We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Usefulness and validity of the modified Addiction Severity Index: A focus on alcohol, drugs, tobacco, and gambling
Cécile Denis , Mélina Fatséas , Virginie Beltran , Fuschia Serre , Jean-Marc Alexandre , Romain Debrabant , Jean-Pierre Daulouède , Marc Auriacombe
Substance Abuse
Vol. 37, Iss. 1, 2016

Among patients who seek treatment for addiction, comorbid substance use problems sometimes combined with non-substance addictive disorders such as gambling disorder are common. The lack of use of a unique severity assessment instrument by clinicians might be an obstacle for patients to access integrated and comprehensive treatment. This paper presents a modified version of the 5th version of the Addiction Severity Index (mASI) to assess all substance use disorders, including tobacco and non-substance addictive disorders such as gambling disorder. Although the 6th version of the ASI added items relative to tobacco use and gambling, these new items did not generate specific scores and were not taken into account in the computation of the scores of the ASI domains. In its 6th version the ASI is still focused on assessment of alcohol and/or drugs and items relative to tobacco and gambling are only to assess side-use to other main alcohol and/or drug use and is not suited for assessment of individuals with tobacco or gambling as their declared main problem use. In this study, 833 participants were interviewed with the mASI and completed a validity battery questionnaire. The mASI was reliable and its nine assessed domains showed a relative independence supporting its multi-dimensionality. The standardized properties of this mASI permit a comprehensive and systematic assessment of all addictions independently of patients’ perceived problems and treatment settings, hence facilitating better-personalized treatment planning. A more systematic use of the mASI may be helpful for clinicians to design the best treatment plans for a patient, for policy makers to objectively understand the needs in treatment, care centers or other institutions but also for researchers to measure contemporary issues in addiction treatment. For research purposes, the use of a unique instrument allows researchers to better address the similarities and differences between addictions by avoiding potential artifact due to a multiplication of tools needed to assess a same individual. The difficulty to conclude about the impact of addictive behavior on the treatment outcome of another addictive behavior may be explained by the heterogeneity of the assessment tools. Treatment programs focused on promoting abstinence from substance use might consider monitoring all possible addictive behaviors including tobacco use and gambling as it is possible that the addictive disorder might still be active and individuals may switch their addictive behaviors to tobacco, gambling or other addictive behaviors.

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Our newly released issue is now online —> January-March 2016.
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We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Counselor training and attitudes toward pharmacotherapies for opioid use disorder
Lydia Aletraris , Mary Bond Edmond , Maria Paino , Dail Fields , Paul M. Roman
Substance Abuse
Vol. 37, Iss. 1, 2016

Our study demonstrated that counselors held varying degrees of knowledge and opinions regarding the acceptability of buprenorphine and methadone, with 20% of counselors having insufficient knowledge about either medication. Even though counselors do not prescribe medications, their lack of knowledge regarding effectiveness is a significant barrier to the acceptance of these treatments in routine clinical practice. Acceptance was higher for buprenorphine and other medications used for opioid use disorder, than it was for methadone. The stigma facing opioid agonist medications, particularly methadone, suggests that they may be seen as less acceptable than other treatment approaches. Nevertheless, we found no significant differences between counselors’ ratings of buprenorphine and naltrexone. Our findings suggest that medication-specific training is an effective strategy for encouraging the acceptance and diffusion of opioid agonist medications.

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Our newly released issue is now online —> January-March 2016.
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We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Do alcohol advertisements for brands popular among underage drinkers have greater appeal among youth and young adults?
Michael Siegel , William DeJong , Daryl Cioffi , Lucero Leon-Chi , Timothy S. Naimi , Alisa A. Padon , David H. Jernigan , Ziming Xuan
Substance Abuse
Vol. 37, Iss. 1, 2016

This study is the first to compare the extent of youth appeal of alcohol advertisements for brands popular among underage drinkers vs. brands unpopular among underage drinkers. We found that the advertisements for more popular brands were significantly more likely to be perceived as appealing to youth. This research is important for two reasons. First, it informs the debate about whether alcohol companies are targeting youth with their advertising. If youth-oriented brands are more likely to contain youth-oriented content, this could be an indication that the companies are preferentially trying to reach underage youth. Second, the research may help shed light on the debate about whether alcohol advertising is effective in influencing youth drinking behavior. If brands whose alcohol ads appeal more heavily to youth turn out to be the same brands that are popular among youth, this could be an indication that the advertising is influencing youth brand choices.

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Our newly released issue (January-March 2016) is now online!

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

A Review of Opioid Overdose Prevention and Naloxone Prescribing: Implications for Translating Community Programming Into Clinical Practice
Shane R. Mueller , Alexander Y. Walley , Susan L. Calcaterra , Jason M. Glanz , Ingrid A. Binswanger
Substance Abuse
Vol. 36, Iss. 2, 2015

Drug overdose mortality from opioids has emerged as an epidemic in the United States. Medical providers are responsible for prescribing opioids and educating patients in many health care settings. Naloxone is an opioid antagonist which is FDA approved to reverse respiratory depression caused by opioid overdose. There is emerging evidence that community overdose education and take-home naloxone rescue kits is a promising intervention for reducing fatalities from overdose. Our review explores the role of medical providers in prescribing naloxone for take-home use and suggests that this is a promising intervention which may be used to address the opioid overdose epidemic.