BACKGROUND: The role of physicians is crucial in the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders and addiction. The quality of addiction-specific medical education varies, as do postgraduate and continuing medical education programmes in different countries. In order to ensure a high level of quality education, it is necessary to name and define competency-based quality standards that enable physicians to provide the highest quality care to patients.

METHODS: The objective of the study will be the identification of quality standards in competency-based postgraduate and continual...

BACKGROUND: The dropout rate from the treatment of patients with substance use disorders (SUD) negatively affects overall treatment outcomes. Little is known about the specific role of various psychiatric and psychosocial factors in the individual patients. Limited data is available in regards to mindset and addiction treatment, giving the opportunity of testing such interventions in the future.

AIM: To identify the key psychological, psychosocial, and other treatment related factors in the patients from the inpatient substance use treatment with addiction who have dropped out of the program...

INTRODUCTION: In recent years, the governments of several countries around the world have focused on consumption taxes, which they use from two important points of view – the first point of view is the state budget, where through the increase of the point of consumption tax, revenues to the budget are increased. The second, no less important point of view is health and the environment. These political goals and the structure of consumption taxes as a means of influencing the consumption behavior of the population are, in many ways, the same in OECD countries. However, the difference is in the...

BACKGROUND: Heated tobacco products along with electronic cigarettes represent the current trend in nicotine use. These novel products are appealing to teenagers and young adults especially. Generation Z representatives are characterized as native digital and internet users who are exposed to online marketing intensively including tobacco and nicotine products marketing. AIM: The purpose of this study was to explore how Generation Z perceives the promotional techniques of HTP products (IQOS and glo) in the Czech Republic.

METHODS: We conducted qualitative research using semi-structured...

INTRODUCTION: Smoking and tobacco products are long-term tolerated and socially accepted in many societies. In some socioeconomic groups and regions, this is considered standard practice. One of the ways to limit not only direct but also secondary smoking is an increase in the tax burden and an effective antismoking campaign. Adults exposed to secondhand smoke have a higher chance of acquiring coronary heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer as they age. Secondhand smoking has significant negative effects on the cardiovascular system and has been related to coronary heart disease and stroke in...

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV) among women who use drugs (WWUD) is reportedly two to five times higher than among those who don’t use. This study aimed to analyse GBV experienced by WWUD in 6 EU countries.

METHODS: A survey was carried out with 261 WWUD, and additionally, 492 professional staff working with WWUD were surveyed. Fifteen focus groups with WWUD and staff and 120 interviews with staff and key informants were also conducted.

RESULTS: WWUD reported a high lifetime prevalence of GBV (97.69%) of all types and in many contexts. Migrant, ethnic minorities...

Fondo
Los datos relativos a la conducción bajo los efectos del alcohol (DUIA) se caracterizan con frecuencia por su falta de disponibilidad, precisión o fiabilidad. Esta limitación inherente plantea desafíos en el examen de la influencia de las políticas sobre el alcohol en los resultados del tráfico vial. El estudio perseguía un doble objetivo:

1) delinear las metodologías empleadas en la evaluación de los resultados del tráfico atribuible a las políticas de alcohol en los casos en que los datos de DUIA están ausentes, y

2) examinar el impacto de las políticas de alcohol en condiciones de...

Antecedentes: Los problemas de salud física son frecuentes en las personas que reciben tratamiento con agonistas opioides (TAO). Entre 2010 y 2019 se llevó a cabo un estudio sobre estos problemas de salud en pacientes con TAO en la República Checa y Noruega, centrándose en las diferencias de género.

Métodos: En este estudio, se trató de un estudio de cohorte de base poblacional que vinculó múltiples registros de salud para investigar enfermedades físicas (utilizando códigos CIE-10) en pacientes que recibieron TAO en la República Checa (4.280 pacientes) y Noruega (11.389 pacientes) entre 2010...

In this bulletin, data on treated problem alcohol use for the year 2022 are presented, followed by trends for the seven-year period from 2016 to 2022.

The data are from the National Drug Treatment Reporting System (NDTRS), the national surveillance system that records and reports on cases of drug and alcohol treatment in Ireland.

Included in the NDTRS are cases treated in all types of services: outpatient, inpatient, low threshold, general practitioners (GPs), and those treated in prison.

INTRODUCCIÓN: En España, la oferta de programas de prevención es muy variada y estructurada, pero hoy en día el reto sigue siendo cómo poner en práctica la evidencia. La Comisión Europea define una buena práctica como "una política o intervención pertinente implementada en un entorno de la vida real que ha sido evaluada favorablemente en términos de adecuación (ética y evidencia) y equidad, así como eficacia y eficiencia relacionadas con el proceso y los resultados". El objetivo del estudio fue describir el Proyecto Español del Portal de Buenas Prácticas en Reducción de la Demanda de Drogas y...

INTRODUCTION: Prevention science and quality standards of drug prevention in the EU and in the world have developed in recent decades. Progress has been made in quality development in Croatia, but the experience of the process of improving the field of drug prevention and the implementation of quality standards in Croatia has not been described in detail in the literature. This case study is an example of adaptation of the European QS and the emergence of other quality assurance components in the field of addiction prevention in the Republic of Croatia. The study describes the Croatian example...

BACKGROUND: Implementing quality measurement is still a challenge in the field of drug treatment and harm reduction. In this case study, we investigate which strategies can be used to enhance the implementation of a policy in which quality indicators are made public.

METHODS: Building on an evidence-based methodology, this case study shows how an organisation in Flanders – the Flemish Institute for Quality of Care – develops quality indicators along with its strategies to implement the measurement of the indicators.

RESULTS: The study shows three types of quality indicators in the field of...

INTRODUCTION: In the favourable political climate of the mid-2010s, the standards for Assessment & Selection of Prevention programmes Issued from the Review of EDPQS (ASPIRE) were developed to support project planning in drug prevention.

METHODS: This case study is a narrative from the main coordinator responsible for drafting this quality assurance material.

RESULTS: The framework that led to the creation of the ASPIRE standards is described. The production process is then explained and, thereby, the 12 ASPIRE standards resulting from it are presented. These quality standards and their...

BACKGROUND: Coolmine’s implementation of quality standards involves a period of change management, strategic planning, and national policy development.

METHODS: A narrative case study focusing on national policy and internal strategic planning.

CONCLUSIONS: From 2000, Coolmine embarked on a change management journey that kept the organisation at the forefront of drug and alcohol treatment in Ireland and internationally while maintaining fidelity to the Therapeutic Community. The strategy for quality assurance is replicable across similar organisations.