Current Issue
The May 2025 issue features a paper on measuring recovery among people who have completed residential rehabilitation. Other Australian research in this issue focuses on: disparities in opioid agonist treatment accessibility for priority populations in New South Wales; changing patterns of opioid agonist therapy prescribing in a network of specialised clinics providing care to people with opioid use disorder in Victoria; elucidating the acute effects of medically prescribed oral and vaporised THC on cognitive functions important for driving; 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; protecting children from tobacco products in retail environments; estimating the number and growth of tobacconists and vape stores in Queensland in the absence of a retailer licensing database; expanded access to intranasal naloxone and training among police officers in Western Australia; parent substance use and child-to-parent violence; health-care costs among people who use methamphetamine; risk communication about high-dose MDMA; whether parental cohort increases the likelihood of underage alcohol consumption; age, period and cohort trends in hospital admissions for alcohol-related liver disease; how the minimum unit price affected retailers' revenue; and changes over time in novel benzodiazepines contributing to fatal overdoses in Victoria. There is also a brief report which compares the United Kingdom, Australian and Japanese hangover product market.
A paper from New Zealand discusses motherhood and medicinal cannabis. International research focuses on: addiction specialists' perspectives on digital contingency management and its role within UK drug and alcohol services; sociocultural context of SMART recovery in Singapore; the economic evidence surrounding the management of alcohol withdrawal; impulsivity traits moderate the longitudinal association between mental health and hazardous cannabis use in emerging adults; tobacco smoking in Sub-Saharan Africa; smoking cessation services and willingness to receive quitting support among people living in prison in Finland; patterns of opioid prescribing to opioid-naive patients after surgical and emergency care; exploring housing instability through a gender lens among people who inject drugs in Montreal, Canada; recreational nitrous oxide use in France; similarities and differences in how drinkers and policymakers frame alcohol consumption; what drove changes in alcohol sales during the COVID-19 pandemic in Czechia; excess mortality in people hospitalised for alcohol use disorders before and during the pandemic; alcohol use in Iraq; and examining the role of social bonds on prescription misuse among adolescents in the United States.
This issue also contains letters in response to previously published papers, with replies from the original authors.
Cannabis legalisation and its impact on access, use and public perceptions
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The latest COVID-19 research is available online.
Editorial
Gender Differences in Alcohol Research: A Focus on How Men and Women Are Studied in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand
Megan Cook, Amy Pennay, Sarah MacLean, Gabriel Caluzzi, Benjamin Riordan, Amanda Cooklin, Alexandra Torney, Sarah Callinan
19 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14083
Comprehensive Review
Portuguese Validated Versions of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test: A Systematic Review of Academic and Grey Literature
Diogo Phalempin Cardoso, Daniela Oliveira, Beatriz Antunes, Rosa Saraiva, Kathryn Angus, Eugenia Gallardo, Frederico Rosário
27 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14081
Review
Development of the alcohol-free and low-alcohol drinks market in Great Britain from 2011 to 2022: Narrative timelines based on a documentary review of off-trade retail magazines and market intelligence reports
Nathan Critchlow, Amber Morgan, Kathryn Angus, Rebecca Howell, Niamh Fitzgerald, Inge Kersbergen, John Holmes
5 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14058
Original Papers
Exploring Socio-Demographic Characteristics of Caregivers Who Indicated a Child Was Substantially Affected by Others' Drinking in Australia
Cassandra Hopkins, Sandra Kuntsche, Robyn Dwyer, Heng Jiang, Anne-Marie Laslett
27 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14087
Contents and Time-Course of Falsified Alprazolam Detections in New South Wales, Australia
Janette L. Smith, Thanjira Jiranantakan, Una Cullinan, Christopher Ewers, Darren M. Roberts, Jared A. Brown
23 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14068
Estimating the Prevalence and Correlates of Problematic Alcohol Use Among Patients Treated for Illicit Substance Disorder in France, 2012–2022
Eric Janssen, Mike Vuolo, Sophie Véron, Ivette Flores Laffont
19 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14078
E-cigarette use among gender and sexuality diverse (LGBTQA+) adolescents in Australia: The case for LGBTQA+ affirmative harm reduction
Sasha Bailey, Emma L. Barrett, Scarlett Smout, Lucinda Grummitt, Lyra Egan, Lauren Gardner, Emily A. Stockings, Maree Teesson, Yael Perry, Nicola C. Newton
18 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14052
Alcohol Use in the Early Postpartum Period: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study to Understand the Role of Self-Efficacy
Sarah Dauber, Janardan Devkota, Alexa Beacham, Allison West, Minerva Francis, Timothy Regan, Johannes Thrul
13 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14076
Alcohol Use Disparities Among Transgender and Nonbinary Adults: An Intersectional Investigation
Ryan C. Shorey, D. A. Briley, Jane Hereth, michael munson, Jaclyn S. Fishbach, Joseph R. Cohen
13 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14077
Applying a Modified Version of the Prediction of Alcohol Withdrawal Severity Scale in a Canadian Community Withdrawal Management Setting
Hannah Crepeault, Nicole Cowan, M. Eugenia Socias, Niloofar Riazi, Alison Knill, Avneet Khela, Evan Wood, Lianping Ti
6 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14075
Clinicians' Perspectives on Cannabis Use and Cannabis Treatment in Clients Undertaking Opioid Dependence Treatment
Laila Parvaresh, Llewellyn Mills, Jaleh Gholami, Louisa Jansen, Nazila Jamshidi, Kate Baker, Christopher Tremonti, Marguerite Tracy, Adrian Dunlop, Nicholas Lintzeris
5 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14074
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: The Caring and Financial Burden to Caregivers—A Scoping Review
Josie Tait, Anita Gibbs, Jessica McCormack, Holly Wilson, Joanna Ting Wai Chu
4 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14071
Understanding Drug and Alcohol Staff Perspectives on the Barriers and Facilitators to Drug Checking: A Qualitative Study
Nina Pocuca, Brodie C. Dakin, Cheneal Puljević, Cameron Francis, Daniel Stjepanović, Anthony Barnett, Leanne Hides
4 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14073
Parental Alcohol Problems and Lack of Adult Support During Childhood—Consequences for Subjective and Objective Social Connection in Adulthood
Siri Håvås Haugland, Lisbeth Gallefoss, Aleksander Hals-Lydersen, John-Kåre Vederhus
29 April 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14070
Defining terminology and outcome measures for evaluating overdose response technology: An international Delphi study
William Rioux, Dylan Viste, Navid Sedaghat, Nathan Rider, Joseph Tay Wee Tek, Melissa Perri, David G. Schwartz, Kim Ritchie, Giuseppe Carrà, Stephanie Carreiro, Oona Kreig, Gabriela Marcu, Joseph Arthur, Joanne Cogdell, Mike Brown, Tyler Marshall, S. Monty Ghosh
25 April 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14055
Brief Reports
Patterns of Acute Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate Harms Requiring Ambulance Attendance: Should Greater Focus Be on Regional Areas?
Naomi Beard, James Wilson, Bosco C. Rowland, Ziad Nehme, Dan I. Lubman, Rowan P. Ogeil
28 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14086
The prevalence and correlates of self-reported cannabis use for medicinal, dual and recreational motives in Australia: Findings from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2022/2023
Danielle Dawson, Gary Chan, Daniel Stjepanović, Valentina Lorenzetti, Wayne D. Hall, Janni Leung
1 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14062
Upcoming Special Section: Understanding the emergence and impact of novel synthetic opioids and how to reduce associated harms
A Scoping Review of the Emergence of Novel Synthetic Opioids in Australian Drug Markets: What Does This Mean for Harm Reduction Responses?
Emmanuel Mammoliti, Suzanne Nielsen, Amanda Roxburgh
28 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14079
Trends in novel opioid use and detections in exposures and police drug seizures in New South Wales
Janette L. Smith, Jared Brown, David Atefi, Thanjira Jiranantakan, Vanessa Shaw, Christopher Ewers, Lorraine du Toit-Prinsloo, Darren M. Roberts
16 April 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14057
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..
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..
Drug and Alcohol Review - Clinician's Corner
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
- Strang J, Volkow ND, Degenhardt L, Hickman M, Johnson K, Koob GF, et al. Opioid use disorder. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2020;6:3.
- Department of Health. Policy for maintenance pharmacotherapy for opioid dependence (addendum). Victoria; 2021.
- 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.
- 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.
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. National opioid pharmacotherapy statistics annual data collection. AIHW, Canberra; 2023.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.