- Smoking cessation experiences during alcohol and cannabis treatment in substance use programmes in Catalonia: A qualitative study. [Journal Article]Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2026 Aug 01; 21(1).SA
- CONCLUSIONS: Participants endorsed addressing tobacco cessation in alcohol and cannabis treatment but reported multiple structural, financial, and attitudinal barriers within public substance use services. Systematically integrating tobacco assessment, personalised counselling, and subsidised pharmacological support into these programmes could enhance cessation outcomes and potentially improve recovery outcomes for co-occurring substance use disorders. Findings support policy initiatives aimed at embedding comprehensive tobacco cessation pathways in Spanish addiction services.
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- Initiation, appeal, and dependence: a qualitative exploration of e-cigarette use in Chile. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: E-cigarette use was closely tied to social settings, aesthetic appeal, and daily routines. Product engagement was shaped more by usability and context than by nicotine content or health motivations. These findings highlight the need for policies that address informal sales channels, improve product transparency, and consider the social and sensory drivers of e-cigarette use in underregulated contexts.
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- Risk factors for adolescent cannabis use following partial cannabis legalization in Germany: a cross-sectional study in secondary schools. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: Social media use and risk perception are key, modifiable factors of adolescent cannabis use. These findings may inform future prevention research focusing on credible risk communication and digital-platform contexts.
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- Perceived HIV-related stigma, mental health conditions and sexualized drug use among men who have sex with men living with HIV in Chongqing, China: a cross-sectional study. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: Among MSM living with HIV in Chongqing, SDU was common and was statistically associated with a range of sociodemographic, behavioral, and psychosocial characteristics.These findings suggest that SDU in this population co-occurs with multiple structural and psychosocial vulnerabilities, underscoring the potential value of integrating mental health, stigma, and substance use considerations into HIV-related services for MSM.
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- Treatment interventions for co-occurring opioid use disorder, and sleep disturbances: a scoping review. [Systematic Review]
- CONCLUSIONS: Improved characterization and management of impaired sleep in individuals with OUD and psychiatric symptoms may reduce relapse risk, enhance emotional regulation, and decrease self-medication. Clinicians should consider the complex interplay between OUD, psychiatric symptoms, and sleep as part of comprehensive care. Further research is needed to clarify these interactions and support the development of integrated, evidence-based strategies for treatment and prevention.
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- Rethinking treatment motivation in addiction care: executive functions and personality over clinical severity- a cross-sectional study. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that treatment motivation is more closely related to an individual's executive function capacity and personality traits than to clinical severity indicators. The findings emphasise the importance of considering cognitive and personality-based variables in assessing motivational processes in addiction treatment and contribute to the development of more individualised treatment approaches.
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- Association between viewing more media war content and higher intention to use cannabis in adolescents: the indirect effect of post-traumatic stress. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: Watching disturbing war images can increase the risk of mental health morbidities like PTSD, which could lead, in turn, to intention to use cannabis to alleviate this mental burden. This suggests that assessing and treating PTSD could help prevent cannabis use among adolescents during war times.
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- Associations between smoking, tobacco types, and depression in middle-aged and elderly Chinese individuals: a cross-sectional analysis from the CHARLS study. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: In this middle-aged and elderly Chinese population, smoking and all examined tobacco types were associated with a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms, with the strongest associations observed for self-rolled and pipe tobacco. Because the design is cross-sectional, these findings indicate associations rather than causal effects, and underscore the need to integrate mental-health considerations into tobacco-control efforts, including attention to traditional and non-cigarette tobacco products.
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- Addiction management and rehabilitation programs in Saudi Arabia: a scoping review of current practices and opportunities for healthcare technology integration. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: Although addiction rehabilitation services in Saudi Arabia have evolved toward more comprehensive multidisciplinary models of care, important gaps remain in long-term recovery support, community-based rehabilitation, standardized outcome monitoring, and digital health integration. Strengthening aftercare and adopting healthcare technologies may improve continuity of care, enhance recovery outcomes, and support the ongoing transformation of addiction services under Saudi Vision 2030.
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- Assessment of drug harm by final-year medical students and ChatGPT - a comparative analysis. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: Students and ChatGPT strongly agreed on the most harmful substances but differed in their assessments of moderately and minimally harmful drugs. These differences suggest that perceptions of drug harm are shaped not only by pharmacology and toxicity but also by social and cultural context, local patterns of use, clinical exposure and experience, and medical training. AI may be of limited value when the evidence base is sparse, contested, or difficult to trace. The lower confidence among students suggests that further research is needed to better understand educational needs in drug-harm assessment and the critical appraisal of AI-generated evidence.
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- Unemployment & opioid use disorder - socio-medical assessment results by the Medical Service of the German Federal Employment Agency. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: The number of unemployed individuals with opioid dependence in Germany has increased over time, and most are unable to work more than three hours per day. The most frequent psychiatric comorbidities were other substance use disorders, particularly alcohol use disorder, schizophrenia, and depression. Somatic comorbidities, with the exception of chronic viral hepatitis, were recorded less frequently. Tailored interventions and closer collaboration between employment agencies and mental health care providers are needed to improve the psychosocial integration of this population.
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- Managing benzodiazepine dependence arising from use of the adulterated opioid supply: a commentary. [Journal Article]
- The growing presence of benzodiazepine-adulterated opioids in the unregulated drug supply poses significant challenges for clinicians treating people with opioid use disorder. This commentary highlights key areas of uncertainty and emerging agreement on screening, risk assessment, withdrawal timelines, and treatment approaches for individuals using benzodiazepine-adulterated opioids. It also iden…
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- Resilience in drug recovery: insights from treatment and rehabilitation programmes in Malaysia. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the importance of strengthening resilience as part of recovery efforts. Sustained recovery requires continuous support beyond institutional settings, through the involvement of multiple stakeholders.
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- Is routine screening for substance use disorders useful in palliative care? Results of a prospective observational study. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: This survey found that routinely screening palliative care patients for substance use disorders did not provide any clinically relevant information for further treatment of the examined cohort. Given the high level of stress often experienced by people with incurable diseases, the extent to which screening is helpful or merely an unnecessary burden should be considered. As other surveys have shown that palliative care patients with substance use disorders benefit from treatment, follow-up studies should investigate how to identify patients at risk specifically.
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- Differences in substance use among trans, non-binary and cis people in Spain: a cross-sectional study. [Journal Article]
- CONCLUSIONS: TNBP show a higher prevalence of substance use compared with their cis peers, particularly women. Public health policies should consider the cultural and social specificities of substance use within TNB communities in addition to structural vulnerabilities.
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