Author Archives: James

Largest-ever tobacco study finds ‘urgent need’ for policy change

About half the men in numerous developing nations use tobacco, and women in those regions are taking up smoking at an earlier age than they used to, according to what is being called the largest-ever international study on tobacco use.

The study, which covered enough representative samples to estimate tobacco use among 3 billion people, “demonstrates an urgent need for policy change in low- and middle-income countries,” said lead researcher Gary Giovino, whose report was published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

The figures bolster statements by the World Health Organization that while much of the industrialized world, including the United States, has seen a substantial reduction in smoking in recent years, the opposite trend is under way in parts of the developing world.

See on edition.cnn.com

Sativex Trial Study: Call for Participants

New drug and cannabis withdrawal – study

NCPIC is conducting a study to test a new medication, Sativex, that may help people manage their withdrawal symptoms when trying to stop smoking cannabis. This study is suitable for those who are over 18 years of age, are daily cannabis users with a desire to quit, have tried and failed to quit cannabis in the past, and are able to undertake an eight-night stay in hospital in Newcastle or Sydney.

For more information and to arrange a brief phone interview, email:cannabiswithdrawal@unsw.edu.au.

Click here to download a flyer with more information about the study.

Public Health Association on Plain Packaging Win

PLAIN PACKAGING DECISION A MASSIVE WIN FOR HEALTH

Yesterday’s High Court decision that tobacco plain packaging can proceed is a massive win for public health. It is also the global tobacco industry’s worst defeat yet, and will have global ramifications.

President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, Professor Mike Daube (who chaired the Federal Government’s expert committee that recommended plain packaging) said, “This is a massive win for public health – and the worst defeat yet for Big Tobacco. The global tobacco companies have opposed plain packaging more ferociously than any other measure we have seen. They know that plain packaging will have a major impact on smoking here – and that other countries will now follow.”

 

“The High Court has slammed the door on the tobacco industry’s desperate attempts to oppose a measure they know will reduce their sales and Australia’s tobacco death toll. We know from the companies’ own internal documents that packaging is a crucial part of their marketing. They have now lost their last means of promoting smoking to adults and children. This truly is a life-saving victory for public health.”

 

“The High Court decision is absolute vindication of the Government’s position. Since we learned about the dangers of smoking, cigarettes have killed one million Australians, in large part because of the activities of the world’s most lethal industry. With advent of plain packaging in December, Australia can look forward to leading the world in becoming smoke-free. ”

 

CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia, Michael Moore said, “We should celebrate the victory of public health over a toxic industry. Tobacco companies have used every possible trick and mechanism to oppose plain packaging, which will help prevent children from starting to smoke and encourage adults to quit.”

 

“We can take immense heart from knowing that even the massive resources of a global industry cannot buy government policy or High Court decisions. Yesterday was a great day for public health in Australia, and for the politicians of all parties and coalitions of health groups who worked so hard to make it happen.”

Short Story Competition

Short Story Competition!

 

The Odyssey House Victoria Short Story Competition is open to writers of all ages and experience.

 

The story must follow the theme of “One Day at a Time” and will need to make a reference to alcohol and/or drugs.

 

Stories should be fictional and contain 1500 words or less. Up to 3 stories per entry can be submitted: $15 for one; $30 for two; $40 for three.

 

1st prize is $300 plus 1 year membership to Writers Victoria.  2nd and 3rd cash prizes will also be awarded.

 

Entries close Friday 2nd November.

Go to www.odyssey.org.au for details on how to enter.

Colloquium: Viral Hepatitis and Injecting Drug Use

An invitation for an upcoming important event – Friday 7th of September, Burnet Institute, Melbourne. 

The Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use (CREIDU) is proud to host a one-day colloquium which will look at what’s new in viral hepatitis and injecting drug use with a focus on prevention, treatment and care.
 
We are pleased to announce that the keynote speaker for the day will be Professor Rick Altice, a professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health and a clinician, clinical epidemiologist, interventionist and researcher at Yale University School of Medicine and School of Public Health. Dr. Altice’s primary research projects focuses on the interface between infectious diseases and substance use disorders.  He also has a number of projects working in the criminal justice system, including transitional programs addressing infectious diseases, medication assisted therapies (methadone, buprenorphine, extended release naltrexone), mental illness and social instability.
 
Other speakers for the day include:
  • Professor Julie Bruneau, a clinical researcher and Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Montreal.  As a clinician, she is recognized as a leader in the development of addiction medicine in Canada.  For the past twenty years, she has conducted epidemiological research among active injecting drug users. Her research accomplishments have significantly contributed to a better understanding of the dynamics of HIV and HCV transmission among IDUs. Her current research interests include exploring access to health care by drug users, in particular the evaluation of the impact of treatments for recent HCV infection among drug users on drug consumption and quality of life.
  • Dr Natasha Martin, a posdoctoral researcher based in the Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol and the Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Natasha is currently working with Professor Matthew Hickman and Dr. Peter Vickerman on mathematical models of hepatitis C spread amongst injecting drug users.
  • Dr Alex Thompson, a hepatologist and head of hepatology research at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. He is also a Neil-Hamilton Fairley NHMRC Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and consultant to the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL). Alex has investigated genetic predictors of treatment outcome in chronic hepatitis C.
  • Professor Lisa Maher from the Kirby Institute, whose work focuses on ethnographic, epidemiological and clinical research on drug use and related harms and studies of interventions designed to prevent infectious diseases in vulnerable populations, including people who inject drugs (PWID) and female sex workers.
  • Professor Margaret Hellard, Head of the Centre for Population Health at the Burnet Institute, where her work centres around infectious diseases, preventing their transmission and identifying the impact of these infections in vulnerable populations. A researcher and clinician, her principal research interests are in the epidemiology of blood-borne viruses (HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C), sexually transmitted infections and improving the management of individuals who already have the infection.
 
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to hear from some very distinguished speakers working at the cutting edge of their fields.
 
This is a FREE event that will take place at the Burnet Institute, Level 7, 99 Commercial Rd, Melbourne (above the Alfred Centre on the corner of Punt Rd).
The program starts at 10am and concludes at 4.30pm and includes lunch.

Please contact liznicol@burnet.edu.au to register.

How prisoner health affects the community: National Symposium

Where:         Rydges Capital Hill, Cnr Canberra Avenue & National Circuit, Forrest ACT

 

When:           Wednesday 15 August 2012

 

Time:             9am – 5:30pm

 

The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) is holding a one day symposium Justice Health in Australia: Equity in Health Care in Canberra this Wednesday 15 August 2012.

 

Headline issues to be discussed include: equivalence of health care for prisoners; mental health and wellbeing of prisoners; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoner health; and challenges in the transition from prison back to community.  The event will be attended by around 150 participants including policy makers, community services, researchers, corrective services and health workers, former prisoners and others with a broad range of perspectives on the health of prisoners and related issues.

 

“Among the hot topics to be discussed at the symposium will be needle and syringe programs in prison and how the effective management of blood-borne viruses and other health-related challenges in prison affects the broader community,” said PHAA Deputy CEO Melanie Walker.

 

The conference will be formally opened with an address by ACT Minister for Corrections, Dr Chris Bourke MLA at 9am.  Speakers, topics and program highlights include:

•     Dr Helen Watchirs OAM, ACT Human Rights and Discrimination Commissioner: Human Rights in Prison

•        Dr Ed Heffernan, Director, Queensland Forensic Mental Health Services: Madness and Musical Chairs: The Mentally Ill in Custody

•        Tammy Solonec, National Board Director, National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoner health

•        Bernadette Mitcherson, Executive Director of ACT Corrective Services: Post –release care planning for prisoners in the ACT

•        The launch of new Australian Medical Association policy paper on Health and the criminal justice system by Prof Geoffrey Dobb, AMA Vice President.

Sponsors of the National Justice Health Symposium include: the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing; and the Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use.  The symposium program is available on the PHAA website at: http://www.phaa.net.au/documents/Justice_Health_Program.pdf

New Cannabis Fact Sheet

New factsheet from National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre

 

Seeking help for cannabis use problems: your rights as a client

 

NCPIC has released a new factsheet designed for those seeking help for cannabis use problems. It covers a range of issues that clients need to be aware of, such as knowing their rights in regards to confidentiality and giving consent, as well as the responsibilities of their health professional. We hope this will assist people in making informed decisions about their care. Click here to download this factsheet.

 

This is a companion factsheet to this one about treatments:

http://ncpic.org.au/workforce/alcohol-and-other-drug-workers/cannabis-information/factsheets/article/treatment-for-cannabis-use-problems

Heavy teen cannabis use and anxiety later in life

Via NDARC:

Teenagers who smoke cannabis weekly or more are twice as likely as non-users to have an anxiety disorder in their late 20s, even if they stop using, a study of 2000 Victorian teenagers has found.

Those who used frequently in their teens and continued to use on a daily basis at the age of 29 were three times as likely to have an anxiety disorder compared with non- or infrequent users. Those who used minimally in their teens but became daily users in their late 20s were two and a half times as likely to have an anxiety disorder. But the really striking finding say the authors is the persistent association between frequent teenage cannabis use and adult anxiety disorders up to a decade after cannabis use has ceased. The relationship between cannabis use and anxiety disorders was present even after the researchers took into account other possible explanations such as mental health problems in their teens or other drug use in their twenties.

The findings, published online in Addiction are based on secondary analyses of a landmark study of nearly 2000 Victorian secondary school students – the 2000 stories cohort, led by Professor George Patton of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne. The students have been followed up and interviewed over 13 years, starting in 1992. They were interviewed at six six-monthly intervals during their teens and then again when they were aged 20-21, 24-25, and 29.
Lead author of the analysis, Professor Louisa Degenhardt from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, said that most studies looking at cannabis use and mental health outcomes focus on adolescence and early adulthood. “What we are seeing is a persistent association with anxiety disorders over a much longer period. “Given that anxiety is the most prevalent mental health disorder in the Australian population, affecting over 14 per cent of adults in any 12 month period, we need to investigate the findings further because it is highly possible that early cannabis use causes enduring mental health risks.”

Professor Patton, lead investigator of the 2000 stories cohort, said that the findings could be explained by lasting changes to brain function caused by introducing cannabis at a time when the brain is developing rapidly. Equally it could be that the very factors which predispose people to use cannabis early also predispose them to common mental health problems. “We know from animal studies that introducing cannabis during puberty brings about long lasting changes in behaviour which persist even after administration of cannabis is stopped. These findings suggest that a similar thing may be happening,” said Professor Patton. “During the teen years the parts of the brain that are involved in managing emotions are still developing rapidly and it is highly possible that heavy cannabis use at this sensitive point could have long lasting effects.”
However the authors write that they cannot rule out the possibility that the factors that predispose people to use cannabis early also put them at risk for common mental disorders.
“These common factors might include biological, personality, social and environmental factors, or a combination of these factors. This is a plausible hypothesis because social disadvantage is more common among persons who are problematic substance users and who meet criteria for common mental disorders,” they write.

Degenhardt et al (2012). The persistence of the association between adolescent cannabis use and common mental disorders into young adulthood. Addiction (early online view).
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2012.04015.x/pdf

Even implied alcohol makes people feel sexy

French, US and Dutch researchers carried out a pair of experiments which consistently found that the more participants had drunk, the more attractive they thought they were.

Picked up by trade website Drinks International, the study, published in the Journal of Individual Differences, asked 19 men and women drinking in a French bar to rate their own attractiveness and blow into a breathalyzer. The more alcohol in their bloodstream, the more highly they rated their own attractiveness.

Interestingly, a follow-up study among 86 young men also suggested that the mere insinuation of alcohol was enough to boost their own self-image.

In the second experiment, the men were given a minty lemon cocktail, some of which was alcoholic, some of which was not. They were then asked to record a fake advertisement for the drink.

See on www.timeslive.co.za

ABI-AOD Forum – Victoria

Turning Point Statewide Neuropsychology Service

is pleased to invite you to

The Inaugural ABI-AOD Sector Forum.

Tuesday 4th September 2012, 3.30 – 5.00 p.m.

at Turning Point, 54 Gertrude St. Fitzroy.

 

 

We welcome Doutta Galla Community Health Service together with Will Di Palma and Janine Harvey (Service Integration Advisors) from the Multiple & Complex Needs Initiative. These agencies will jointly present a challenging case that highlights the difficulties encountered with managing comorbid ABI and AOD issues, together with extreme behavioural disturbance. There will be opportunity for discussion and networking is encouraged (bring your service brochures). Professional Development points may apply. This forum will be chaired by Professor Dan Lubman (Director, Turning Point Alcohol & Drug Centre).

 

The seminar is free. All welcome, bookings essential, ring 8413 8413 or email info@turningpoint.org.au

 

The ABI-AOD Forum will be a regular event, comprising the presentation of a complex case and panel discussion with multi-agency and multi-disciplinary involvement.

 

For more information contact Dr Karen Bird (03) 8413 8444, karenb@turningpoint.org.au  (Mon/Tue/Wed)