Impact of 'street' benzodiazepines on drug-related deaths in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Introduction: 'Street' benzodiazepines (BZD) are structurally and pharmacologically related to BZDs licensed for human use. In this study we investigated how street BZDs contribute to overall BZD use and death prevalences in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Methods: Data were analysed from deaths reported to the National Programme on Substance Use Mortality with post-mortem BZD detections (1999-2021), BZDs seized from music festivals (2017-2021) and drug samples with BZD detections submitted to Welsh Emerging Drugs and Identification of Novel Substances (WEDINOS) (2017-2021).

Voucher-based contingency management to promote treatment engagement in comorbid alcohol use disorder and alcohol-related liver disease: A pilot theory-informed qualitative study with service users.

Background: Effective interventions for the management of alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD) remain a gap in clinical practice, and patients' engagement with alcohol services is suboptimal. Based upon the principles of operant conditioning, contingency management (CM) is a psychosocial intervention th at involves gradual, increasing incentives upon completion of treatment-related goals such as treatment attendance.

Methods: A pilot feasibility trial was conducted with 30 adult patients recruited from an inpatient clinical setting.

Treatment engagement in comorbid alcohol use disorder and alcohol-related liver disease: A qualitative exploration of barriers and facilitators with service users.

Background: Effective interventions to improve patient outcomes in comorbid alcohol use disorder (AUD) and alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD) remain a clinical unmet need. While the choice of abstinence is the cornerstone for the prevention of disease progression and mortality, evidence suggests a suboptimal engagement with treatment supporting recovery. This qualitative investigation aims to understand barriers and facilitators to treatment as experienced by this clinical population by applying a multidimensional adherence model proposed by the World Health Organization.

'There's more to life than staring at a small screen': a mixed methods cohort study of problematic smartphone use and the relationship to anxiety, depression and sleep in students aged 13-16 years old in the UK.

Background: Depression and anxiety are common in adolescents and have increased over the last decade. During that period, smartphone usage has become ubiquitous.

Objectives: The study aim was to assess the association between problematic smartphone usage (PSU) and anxiety.

A multi-school study in England, to assess problematic smartphone usage and anxiety and depression.

Aim: To assess the association between problematic smartphone usage and anxiety and depression in adolescents.

Methods: A cross-sectional study in five schools in the UK were included. The primary outcome was moderate anxiety (GAD-7 ≥10) symptoms and secondary outcomes were moderate depression symptoms (PHQ-9 ≥10) and insomnia.

Developing a coordinated response to chemsex across health, justice and social care settings: expert consensus statement.

Chemsex occurs primarily among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), and there is evidence of a subgroup of users who carry out chemsex-related criminal offences and experience harm. Challenges with chemsex can present to various settings; there are concerns that harm is increasing, including at interfaces between health, social care and criminal justice systems. The UK response to date has lacked a coordinated approach.

Inequity in clinical research access for service users presenting comorbidity within alcohol treatment settings: findings from a focused ethnographic study.

Background: While healthcare policy has fostered implementation strategies to improve inclusion and access of under-served groups to clinical care, systemic and structural elements still disproportionately prevent service users from accessing research opportunities embedded within clinical settings. This contributes to the widening of health inequalities, as the absence of representativeness prevents the applicability and effectiveness of evidence-based interventions in under-served clinical populations. The present study aims to identify the individual (micro), organisational (meso) and structural (macro) barriers to clinical research access in patients with comorbid alcohol use disorder and alcohol-related liver disease.

Trends in deaths following drug use in England before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Aim: This research aimed to describe how the characteristics of deaths following drug use changed during the COVID-19 pandemic in England, and how this can inform future strategy to support the health and social care of people who use drugs in future emergency scenarios.

Method: All deaths reported to the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths which occurred between January 2018 and December 2021 inclusive were extracted for analysis. Exponential smoothing models were constructed to determine any differences between forecasted vs.

A PET-CT study on neuroinflammation in Huntington's disease patients participating in a randomized trial with laquinimod.

Microglia activation, an indicator of central nervous system inflammation, is believed to contribute to the pathology of Huntington's disease. Laquinimod is capable of regulating microglia. By targeting the translocator protein, C-PBR28 PET-CT imaging can be used to assess the state of regional gliosis and explore the effects of laquinimod treatment.

Golden opportunity for intervention? Identifying vitamin D deficiency in patients with substance use disorders in hospital.

Setting: Based at a busy city hospital, the alcohol care team is a drug and alcohol specialist service, taking referrals for a wide range of patients with substance use disorders (SUD).

Objectives: Patients with SUD are at high risk of vitamin D deficiency; this relates to frequent fractures and proximal myopathy. The coronavirus pandemic brought vitamin D into focus.

Synthetic Cannabinoid-Related Deaths in England, 2012-2019.

To identify drug-related death trends associated with synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) reported to the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths (NPSAD) from England. Case reports from NPSAD (England) where a SCRA was detected in post-mortem tissue(s) and/or implicated in the death were extracted, analyzed, and compared against non-SCRA-related deaths that occurred over the same time period (2012-2019). One hundred sixty-five death SCRA-related reports were extracted, with 18 different SCRAs detected.

The Association Between Smartphone Addiction and Sleep: A UK Cross-Sectional Study of Young Adults.

In a large UK study we investigated the relationship between smartphone addiction and sleep quality in a young adult population. We undertook a large UK cross-sectional observational study of 1,043 participants aged 18 to 30 between January 21st and February 30th 2019. Participants completed the Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Version, an adapted Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Score Index and reported smartphone use reduction strategies using both in-person ( = 968) and online ( = 75) questionnaires.

Substance use in psychiatric crisis: relationship to violence.

Background: Substance use and psychiatric illness, particularly psychotic disorders, contribute to violence in emergency healthcare settings. However, there is limited research regarding the relationship between specific substances, psychotic symptoms and violent behaviour in such settings. We investigated the interaction between recent cannabinoid and stimulant use, and acute psychotic symptoms, in relation to violent behaviour in a British emergency healthcare setting.

Synthetic cannabinoid use in psychiatric patients and relationship to hospitalisation: A retrospective electronic case register study.

Introduction And Objectives: Cannabis use has been associated with psychosis and with poor outcome in patients with mental illness. Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) have been suggested to pose an even greater risk to mental health, but the effect on clinical outcome has not been directly measured. In this study, we aimed to investigate the demographics and hospitalisation of psychiatric patients who were SC users.