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Comprehensive Review

Tobacco smoking in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Habte Belete, Tesfa Mekonen, Jason P. Connor, Gary Chan, Leanne Hides, Janni Leung
26 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14040

Review

Protecting children from tobacco products in retail environments: A review of Australian tobacco control laws
Tess Rooney, Michaela Okninski, Kylie Morphett, Bernadette Richards, Coral Gartner
9 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14033

Original Papers

A retrospective medical record audit of the management of cannabis-related emergency department presentations, hospital admissions and hyperemesis of pregnant women who self-reported non-medicinal cannabis use to a substance use in parenting and pregnancy service
Siyu Qian, Sarah Seddon
10 April 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14059

The language of alcohol: Similarities and differences in how drinkers and policymakers frame alcohol consumption
Emma Moreton, Emma Davies, James Morris, Richard Cooke
10 April 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14056

Exploring housing instability through a gender lens among people who inject drugs in Montreal, Canada
Farzaneh Vakili, Stine Bordier Høj, Nanor Minoyan, Sasha Udhesister, Valérie Martel Laferrière, Julie Bruneau, Sarah Larney
2 April 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14050

Smoking cessation services and willingness to receive quitting support among people living in prison in Finland
Otto Ruokolainen, Hanna Ollila, Patrick Sandström, Tommi Härkänen, Mika Rautanen
31 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14051

Sociocultural context of SMART recovery in Singapore: A qualitative exploration of members and facilitators perspectives and experiences
Wan Jie Tan, Briony Larance, Matthew J. Schweickle, Angie S. X. Lim, Kate Lowe, Peter J. Kelly
26 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14048

Excess mortality in people hospitalised for alcohol use disorders before and during the pandemic – A registry-based retrospective cohort study
Ladislav Kážmér, Ondřej Šíba, Barbora Orlíková
25 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14045

Impulsivity traits moderate the longitudinal association between mental health and hazardous cannabis use in emerging adults
Alba González-Roz, Yasmina Castaño, Roberto Secades-Villa, Tim Janssen, Guillermo Vallejo-Seco, Carlos Blanco
24 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14047

Health-care costs among people who use methamphetamine in Australia
Anh Dam Tran, Rory Chen, Grant Sara, Rebecca McKetin
20 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14043

Addiction specialists' perspectives on digital contingency management and its role within UK drug and alcohol services: A qualitative exploration
Carol-Ann Getty, Nicola Metrebian, Joanne Neale, Tim Weaver, John Strang
18 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14046

Recreational nitrous oxide use in France in 2022: Results from a nationwide representative sample of adults
Tangui Barré, Emmanuel Lahaie, Vincent Di Beo, Patrizia Carrieri, Raphaël Andler, Viêt Nguyen-Thanh, François Beck
16 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14039

Patterns of opioid prescribing to opioid-naive patients after surgical and emergency care: A population-based cross-sectional study using linked administrative databases in Nova Scotia (2017–2019)
Roah A. Merdad, Mark Asbridge, Samuel Campbell, Daniel J. Dutton, Jill A. Hayden
7 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14029

Risk communication about high-dose MDMA: Impact of a hypothetical drug alert on future MDMA use
Joel Keygan, Breanna Willoughby, Raimondo Bruno, Monica J. Barratt, Amy Peacock
7 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14037

Measuring recovery among people who have completed residential rehabilitation: Factor structure and scoring of the substance use recovery evaluator
Emma L. Hatton, Peter J. Kelly, Raimondo Bruno, Joanne Neale, Briony Larance
4 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14004

Examining the role of social bonds on prescription misuse among adolescents in the United States
Islam Khalil, Mariana Sanchez, Jessy Devieux, Florence George, Patria Rojas
3 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14034

What drove changes in alcohol sales during the COVID-19 pandemic in Czechia? An interrupted time series analyses
Benjamin Petruželka, Miroslav Barták, Vladimir Rogalewicz, Thomas F. Babor
3 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14035

Expanded access to intranasal naloxone and training among police officers in Western Australia: A pilot evaluation study
Seraina Agramunt, Simon Lenton
26 February 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14032

Alcohol use in Iraq: Perceptions of interviewed students at three Iraqi universities
Mustafa Al Ansari, Angela Dawson, Mohammed S. AbdulZahra, Katherine M. Conigrave
23 February 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14026

Motherhood and medicinal cannabis
Vinuli Withanarachchie, Marta Rychert, Chris Wilkins
18 February 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14027

Brief Reports

Changing patterns of opioid agonist therapy prescribing in a network of specialised clinics providing care to people with opioid use disorder in Victoria, Australia, 2015 to 2023
Joshua Dawe, Anna Lee Wilkinson, Michael Curtis, Jason Asselin, Charles Henderson, Eric Makoni, Paul Dietze, Margaret Hellard, Mark Stoové, on behalf of the Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance of Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmissible Infections (ACCESS)
26 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14049

Thou doth protest too much: How the minimum unit price affected retailers' revenue
Nicholas Taylor, Ryan Baldwin, Emma Vieira, Michael Livingston
20 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14041

Does parental cohort increase the likelihood of underage alcohol consumption in Australia?
Nicholas Taylor, Sarah Callinan, Amy Pennay, Alexandra Torney, Michael Livingston
9 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14042

Estimating the number and growth of tobacconists and vape stores in Queensland in the absence of a retailer licensing database
Hollie Bendotti, David Ireland, Coral Gartner, Henry M. Marshall, Sheleigh Lawler
3 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14038

Parent substance use and child-to-parent violence: A brief report
Ashlee Curtis, David Skvarc, Noa Brittain, Peter G. Miller, Richelle Mayshak, Travis Harries
3 March 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14031

A comparison of the United Kingdom, Australian and Japanese hangover product market
Maureen N. Zijlstra, Sanne E. Schulz, Emina Išerić, Quinten Barré, Andrew Scholey, Joris C. Verster
24 February 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14030

Upcoming Special Section: Understanding the emergence and impact of novel synthetic opioids and how to reduce associated harms

Identification of nitazene-related deaths in Australia: How do we make it accurate and timely?
Jennifer L. Schumann, Jeremy Dwyer, Jared A. Brown, Marianne Jauncey, Amanda Roxburgh
17 February 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14028

Clinical toxicity of nitazene detections in two Australian emergency department toxicosurveillance systems
Katherine Z. Isoardi, Sam Alfred, Courtney Weber, Keith Harris, Jessamine Soderstrom, Rebekka Syrjanen, Amanda Thompson, Jennifer Schumann, Peter Stockham, Paul Sakrajda, Daniel Fatovich, Shaun L. Greene, on behalf of the EDNA and EDNAV Investigators
19 January 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.13998

Call for Papers

This Special Section aims to bring together contributions that leverage the latest advancement in AI to solve substance use and addiction-related problems (including gambling and other behavioural addictions). We prefer studies that build upon deep neural networks, the algorithms that underly all the recent breakthroughs in AI (such as most modern generative AI models including ChatGPT and DALL-E), but we would also consider studies that are based on traditional machine learning methods such as random forest.

If you have any queries about this Special Section, please contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Click here for more information.

 

 

This Special Section aims to bring together key emerging evidence on NoLos within and across research groups globally. Specifically, we welcome papers with empirical data from any country/region on:

• Data that characterises the emergence of NoLo products, product availability and accessibility, and market characteristics;
• Data reporting/analysing the marketing and advertising of NoLos [e.g., analysing strategies used by industries (alcohol and others) to promote the consumption of NoLos, studies on how NoLo marketing impacts use outcomes];
• Attitudes and action of teenagers below the legal drinking age and of teenagers’ parents concerning underage teenagers’ consumption of NoLo beverages with alcohol brands and packaging,
• Data reporting and exploring patterns of purchase and consumption and links with social, commercial and political determinants of health (tactics used by for-profit industries), and the drivers of purchase and consumption among particular population groups (young people, people who are pregnant; abstainers/people seeking to reduce their ethanol intake) with implications for harm/benefit and policy.

If you have any queries about this Special Section, please contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Click here for more information.

Drug and Alcohol Review - Clinician's Corner

Changing patterns of opioid agonist therapy prescribing in a network of specialised clinics providing care to people with opioid use disorder in Victoria, Australia, 2015 to 2023

Opioid agonist therapy (OAT) is an effective treatment for opioid dependence [1]. In September 2019, long-acting injectable buprenorphine (LAIB) was listed on the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme alongside methadone and sublingual buprenorphine as a subsidised OAT formulation, with access expanded to non-specialist settings in April 2020 [2]. Unlike the majority of OAT formulations in Australia, which require medical or pharmacy supervised dosing [3], LAIB is slow-release buprenorphine, in weekly or monthly formulations [4].

Facilitating access to appropriate treatment for people living with opioid dependence is a public health priority; an estimated 15,106 people in Victoria are currently being prescribed OAT [5]. For some, LAIB may be preferred due to the reduced frequency of clinical and pharmacy visits and associated impost on their lives and out-of-pocket expenses [6-9]. There is limited real-world data describing patterns of OAT prescribing in the context of widespread availability of LAIB [10, 11]. Data from sentinel surveillance networks are useful to monitor population-level healthcare utilisation and evaluate changes in policy and practice.

In this ecological study, data were drawn from 17 Victorian primary care services participating in The Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance of Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmissible Infections (ACCESS, accessproject.org.au). Sites provided health services for people who inject drugs, including sterile needle and syringe dispensing, onsite hepatitis C testing and treatment and OAT prescribing, alongside general healthcare. For LAIB, we used a generalised linear model (Poisson) to estimate the relationship between time (quarters) and count of LAIB prescriptions. To identify changes in overall, oral methadone and sublingual buprenorphine prescribing following the introduction of subsidised LAIB in September 2019, we conducted an interrupted time series.

The quarterly number of prescriptions of both methadone and buprenorphine was increasing before the introduction of LAIB, at an average of 0.7% (count ratio (CR) 1.007; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.005, 1.009) and 1.4% (CR 1.014; 95% CI 1.011, 1.018) prescriptions per quarter, respectively. The introduction of LAIB was associated with an immediate 8.3% decrease in buprenorphine prescribing (CR 0.917; 95% CI 0.862, 0.976), and an immediate 7.6% increase in methadone prescribing (CR 1.076; 95% CI 1.000, 1.158). Both methadone and buprenorphine had decreasing post-LAIB trends, with prescribing decreasing by 2.6% (CR 0.974; 95% CI 0.968, 0.980) and 3.2% (CR 0.968; 95% CI 0.963, 0.973) on average per quarter, respectively (Table 2). Following its introduction, LAIB prescribing increased by an average of 13.1% prescriptions (CR 1.131; 95% CI 1.096, 1.167) per quarter. Visual inspection of Figure 1 suggests a divergence in the fitted and counterfactual models under the counterfactual scenario of no subsidised LAIB.

Figure 1. Observed, predicted and counterfactual predictions of the number of OAT prescriptions issued per quarter within ACCESS network before and after introduction of LAIB, by OAT formulation, Victoria, Australia, 1 January 2015 – 31 December 2023.
ACCESS: Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance of blood borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections; LAIB: Long-acting injectable buprenorphine; OAT: opioid agonist therapy.
Note: Dashed vertical line corresponds with introduction of LAIB.
Note: An interrupted time series analysis was used for overall, methadone and buprenorphine prescribing. A Poisson regression model was used for LAIB prescribing.
Note: Total OAT prescribing includes methadone, buprenorphine and LAIB prescribing.

Our study provides important insights into OAT prescribing trends in Victoria, Australia, underscoring how sentinel surveillance systems can be used to monitor and evaluate changing trends in OAT prescribing, thus informing future health policy and decision-making. Our work also highlights the considerable volume of OAT prescribing taking place within primary care settings, with our analysis representing around half of Victoria’s OAT recipients [5]. Increasing trends in the number of clients engaged suggests that this level of prescribing is likely to persist in the future.

Joshua Dawe
Disease Elimination, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Global Epidemiology and Modelling Group, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

Full paper is available Open Access:

Dawe J, Wilkinson AL, Curtis M, Asselin J, Henderson C, Makoni E, et al. Changing patterns of opioid agonist therapy prescribing in a network of specialised clinics providing care to people with opioid use disorder in Victoria, Australia, 2015 to 2023. Drug Alcohol Rev. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14049

References

1. Strang J, Volkow ND, Degenhardt L, Hickman M, Johnson K, Koob GF, et al. Opioid use disorder. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2020;6:3.
2. Department of Health. Policy for maintenance pharmacotherapy for opioid dependence (addendum). Victoria; 2021.
3. Gowing L, Ali R, Dunlop A, Farrell M, Lintzeris N. National guidelines for medication-assisted treatment of opioid dependence. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. 2014:38-9.
4. Lofwall MR, Walsh SL, Nunes EV, Bailey GL, Sigmon SC, Kampman KM, et al. Weekly and monthly subcutaneous buprenorphine depot formulations vs daily sublingual buprenorphine with naloxone for treatment of opioid use disorder: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2018;178:764-73.
5. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. National opioid pharmacotherapy statistics annual data collection. AIHW, Canberra; 2023.
6. Larance B, Degenhardt L, Grebely J, Nielsen S, Bruno R, Dietze P, et al. Perceptions of extended-release buprenorphine injections for opioid use disorder among people who regularly use opioids in Australia. Addiction. 2020;115:1295-305.
7. Treloar C, Lancaster K, Gendera S, Rhodes T, Shahbazi J, Byrne M, et al. Can a new formulation of opiate agonist treatment alter stigma?: Place, time and things in the experience of extended-release buprenorphine depot. Int J Drug Policy. 2022;107:103788.
8. Gilman M, Li L, Hudson K, Lumley T, Myers G, Corte C, et al. Current and future options for opioid use disorder: a survey assessing real-world opinion of service users on novel therapies including depot formulations of buprenorphine. Patient Prefer Adherence. 2018;12:2123-9.
9. Barnett A, Savic M, Lintzeris N, Bathish R, Arunogiri S, Dunlop AJ, et al. Tracing the affordances of long-acting injectable depot buprenorphine: A qualitative study of patients’ experiences in Australia. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2021;227:108959.
10. Bharat C, Chidwick K, Gisev N, Farrell M, Ali R, Degenhardt L. Trends in use of medicines for opioid agonist treatment in Australia, 2013–2022. Int J Drug Policy. 2024;123:104255.
11. MacDonald T, Connor P, Edwards J, Hardy M, Kemp D, Johnston L. Real-world retention rates with a long-acting buprenorphine depot in opioid-dependent patients attending private clinics in Australia. Heroin Addict Relat Clin Probl. 2022;24:19-25.