Why treatment is not an option: Treatment naïve individuals, suffering from alcohol use disorders’ narratives about alcohol use and treatment seeking

Pharmacotherapy for alcohol use disorder among adults with medical disorders in Sweden

BACKGROUND

Alcohol-attributable medical disorders are prevalent among individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, there is a lack of research on prescriptions of pharmacological treatment for AUD in those with comorbid conditions. This study aims to investigate the utilization of pharmacological treatment (acamprosate, disulfiram and naltrexone) in specialist care among patients with AUD and comorbid medical diagnoses.

METHODS

This was a descriptive register-based Swedish national cohort study including 132,728 adults diagnosed with AUD (N = 270,933) between 2007 and 2015. The exposure was alcohol-attributable categories of comorbid medical diagnoses. Odds ratios (OR) were calculated using mixed-effect logistic regression analyses for any filled prescription of acamprosate, disulfiram or oral naltrexone within 12 months post AUD diagnosis.

RESULTS

Individuals with comorbid alcohol-attributable medical diagnoses had lower odds of filling prescriptions for any type of AUD pharmacotherapy compared to those without such comorbidities. Cardiovascular (OR = 0.41 [95% CI: 0.39-0.43]), neurological (OR = 0.52 [95% CI: 0.48-0.56]) and gastrointestinal (OR = 0.57 [95% CI: 0.54-0.60]) diseases were associated with the lowest rates of prescription receipt. The presence of diagnoses which are contraindications to AUD pharmacotherapy did not fully explain the low prescription rate.

CONCLUSION

There is a substantial underutilization of AUD pharmacotherapy in patients with AUD and comorbid medical disorders in specialist care. Increasing the provision of pharmacotherapy to this group of patients is essential and may prevent morbidity and mortality. There is a need to further understand barriers to medical treatment both from the patient and prescriber perspective.

Redevelopment of mental health first aid guidelines for substance use problems: a Delphi study

BACKGROUND

Substance use problems have a major impact on the physical and mental health of individuals, families and communities. Early intervention may have a positive effect on recovery and treatment outcomes for those with substance use problems, reducing related risk and harm. Separate mental health first aid guidelines on how a member of the public could assist someone experiencing or developing alcohol use and drug use problems in high income Western countries were developed using Delphi expert consensus in 2009 and 2011, respectively. This study aimed to synthesise and update these two original guidelines to reflect current evidence and best practice.

METHODS

The Delphi expert consensus method was used to determine the inclusion of statements in the redeveloped guidelines. A questionnaire was developed using previously endorsed helping statements from the original guidelines on alcohol and drug use problems, as well as relevant content identified in systematic searches of academic and grey literature. Three panels of experts (people with lived experience, support people and professionals) rated statements over three consecutive online survey rounds to determine the importance of their inclusion in the guidelines. Statements endorsed by at least 80% of each panel were included.

RESULTS

103 panellists completed all three survey rounds. They rated 469 statements and endorsed 300 of these for inclusion in the redeveloped guidelines.

CONCLUSIONS

This study has developed a broader and more comprehensive set of guidelines for how to support a person experiencing or developing a substance use problem. The redeveloped guidelines provide more detail on knowledge about and recognition of substance use problems, approaching and assisting people who want to change or are not ready to change, harm reduction, community-based supports and professional help, but have less on physical first aid actions. Mental Health First Aid International will use these guidelines in future updates of their training courses.

Resting state functional connectivity as a predictor of brief intervention response in adults with alcohol use disorder: A preliminary study

BACKGROUND

Brief interventions for alcohol use disorder (AUD) are generally efficacious, albeit with variability in response. Resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) may characterize neurobiological indicators that predict the response to brief interventions and is the focus of the current investigation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Forty-six individuals with AUD (65.2% female) completed a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan immediately followed by a brief intervention aimed at reducing alcohol consumption. Positive clinical response was defined as a reduction in alcohol consumption by at least one World Health Organization (WHO) risk drinking level at 3-month follow-up. rsFC was analyzed using seed-to-voxel analysis with seed regions from four networks: salience network, reward network, frontoparietal network, and default mode network.

RESULTS

At baseline, responders had greater rsFC between the following seed regions in relation to voxel-based clusters than non-responders: (i) anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in relation to left postcentral gyrus and right supramarginal gyrus (salience network); (ii) right posterior parietal cortex in relation to right ventral ACC (salience network); (iii) right interior frontal gyrus (IFG) pars opercularis in relation to right cerebellum and right occipital fusiform gyrus (frontoparietal); and (iv) right primary motor cortex in relation to left thalamus (default mode). Lower rsFC in responders vs. nonresponders was seen between the (i) right rostral prefrontal cortex in relation to left IFG pars triangularis (frontoparietal); (ii) right IFG pars triangularis in relation to right cerebellum (frontoparietal); (iii) right IFG pars triangularis in relation to right frontal eye fields and right angular gyrus (frontoparietal); and (iv) right nucleus accumbens in relation to right orbital frontal cortex and right insula (reward).

CONCLUSIONS

Resting state functional connectivity in the frontoparietal, salience, and reward networks predicts the response to a brief intervention in individuals with AUD and could reflect greater receptivity or motivation for behavior change.