of the 23 final recommendations [11:27]
The take home message of the study [13:41]

About Chloe Burke: Chloe is a Senior Research Associate in Evidence Synthesis based in the Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol. Her current role applies evidence synthesis methodologies (e.g. network meta-analysis) to health-related topics, including addiction. She has a background in psychiatric epidemiology with a focus on applying causal inference methods (e.g. Mendelian randomization) to the topic of substance use and mental health. She holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Bath, which investigated the co-use of cannabis and tobacco and depression risk. She is currently co-chair of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Genetics and Omics Network.

About Monserrat Conde: Monserrat (BSc, PgDip, MSc, PhD) is an interdisciplinary researcher at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, where she currently focuses on evidence synthesis, implementation research and knowledge mobilisation. The study discussed in this episode was funded by Cancer Research UK.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Original article: Recommendations for future research exploring e-cigarette use and later cigarette smoking in young people: Results from a consultation exercise https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70038

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Psilocybin's potential in treating methamphetamine use disorder with Jonathan Brett

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Professor Jonathan Brett, a senior consultant at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, clinical director of the Psychiatry and Non-Prescription Drug and Alcohol Unit, and a clinical toxicologist with the New South Wales Poison’s Information Centre, Australia. The interview covers Jonathan’s research article looking at psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for methamphetamine use disorder: A pilot open-label safety and feasibility study

Psilocybin and what psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy looks like [01:20]
Why look at methamphetamine use disorder? [04:38]
Why is psilocybin promising for methamphetamine use disorder? [06:21]
Explaining the single-arm open label pilot trial [09:35]
The key findings of the study [10:54]
The efficacy of psilocybin for methamphetamine use disorder treatment [12:12]
The implications of the findings for policy and practice [14:50]
The increased interest in psychedelics and a note of caution [17:03]

About Jonathan Brett: Jonathan is a senior consultant in clinical toxicology and addiction medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, clinical director of the Psychiatry and Non-Prescription Drug and Alcohol Unit and a clinical toxicologist with the New South Wales Poison’s Information Centre. He has fellowships with the Royal Australian College of Physicians in clinical pharmacology, toxicology and addiction medicine. He is a conjoint Professor with St. Vincent’s Clinical School, University of New South Wales (UNSW) and a Senior National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Research Fellow with the Medicines Policy Unit of Centre for Big Data Research in Health, UNSW. He is president elect of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians College of Addiction Medicine. He was chief investigator on a pilot study of psilocybin facilitated psychotherapy (PP) for methamphetamine use disorder (MAUD), the first PP study of addiction in Australia and the first for MAUD worldwide. He is also chief investigator on a trial of PP for treatment resistant depression and chief medical advisor for a study of psilocybin microdosing for depression.

Original article: Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for methamphetamine use disorder: A pilot open-label safety and feasibility study. Doi: 10.1111/add.70187

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ultra-processed food addiction in older US adults with Lucy Loch

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim speaks to Lucy Loch, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan, US. The interview covers Lucy’s research article on ultra-processed food addiction in a nationally representative sample of older adults in the US.

What are ultra-processed foods? [01:18]
Ultra-processed food addiction and its relation to other behavioural addictions [02:12]
The addictive features of ultra-processed food [03:01]
The relationship between ultra-processed foods and obesity [03:50]
The motivation for the study [04:37]
The key findings of the study [05:24]
Socioeconomic inequality as a potential predictor for ultra-processed food addiction [06:49]
Should we avoid ultra-processed foods? [07:20]
The main takeaways from the findings [08:35]
Suggestions for policymakers to regulate ultra-processed foods [10:56]
The clinical recognition of ultra-processed food addiction as an addiction [11:54]
The next steps in Lucy’s research [12:22]

About Lucy Loch: Lucy is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan (US), mentored by Dr. Ashley Gearhardt and Dr. Julie Lumeng. Her research examines the life course development of addictive-like eating, focusing on how early experiences and exposure to ultra-processed foods shape appetite, self-regulation, and risk of later life health outcomes. Supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, she integrates developmental and addiction science to understand vulnerability to addictive-like eating. Her work has been published in Addiction, Current Obesity Reports, and Physiology & Behavior.

Original article: Ultra-processed food addiction in a nationally representative sample of older adults in the USA https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70186

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Intersectionality in smoking cessation with Jonathan Bricker

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Annika Theodoulou speaks to Professor Jonathan Bricker, a Professor of Public Health at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, US. The interview covers Jonathan’s research article covering intersectionality in cigarette smoking cessation using a latent class analysis to predict 12-month cessation in a randomized controlled trial.

Intersectionality and why it is important to explore in smoking cessation [01:19]
Six factors that are well-known predictors of smoking [03:20]
The aim of a latent class analysis [04:55]
The key findings of the study [07:09]
The differences found between smartphone apps used in the trial [11:02]
The implications of the findings for policy and practice [14:49]

About Annika Theodoulou: Annika is a researcher at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. Her work focuses on health behaviours, including smoking cessation and weight management, with an emphasis on evidence synthesis. Annika’s doctoral research, funded by the Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA) and The Rotary Foundation, examined socioeconomic inequalities in smoking cessation behaviours and outcomes using quantitative and qualitative methods. She is an Associate Editor of Nicotine & Tobacco Research. Annika holds a Bachelor of Health Sciences and a Master of Clinical Science from the University of Adelaide.

About Jonathan Bricker: Jonathan is an expert in the field of health behavior change interventions. He is a Full Professor of Public Health at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Bricker is founder and leader of the Health and Behavioral Innovations in Technology (“HABIT”) Research Group. The HABIT research group focuses on developing and testing innovative theory-based behavioral interventions for tobacco cessation and weight loss, especially those delivered in widely disseminable technology platforms. He and his team have developed a novel health behavior change intervention model based on the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (“ACT”). The principal investigator of over $35 million US dollars in research grants, he has been leading ten NIH R01 randomized trial grants, as well as led or collaborated on multiple other Federal and private research grants. His current grants focus on testing a machine learning natural language processing chatbot for quitting smoking, several smartphone applications for tobacco cessation in the general population, among cancer patients, American Indians & Alaska Natives, Hispanics, and adolescents, and a weight loss telephone coaching program based on ACT. His “iCanQuit” smartphone app based on ACT was proven more effective than a leading National Cancer Institute smartphone app based on the US Clinical Practice Guidelines in a large, randomized trial published in JAMA Internal Medicine. iCanQuit is now publicly available. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed research articles on addictions, behavioral interventions, and technologies. Currently, he serves as a Senior Editor of the journal Addiction.

Original article: Intersectionality in cigarette smoking cessation: A latent class analysis to predict 12-month cessation in a randomized controlled trial https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70185Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Estimating risk of cannabis use disorder using standard THC units with Rachel Lees Thorne and Tom Freeman

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Rachel Lees Thorne, a postdoctoral research associate and Professor Tom Freeman, a professor of psychology, both from the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the University of Bath, UK. The interview covers Rachel and Tom’s research article estimating thresholds for risk of cannabis use disorder using standard delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) units

What are standard THC units [01:25]
The importance of using THC units to estimate thresholds for risk of cannabis use disorder [02:59]
How people who use cannabis can use standard THC units [03:46]
The CannTeen study [04:51]
Why the authors focused on adolescents and adults rather than young adults [06:02]
The key findings of the study [07:00]
Translating THC units to harm reduction messaging [09:38]
How the THC levels of cannabis were obtained [11:04]
The implications of the findings for policy and harm reduction messaging [12:17]
The take home messages [13:09]
Can the findings be translated out of a UK market? [14:15]
The next steps with standard THC units [15:25]

About Rachel Lees Thorne: Rachel is a research associate and associate director of the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the University of Bath. She completed her PhD in the same group in 2023, investigating risk factors and treatment for cannabis use disorder. Her current research examines the standard THC unit and its application for harm reduction and public health policy.

About Tom Freeman: Tom is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Bath, and Director of the Addiction and Mental Health Group. His research includes characterising changes in cannabis products and their association with health, novel harm reduction strategies such as the standard THC unit, and clinical trials for the treatment of cannabis use disorder. He is funded by a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowship, as well as the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Policy Research Unit in Addictions, and the NIHR Bath Mental Health Research Group.

Authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Original article: Estimating thresholds for risk of cannabis use disorder using standard delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) units https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70263

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Smoking cessation among adults with substance use problems with Olufemi Erinoso and Jennifer Pearson

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Zoe Swithenbank speaks to Dr Olufemi Erinoso, a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Dr Jennifer Pearson, an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Nevada, Reno. The interview covers Olufemi and Jennifer’s research article covering the use of cessation products, e-cigarettes, and cigarette cessation outcomes among adults with substance use problems, using the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study from 2013-2021.

An overview of the study [01:35]
The key findings of the study [02:44]
The unexpected findings [05:57]
Considerations of the tobacco and e-cigarette policy context throughout the study period [08:02]
Variations in findings across race/ethnicity [11:10]
Policy recommendations for what works with regards to smoking cessation [13:38]
The big take away from the study [15:30]

About Zoe Swithenbank: Zoe is a senior research associate at Lancaster University, currently working on a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded research project exploring treatment pathways for co-occurring alcohol and mental health problems. She recently completed her PhD at Liverpool John Moores University on behavioural interventions for smoking cessation in substance use treatment services. Prior to starting her academic career, Zoe worked in health services including substance use, mental health, and homeless services, and these experiences shaped her research interests, as well as her commitment to the inclusion of people with lived experience in research.

About Olufemi Erinoso: Olufemi, PhD, MPH, BDS, is a public health researcher and clinician-scientist specializing in tobacco control, harm reduction, and health systems research. He earned his MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and PhD in Public Health (Social and Behavioral Health) from the University of Nevada, Reno, followed by postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital. His research addresses electronic nicotine delivery systems, substance use, and implementation science, with extensive experience analyzing large population-based datasets. Olufemi has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals and advances national and global tobacco regulatory science.

About Jennifer Pearson: Jennifer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Behavior, Policy, and Administration Sciences in the School of Public Health at the University of Nevada, Reno. Broadly, her research focuses on how regulation of tobacco and cannabis product characteristics, packaging, and advertising affects consumer behavior and public health outcomes. Jennifer has authored over 140 scientific peer-reviewed scientific articles on tobacco and cannabis policy and published in high-impact journals such as the Addiction, the American Journal of Public Health, and Tobacco Control. Dr. Pearson earned her doctorate in Social and Behavioral Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2011, and her Master of Public Health degree from George Washington University in 2007. Jennifer started her career in public health as a Tobacco Education Coordinator for the American Lung Association of Nevada and served as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea from 2002-2004.

Original article: Use of cessation products, e-cigarettes and cigarette cessation outcomes among adults with substance use problems: Results from 2013–2021 (Waves 1–6) of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70098

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Psilocybin therapy for alcohol use disorder and depression with Amandine Luquiens

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim speaks to Professor Amandine Luquiens, a psychiatrist and addiction specialist at the University of Montpellier and the Addiction Department of Nîmes University Hospital, France. The interview covers Amandine’s research article on psilocybin in alcohol use disorder and comorbid depressive symptoms: Results from a feasibility randomized clinical trial.

Psilocybin and its recent popularity in clinical trials [01:22]
The concerns of using psilocybin to treat psychiatric disorders [03:05]
The use of psychotherapy alongside psilocybin in treatment [05:16]
The key findings from the study [07:01]
The contribution of the findings to policy and practice [10:13]
The public’s current opinion for using psilocybin for psychiatric disorders [12:07]

About Amandine Luquiens: Amandine Luquiens is a psychiatrist and addiction specialist, Full Professor at the University of Montpellier and the Addiction Department of Nîmes University Hospital. Her research focuses on patient-reported outcomes and psychotherapy-based interventions in addiction, with a particular interest in mindfulness and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy; she conducted the first clinical trial in France on psychedelics. Her work also addresses alcohol use disorder and gambling disorder, including the use of account-based gambling data to inform evidence-based guidance for policymakers. She is a member of the Centre de recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations (CESP) Inserm U1018 team Primary Care, Prevention and Women’s Health, and aims to advance patient-centered addiction care.

Original article: Psilocybin in alcohol use disorder and comorbid depressive symptoms: Results from a feasibility randomized clinical trial https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70152

Author's declaration of interest: AL has no conflict of interest in the field of psychedelics. She was the recipient of a grant regulated by a public organism “French observatory of addictive behaviors- OFDT” and constraining all French monopolistic gambling service providers to redistribute 0.002% of stakes on their platforms to academic research. The gambling service provider implied in that grant was the “Paris Mutuel Urbain” (PMU). Independency of the research with no constraint on the protocol, the analysis and the publication were guaranteed by a strict convention between universities, hospitals and the PMU. AL signed a data sharing agreement for the “OSE” study, through an academic-private convention with the FDJ: Independency of the research with no constraint on the protocol, the analysis and the publication were guaranteed by a strict convention between the hospital and the FDJ, and no funding was part of the convention.

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stress and online social networks with Annica Kessling and Elisa Wegmann

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim speaks to Dr Elisa Wegmann and Annica Kessling, a post-doctoral research fellow and a PhD student at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. The interview covers Annica and Elisa’s research article on the effects of acute psychosocial stress on cue-reactivity, attentional bias and implicit associations in women with problematic social network use: An experimental study

What is problematic social network use? [01:36]
The controversy of social network use as an addiction [02:50]
What we already know about cognition in people with problematic social network use [03:37]
What Annica and Elisa mean by implicit cognition in this context [05:21]
Why it is important to study stress and social network use [06:09]
The recruitment and experiments of the study [07:55]
Examples of the paradigms used [09:42]
The key findings of the study [11:53]
Annica and Elisa’s thoughts on their paradoxical findings [12:45]
Do the findings change how we view problematic social network use? [14:22]
What do the findings add to the debate of social network use as an addiction behaviour [16:37]

About Annica Kessling: Annica is a PhD student at the Chair of General Psychology: Cognition at the University of Duisburg-Essen and a member of the research group FOR2974 “Affective and Cognitive Mechanisms of Specific Internet-Use Disorders,” within which she is completing her doctoral research. Her work focuses on problematic social media use, examining affective and implicit cognitive mechanisms as well as the impact of stress and predisposing variables on usage behaviour. A central component of her research involves experimental designs that integrate both objective and subjective measures to capture the complex interplay underlying maladaptive social network use.

About Elisa Wegmann: Elisa is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Department of General Psychology: Cognition. Her research focuses on the problematic use of social media and a better understanding of this potential disorder based on theoretical considerations and the identification of similarities and differences to other addictive behaviours. This is addressed by investigating the interplay of predisposing variables with affective and cognitive mechanisms resulting in significant impairments in daily life due to social media through a variety of methods such as clinical diagnostics, physiological markers, and the implementation and development of experimental paradigms and questionnaires.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Original article: Effects of acute psychosocial stress on cue-reactivity, attentional bias and implicit associations in women with problematic social network use: An experimental study https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70099

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How cognition and decision-making processes shape behaviour with Justin Mahlberg

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim speaks to Dr Justin Mahlberg, a Research Fellow at Monash University, Australia. The interview covers Justin’s research article on social cognition and decision-making in people with methamphetamine use disorder.

Why studying cognition in methamphetamine use disorder is important [01:26]
Antisocial behaviour among those with methamphetamine use disorder [02:24]
How Justin investigated social cognition within the study [02:55]
Basic social cognition processes that Justin looked at in this study [04:29]
The key findings from the study [05:41]
How Justin examined pro-social decision making through computer games [09:31]
How Justin examined anti-social decision making through simulations [12:09]
How the findings effect how we understand methamphetamine use disorder [14:14]
The implications of the findings for treatment outcomes [15:33]
The contribution of the findings to policy and practice [18:17]

About Justin Mahlberg: Justin holds a PhD in Psychology and is currently a Research Fellow in the Addiction & Impulsivity Research Lab within the School of Psychological Sciences and the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University. Justin’s research is interested in uncovering how cognitive and decision-making processes shape human behaviour to help build better individualised, neuroscience-informed approaches to behavioural change. Justin is currently the clinical lead for an umbrella intervention trial focusing on developing brain-informed methods for personalising brain stimulation as a treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder.

Original article: Social cognition and decision-making in people with methamphetamine use disorder https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70108

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Drug-related deaths in the LGBTQ+ community with Emmert Roberts

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Emmert Roberts, Senior Clinical Lecturer at the National Addiction Centre, King’s College London and a Consultant Addiction Psychiatrist at the South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. The interview covers Emmert’s short report examining the characteristics of drug-related deaths among individuals identified as LGBTQ+ in the United Kingdom, 1997–2024.

LGBTQ+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer and others.

The importance of examining drug-related deaths among those in the LGBTQ+ community [01:31]
The use of the National Program on Substance Use Mortality database [04:00]
The main findings of the study [05:05]
The types of drugs used in sexualised and non-sexualised drug use [08:31]
The limitations of the reporting of sexual orientation or trans status in coroner data [10:18]
Improving the reporting of sexual orientation and trans status in coroner data [13:02]
The implications of the findings for policy and practice [16:04]
A sneak preview of findings from Emmert’s other paper in Addiction on methamphetamine-related deaths [17:07]
The findings that were surprising to Emmert [18:59]

About Emmert Roberts: Emmert is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the National Addiction Centre, King’s College London and a Consultant Addiction Psychiatrist at the South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. He is a National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Advanced Fellow, a Senior Harkness Fellow at the Commonwealth Fund and the Clinical Lead of the National Program on Substance Use Mortality (NPSUM).

Authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Original article: Characteristics of drug-related deaths among individuals identified as LGBTQ+ in the United Kingdom, 1997–2024 https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70198

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Defining medical cannabis with Myfanwy Graham

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Myfanwy Graham, a Postgraduate Scholar at Monash University funded by the Australian Government's National Health and Medical Research Council. The interview covers Myfanwy’s data insight paper examining differences in the measurement of medical cannabis use.

Why definitions and contexts matter with regards to medical cannabis use [01:05]
Four measures of medical cannabis use that Myfanwy explored in the study [02:05]
The medical cannabis policy contexts of the US, Australia, and Canada [03:30]
The importance of using standardised questions across different countries [05:18]
The main findings of the data insight [05:48]
Interpretations of medical cannabis use [07:49]
The implications of the findings for policy and practice [08:23]
Myfanwy’s preferred measure of medical cannabis use [09:30]
Self perceptions of being a medical cannabis consumer [10:34]
The take-home messages of the study [11:56]

About Myfanwy Graham: Myfanwy is a Postgraduate Scholar funded by the Australian Government's National Health and Medical Research Council and a Monash Research Excellence Scholar at the Monash Addiction Research Centre, Monash University. Her research examines the intersection between drug policy and health outcomes with psychoactive medicines (e.g. medical cannabis, psychedelics). She is also a current Fellow at the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California and is a Fulbright Scholar Alumna in public health policy. Myfanwy has completed consultancy work for the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, World Health Organization, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is also a registered pharmacist.

Authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Original article: Understanding medical cannabis use internationally: Why definitions and context matter https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70117

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Health claims about US cannabis products with Tim Mackey and Doug Roehler

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Tim Mackey and Dr Doug Roehler. Tim is a professor in the Global Health Program at UC San Diego and the CEO and co-founder of S-3 Research, and Doug is the Cannabis Research Unit lead in the Department of Policy and Research for California’s Department of Cannabis Control. The interview covers Tim and Doug’s research article exploring the health benefit claims of cannabis products on online marketplaces in the United States.

Why exploring health benefit claims on cannabis products was an important topic to investigate [01:20]
What are cannabis-derived products? [03:07]
What are the online marketplaces ‘Leafly’ and ‘Weedmaps’? [03:35]
Examples of health benefit claims [05:00]
The main findings of the study [07:33]
The cannabis regulatory environment in the US [10:20]
The differences in health claims between different types of cannabis products [12:20]
The methodology used in the study that brought together data scientists and public health researchers [14:11]
The health claims that surprised Tim and Doug [18:31]

About Tim Ken Mackey: Tim is a Professor in the Global Health Program at UC San Diego and the CEO and co-founder of S-3 Research, a public health data science company originally created from a Challenge.gov award. He is also the Director of the Global Health Policy and Data Institute and the Editor-in-Chief of JMIR Infodemiology. He has co-authored over 270 manuscripts on topics including global health, technology, data science, substance use disorder, and health policy. Dr Mackey is an entrepreneur and scientist working on technology innovation to address public health challenges.

About Douglas Roehler: Doug leads the Cannabis Research Unit in the Department of Policy and Research for California’s Department of Cannabis Control. Previously, he was a health scientist and epidemiologist in the Division of Overdose Prevention at the CDC, where he primarily served in the CDC’s Cannabis Strategy Unit. He has published extensively on cannabis topics in peer-reviewed journals and governmental reports, appeared on national podcasts, and represented the CDC in the national media. He has published widely on several other topics, including injury prevention, drug overdose and substance use, youth prevention, syndromic surveillance, traffic crashes, and youth violence.

Declarations of Interest: Tim Mackey is the CEO and co-founder of the company S-3 Research and holds equity/ownership in the company. S-3 Research is a small business that has received funding through government contracts and grants for professional and technology services including on topics related to substance use disorder.

Original article: Exploratory analysis of United States-based cannabis product health benefit claims on online marketplaces https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70177

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A smartphone app for reducing alcohol use with Joshua Garfield

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim speaks to Dr Joshua Garfield, a research fellow at Monash University and Turning Point, Australia. The interview covers Joshua’s research article on the efficacy of a personalised alcohol ‘approach bias modification’ smartphone app in people accessing outpatient treatment for alcohol use disorders.

What is ‘approach bias modification’ [01:51]
The smartphone app and how it works [04:30]
The recruitment process of the randomised controlled trial [07:20]
The key findings of the study [09:20]
How did the participants of the study feel about using the app? [10:37]
The implications of the study for practice [12:33]
The next steps for this app and using the app in different populations [13:54]

About Joshua Garfield: Joshua completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Psychology at the University of Tasmania in 2002, and then a PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of New South Wales in 2008, where he studied animal learning theory. Following a brief post-PhD role in depression research, he moved to Melbourne to work for Monash University at Turning Point, an addiction treatment, research, and workforce training institute. Since 2015, he has managed Turning Point’s cognitive bias modification research program, led by Professor Victoria Manning.

Original article: Efficacy of a personalised alcohol approach bias modification smartphone app in people accessing outpatient alcohol use disorder treatment: A randomised controlled trial https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70184

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What wastewater reveals about drug use in Hanoi, Vietnam with Phong Thai

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Phong Thai, an Associate Professor at Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, Australia. The interview covers Phong’s research article on a wastewater study measuring illegal drug use in Hanoi, Vietnam, to determine the feasibility of conducting wastewater analysis in a low-income country.

Note: The acronym ‘UNODC’ used in this episode stands for the ‘United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’.

Why looking at illegal drug use in Vietnam is important [01:07]
Wastewater analysis and its utility in a low-income country [02:00]
The biomarkers of focus [03:55]
Why the authors chose Hanoi, Vietnam, to pilot wastewater analysis in South East Asia [05:38]
Vietnam’s location and relation to drug trafficking in South East Asia [07:12]
The Golden Triangle [08:22]
The main findings of the study [08:48]
Ketamine’s rise in popularity in Vietnam [10:16]
The impact of COVID-19 on the consumption of drugs in Vietnam [11:18]
Why are synthetic drugs becoming more popular? [12:30]
The feasibility of conducting wastewater analysis in a low-income country [13:33]
The take-home messages of the study [15:34]

About Phong Thai: Phong is an ARC Mid-Career Industry Fellow and Associate Professor at Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS). His research focus involves the expansion of wastewater-based epidemiological approach to estimate community consumption and exposure to a range of legal and illegal substances (including tobacco and alcohol) and pharmaceuticals, as well as the monitoring of community infection to COVID-19 during the last pandemic. He is a member of the team who manage the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program in Australia and has helped pioneering wastewater drug monitoring in several countries.

Original article: Significant changes in preference of illicit drug use in a population of Hanoi, Vietnam – A 6-year wastewater study (2018–2023) https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70147

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MDMA, anxiety, and depression with Zachary Bryant

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to Zachary Bryant, a PhD candidate at the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney, Australia. The interview covers Zachary’s research report on the relationship between MDMA (or ecstasy) use in youth adulthood and anxiety or depressive disorders in later adult life.

The effects of MDMA [1:20]
The prevalence of MDMA use and reasons why people take it [02:00]
The relevance of MDMA for depression and anxiety [03:05]
The use of the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study to answer Zachary’s research question [04:17]
The key findings of the study [06:50]
Some reasons to explain the relationship found between MDMA use and anxiety but not depression [07:43]
The self-medication hypothesis [10:04]
The implication of the findings for clinical practice [11:02]
The importance of replicating the findings in different cohorts and with more recent data [14:03]

About Zachary Bryant: Zachary is a PhD candidate and research officer at the University of Sydney’s Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use. His doctoral research examines the relationship between MDMA (ecstasy) use and mood, with a focus on implications for therapeutic applications. More broadly, his work explores the epidemiology of psychedelic use and applies advanced causal approaches to substance use research. He is particularly interested in emerging data collection and analysis methods, including intensive longitudinal designs such as Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA).

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Original article: The relationship between 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) use in young adulthood and anxiety or depressive disorders in the mid-30s: Findings from the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study - https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70173

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Retention in buprenorphine treatment with Albert Burgess-Hull

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Albert Burgess-Hull, the Scientific Director of SUDx and Head Data Scientist at MATClinics, US. The interview covers a short report examining treatment retention in opioid use disorder comparing subcutaneous injectable versus sublingual buprenorphine.

· What is buprenorphine and what it is used for? [01:00]

· The benefits and drawbacks of sublingual versus subcutaneous injectable buprenorphine [01:38]

· An overview of the study [04:41]

· Statistically matching sublingual buprenorphine patients with subcutaneous injectable buprenorphine patients [06:05]

· The main findings of the study [08:34]

· The contrast of Albert’s findings with findings in previous literature [10:03]

· The implications of the findings for clinicians [12:28]

· The take home messages of the study [14:03]

About Albert Burgess-Hull: Albert is an addiction scientist and machine-learning researcher, and is currently the Scientific Director of SUDx and Head Data Scientist at MATClinics. His research focuses on the development and deployment of digital health frameworks to improve medical decision-making, operational efficiency, and the delivery of substance use disorder treatments. Dr Burgess-Hull received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed postdoctoral fellowship training at the National Institute on Drug Abuse IRP at the National Institutes of Health.

Declarations of interest: Dr Burgess-Hull is employed by MATClinics Services LLC. MATClinics are clinics serving outpatient treatment for opioid, alcohol and stimulant use.

Original article: A comparative study of treatment retention in opioid use disorder: Subcutaneous injectable versus sublingual buprenorphine https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70105

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What works for treating cannabis use disorder with Monika Halicka

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Chloe Burke talks to Dr Monika Halicka, a Senior Research Associate at the Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, UK. The interview covers a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness and safety of psychosocial interventions for cannabis use disorder.

· An overview of Monika’s paper [1:00]

· The different types of psychosocial interventions found in the review [02:55]

· What ‘inactive controls’ and ‘non-specific controls’ are with regards to psychosocial interventions [04:30]

· Deciding on the outcomes of focus for the study [06:00]

· The results of the meta-analysis in which psychosocial interventions had clinically meaningful improvements in abstinence [07:31]

· The potential adverse events occurring from psychosocial interventions [09:31]

· Recommendations for clinical practice and the hesitancy in making these recommendations [10:41]

· The take home message of the study [12:24]

About Monika Halicka: Monika is a member of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Bristol Evidence Synthesis Group and works as a senior research associate in evidence synthesis at Bristol Medical School (University of Bristol, UK). With a background in psychology and neuroscience, her previous research focused on applying experimental psychology and statistical modelling approaches to health-related problems, largely in the context of chronic pain. Having transitioned to evidence synthesis, she is interested in robust statistical synthesis methods.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Original article: Effectiveness and safety of psychosocial interventions for the treatment of cannabis use disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70084

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Genetic influence in addiction with Wei Deng

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim speaks to Dr Wei Deng, an assistant professor from McMaster University and St Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, Canada. The interview covers the research article Wei led examining externalising as a common genetic influence for a broad spectrum of substance use and behavioural conditions using a large UK longitudinal dataset.

‘Externalising’ is a type of outward-directed behavioural expression, such as risky substance use, aggression, and hyperactivity.

‘Polygenic risk scores’ are numbers that estimate a person’s inherited risk for a disease, trait, or condition (in this case, addiction) based on the presence of many genetic variants.

· Why studying genetics is important for addiction [01:12]

· How we study the genetics of addiction [01:57]

· Polygenic risk scores and their importance in addiction [3:49]

· The origin of Wei’s research questions [05:32]

· The headline findings of the paper [08:06]

· How the findings affect the way we currently think about addiction [09:22]

· Common genetic components shared between behavioral and substances addictions [11:11]

· The importance of the environment in the genetic risks of addiction [13:15]

· How the findings can contribute to clinical practice [13:37]

· How big data and artificial intelligence (AI) can help us understand addiction [14:42]

· The exploration of whether genetic factors are the root cause of addiction [18:06]

About Tsen Vei Lim: Dr Lim is an academic fellow supported by the Society for the Study of Addiction, currently based at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. His research integrates computational modelling, experimental psychology, and neuroimaging to understand the neuropsychological basis of addictive behaviours. He holds a PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bath (UK).

About Wei Q Deng: Dr Deng is a statistical scientist who investigates how genes, brain function, and environment shape long-term health risks. Her research focuses on delay discounting and related self-regulation processes that influence decisions about health, substance use, and long-term planning. She studies how these traits contribute to addiction and chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease. Using large-scale data and molecular tools, she uncovers why some people are more vulnerable and how those risks can be reduced. Based at McMaster University and St Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, she leads interdisciplinary projects bridging genomics, behavior, and public health.

Original article: Externalizing as a common genetic influence for a broad spectrum of substance use and behavioural conditions: a development perspective from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70163

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nonmedical and medical ketamine use with Owen Bowden-Jones and Arun Sahai

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth speaks to Professor Owen Bowden-Jones from Central North-West London NHS Foundation and Mr Arun Sahai from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Trust, both in the UK. The interview covers an editorial they wrote with Professor Paul Dargan on responses to non-medical and medical ketamine use, including concerns about the increasing harms from illicit ketamine and excitement about the potential therapeutic value of ketamine.

We apologise for the sound quality at points during this episode, but we promise its worth the listen!

· Ketamine and its uses [01:15]

· Why ketamine is listed as an essential medicine by the World Health Organisation [01:59]

· The differing uses of ketamine: an essential medicine, a novel therapeutic drug, and a recreational drug [3:00]

· Ketamine’s damage to the urinary tract and the liver [04:30]

· Available treatments for the physical harms of ketamine [07:45]

· Whether substance use treatment services in the UK are fit-for-purpose when it comes to ketamine [11:06]

· Some of the reasons why is ketamine a popular drug now [15:38]

· The potential therapeutic value of ketamine for many disorders [17:29]

· The importance of communicating information to people who use ketamine [19:19]

About Arun Sahai: Mr Arun Sahai, PhD, FRCS (Urol), BSc (Hons.), is a Consultant Urological Surgeon in Functional urology (bladder dysfunction, incontinence, uro-neurology and urinary tract reconstruction) at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Trust and an Honorary Reader within King’s College London. He is the current chair of the section of functional and reconstructive urology at the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS). He is the lead for undergraduate education in surgery for King's College London. His research interests include various aspects of benign bladder dysfunction and prostate cancer survivorship. He is active in both commercial and non-commercial clinical trials and has published more than 100 peer reviewed international papers and more than 15 book chapters.

About Owen Bowden-Jones: Professor Owen Bowden-Jones CBE is a Consultant in Addiction Psychiatry at the CNWL Club Drug Clinic, London and an Honorary Professor at University College London. In 2010, Owen founded the CNWL Club Drug Clinic, an innovative service offering treatment for emerging drug problems, including novel psychoactive substances and club drugs. National roles include President of the Society for the Study of Addiction, Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Policy Fellow at the University of Cambridge, trustee at the charity Student Minds and Registrar at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Owen is the past-Chair of the Faculty of Addictions at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and was previously a national clinical adviser to Public Health England.

Original editorial: Responding to medicinal and non-medicinal ketamine use https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70075

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal. The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.

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Correcting misperceptions about vaping with Katie East

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to Dr Katie East, an Associate Professor in Public Health within the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Brighton and Sussex Medical School in the UK. The interview covers her and her co-authors research report on a randomised online experiment evaluating the impact of vaping fact films on vaping harm perceptions among UK young adults, as well as discussing the broader misconceptions around vaping and the importance of expert-led health messaging.

· How vapes differ from conventional tobacco smoking [1:31]

· Some misconceptions around vaping [02:07]

· What do people know about nicotine? [03:20]

· The vaping fact films and addressing the common myths around vaping [04:20]

· The key findings of the study [06:06]

· The importance of expert messaging in correcting perceptions on vaping [07:27]

· Where can we find the vaping fact films? [08:22]

· How can we combat misconceptions in vaping? [09:30]

· Whether governments have a role in addressing vaping misconceptions [10:52]

· The strategies to help people quit smoking that include vapes [12:13]

· The evidence on these strategies [13:10]

· How the collaborators found the experience in creating the videos [14:14]

About Katie East: Katie is an Associate Professor in Public Health within the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. She also has a visiting appointment at King's College London (KCL), where she recently completed her SSA Fellowship on the topic of vaping harm perceptions. In 2024, she was awarded the SSA's Fred Yates Prize for significant contributions to work in the field of addiction. Her research focuses on nicotine and tobacco product use, perceptions, and policies.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Original article: Evaluating the impact of vaping facts films on vaping harm perceptions among young adults in the UK: A randomized on-line experiment - https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70119

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Caregiver alcohol use and child maltreatment with June Leung

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Zoe Swithenbank speaks to Dr June Leung, a senior researcher at the SHORE and Whariki Research Centre at Massey University in New Zealand. The interview covers June’s systematic review and meta-analysis on the association of parental or caregiver alcohol use with child maltreatment.

· An overview of the review and the definition and forms of child maltreatment [01:00]

· Why it is important to look at all forms of child maltreatment [03:48]

· Quantifying the harms of alcohol and identifying preventable risk factors [05:00]

· The take home messages of the study [06:23]

· What June’s findings do and do not suggest for the wider alcohol literature [07:28]

· What the implications of the findings are for policy and practice [08:29]

· The challenges in conducting the review [11:02]

· The limitations of the study [13:08]

· The surprising aspects of conducting this review [15:12]

About June Leung: Dr Leung is Senior Research Officer at SHORE & Whariki Research Centre, Massey University, based in Auckland, New Zealand. Her research focuses on global alcohol policy, alcohol industry influence, and the epidemiology of chronic diseases. She is also a public health physician by training and a fellow of the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine and the Hong Kong College of Community Medicine. She completed her undergraduate medical degree (MBBS), Master of Public Health (MPH) and Doctor of Medicine (MD) at The University of Hong Kong. Dr Leung has no conflicts of interest to declare.

About Zoe Swithenbank: Dr Zoe Swithenbank is a senior research associate at Lancaster University, currently working on a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded research project exploring treatment pathways for co-occurring alcohol and mental health problems. She recently completed her SSA funded PhD at Liverpool John Moores University on behavioural interventions for smoking cessation in substance use treatment services. Prior to starting her academic career, Zoe worked in health services including substance use, mental health, and homeless services, and these experiences shaped her research interests, as well as her commitment to the inclusion of people with lived experience in research.

Original review: The association of parental or caregiver alcohol use with child maltreatment: A systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70055

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Access to recreational cannabis in Switzerland with Lavinia Baltes

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to Dr Lavinia Baltes, Head of Research at the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Services Aargau, Switzerland. The interview covers her research report on a randomised control trial of public health-oriented recreational cannabis access compared to illegal market access in Basel-Stadt, Switzerland.

· The current legal landscape in Switzerland with respect to cannabis [01:12]

· The difference between cannabis obtained legally and illegally [02:30]

· The potential benefits of legal cannabis compared to illegal cannabis [03:25]

· The key findings of the study [04:20]

· Speculations about why the people who used drugs other than cannabis were more likely to reduce their cannabis use [05:31]

· The findings that surprised the author [06:52]

· How the findings contribute to policy or practice [07:37]

· Could access to legal cannabis increase initiation among those who have never used cannabis? [08:32]

· The importance of harm reduction strategies for cannabis [10:50]

· The difficulties in conducting a randomised control trial [11:35]

About Lavinia Baltes: Dr Baltes studied psychology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and completed her PhD in health psychology at the University of Basel and at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin in 2015. She then worked at the University of Mannheim and later as deputy head of the Addiction Department of the Canton Basel-Stadt, contributing significantly to the ‘Weed Care’ study on regulated cannabis sales in Basel. Since 2022, she has been Head of Research at the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Services Aargau, and continues as deputy study head of ‘Weed Care’.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Original article: Effects of legal access versus illegal market cannabis on use and mental health: A randomized controlled trial - https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70080

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Questionable generalisability of the AUDIT-C with Danilo Romero

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to Dr Danilo Romero, a licensed clinical psychologist at the Stockholm Centre for Dependency Disorders in Sweden. The interview covers his research report on the questionable generalisability of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test – Consumption (AUDIT-C) when used as an outcome measure in clinical trials than as a primary care screening tool, highlighting the need for researchers and clinicians to reconsider their application of the AUDIT-C.

· What is the AUDIT-C and why it is widely used in primary care and research? [01:13]

· What made the authors question the generalisability of the AUDIT-C in clinical trials? [02:02]

· The risks of using the AUDIT-C in clinical settings [03:03]

· The reason for the ‘ceiling effect’ of the AUDIT-C [04:21]

· How the authors tested whether the AUDIT-C is useful in measuring treatment progress [05:15]

· The key findings of the study [06:06]

· What ‘collider bias’ is and how it could manifest in studies that use the AUDIT-C [06:59]

· What the findings mean for studies that have used AUDIT-C in the past [09:23]

· How the findings contribute to policy or practice [10:30]

· Whether the authors, as clinical psychologists, personally use the AUDIT-C [11:28]

· Birds eye view of psychiatric screening measures [12:40]

About Danilo Romero: Dr Romero, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist at the Stockholm Centre for Dependency Disorders in Sweden. He recently completed his doctorate at Karolinska Institutet, conducting a multimethod project to improve treatment engagement for substance use disorders after acute-care episodes. More broadly, his research covers digital psychiatry, mental health informatics, psychometrics, and novel psychological interventions for substance use disorders.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Original article: Questionable generalizability of Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption scoring warrants caution when used for outcome monitoring: Evidence from simulated and real-world trial data - https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70074

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Personalised feedback interventions with Marilyn Piccirillo, Katherine Walukevich-Dienst, and Elizabeth Lehinger

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to: Dr Marilyn Piccirillo from the Department of Psychiatry at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Drs Katherine Walukevich-Dienst and Elizabeth Lehinger from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The interview covers their research report on the longer-term efficacy of brief, alcohol-focused personalised feedback interventions among young adults in two universities on the West coast of the US.

Note for listeners: The acronym PFI is used throughout this episode, which stands for ‘personalised feedback intervention’.

· What is an alcohol-focused personalised feedback intervention? [01:48]

· An example of how one of these interventions would work in practice [03:03]

· The importance of considering distress [03:46]

· The key findings of the study [07:24]

· Why ‘less is more’ when it comes to alcohol interventions [12:19]

· How the findings contribute to policy or practice [14:46]

· The pioneers of personalised feedback interventions [17:41]

About Marilyn Piccirillo: Dr Piccirillo is a licensed psychologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. She is also a Core Faculty member of the Rutgers Brain Health Institute and a member of the Rutgers Addiction Research Center. Dr Piccirillo uses person-centered frameworks to study motivating and maintenance factors for substance use problems, particularly for those experiencing co-occurring anxiety, trauma, and stress. She also examines how digital tools can be used to support treatment and recovery and optimise the design and delivery of treatments for substance use problems and addiction.

About Katherine Walukevich-Dienst: Dr Walukevich-Dienst is a clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on developing and testing digital interventions to reduce substance use and improve mental health among young adults. She uses methods such as ecological momentary assessment to examine real-time behavior and intervention engagement. Dr Walukevich-Dienst has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and leads National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded projects aimed at improving outcomes for cannabis and alcohol use through scalable, evidence-based approaches.

About Elizabeth Lehinger: Dr Lehinger is an Acting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She has two primary areas of research: 1) college student alcohol prevention, and 2) trauma recovery for individuals with co-occurring substance use disorders. Her research focuses on reward processes underlying these research areas.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Original article: Examining the longer-term efficacy of brief, alcohol-focused personalized feedback interventions for individuals with internalizing distress: Secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70044

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Hidden populations in household surveys on smoking prevalence with Emma Beard

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim speaks to Dr Emma Beard, a lecturer in statistics and quantitative methods at University College London. The interview covers Emma’s research report titled, ‘How much does the absence of the ‘hidden population’ from United Kingdom household surveys underestimate smoking prevalence?’

· How we normally estimate the smoking prevalence reported in official statistics [01:28]

· Why it is important to consider the hidden population [01:55]

· The consequences of not taking into account the hidden population when estimating smoking prevalence [02:35]

· The ‘workbook method’: how we estimate the hidden population [02:55]

· The key findings and implications of these findings [03:30]

· The size of the hidden population in the UK [04:42]

· The huge undertaking of this research project to find these data [05:25]

· The consideration of adolescent populations within smoking prevalence statistics [06:44]

· What can be done within research to be more inclusive of hidden populations [07:52]

· How Emma’s research can contribute to policy and practice [08:44]

· The argument for more and better data to include hidden populations [10:00]

In Emma’s paper, the hidden population for household surveys was defined as people from or living in communal establishments (e.g. care homes, student residence, prison), immigration detention centres, Gypsy, Roma and Travelling Communities, short-term accommodation, and those experiencing homelessness, including sofa surfing.

About Emma Beard: Dr Beard is a Lecturer in Statistics and Quantitative Methods at University College London. She has over 130 publications on a variety of topics, with a key focus on tobacco harm reduction, high-risk alcohol consumption, and statistical methodology. Her research focuses on evaluating smoking cessation interventions and policies. She is a Deputy Methodological and Statistical Editor for the journal Addiction.

About Tsen Vei Lim: Dr Tsen Vei Lim is an academic fellow supported by the Society for the Study of Addiction, currently based at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. His research integrates computational modelling, experimental psychology, and neuroimaging to understand the neuropsychological basis of addictive behaviours. He holds a PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bath (UK).

Original editorial: How much does the absence of the ‘hidden population’ from United Kingdom household surveys underestimate smoking prevalence? https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70071

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Publishing qualitative research in addiction with Jo Neale and Brian Kelly

Fri, 30 May 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth speaks to Professor Joanne Neale from the Addictions Department at King’s College London and Professor Brian Kelly from the Department of Sociology at Indiana University. The interview covers their editorial titled, ‘Over a decade later and Addiction journal is still committed to publishing qualitative research’.

· The origins of the editorial and why it is needed [01:01]

· The goal of the changes Addiction is implementing for qualitative submissions [01:44]

· The importance of increasing the word limit to 6,000 words [02:49]

· Whether similar journals in the addiction field struggle with low numbers of qualitative submissions [04:19]

· The increase in qualitative editors at the Addiction journal since 2013 [05:52]

· Finding consensus among a diversity of disciplines on the editorial board [07:21]

· Semi-quantification over quantification in qualitative research [08:30]

· What the authors hope to achieve with this editorial [09:36]

· The take-home messages for qualitative researchers [11:04]

About Professor Joanne Neale: Jo is Professor of Addictions Qualitative Research based within the National Addiction Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK. She is also Conjoint Professor in the Centre for Social Research in Health at UNSW Sydney, Australia. Joanne trained in social work and is the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Lead for the UK NIHR Addictions Policy Research Unit. Her current research focuses largely on patient perceptions of treatments and interventions for alcohol and other drug use. In the last three years, Joanne Neale has received, through her university, research funding from Mundipharma Research Ltd and Camurus AB and honoraria from Camurus AB and Indivior for presentations.

About Professor Brian Kelly: Brian is a Professor of Sociology at Indiana University and also Senior Research Program Leader at the Irsay Institute. His research examines social contextual influences on health, mainly focusing on substance use. His current research projects include the influence of policy contexts on youth substance use trajectories, sibling socialisation processes of adolescent substance use, and the impact of disasters on community drug-related outcomes.

Original editorial: Over a decade later and Addiction journal is still committed to publishing qualitative research https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70047

Qualitative guidelines for Addiction: (1) https://doi.org/10.1111/add.12408 and (2) https://doi.org/10.1111/add.12857

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Identifying alcohol use disorder with James MacKillop

Fri, 16 May 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to Dr James MacKillop, a clinical psychologist and professor at McMaster University in Canada, and director for both the Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research and the Michael G DeGroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research. The interview covers his research report on the diagnostic validity of drinking behaviour for identifying alcohol use disorder (AUD) with findings from a representative sample of community adults and an inpatient clinical sample.

· What alcohol use disorder is and how it is currently diagnosed [01:41]

· The surprising exclusion of drinking behaviour in AUD diagnosis [03:03]

· Unpacking ‘receiver operating characteristic curves’ [04:42]

· The key findings of the study [05:45]

· Whether James’ findings will change how we think about diagnosing AUD [07:35]

· Why clinicians would benefit collecting how much people are drinking in one session [09:32]

· Whether an indicator of heavy drinking would be helpful in treatment settings [10:35]

· Bringing objective data into clinical application [12:09]

· Whether we can use a similar metric to other drugs, such as cannabis [13:09]

· What we can learn for policy and further research [15:56]

· The barrier of the lack of biomarkers in alcohol use disorder [18:00]

· The take-home message of the paper [19:40]

About Tsen Vei Lim: Tsen Vei is an academic fellow supported by the SSA, currently based at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. His research integrates computational modelling, experimental psychology, and neuroimaging to understand the neuropsychological basis of addictive behaviours. He holds a PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bath (UK).

About James MacKillop PhD, CPsych, FCAHS: Dr. MacKillop holds the Peter Boris Chair in Addictions Research and a Canada Research Chair in Translational Addiction Research at McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. There, Dr. MacKillop directs both the Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research and the DeGroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research. Dr. MacKillop trained as a clinical psychologist at Binghamton University and Brown University and studies addiction using a multidisciplinary approach, integrating psychology, economics, neuroscience, and genetics.

James receives unrestricted research funding from Canadian Institutes on Health Research, the National Institutes of Health, and Correctional Services of Canada and am a senior scientist and principal in Beam Diagnostics, Inc., a technology transfer start-up company. The latter had no relationship to the publication in Addiction.

Original article: Diagnostic validity of drinking behaviour for identifying alcohol use disorder: Findings from a representative sample of community adults and an inpatient clinical sample. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70037

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Adolescent substance use in Africa with Sandra Jumbe and Chris Newby

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth speaks to Dr Sandra Jumbe from the School of Social and Health Sciences at Millenium University in Malawi and the Wolfson Institute of Public Health Queen Mary, and Dr Chris Newby from the Medical School at the University of Nottingham. Sandra and Chris discuss their findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis on factors associated with adolescent substance use in Africa between 2000 and 2020.

· What do we already know about adolescent use in Africa and why this review was needed [01:40]

· The headline findings of the review [03:50]

· What the consolidation of findings in this topic area will achieve [05:58]

· The themes that came out of the ‘non-familial’ category of factors associated with adolescent substance use [09:00]

· The main themes that came out of the ‘socioeconomic or environmental’ category of factors associated with adolescent substance use [10:05]

· The regional differences in the drugs consumed across Africa [12:10]

· What drugs are captured in standardised surveys [14:29]

· The experience of doing systematic reviews and meta-analyses [15:20]

About Sandra Jumbe: Dr Jumbe is a health psychologist currently working as a senior lecturer in research at Millennium University in Blantyre Malawi and a health researcher at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health at Queen Mary University of London. She is also an African Research Initiative for Scientific Excellence (ARISE) fellow with the African Academy of Sciences. She is an expert in behavioural science, enabling her to set the foundations for evidence-based work that informs development of effective interventions and policy decisions to improve human health. She has worked in both clinical and academic settings in primary care and mental health. Dr Jumbe’s long term aspiration is to expand understanding of global mental health and substance use, by advancing research niched on youth mental health in Africa, while training fellow young African scientists. She is also a mental health advocate, passionate about improving mental health literacy at grassroots level using community engagement and culturally sensitive approaches.

About Chris Newby: Dr Newby is a senior medical statistician at the Research Knowledge Exchange, at the Medical School at the University of Nottingham. He has worked in NIHR Biomedical Research Units, Clinical Trial Units and is currently a senior quantitative advisor at the Research Support Service Leicester Hub and Partners. His interests are Respiratory, Mental Health and Equality Diversity and Inclusion in Health Research.

Sandra, Chris nor Elle have any conflicts of interest to declare.

Original article: A systematic review and meta-analysis of factors associated with adolescent substance use in Africa, 2000 to 2020: https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70023

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Nitazenes in wastewater with Richard Bade

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Richard Bade from Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Queensland about his and his co-authors research report on the identification of nitazenes through wastewater analysis, using two-years of data from 22 countries. Richard discusses why a study detecting nitazenes in wastewater was needed and what the future for detecting nitazenes in wastewater looks like, including implications for policy and practice.

· What is wastewater analysis and how we use it in the field of drugs [01:21]

· What are nitazenes and why they are a problem [02:28]

· Why a study detecting nitazenes in wastewater was needed [03:31]

· Whether there is a demand for nitazenes [04:08]

· How Richard and his team chose the eight nitazenes to study [05:05]

· The headline findings of the paper [05:55]

· Whether a lack of nitazenes in wastewater means that they aren’t there or they are in too low concentration to be found [08:16]

· The benefits of wastewater analysis to detect nitazenes [09:37]

· The surprisingly high level of nitazenes in Australia [10:37]

· What we can learn for policy and practice [11:47]

· The joy and difficulties working with many co-authors! [14:11]

About Richard Bade: Dr Richard Bade is a Senior Research Fellow at the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) within The University of Queensland. He completed his PhD at the University Jaume I, Castellon, Spain in 2016 before moving to the University of South Australia in 2017 and QAEHS in 2021. He is interested in understanding links between environmental and community health using wastewater analysis. His particular research interests are associated with the surveillance, detection and identification of new psychoactive substances (NPS) in wastewater and other matrices as well as exploring the impact of chemical and pathogen exposure during mass gatherings. Dr Bade currently leads an expanding international consortium exploring the prevalence of NPS worldwide. These data can help provide insights into the emergence of new, potent NPS, and ensure that public harm from their exposure is minimized.

Original article: Early identification of the use of potent benzylbenzimidazoles (nitazenes) through wastewater analysis: two-years of data from 22 countries. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70027

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Communicating public health research with Sarah Jackson, Martin Jarvis and Robert West

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to three generations of tobacco/nicotine researchers: Dr Sarah Jackson and Emeritus Professors Martin Jarvis and Robert West, all from the Department of Behavioural Science and Health at University College London. They discuss a recent editorial, ‘The price of a cigarette: 20 minutes of life?’ – why the message resonated, what was and is difficult to convey in tobacco research, and how the media coverage has changed for tobacco research over the years.

· What the editorial is about [00:56]

· Why the editorial resonated with the public and the media [01:40]

· What messages were difficult to convey to the public [03:05]

· Why the number of ‘20 minutes of life’ has increased since the last estimate and why it is longer for women [07:43]

· Choosing persuasive pieces and soundbites to communicate to the public [12:13]

· The misinterpretation of research in the media and the difficulty in delivering nuance [14:08]

· How the media coverage on tobacco and smoking has changed over the years [16:23]

Dr Sarah Jackson is a Principal Research Fellow within UCL’s Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group. She has authored >100 peer-reviewed articles on nicotine and tobacco. Her research activity focuses primarily on modelling population trends in smoking, evaluating smoking cessation interventions and policies, and advancing the evidence base on vaping. She is President of SRNT Europe, Senior Editor for Addiction, and Social Media Editor for Nicotine & Tobacco Research.

Martin Jarvis is Professor Emeritus of Health Psychology at the Department of Behavioural Science and Health, UCL, having for many years worked with Michael Russell’s smoking research group at the Institute of Psychiatry and then Cancer Research UK’s Health Behaviour Unit. He has researched and published widely on tobacco smoking, with special interests in the role of nicotine, social and family influences on smoking, smoking cessation methods and passive smoking. He was awarded an OBE in 2002.

Robert West is Professor Emeritus of Health Psychology at UCL. He specialises in behaviour change and addiction. He is former Editor-in-Chief of Addiction, and has acted as an advisor to the English Department of Health on tobacco control and currently advises the Public Health Wales Behavioural Science Unit. He helped write the blueprint for the UK’s national network of stop-smoking clinics and is co-founder of the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) model of behaviour, the Behaviour Change Wheel framework for intervention development, and the PRIME Theory of motivation.

Original article: The price of a cigarette: 20 minutes of life? https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16757

Authors praised the seminal work of the late Professor Michael Anthony Hamilton Russell (1932–2009). For further reading on the legacy of his landmark research, see here: https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14043

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Psychedelics to manage opioid use with Noa Krawczyk

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Noa Krawczyk from the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine about her and her co-authors research report on self-reported experiences and perspectives on using psychedelics to manage opioid use among participants of two Reddit communities. Noa discusses the current treatments available for opioid use disorder and why psychedelics are having their moment as an alternative medicine, and what people who use opioids found when taking psychedelics with the intention of reducing or stopping their opioid use.

· What is Reddit and why is Noa using it to answer her research questions [01:24]

· The headline findings of the study [02:17]

· The comparison of demographics of Reddit and the wider population of people who use opioids [03:46]

· What the current treatments are for opioid use disorder in the US and why people are seeking alternatives [05:22]

· Why Ibogaine stands out as a prominent psychedelic in the discussion [08:12]

· The mechanisms of action found in the analysis [09:45]

· The benefits and drawbacks of using psychedelics [13:26]

· What we can take from the paper for policy and practice [15:28]

About Elle Wadsworth: Elle is an academic fellow with the Society for the Study of Addiction. She is based at the University of Bath and her research interests include drug policy, cannabis legalisation, and public health. Elle is also a senior analyst at RAND Europe, working on projects focusing on national and international drug policies.

About Noa Krawczyk: Noa Krawczyk, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Associate Director of the NYU Langone Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy. Her research focuses on studying ways to address barriers to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder at the individual, program, and policy levels. Her work centers on bridging research and practice by collaborating with drug user organizations, health system leaders, public health and government agencies, and advancing science that can help inform evidence-based policies and practices that reduce harm and promote well being.

About co-author Megan Miller: Megan Miller, MPH, is a Research Coordinator in the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and served as the primary data analyst for the Reddit study. She holds an MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

NK receives fees as an expert witness in ongoing opioid litigation. MM has no conflicts of interest to declare.

Original article: Self-reported experiences and perspectives on using psychedelics to manage opioid use among participants of two Reddit communities https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16767

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Alcohol and the pleasure of intoxication with James Nicholls

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr James Nicholls from the University of Stirling about an opinion paper he co-authored with Professor Geoffrey Hunt on whether pleasure should receive more attention in public health-oriented alcohol research. They discuss what alcohol researchers and public health professionals can learn about ‘intoxication and pleasure’ from drug research, the different ways that the pleasure of drinking is made more socially acceptable, and what more research on pleasure could do for policy and practice.

· Why public health research has historically not explored the pleasure of alcohol intoxication [01:04]

· Why this is an important topic to raise with the public health research community now [02:58]

· Clarifying what type of pleasure is most neglected [04:55]

· Measuring intoxication as pleasure and recognising the limitations of our methodologies [06:50]

· Three broad reasons why additional attention should be paid to intoxication as pleasure [08:46]

· What learning more about the pleasure of intoxication means for policy and practice [12:06]

· The anticipation of publishing an opinion piece for debate [14:28]

About Elle Wadsworth: Elle is an academic fellow with the Society for the Study of Addiction. She is based at the University of Bath with the Addiction and Mental Health Group and her research interests include drug policy, cannabis legalisation, and public health. Elle is also a senior analyst at RAND Europe, working on projects focusing on national and international drug policies. She holds a PhD in public health and health systems from the University of Waterloo (Canada), an MSc in addiction studies from King's College London (UK), and a BSc in chemistry from the University of Bristol (UK).

About James Nicholls: James is a Senior Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Stirling, specialising in alcohol and drug policy research. Recent projects include leading a needs assessment for a safer drug consumption facility in Edinburgh, and a statutory review of the alcohol licensing system in Northern Ireland. He has also published recently on moral philosophy and drug policy advocacy. James was previously Director of Research and Policy at Alcohol Change UK, and Chief Executive Officer of Transform Drug Policy Foundation. James has no conflicts of interest to declare.

Original article: Taking pleasure seriously: Should alcohol research say more about fun? https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16747

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Young people and disposable e-cigarettes with David Hammond

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 15:00:03 GMT

In this episode Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Professor David Hammond about vaping. They discuss policy differences between the Canada, the UK and the US as well as changes relating to disposable vapes and the use of nicotine salts. They cover the environmental impact of some of these products before talking about the different choices available to policymakers when developing regulations.

“What the change has meant in England is that there’s probably more room for regulating some of these [vaping] products without undermining their use as a cessation aid”

Original article: Use of disposable e-cigarettes among youth who vape in Canada, England, and the United States: repeat cross-sectional surveys, 2017-2023 by David Hammond and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2024).

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Opioids, cancer and mortality with Aleksi Hamina

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 15:00:35 GMT

In this episode Ben Scher talks to Dr Aleksi Hamina from the Norwegian centre for addiction research at the University of Oslo and the Niuvanniemi Hospital in Finland. They discuss a recent paper co-authored by Dr Hamina in which the team matched large national datasets to identify excess mortality among people who use drugs that can be attributed to cancers. They found increases in incidences and mortality according to liver, lung, larynx and pancreas cancers.

They highlight the impact of smoking, alcohol use and hepatitis, and discuss the policy implications of knowing the impact that these issues have on the mortality of people who use drugs. These include ensuring good access to healthcare and reviewing the thresholds for onwards referral when symptoms of cancer are identified.

“There is a more than twofold relative increase in cancer mortality in this population”

Original article: Increased cancer incidence and mortality among people with opioid use-related disorders: A nation-wide cohort study by Emil Kostovski and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2024).

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Cannabis potency and psychotic experiences with Lindsey Hines

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 16:33:07 GMT

In this episode, Dr Rob Calder talks to Dr Lindsey Hines about her study using longitudinal data to examine links between cannabis use, cannabis potency and psychotic experiences. Dr Hines talks about using Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) data - also known as 'Children of the Nineties' and discusses why psychosis and cannabis potency are important to measure and some of the challenges of doing so with both.

"In unregulated markets like the UK where it's illegal to use cannabis....better health messaging and better awareness among those using cannabis of those potential outcomes is the way that we can go".

Original article: Incident psychotic experiences following self-reported use of high-potency cannabis: Results from a longitudinal cohort study by Lindsey A. Hines and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2024)

Also in this podcast: Testing the validity of national drug surveys: comparison between a general population cohort and household surveys by Hannah Charles and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2021)

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Cannabis use in the US with Jonathan Caulkins

Wed, 22 May 2024 13:00:35 GMT

In this episode Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Professor Jonathan Caulkins about self-reported cannabis use in the US between 1979 and 2022 and how those trends compare with alcohol use over the same period. The research focused on four specific time points, measuring cannabis prevalence against US policy changes. Dr Wadsworth and Professor Caulkins then talk about differences between cannabis and alcohol as intoxicants and the impact that cannabis regulations have on cannabis use and the intensity of cannabis use.

Professor Caulkins also discusses the limitations of self-report when it comes to substance use, and how this is amplified when asking people about the impact that substance use is having on them and their families. He suggests instead asking people how other people’s substance use is affecting them in order to estimate harms from cannabis use.

“Back in 1992 it [cannabis] was essentially a recreational or party drug, sort of a weekend activity and now it has morphed into something that is part of the daily routine for about 40% of its current users.”

Original article: Changes in self-reported cannabis use in the United States from 1979 to 2022 by Jonathan Caulkins and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2024)

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Integrated care vans with Kathleen Page

Thu, 09 May 2024 15:00:36 GMT

In this episode, Ben Scher talks to Dr Kathleen Page about her evaluation of an integrated care van that ran in Baltimore offering healthcare interventions and buprenorphine prescribing. Dr Page discusses using a cluster randomised trial to compare outcomes in different neighbourhoods (those where the van did and didn't go) and to explore whether the van was effective at improving health outcomes for people who inject drugs.

Dr Page also talks about the impact of COVID-19 on the research as well as the specific needs of people who accessed the van.

"When you go out on the van you really are serving a different group, a much more under-served group of people who generally mistrust or don't access the health system unless it's an emergency."

Original article: Integrated care van delivery of evidence-based services for people who inject drugs: A cluster-randomized trial by Kathleen Page and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2024)

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Smoking and abdominal obesity with Germán Carrasquilla

Thu, 02 May 2024 15:00:19 GMT

In this episode Rob Calder talks to Dr Germán Carrasquilla about his study assessing whether smoking cased increases in abdominal obesity or belly fat. They discuss the implications of this kind of fat and note the importance of the findings for people who struggle to quit smoking. Germán talks about using Mendelian randomisation to identify a causal association between smoking and abdominal obesity. The findings, that 'smoking initiation and higher lifetime smoking may lead to increased abdominal fat', add evidence and important detail to the known health benefits of quitting smoking.

"People who might be afraid of quitting smoking due to putting on weight find these findings motivating to quit smoking because smoking increases this problematic internal fat which is a risk factor for many other diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease."

Original article: Estimating causality between smoking and abdominal obesity by Mendelian randomization by Germán Carrasquilla and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2024)

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Benzodiazepines and treatment with Adam Bakker, Michael Liebrenz and Alexander Smith

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 15:30:51 GMT

In this episode Ben Scher talks to Dr Adam Bakker, Professor Michael Liebrenz and Dr Alexander Smith about their commentary in response to a previous paper by Domzaridou and colleages (2023). They discuss the complexities of providing treatment for people who use, and are prescribed, opiates, opiate agonist medications and benzodiazepines. They talk about using a combination of medical and non-medical treatments when working with people who use benzodiazepines as well as the research needed to bring clarity to this pressing clinical issue.

"This population is notoriously difficult to engage, but we should go the extra mile to retain them in treatment because of this high mortality."

Original Article: Comment on Domzaridou et al.: Recognising the complexities of co-prescriptions and lifestyle factors in opioid agonist treatment by Adam Bakker and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2024).

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Contingency management with Gabriela Khazanov, James, McKay and Richard Rawson

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 07:53:14 GMT

In this episode, Ben Scher talks to Dr Gabriela Khazanov, Professor James McKay and Professor Richard Rawson. They discuss what contingency management is and how effective it can be in treatment settings. They also talk about how contingency management can be used for stimulant use disorders; an area where there are relatively few evidence-based treatments.

the team goes on to discuss implementation of contingency management in the US and the barriers faced by practitioners such as predominant ethical concerns. They also cover how attitudes towards contingency management have changed over the past decade. The paper that was published in Addiction looked at ways to improve dissemination and implementation of contingency management.

Often patients are not able to re-engage in contingency management if they drop out or they’re not allowed to repeat contingency management. And all of that was done to prevent fraud and waste and those kinds of concerns. But we don’t limit other kinds of treatment. We don’t limit behavioural therapy, typically we don’t limit the ability to take medications that could potentially be effective.

Original article: Should contingency management protocols and dissemination practices be modified to accommodate rising stimulant use and harm reduction frameworks? by Gabriele Khazanov and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2024).

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Xylazine, heroin and drug markets with Caroline Copeland

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 23:05:50 GMT

In this episode Ben Scher talks to Dr Caroline Copeland about her work analysing drug death data to identify drug use trends, harms and to inform policy. Caroline talks about how xylazine first entered the US drug market but has been increasingly identified in Europe and the UK, even being identified in vapes sold as containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Caroline covers the harms from xylazine and the implications for public health practitioners before relating the UK issues to wider global drug markets.

"The other really nasty thing that xylazine does is that it can cause blood vessels to contract, and our tissues need blood.....to survive, and if we're closing off those blood vessels, that tissue is going to die and it's going to turn into sores on your skin. And if they get infected it can lead to amputation"

Dr Caroline Copeland is a senior lecturer in pharmacology and toxicology at King’s College London and the director of the National Programme on Substance Use Mortality.

Original article: Broad evidence of xylazine in the UK illicit drug market beyond heroin supplies, triangulating from toxicology, drug testing and law enforcement by Caroline Copeland and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2024)

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Synthetic opioid production in Europe with Paul Griffiths

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:30:09 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Paul Griffiths about synthetic drug production in Europe including the differences between lab-made substances and diverted medical drugs. They discuss organised crime and its impact on cocaine production, drug availability and the potential for drug contamination. They also cover fentanyl and the potential for a heroin drought resulting from changes in opium production in Afghanistan.

Paul talks about the complexities of European drug markets explaining how they commonly respond to changes in both supply and demand. Elle and Paul then discuss how researchers can monitor drug trends through wastewater analysis and other methods.

“These are often very small labs, but because of the potency of these drugs, it means very small production runs can have quite a big impact on local drug consumption patterns and mortality and morbidity. So we saw a few years ago, ten or fifteen years, one lab in central Europe we had a very brief outbreak of deaths in about three countries all related to a very very small, a kitchen lab it was actually in someone’s kitchen but it had an impact.”

Paul Griffiths is the scientific director for the EMCDDA – the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction

Original article: Opioid problems are changing in Europe with worrying signals that synthetic opioids may play a more significant role in the future by Paul Griffiths and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2024)

The opinions expressed in this post reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Alcohol-free drinks in the US with Molly Bowdring

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 16:00:58 GMT

In this episode Dr Merve Mollaahmetoglu talks to Dr Molly Bowdring about her recent article on the impact of alcohol-free drinks such as zero-percent beers, wines and mocktails. Molly talks about using survey data to explore different patterns, such as using non-alcoholic drinks to slow alcohol consumption, to alternate days or as part of someones recovery. Merve and Molly discuss the occasional differences between how people think non-alcoholic drinks change their alcohol consumption and what actually happens to their overall use.

If you're somebody who already uses them, be reflective about how is this impacting your desire for alcohol and your consumption in that same night or across the week and just be curious about the relation between your non-alcoholic beverage use and your alcohol use.

Original article: Non-alcoholic beverage consumption among US adults who consume alcohol by Molly Bowdring and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2024)

The opinions expressed in this post reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Gambling advertising with Philip Newall

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 16:00:48 GMT

In this episode, Rob Calder talks to Dr Philip Newall about how the gambling industry frames the evidence on gambling advertising. Philip talks about researching the kinds of bets that are commonly advertised, explaining how they are often projected to be 'good' bets when the chances of winning are very small.

"It's really got the two sides of the coin there in that it appears really attractive, but actually it's the bookmaker that's really winning the most. And that's the underlying psychology in how they're able to offer things that seem good but are actually really profitable for them."

Philip also talks about how difficult it can be corralling 50 people into co-writing a short letter.

Dr Philip Newall is a lecturer in psychological science at the University of Bristol, a member of the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling (although speaking on this podcast in an independent capacity) and the joint winner of the Society for the Study of Addiction’s Impact Prize in 2023.

Original article: No evidence of harm’ implies no evidence of safety: Framing the lack of causal evidence in gambling advertising research by Philip Newall and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

The opinions expressed in this post reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Addiction and definitions with Robert West

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 16:30:00 GMT

In this episode Zoe Swithenbank talks to Professor Robert West about his work on ontologies within addictions. Robert begins by summarising the definitions and constructions that relate to addiction, as well as their meanings and the implications for treatment. He also explains how different definitions can frustrate progress in addiction-related research.

Zoe and Robert then discuss how the addictions sector can learn from other sciences - particularly the biological sciences - about how to use those definitions, labels and ontologies to aid research. Robert covers the work on AddictO Vocab (https://addictovocab.org/) and explains the goal to develop a well-defined construct for anything that anyone might want to refer to in a research paper.

"Ontologies are very specific ways of representing the world that have been developed primarily for use in computer science and data science.... They are very formal systems for representing things called entities. Entities are literally anything you can imagine whether it's real or not real. So 'unicorn' for example, can be an entity for example, as can 'addiction' - as can 'horse'."

Original article: Achieving consensus, coherence, clarity and consistency when talking about addiction by Robert West and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

The opinions expressed in this post reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Nitrous oxide, addiction and substance use disorder with Sammie Back and Emese Kroon

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 16:30:52 GMT

In this episode Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Sammie Back and Emese Kroon about nitrous oxide. The discussion happened on 8 November 2023, on the day that possession of nitrous oxide became a Class C substance in the UK. The group discuss the existing evidence for harms, addiction and other disorders, exploring this relatively under-researched area.

They cover the lack of research and how researchers can begin to understand what's happening when a drug's popularity rapidly increases. They also talk about how people use nitrous oxide and in which circumstances use might be more likely. Finally, they relate nitrous oxide against criteria for substance use disorders taken from DSM-5 and discuss the implications from their findings.

"We just need more data.... For a drug used this regularly, it's honestly quite astounding that we have so little scientific evidence to inform the public also healthcare professionals and policy makers." Emese Kroon

Original article: Does nitrous oxide addiction exist? An evaluation of the evidence for the presence and prevalence of substance use disorder symptoms in recreational nitrous oxide users by Sammie Back and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and presenters and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Pregnancy and opioids with Jerry Cochran

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 16:30:36 GMT

In this episode Ben Scher talks to Professor Gerald (Jerry) Cochran about his article based on a randomized multisite pilot trial investigating the impact of Patient Navigation. Jerry begins by describing Patient Navigation, explaining how it works and how it can help people stay engaged in care. The research team explored whether this approach helps pregnant people to stay in contact with treatment services.

Jerry then go on to discus the next steps for his research and explains how his research findings might be scaled up to influence policy. Jerry describes how Patient Navigation could be implemented within US Medicaid programmes summarising the data that would be needed to scale up the intervention. They then reflect on the economic implications for Medicade or state insurers.

"That's really exiting and it's really satisfying when you're able to identify a partner like a Medicaid programme or a large pharmacy chain.... and help them integrate into their workflow into their systems something that might help patients and think 'oh wow'. You know, not only could we help patients in a single clinic but we could help people in a state or across the country"

Original article: Patient Navigation for Pregnant Persons with Opioid Use Disorder: Results of a Randomized Multisite Pilot Trial by Gerald Cochran and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the hosts and authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.

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Minimum unit pricing and road traffic accidents with Francesco Manca

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 12:53:30 GMT

In this episode Rob Calder talks to Francesco Manca about his research on Scotland's Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) policy for alcohol, and specifically about the impact that MUP has had on road traffic accidents. Francesco discusses how the research team selected appropriate comparitors to assess whether changes to road traffic accidents could be attributed to MUP. He also talks about how this study compares with previous studies that used similar datasets yet drew different conclusions. He describes how understanding the subtle differences between time frames and outcomes can aid researchers to gain an in-depth understanding of alcohol regulation.

"The original 50 pence as a floor price .... maybe too low over the years as it can be eroded by external factors such as inflation - so maybe indexing with inflation may create a more consistent effect of the policy over time"

Original article: Evaluating the impact of minimum unit pricing for alcohol on road traffic accidents in Scotland after 20 months: an interrupted time series study by Francesco Manca and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the presenter and interviewee and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA.

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Mental health and social care with Amy O'Donnell and Kat Jackson

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 10:00:59 GMT

In this episode, Zoe Swithenbank talks to Drs Amy O'Donnell and Kat Jackson about their recent study on how to improve care for people with coexisting heavy drinking and depression. The discuss the theoretical concept of Relational Autonomy and how it influenced their research.

Amy and Kat describe how they set up the research, and in particular the challenges of recruiting participants from groups where your research is not their priority. They also talk about how much work it takes to conduct effective PPI (Patient and Public Involvement) and how important it is to do it well.

They then go through their findings, discussing how they can inform theory and clinical practice:

"A lot of people who we spoke to literally didn't have anybody. They'd been turned away from every formal health and social care service that they needed to access and they also didn't have any family relationships or friendships for various reasons. How are you supposed to get better if you don't have those?"

Original article: Understanding people's experiences of the formal health and social care system for co-occurring heavy alcohol use and depression through the lens of relational autonomy: A qualitative study by Katherine Jackson and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the interviewer and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA.

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Smoking cessation trials with Zoe Swithenbank

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 08:26:20 GMT

In this episode, Rob Calder talks to Zoe Swithenbank about her recent article looking at how to improve research reports on smoking cessation trials. Zoe talks about the challenges of organising an international meeting of experts before the COVID-19 pandemic (before people were used to online working). She talks about some common errors and omissions that researchers make when reporting smoking cessation trials and how these can place limits on scientific progress. She talks about developing the CONSORT-SPI tool to help improve the ability of researchers to draw conclusions across studies.

"It was important to get that balance and try and get a good range, and we did have quite a variety of people...different backgrounds, different expertise which made for some interesting debates."

Original article: Tailoring CONSORT-SPI to improve the reporting of smoking cessation intervention trials: An expert consensus study by Zoe Swithenbank and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Drug Consumption rooms with Laurence Lalanne

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 15:12:27 GMT

In this episode Ben Scher talks to Professor Laurence Lalanne about drug consumption rooms and the recent publication based on the COSINUS cohort study. They cover the range of interventions available in drug consumption rooms and how they can increase people's access to psychiatric support alongside barriers to accessing drug consumption rooms. Laurence talks about the epidemiological point of view in relation to the more biomedical aspects of drug consumption rooms, their objectives in reducing overdose and their impact on hospitals and the wider health-care system.

"You need a very long follow-up....we need to follow for two years and three years to show important results about mental health and to see how they improve their well-being and access to other care."

This is the second of a two-part podcast. The first, featuring Dr Marie Jauffret-Roustide, can be found here.

Original article: Drug consumption rooms are effective to reduce at-risk practices associated with HIV/HCV infections among people who inject drugs: Results from the COSINUS cohort study by Laurence Lalanne and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023).

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Drug consumption rooms with Marie Jauffret-Roustide

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 15:12:17 GMT

In this episode Ben Scher talks to Dr Marie Jauffret-Roustide about drug consumption rooms and the recent publication based on the COSINUS cohort study. They cover a range of issues including the history of drug consumption rooms, the evidence on effectiveness and the challenges of studying this particular intervention.They also reflect on the social determinants of health and how drug consumption rooms can have a positive impact

"We have 1% of people who attend drug consumption rooms who declared having ever shared injecting equipment in the last month before the interviews compared to 11% for people who were not exposed to drug consumption rooms"

This is the first of a two-part podcast. The second, featuring Professor Laurence Lalanne can be found here.

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Drones delivering Naloxone with Caroline Copeland, Patrick Courtney and Paul Royall

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 23:02:10 GMT

In this episode, Rob Calder talks to Drs Caroline Copeland, Patrick Courtney and Paul Royall about their recent article assessing the time it would take for drones to deliver naloxone to people who are overdosing on opioids. The study team used NPSAD (National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths) data to map out overdoses in Teeside over recent years and then to predict how long it would have taken a drone to make the journey and deliver naloxone to a bystander who would then be able to administer it. They then compared this time with the time it takes ambulances to attend the scene. Along the way they discuss take off stations, weather, traffic congestion, no-fly zones and the importance of considering whether a drone will be destroyed along the way.

"The initial design we came up with was a sort of cargo transport box on top of the drone, whereby the drone lands and then the bystander can remove the naloxone home kit or naloxone nasal spray from the top of that transport holder. At that point we then follow the guidance and recommendations of the at home naloxone or nasal spray." - Paul Royall

Original article: An evaluation of naloxone transit for opioid overdose using drones: A case study using real-world coroner data. By Caroline Copeland and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Canadian low-risk drinking guidelines

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 14:49:28 GMT

In this episode Dr Merve Mollaametoglu talks to Dr Catherine Paradis director of health promotion and scientific alcohol lead at the Canadian Centre of Substance Use and Addiction, Dr Kevin Shield from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto and Dr Peter Butt clinical associate professor Department of Family Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan.

They discuss their recent article looking at ways of making of low-risk alcohol drinking guidelines. They talk about how difficult it is to reach consensus on low-risk alcohol thresholds and how scientific evidence and public opinion meet. And the development of their ‘risk-zone’ approach. And how this can be interpreted by people who had differing perceptions of risk.

They talk about why people in alcohol focused cultures appear to be willing to accept a higher rate of risk from alcohol than they do from other risk-based activities.

"I would liken the development of the risk-zones the risk curves allowing people to situate themselves to other scientific discoveries….A lot of other public health agencies and a lot of people who have been involved in the development of these guidelines really are taken to the utility of those risk zones and hopefully we’ll see that picked up in a lot more guidelines as well” - Dr Kevin Shield

Original article: New perspectives on how to formulate alcohol drinking guidelines by Kevin Shield and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023).

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Social media and alcohol with Brandon Cheng

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 18:04:18 GMT

Dr Elle Wadsworth talks here to Brandon Cheng about his research on social media posting and drinking behaviour. Brandon talks about the influence that media and social media have on young people and how they can influence their drinking behaviour.

“A young person watching a short video of people enjoying drinks [is] likely to develop a much more vivid imagery of what drinking can be like … compared to a viewer just to see an image or text relating to someone having a good time drinking.”

Original article: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationship between youth drinking, self-posting of alcohol use and other social media engagement (2012 – 2021) by Brandon Cheng and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023).

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Cannabis, sport and anti-doping regulations with Tom Hudzik

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 16:51:50 GMT

In this episode Dr Rob Calder talks to Dr Thomas Hudzik about his work with the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA). Tom talks about the three principles by which a substance is assessed and how they use the latest research and policy changes to make decisions about whether a substance is banned and how it is detected. They specifically cover the decision to implement and in-competition ban cannabis and the basis on which that decision was made.

"The substance use can represent a risk to the athlete's health them-self or the health of those around them.... somebody who is allowed to perform in a group type of situation, their judgement will be impaired most likely. And that may affect the score that you have, but it could also mean that you do something silly physically that you might not have done otherwise because your reaction time is slow, your temporal estimation capabilities are slow."

Original article: Cannabis and sport: A World Anti-Doping perspective by Thomas Hudzik and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Fentanyl, poly-substance use and the US opioid epidemic with Joseph Friedman

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 13:47:26 GMT

Ben Scher talks to Dr Joseph Friedman about his research on fentanyl overdoses. Joseph explains the four waves of opioid overdoses in the US and how opiate and opioid overdoses have changed.

They discuss how patterns of poly-substance use are different across the US and how the combination of fentanyl and methamphetamines is become more prevalent across states. Along with the challenges of standardising results when coroners’ reports vary across the US.

One of the main takeaways here is just understanding that poly-substance drug overdose is really becoming the norm….The percent of US overdose deaths involving both fentanyl and stimulants in 2010 was 0.6% so one in every 200 overdose deaths and by 2021 it rose to one-third of all [overdose] deaths.

Original article: Charting the Fourth Wave: Geographic, Temporal, Race/Ethnicity, and Demographic Trends in Polysubstance Fentanyl Overdose Deaths in the United States, 2010-2021 by Joseph Friedman and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Vaping and smoking cessation with Vassilis Sideropoulos

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 14:56:37 GMT

Rob Calder talks to Vassilis Sideropoulos about a recent paper on the role of vaping products in smoking cessation. The first author for this paper was Dr Catherine Kimber.

Vassilis talks about the array of components that can contribute to quitting smoking when using vaping products. He summarises the research team’s work on identifying which combinations of support types are most effective. He talks about their research into advice on vaping products, nicotine strength and e-liquid flavours, as well as providing information on the relative harms of vaping and smoking and text message support.

There's so many different flavours right now you can pick up almost anything now..... it's a massive raise and I think that's why flavour is a component that we need to understand better.

Vassilis also talks about the challenges of recruiting participants from social media and how to exclude bots from your research participant group.

Original article: E-cigarette support for smoking cessation: Identifying the effectiveness of intervention components in an on-line randomized optimization experiment by Catherine Kimber and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Overdose risk, opioid agonists and other medications with Eleni Domzaridou

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 15:56:38 GMT

Rob Calder talks to Dr Eleni Domzaridou about her recent article on the risk of overdose among people prescribe medication for opioid use at the same time as being prescribed other medication - such as for mental health disorders.

People who use opioid drugs are often prescribed drugs for physical or mental health problems or for pain management. Eleni and the research team studied non-fatal overdoses among this group of people. In this podcast, Eleni outlines why the marker of non-fatal overdose is important when seeking to prevent fatal overdoses. Eleni also talks about the challenges and practicalities of using a large data-set with data from GP surgeries to draw conclusions about associations between prescribed drug use and overdoses.

There is an elevated non-fatal overdose risk for patients prescribed opioid agonists concurrently with benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids, z-drugs or antipsychotics.

Original article: Non-fatal overdose risk associated with prescribing opioid agonists concurrently with other medication: cohort study conducted using linked primary care, secondary care, and mortality records by Eleni Domzaridou and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Methamphetamine, psychosis and family history with Rebecca McKetin

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 08:06:07 GMT

In this episode Ben Scher talks to Dr Rebecca McKetin about her recent article looking the relationship between psychosis, psychotic symptoms and methamphetamine use. They discuss the implications and talk about who exactly is at risk of methamphetamine-related psychosis. Along the way, they cover the background of methamphetamine use in Australia and how this varies from country to country.

They then discuss the relative risk for psychotic symptoms among people with and without a family history of psychosis. The risk also changes when people are (or are not) actively using methamphetamine. Rebecca also talks about the potential for people to progress to schizophrenia and how treatment services should respond. Rebecca talks about the range of interventions that could be used to address methamphetamine related risks use and drug-related mental health problems.

We need to target methamphetamine use as a risk factor for psychosis, regardless of whether people have a history of psychosis on their family.... the other one is that we need to be looking at people who do have a family history of psychosis at being at very high risk of having psychotic symptoms.

Original article: How does a family history of psychosis influence the risk of methamphetamine-related psychotic symptoms: Evidence from longitudinal panel data by Rebecca McKetin and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Hallucinogen use, young adults and monitoring the future with Katherine Keyes

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 12:39:38 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Katherine Keyes about her study examining changes to hallucinogen use among young adults in the US. Katherine also talks about using the Monitoring The Future survey to identify patterns of substance use among young adults.

"...going from 2020 to 2021 we really saw substantial increases in the prevalence of young adults who are reporting that they use hallucinogens other than LSD. And we didn't see the same trend of use of LSD."

Original article: Hallucinogen use among young adults ages 19–30 in the United States: Changes from 2018 to 2021 by Katherine M. Keyes and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Perspectives on gambling from 1561 with Louise Nadeau

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 07:48:35 GMT

In this episode Ben Scher talks to Professor Louise Nadeau about her recent article anaysing the content of a Latin-language treatise on gambling addiction written nearly 500 years ago. Ben and Louise discuss the medical model of gambling and issues of historic identification. They unpick how the original authors wrote about the medical model of addiction long before it was called that. Parts of the treatise refer to non-problematic gambling - noting that there was a small population who had problems. There are also references to gambling harms and models of treatment that go back to the 6th century AD.

This podcast offers a fascinating historical insight in a way that illuminates our current understanding of addiction and co-occurring disorders.

"So here was this person in 1561 who was thinking of erroneous cognitions who thought of genetic vulnerability - all that at the end of the Renaissance."

Original article: A re-discovered treatise from 1561 by Louise Nadeau and Marc Valleur. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Risk of bias in tobacco cessation trials with Jamie Hartmann-Boyce

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 12:50:10 GMT

In this episode, Chloe Burke talks to Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce about new guidance from the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group (TAG) on assessing and minimising risk of bias in tobacco cessation trials. Jamie explains some of the key challenges in this area and explains some of the primary sources of bias that authors need to be aware of when analysing tobacco cessation trials. This article was published as part of Addiction's Methods and Techniques series.

"We wanted to do this to make sure people were assessing it [risk of bias] well, but also to put in some sort of consistency across our reviews so that the different author teams working on them were broadly using the same criteria"

Original article: Assessing and minimizing risk of bias in randomized controlled trials of tobacco cessation interventions: Guidance from the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group by Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Nicola Lindson. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Cannabis legalisation in Canada with Janni Leung

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 08:51:24 GMT

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Janni Leung about her work on a systematic review of the evidence on cannabis arrests, cannabis products and prices since Canada legalised cannabis. Janni talks discusses how arrest figures have changed, along with trends in legal and illicit purchase of cannabis. She covers issues relating to cannabis packaging and the potential for this to have an impact on people who do not purchase cannabis. They also discuss cannabis legalisation in the context of driving and traffic-related injuries.

"We found that after cannabis legalisation there have been significant reductions in cannabis arrests. This means that less police time and efforts have been spent arresting people for cannabis use"

Original article: The implementation and public health impacts of cannabis legalization in Canada: a systematic review by Wayne Hall and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Bacterial infections and social determinants of health with Thomas Brothers

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 08:07:33 GMT

In this episode Ben Scher talks to Dr Thomas Brothers about his qualitative systematic review looking at infections from injecting drug use. Tommy and Ben talk about bacterial and fungal infections and how social and structural factors can have a detrimental impact on access to treatment and health outcomes for people who use drugs. Tommy discusses the differences between countries, highlighting that the prevalence of injecting drug use is not always matched by increases in infections from injecting drug use. They talk about the influence of fentanyl, changes in drug use, drug supply and drug policy, whilst noting that the study found increases in bacterial infections that could not always be explained by these factors.

In many of these countries there's been worsening economic and equality, worsening homelessness and our findings suggest that those sorts of economic policy factors are playing a big role in making people vulnerable to infections.

Tommy also talks to Ben about conducting a qualitative systematic review, discussing the three steps of using thematic synthesis methods.

Original article: Social and structural determinants of injection drug use-associated bacterial and fungal infections: A qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis by Thomas D. Brothers and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Cannabis and apps with Marleen Olthof and Matthijs Blankers

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 12:15:29 GMT

In this episode, Rob Calder talks to Marleen Olthof and Dr Matthijs Blankers about their research into ICan - a digital health app designed to reduce cannabis use. They initially talk about the potential of using apps to improve health and support people who use drugs before also discussing how apps can improve access to support.

“It’s a much smaller step to sign up for a digital intervention than to enter treatment”- Marleen Olthof

They discuss how complicated it can be to 'blind' people to a particular condition when researching digital apps and the techniques they used to run a single-blind randomised controlled trial. They then discuss the implications of their findings.

Matthijs discusses pre-registration and how this helped the team to prepare; and, how open science principles benefit researchers throughout the research cycle.

Original article: A guided digital intervention to reduce cannabis use: The ICan randomized controlled trial by Marleen Olthof and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Long-acting buprenorphine with Jo Neale

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 15:03:46 GMT

Professor Joanne Neale talks to Addiction Audio about her latest research into how people feel during the first 72 hours of having long-acting buprenorphine (Buvidal). Jo talks about the recent history of this medication and how it predated the COVID-19 pandemic and was then brought to attention because it meant that people did not have to attend a pharmacy on a daily basis. Jo also talks about how this can be positive for some people but isn't appropriate for everyone.

Jo discusses the gap in the literature around how people respond to long-acting buprenorphine when it is first administered. Jo presents data from the first wave of a longitudinal study examining people's experiences throughout the medication. The findings from this first set of data will be used to help people prepare for the effects and to know what to expect.

Jo discusses using an embodiment and embodied cognition approach when analysing the data. This was chosen because the researchers saw how the data quickly became complex.

"People had these positive and negative experiences at the same time simultaneously; sometimes they were positive physical effects, sometimes they were positive psychological effects, sometimes they were negative physical effects, sometimes they were negative psychological effects. And when we started to map this out, we could see that it was quite complicated and that everything was interacting. And that brought us round to thinking that the concept of embodiment and embodied cognition are quite helpful here because they help us understand how the mind and body interact."

Original article: How do patients feel during the first 72 h after initiating long-acting injectable buprenorphine? An embodied qualitative analysis by Joanne Neale and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Smoking and Ecological Momentary Assessment with Olga Perski

Wed, 10 May 2023 08:21:32 GMT

Dr Perski explains the evolution of Ecological Momentry Assessment (EMA) studies and how they have been used to collect granular data relating to everyday experiences. Olga's latest review focuses on EMA studies and smoking, looking at lapse and relapse. She talks about how EMA can be used to test and develop models and theories of addiction in ways that cross-sectional studies cannot. She also covers how you can use EMA to capture fluctuating and dynamic changes among people who use drugs.

"If we go back to thinking about more traditional survey based studies which would measure these constructs weeks apart - knowing that lapses can happen very rapidly in response to very rapidly increased cravings or a cue in the environment. For example, in a bar or restaurant where someone would pick up a cigarette that can very rapidly lead to a lapse. I think that helps emphasis the point that Ecological Momentary Assessment and maybe also sensor data is required in order to pick up these very very rapid fluctuations."

Olga then talks about developing an appraisal tool for assessing the quality of EMA studies, which involves looking at reporting guidelines. She then talks about how and why open science principles can be applied to EMA studies.

Original article: Within-person associations between psychological and contextual factors and lapse incidence in smokers attempting to quit: A systematic review and meta-analysis of Ecological Momentary Assessment studies by Olga Perski and Colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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The acute effects of cannabis with Will Lawn

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 08:37:40 GMT

Rob talks to Dr Will Lawn about his research into the acute effects of cannabis on young people and adults. Will talks about setting up a study looking at young people and adults’ experiences of using cannabis with different levels of cannabidiol. He talks about the challenges of blinding participants to different types of cannabis; about how to manage the placebo effect when participants can become quickly aware of whether they have or have not had cannabis and the challenges of running a trial involving a controlled drug.

He discusses the study’s findings that suggest that teenagers respond similarly to adults in the acute stages of cannabis use and experience the same short-term harms as adults.

He also talks about the importance of selecting the best episode of The Simpsons for an academic study.

“In the last four to five years there’s been a swing towards thinking CBD doesn’t really moderate the impact of THC at these kind of 1 to 30mg dose levels”

Dr Will Lawn is a Lecturer at King’s College London Psychology Department

Original article: ‘The acute effects of cannabis with and without cannabidiol in adults and adolescents: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover experiment by Will Lawn and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2023)

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Heated tobacco products and nomenclature with Katie East

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 09:08:29 GMT

In this episode, Dr Katherine East talks about her recent article on heated tobacco product use. When conducting this research, Katie talked to former and current smokers who use IQOS to understand the words they use to describe themselves and what they do in relation to heated tobacco products.

Katie and Rob then talk about how the language can reflect identity and how this can influence the risk of people relapsing to smoking or other forms of nicotine use. They discuss the importance of social norms and how language can play a substantial role in shaping those norms.

Katie explains why some potential words that might have been used have since been discarded, including “heaters” and “IQOSers”.

They also talk about different social circumstances and how heated tobacco use, vaping and smoking identities interact.

Link to Katie’s previous podcast

“Lots of people refer to it as smoking still…. It also means less having to explain what it is because very few people have heard of IQOS”

“The way that people refer to things and they way they think about themselves as product users can influence their behaviour.”

“Whilst people referred to IQOS use as smoking they were very resistant to being identified as a smoker”.

Original article: ‘It's not what you'd term normal smoking’: a qualitative exploration of language used to describe heated tobacco product use and associated user identity by Katherine East and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2022).

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The rise of disposable vaping products with Harry Tattan-Birch

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 13:11:04 GMT

In this episode, Harry Tattan-Birch talks about his recent article on the increased popularity of disposable vaping products. He discusses the difference between this new generation of vaping products compared with the original versions.

He talks about the data that suggest a rise in vaping alongside a lack of change in use of nicotine products overall. And the three reasons why disposable vapes have become more popular; including the low up-front cost, nicotine delivery/nicotine salts, and the convenience.

“You can just walk into a shop, buy a device, open the packet and instantly start using it. you don’t have to know anything about coils… the concentration of e-liquid, you don’t have to charge it.”

Harry also talks about how the team were able to publish relatively soon after noticing the trend. He talks about using data from the Smoking Toolkit Study and how this supports efficient and effective publishing, enabling researchers to see what’s happening real-time on the nicotine market.

Original article: Rapid growth in disposable e-cigarette vaping among young adults in Great Britain from 2021 to 2022: a repeat cross-sectional survey by Harry Tattan-Birch and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2022)

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Highly processed foods and addiction with Ashley Gearhardt

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 09:19:51 GMT

In this episode of Addiction Audio, Rob Talks to Dr Ashley Gearhardt from the University of Michigan about whether highly processed foods can be considered to be addictive substances.

Dr Gearhardt starts by defining highly processed foods before covering the issues that arise from having an addictive substance (such as food) that you can’t ‘opt out’ of. Ashley makes comparisons with other addictive substances noting that highly processed foods can induce cravings and lead to a loss of control. She then talks about which foods have a bigger impact on addictive behaviours highlighting foods that contain refined sugars and added fats such as pizzas and donuts.

Rob and Ashley then discuss the limits to research whereby there is little agreement on how to define an addictive substance. This is in stark contrast with a growing consensus on how to identify addictive behaviours. There are, for example, agreed diagnostic criteria for addiction, but there is less agreement on how to define whether a substance is addictive.

They also talk about how a substance that isn’t intoxicating can be addictive.

“It isn’t necessarily the amount of pleasure or liking you get at the moment you consume them [highly processed foods], but the ability that they have to sensitise motivation systems to want more and more and more”

“We argue that we need to treat these highly processed foods, not so much as foods per se but as highly refined substances that have been engineered to be incredibly rewarding.”

Original article: Highly processed foods can be considered addictive substances based on established scientific criteria by Ashley Gearhardt and Alexandra DiFeliceantonio. Published in Addiction (2022)

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Substance use among refugees with Ebtesam Saleh

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 08:20:52 GMT

In this episode of Addiction Audio, Rob talks to Ebtesam Saleh a Doctoral student at the Charite university in Berlin. Ebtesam talks about her recent systematic review of qualitative research on substance use among refugees. She talks about talks about the limitations of using survey data to explore this issue and how qualitative research can help contextualise the problems faced by refugees in a culturally sensitive way.

Ebtesam discusses the impact that research can have and how researchers can minimise the potential for re-traumatisation through research interviews. She also discusses the cultural differences in how people view substances and substance use. With substances like coca, betul quid and prescription drugs being viewed, legislated and used in different ways in different countries. There are also multiple barriers to treatment that refugees can experience from stigma to a lack of resources and including structural factors such as health insurance requirements in different countries.

Ebtesam then talks about the many refugee groups whose experiences are not present in the literature:

“For example, Yemen hosts many refugee populations from African conflict countries; while Yemen itself is a country struggling with civil war, so it looks like a refugee crisis within a country of crisis. So, a crisis within the crisis”

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Racial equity, research and the SRNT taskforce with Mignonne Guy and Megan Piper

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 06:52:30 GMT

In this episode of Addiction Audio, Drs Mignonne Guy and Megan Piper talk about their work on the racial equity taskforce for the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT). It was a powerful and wide-ranging discussion about developing anti-racist practice, social constructs of race, research methods, society organisations and research funding structures.

Megan and Mignonne began by talking about why the racial equity taskforce was set up, how they determined what to do and the findings of the SRNT policy review. They then discuss wider issues of race and inequality that run throughout academia, describing how health disparity research can be suppressed and discouraged as well as the impact of the tobacco industry’s racist history.

The discussion then focuses on how key research concepts – including methods often considered central to public health research – need to change or be replaced in order to eliminate the impact of structural racism on research and on population health.

They finally offer advice to organisations about how to undertake their own racial equity reviews.

“When we look at our policies and we see that there’s nothing about race, no, that’s not surprising … because that’s how this invisible dominant whiteness takes over everything – by excluding those groups and not explicitly referring to other populations.” - Dr Mignonne Guy

“So, this scientific premise that we have been operating under and training …. so many scientists under that the population can be controlled for doesn’t work. [This] really does elevate the importance of studying specific populations because their experiences are so very different they can’t be controlled for.” - Dr Megan Piper

“We’re asking people to divest from their scientific legacy and to try to construct something new and be part of that and pioneering this type of work” - Dr Mignonne Guy

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Ontologies and tobacco, nicotine and vaping products with Sharon Cox

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 12:54:28 GMT

In this episode we talk to Dr Sharon Cox about developing an ontology around nicotine and tobacco products. Sharon also talks about the importance of ontologies and how they are important for research. She talks about how to manage disagreements when developing a system that categorises and defines products, behaviours and properties.

“So, as researchers, which we are, we should be pedants and we should think it’s important that the products we write about we write about with accuracy.”

“Because we want to be clear, we want to be really clear with the public. We want to make sure that we’re writing lay outputs, developing ad campaigns advising companies….. we want to make sure that we’re communicating the science of our subject as clearly as we can. And that really starts with our academic work.”

Original article: Toward an ontology of tobacco, nicotine and vaping products by Sharon Cox and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2022)

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Opioid agonist treatment, drug related deaths and dynamic models with Matt Hickman

Sun, 14 Aug 2022 12:57:40 GMT

In this episode, Professor Matt Hickman talks about using population modelling to identify the population implications of Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT). He covers the impact that OAT has on drug-related deaths and other causes of mortality as well as how models can be used to explore what mortality rates would have been without OAT in New South Wales, Australia.

Professor Hickman talks about their findings that, without OAT, the number of overdose deaths would have been 50% higher.

“So, what we were trying to do in this study was to model the counter-factual of how many deaths there would be if there hadn’t been any opioid agonist treatment. In theory the ideal model would be a trial in which you have OAT versus no OAT in a population, now clearly that’s unethical and can’t be done.”

He also talks about how the research team set up a dynamic model that they used to explore the data, matching incarceration and OAT records. They then used those data alongside findings from systematic reviews to model the hypothetical impact of OAT on a real population.

“We’ve done models before, theoretical models which say ‘if we increase the opioid agonist treatment programme and we increase duration at a certain point what impact would that have?’ but that’s rarely based on actual real data. So …there’s modelling and there’s modelling, and this model is based on real empirical data and we think that gives it a bit more credence”.

Original paper here: Modeling the population-level impact of opioid agonist treatment on mortality among people accessing treatment between 2001 and 2020 in New South Wales, Australia by Antoine Chaillon and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2022)

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Cannabis use and bipolar disorder with Alexander Denissoff

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 13:51:23 GMT

In this episode Dr Alexander Denissoff talks about his recent research into the potential associations between cannabis use and later life bipolar disorder. He discusses the basis for hypotheses that link cannabis and bipolar disorder, outlining what the Northern Finland Birth Cohort is and how it was used in this study.

“It’s an ongoing birth cohort which included 99% of all live births in the two northern-most provinces in Finland between July 1985 and June 1986 and originally included 9,432 live born children. And 73.8% of the participants originally included in the cohort were included in this study…. It’s an exceptional dataset considering the generalisability of the results to the general population”

Dr Denissoff talks about his finding that associations between cannabis use and bipolar disorder did not persist once other factors were accounted for.

“The association attenuated to non-significant after adjusting to frequent alcohol intoxications, illicit drug use and daily smoking. But even if the association was not seen as independent of other substances, early cannabis use can nevertheless be thought of as a signal of a potential adverse mental health trajectory.”

Original research article: Is Early Exposure to Cannabis Associated with Bipolar disorder? Results from a Finnish Birth-Cohort Study. By Alexander Denissoff and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2022)

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Gambling, risk-taking and alcohol with Tori Horn

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 09:56:31 GMT

In this episode, Tori Horn from the University of Memphis talks about her recent systematic review of risk-taking and gambling whilst drinking.

Tori talks about the moderators between alcohol and risk-taking and how her and her colleagues screened 30,000 papers to examine the influence of blood alcohol concentration, gender, the type of gambling and other factors as potential moderators of this relationship.

“We thought perhaps that, what’s influencing this is the expectancies, and the vast majority of studies included used the placebo design […] which led us to conclude that maybe people are expecting, once they’re told they’re consuming alcohol, that their behaviour’s going to be different.”

Tori talks about the different ways that risk-taking is measured in studies, including inflating balloons until they burst for a cash pay-out. She also explores the problems with lab designs and the challenge of translating research into naturalistic settings.

Original research article: Does acute alcohol consumption increase risk-taking while gambling? A systematic review and meta-analysis. By Tori Horn and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2022).

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Brief interventions, emergency departments, and alcohol with Paolo Deluca

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 08:47:00 GMT

In this episode of the Addiction Audio podcast, Dr Paolo Deluca talks about his recent research on using brief interventions in emergency departments.

The research involved a three-armed randomised controlled trial on brief interventions for young people, and found no significant differences in alcohol-related outcomes between young people who had been given a brief intervention and those who had not. In the podcast, Paolo reflects on some of the potential reasons for this, considering previous evidence in support of brief interventions.

“When you move away from an efficacy trial or a single site study where you have highly trained professionals or practitioners delivering the interventions and you move into the real-world NHS setting is where you tend to lose some of the effectiveness you might have had in the early stages of the brief intervention.”

Paolo also talks about the core components of brief interventions that can be delivered in 10 minutes in busy emergency departments, and discusses some of the logistical and ethical challenges of recruiting young people to a three-armed trial.

“We involved 10 emergency departments, and we ran it for around 8 months and were recruiting from 10am to 10pm in the afternoon and we were covering 7 days a week. To achieve that we had essentially an army of researchers.”

Original article: Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of face-to-face and electronic brief interventions versus screening alone to reduce alcohol consumption among high risk adolescents presenting to Emergency Departments: three-arm pragmatic randomised trial (SIPS Junior High Risk Trial). By Paolo Deluca and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2022).

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Drug checking services with Nazlee Maghsoudi

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 11:51:18 GMT

In this episode of Addiction Audio, Nazlee Maghsoudi talks about her recent publication “Drug checking services for people who use drugs: a systematic review”.

Nazlee discusses how drug checking services change behaviour, contribute to drug market monitoring and otherwise impact the risk associated with using substances. She talks about the three waves of drug checking services from the late 1960s to present day. Nazlee talks about the benefits of working with library sciences experts when setting the search parameters for her systematic review. She also talks about how important it is for physicians or GPs to know what substances people might have taken.

“We know from the systematic review [people who use drug checking services] do make changes in their behaviour, they do take that information into account, and whether it’s choosing to not use, choosing to use less, choosing to seek more information before they use, that gives them information to make more informed choices about the drugs they use.”

Nazlee is the Manager of the Policy Impact Unit at the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation in Toronto, and a PhD Candidate in Health Services Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation within the University of Toronto.

Original research article: Drug checking services for people who use drugs: a systematic review By Nazlee Maghsoudi and colleagues. Published in Addiction (2021)

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Drinking patterns during lockdown with Iain Hardie

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 10:55:39 GMT

Dr Iain Hardie talks to Addiction Audio about his research into alcohol use changes during lockdown. His research is the first to report longitudinal data on changes in drinking quantities and characteristics. Dr Hardie talks about using an interrupted time series analysis to identify the impact of the pandemic on drinking habits.

“A lot of [drinking] occasions in general that start earlier in the day are quite often people meeting up for long drinking occasions or big social occasions that last the whole day, whereas when lockdowns were in place those occasions weren’t possible so people were drinking later on in the day”

Iain discusses how Scotland and England differ in the numbers of people who drink alone and talks about the potential long-term consequences resulting from changes in drinking patters whereby more people currently drink at home and fewer go out to pubs and bars.

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Pre-registration with John Marsden

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 13:16:47 GMT

In this episode of Addiction Audio, Professor John Marsden talks about the role of pre-registration in increasing research transparency. He addresses the anxieties that people can have about pre-registration and talks about how it’s really not that difficult or daunting.

Professor Marsden talks gets into the detail of pre-registration; when to register, how to register and the importance of planning for – and dealing with – missing data. He covers how plans change during any research project and how to respond when they do. The importance of pre-registration also includes qualitative research and Professor Marsden talks about the need for more qualitative and observational studies to be pre-registered.

“We’re really trying to encourage people to just plan, adapt if you need to, change if you have to – but just have a clear narrative about that – and everyone benefits. It means that what was done is much more reproducible.”

Professor John Marsden is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Addiction. He is Professor of Addiction psychology at the Addictions Department, the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London.

Marsden, J, Cousijn, J and Stapleton, J, Pre‐registration: not a daunting practice. Addiction. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15819

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ADHD and maternal substance use with Elis Haan

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 09:26:56 GMT

Dr Elis Haan talks to Dr Rob Calder about ADHD and maternal substance use. She discusses her recent paper which explored the impact of smoking, alcohol and drugs during pregnancy on ADHD outcomes in young people.

Elis talks about the differences between maternal and teacher ratings of ADHD. She also explains negative control and polygenic risk score methods used in this study discussing how multiple methods were used across different longitudinal datasets to add confidence to their analysis.

“Combining these different methods can help to gain stronger support for a causal effect…. For example, if these different methods and analyses across these cohorts provide similar results we can be more confident that the results reflect a true causal effect. This is because it is unlikely that these different methods will be all biased in the same way”

Haan E, Sallis HM, Zuccolo L,Labrecque J, Ystrom E, Reichborn-Kjennerud T, et al. Prenatal smoking, alcohol and caffeine exposure and maternal-reported attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms in childhood: triangulation of evidence using negative control and polygenic risk score analyses. Addiction. 2021;1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15746.

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JITAIs and using smartphones to prevent lapse with Olga Perskie

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 09:53:02 GMT

Rob Calder talks to Dr Olga Perski about her recent research on just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs) whereby smartphones are used to help prevent lapses among people who are trying to quit or reduce alcohol, tobacco or other drug use. Dr Perski talks about why the literature is so complex and how defining JITAIs is difficult in the first place. She talks about the potential for Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), GPS positioning and micro-randomised trial studies to contribute in this area, and how we may not want to press ahead with full-scale RCTs before having conducted additional conceptual and computational work to clarify what JITAIs are and how to develop them. Dr Perski also discusses the challenges of regulating mobile health apps so that people can access apps based on evidence of effectiveness. This episode was recorded online on 30 September 2021.

Perski, O., Hébert, E.T., Naughton, F., Hekler, E.B., Brown, J. and Businelle, M.S. Technology‐mediated just‐in‐time adaptive interventions (JITAIs) to reduce harmful substance use: A systematic review. Addiction 2021; doi:10.1111/add.15687

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Mental imagery and cocaine craving with John Marsden

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 08:57:00 GMT

Rob Calder talks to Professor John Marsden about cocaine cravings. Professor Marsden discusses the lack of pharmacological treatments for cocaine, and about his recent study using mental imagery to address cocaine cravings. He talks about the benefits of positive imagery compared with negative imagery. He then discusses how useful mixed-methods research can be and the importance of writing up data from unfinished trials.

Lowry, N., Marsden, J., Clydesdale, B., Eastwood, B., Havelka, E.M. and Goetz, C. Acute impact of self‐guided mental imagery on craving in cocaine use disorder: a mixed‐methods analysis of a randomized controlled trial. Addiction 2021; doi:10.1111/add.15405

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.15405

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Drug treatment commissioning and market mechanisms with Alison Ritter

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 08:10:21 GMT

Professor Alison Ritter talks about her recent paper “Are market mechanisms associated with alcohol and other drug treatment outcomes” and about the Australian context of drug treatment provision and commissioning. We discuss the challenges of measuring outcomes against commissioning structures and Professor Ritter explains how funding arrangements can end up looking like a bowl of spaghetti. Alison discusses why governments don’t necessarily have to tender competitively, about the burdens associated with the machinery of recommissioning and about the potential for fixed-price tendering to improve the quality of addiction treatment services.

Ritter, A., van de Ven, K., Vuong, T., Chalmers, J., Dobbins, T., Livingston, M. and Berends, L. Are market mechanisms associated with alcohol and other drug treatment outcomes?. Addiction 2021; doi:10.1111/add.15681

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.15681

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The Paper Authoring Tool (PAT) with Robert West

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 08:00:15 GMT

Rob Calder talks to Professor Robert West about the Paper Authoring Tool (PAT). Professor West talks about how PAT can be used in the design and write-up phases of a randomised controlled trials, about how it saves time for reviewers and journals and about how using the PAT can make your research more rigorous, well reported and discoverable. He also discusses the future of research publishing and how computer reading can save months or years on evidence synthesis and how this relates to the Human Behaviour Change Project. There is also a small section on the interaction between computers, humans and chess.

West, R. PAT: an on‐line paper authoring tool for writing up randomized controlled trials. Addiction 2021; 116: 1938-1940

paperauthoringtool.com

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Cannabis, opioids and the gateway hypothesis with Jack Wilson

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 14:15:34 GMT

Jack Wilson talks to Rob Calder about his recent systematic review and meta-analysis on whether cannabis use increases the likelihood of later life opioid use or opioid use disorders. Jack talks about the limitations of the literature, the influence that the gateway hypothesis has had on policy and on some of the different types of studies that explore this issue.

Wilson J, Mills K, Freeman TP, Sunderland M, Visontay R, and Marel C. Weeding out the truth: a systematic review and meta-analysis on the transition from cannabis use to opioid use and opioid use disorders, abuse or dependence. Addiction 2021; doi:10.1111/add.15581

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/add.15581

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Cannabis, schizophrenia and genetics with Emma Johnson

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 08:09:54 GMT

Dr Emma Johnson talks to Rob Calder about shared genetic liabilities for cannabis use disorder and schizophrenia and the role of tobacco smoking. Dr Johnson talks about the implications of this research on the evidence for a causal relationship between cannabis and schizophrenia and for other genetic associations relating to substance use and psychiatric disorders. The episode also covers to ever-fascinating issue of mendelian randomisation.

(Be sure to check out episode 22 too!)

Johnson E.C., Hatoum A.S., Deak J.D., Polimanti R, Murray R.M., Edenberg H.J., et al. The relationship between cannabis and schizophrenia: a genetically informed perspective. Addiction 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15534

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Pay for Performance funding and emergency hospital admissions with Thomas Mason

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 07:31:21 GMT

Rob Calder talks to Dr Thomas Mason about his research on pay for performance models of addiction treatment and how they were associated with increased emergency hospital admissions.

Mason T, Whittaker W, Jones A, Sutton M. Did paying drugs misuse treatment providers for outcomes lead to unintended consequences for hospital admissions? Difference-in-differences analysis of a pay-for-performance scheme in England. Addiction 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15486

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Vaping and smoking cessation with Máirtín McDermott and Leonie Brose

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 12:53:39 GMT

Rob Calder talks to Dr Máirtín McDermott and Dr Leonie Brose about their research into the effectiveness of e-cigarettes for quitting smoking.

McDermott M.S, East K.A, Brose L.S, McNeill A, Hitchman S.C, Partos T.R. The effectiveness of using e‐cigarettes for quitting smoking compared to other cessation methods among adults in the United Kingdom. Addiction 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15474

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Alcohol attributable mortality in the Americas with Maristela Monteiro

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 14:00:50 GMT

Rob Calder talks to Dr Maristela Monteiro about deaths in the Americas between 2013 and 2015 that were 100% attributable to alcohol.

Chrystoja B.R, Monteiro M.G, Owe G, Pinheiro Gawryszewski V, Rehm J, Shield K. Mortality in the Americas from 2013 to 2015 resulting from diseases, conditions and injuries which are 100% alcohol attributable. Addiction 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15475

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Social norms and smoking behaviour with Katie East

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 10:28:23 GMT

Rob Calder speaks to Dr Katie East about her research into social norms in relation to smoking behaviour

East K, McNeill A, Thrasher JF, Hitchman SC. Social norms as a predictor of smoking uptake among youth: a systematic review, meta‐analysis and meta‐regression of prospective cohort studies. Addiction 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15427

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Heroin use and general population surveys with Jon Caulkins

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 10:58:15 GMT

Rob Calder speaks to Professor Jon Caulkins about his Addiction Opinion & Debate article discussing the difficulties of measuring heroin use with general population surveys

Reuter P, Caulkins JP, Midgette G. Heroin Use Cannot Be Measured Adequately with a General Population Survey. Addiction 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15458

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Alcohol policy and gender with Petra Meier

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 12:19:58 GMT

Rob Calder speaks to Professor Petra Meier about her research using computer modelling to estimate how the impact of alcohol pricing policies might differ according to gender.

Meier PS, Holmes J, Brennan A, Angus C. Alcohol policy and gender: a modelling study estimating gender-specific effects of alcohol pricing policies. Addiction 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15464

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Online search behaviour and minimum unit pricing

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 12:07:01 GMT

Rob Calder speaks to Professor David Leon about his research into on-line search behaviour as minimum unit pricing of alcohol was introduced in Scotland, and what it told him about how people responded to minimum unit pricing policies.

Leon DA, Yom-Tov E, Johnson AM, Petticrew M, Williamson E, Lampos V, Cox I. What on-line searches tell us about public interest and potential impact on behaviour in response to minimum unit pricing of alcohol in Scotland. Addiction 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15388

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Data collection methods with Richard Miech

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 09:58:53 GMT

Suzi Gage talks to Professor Richard Miech about his paper exploring the impact of a change in the Monitoring the Future project data collection from pen and paper surveys to digital technology

Miech RA, Couper MP, Heeringa SG, Patrick ME. The impact of survey mode on US national estimates of adolescent drug prevalence: results from a randomized controlled study. Addiction https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15249

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Cannabis use and the brain with Janna Cousijn

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 09:39:51 GMT

Suzi Gage talks to Janna Cousijn about her paper on the long term consequences of cannabis use for the brain, written for the series Clinical issues: substance use disorders and the body

Kroon E, Kuhns L, Hoch E, Cousijn J. Heavy cannabis use, dependence and the brain: a clinical perspective. Addiction 2020; 115: 559-572

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.14776

You can access all articles published in the Clinical issues series so far in the virtual issue

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(ISSN)1360-0443.clinical_issues_substance_use_disorders_and_the_body_virtual_issue

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Professor Robert West

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 10:50:52 GMT

John Marsden talks to Robert West about his time as Editor-in-Chief of Addiction

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Changes in cannabis with Tom Freeman

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 11:50:39 GMT

Suzi Gage speaks to Dr. Tom Freeman, director of the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the University of Bath, about his research into how the THC and CBD content of cannabis products has changed over the years.

You can read Tom's research here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.15253

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Reefer Madness with Wayne Hall

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 10:07:53 GMT

Suzi Gage talkes to Wayne Hall about his analysis of the film Reefer Madness for the Addiction Classics series.

The Addiction Classics series gives authors an opportunity to reflect on what classic works (usually books or research papers but in this case a film) have contributed to the addiction field, and why we need to be aware of them. A Virtual Issue of all articles published so far in the series can be accessed online at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.13530

Wayne Hall's paper can be accessed here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/DXNJ95VNTCFU9FGCH7WU?target=10.1111/add.15258

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Addiction News with Rob Calder

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 10:36:52 GMT

Suzi talks to Dr Rob Calder about Addiction News and COVID-19 addiction news from across the globe. Addiction News is an area on the journal website where Rob has been compiling news articles and stories related to addiction. Rob is the Deputy Web Editor for the Society for the Study of Addiction, as well as the editor of Addiction News. We talk about the page itself, as well as news stories about addiction and COVID, in particular around changing policies and changing treatment options for people who use drugs.

The Addiction News pages can be found here: https://www.addictionjournal.org/newsroom/news

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Smoking and COVID-19 with Olga Perski

Sun, 03 May 2020 15:22:58 GMT

Suzi Gage talks to Dr Olga Perski about evidence around the relationship between smoking and COVID-19, why there may have been some disagreement in the literature and the media as to the relationship, and her work conducting a living systematic review to explore this further.

The living systematic review can be found here, for pre-publication peer review and comment: https://www.qeios.com/read/UJR2AW

Perski has also written this rapid evidence review on the topic: https://www.qeios.com/read/VGJCUN

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GHB with Shalini Arunogiri

Sun, 03 May 2020 15:17:45 GMT

Suzi Gage interviews Shalini Arunogiri about her research on GHB-related harms

The research can be found here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.14848

Arunogiri, S., Moayeri, F., Crossin, R., Killian, J. J., Smith, K., Scott, D., and Lubman, D. I. ( 2020) Trends in gamma‐hydroxybutyrate‐related harms based on ambulance attendances from 2012 to 2018 in Victoria, Australia. Addiction, 115: 473– 479. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14848.

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Characteristics of English smokers with Claire Garnett

Sun, 03 May 2020 15:15:40 GMT

Suzi Gage interviews Dr Claire Garnett about her research exploring changes in smoking and quitting behaviour in England

The research article can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.14882

Garnett, C., Tombor, I., Beard, E., Jackson, S. E., West, R., and Brown, J. ( 2020) Changes in smoker characteristics in England between 2008 and 2017. Addiction, 115: 748– 756. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14882.

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Global Drug Survey with Adam Winstock

Sun, 03 May 2020 15:13:44 GMT

Suzi Gage interviews Adam Winstock about the Global Drug Survey

Global Drug Survey's website is here: https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/

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Incentives for alcohol screening in primary care with Amy O'Donnell

Sun, 03 May 2020 15:11:42 GMT

Suzi Gage interviews Amy O'Donnell about her research on the impact of introducing and then withdrawing small financial incentives for alcohol screening and brief advice in primary care in England

The research can be read here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.14778

O'Donnell, A., Angus, C., Hanratty, B., Hamilton, F. L., Petersen, I., and Kaner, E. ( 2020) Impact of the introduction and withdrawal of financial incentives on the delivery of alcohol screening and brief advice in English primary health care: an interrupted time–series analysis. Addiction, 115: 49– 60. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14778.

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Vaping and deaths in USA with Robert West

Sun, 03 May 2020 15:08:13 GMT

Suzi Gage talks to Robert West about recent US reports of deaths linked to e-cigarette use.

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Addiction music and psychotherapy with Adam Ficek

Sun, 03 May 2020 15:06:26 GMT

Suzi Gage discusses addiction, music and psychotherapy with musician and psychotherapist Adam Ficek.

Adam's Music and Mind website is here: https://www.musicandmind.co.uk/

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Submitting an article to Addiction with Robert West and Keith Humphreys

Sun, 03 May 2020 15:02:38 GMT

Editor-in-Chief Robert West and Regional Editor for the Americas Keith Humphreys discuss the journal's submission and review process

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What is Addiction? With Editor in Chief Robert West

Sun, 03 May 2020 15:00:28 GMT

Suzi Gage and Editor-in-Chief Robert West discuss "what is addiction"? How does it relate to individuals, to research and to the journal?

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Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) with Andrew Jones

Sun, 03 May 2020 14:57:18 GMT

Suzi Gage interviews Andrew Jones about his review "Compliance with ecological momentary assessment protocols in substance users: a meta‐analysis"

The research article can be read here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.14503

Jones, A., Remmerswaal, D., Verveer, I., Robinson, E., Franken, I. H. A., Wen, C. K. F., and Field, M. ( 2019) Compliance with ecological momentary assessment protocols in substance users: a meta‐analysis, Addiction. 114, 609– 619. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14503.

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Alcohol taxation and violent victimization with Katherine Keyes

Sun, 03 May 2020 14:53:38 GMT

Rob Calder interviews Katherine Keyes about her research: Assessing the impact of alcohol taxation on rates of violent victimization in a large urban area: an agent‐based modeling approach

The research article can be read here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/add.14470

Keyes, K. M., Shev, A., Tracy, M., and Cerdá, M. ( 2019) Assessing the impact of alcohol taxation on rates of violent victimization in a large urban area: an agent‐based modeling approach. Addiction, 114: 236– 247. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14470.

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Gambling losses disguised as wins with Candice Graydon

Sun, 03 May 2020 14:50:46 GMT

Suzi Gage interviews Candice Graydon about her research on the role of losses disguised as wins in multi-line slots gambling, and why people might continue to gamble despite financial loss.

The research article can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/add.14406

Graydon, C., Dixon, M. J., Stange, M., and Fugelsang, J. A. ( 2019) Gambling despite financial loss—the role of losses disguised as wins in multi‐line slots. Addiction, 114: 119– 124. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14406.

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Cannabis legality and price elasticity - with Michael Amlung

Sun, 03 May 2020 14:42:04 GMT

Suzi Gage interviews Michael Amlung about his research on the price elasticity of illegal vs legal cannabis

The research article can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/add.14437

Amlung, M., Reed, D. D., Morris, V., Aston, E. R., Metrik, J., and MacKillop, J. ( 2019) Price elasticity of illegal versus legal cannabis: a behavioral economic substitutability analysis. Addiction, 114: 112– 118. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14437.

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Alcohol hangover and cognition with Craig Gunn

Sun, 03 May 2020 14:39:36 GMT

Suzi Gage interviews Craig Gunn about his paper "A systematic review of the next‐day effects of heavy alcohol consumption on cognitive performance", published in the December 2018 issue of Addiction

The research article can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.14404

Gunn, C., Mackus, M., Griffin, C., Munafò, M. R., and Adams, S. ( 2018) A systematic review of the next‐day effects of heavy alcohol consumption on cognitive performance. Addiction, 113: 2182– 2193. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14404.

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Gendered violence and overdose prevention sites - with Jade Boyd

Sun, 03 May 2020 14:36:33 GMT

Suzi Gage interviews Jade Boyd about her article "Gendered violence and overdose prevention sites: a rapid ethnographic study during an overdose epidemic in Vancouver, Canada" in the December 2018 issue of Addiction

The article can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/add.14417

Boyd, J., Collins, A. B., Mayer, S., Maher, L., Kerr, T., and McNeil, R. ( 2018) Gendered violence and overdose prevention sites: a rapid ethnographic study during an overdose epidemic in Vancouver, Canada. Addiction, 113: 2261– 2270. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14417.

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Alcohol outlet density and hospital admissions -with Colin Angus

Sun, 03 May 2020 14:31:34 GMT

Suzi Gage interviews Colin Angus about his research on alcohol outlet density and alcohol-related hospital admissions, published in the November 2018 issue of Addiction journal. This episode was first broadcast in 2018.

The research article can be found here:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.14285

Maheswaran, R., Green, M. A., Strong, M., Brindley, P., Angus, C., and Holmes, J. ( 2018) Alcohol outlet density and alcohol related hospital admissions in England: a national small‐area level ecological study. Addiction, 113: 2051– 2059. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14285.

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Addiction Reviewer Guidelines

Sun, 03 May 2020 14:14:54 GMT

Suzi Gage talks to Addiction Editor-in-Chief Robert West about the journal's new reviewer guidelines. This podcast was recorded and first broadcast in October 2018

https://www.addictionjournal.org/guidance/reviewer-guidelines

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