Full title: Minimum Alcohol Prices and Outlet Densities in British Columbia, Canada: Estimated Impacts on Alcohol-Attributable Hospital Admissions

Authors: Tim Stockwell, Jinhui Zhao, Gina Martin, Scott Macdonald, Kate Vallance, Andrew Treno, William Ponicki, Andrew Tu and Jane Buxton 

This study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, shows the relationship between minimum alcohol prices and rates of different kinds of alcohol attributable hospital admission in British Columbia (Canada).

Authors: Emma Disley, Alexandra Pollitt, Deirdre May Culley and Jennifer Rubin (RAND Europe)

This report, commissioned by the Responsible Gambling Fund (RGF), aims to ‘map the gaps’ in the current evidence base relating to harmful gambling. It sets out findings from a Rapid Evidence Assessment of academic and ‘grey’ literature, describing the quantity and quality of existing research in this field, and highlighting areas in which evidence and knowledge are sparse or lacking.

Authors: Seethalakshmi Ramanathan (State University of New York Upstate Medical University), Natarajan Balasubramanian (Syracuse University) and Rajeev Krishnadas (University of Glasgow).

The current economic crisis has received a lot of attention from policy makers. However, the traditional focus of the attention has been on short-term effects, such as housing and unemployment. The long-term influences of such crises, particularly on infants and young children, have generally not been examined. This study investigates the relationship between exposure to macroeconomic crises during infancy and long-term behavioral problems, including substance use and delinquency.

Authors: Sunita Bava, Joanna Jacobus, Rachel E. Thayer (San Diego Healthcare System) and Susan F. Tapert (University of Colorado Boulder)

The influence of repeated substance use during adolescent neurodevelopment remains unclear as there have been few prospective investigations. The aims of this study were to identify longitudinal changes in fiber tract integrity associated with alcohol- and marijuana-use severity over the course of 1.5 years.

Authors: Irmgard Eisenbach-Stangl (European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research) and Betsy Thom (Middlesex University)

Over recent years, media and policy attention has highlightened ‘binge’ drinking as a social problem which had spread across Europe. Viewed predominantly as a youth problem, the focus of concern has been on young people’s drinking and on the behaviours and harms associated with it in relation to public health, public safety and public order.
This emphasis has neglected examination of the wider issue of ‘intoxication’ and ‘intoxicated behaviours’. But to understand youthful binge drinking and associated behaviours, and to find ways of intervening to prevent or reduce harm, it is necessary to understand the prevailing concept(s) of acceptable and unacceptable forms of intoxication and intoxicated behaviours and its/their wider social and cultural determinants.