Full title: How a minimum unit price for alcohol was scuppered.

Paper by Ian Gilmore and Mike Daube. Published in BMJ in January 2014.

The first in a series of papers commissioned by Addiction which attempt to estimate the problems of 'addiction' globally and in different geographical regions.

Such estimates are available, but there is a need to collate and evaluate these to arrive at the best available synthetic figures. 

Full title: Commentary: David Cameron and te death of responsability for alcohol policy.

Paper by Peter Anderson. Published in BMJ in January 2014.

Economics and Public Health Policy

Based on a simulation model, OECD analyses show that several alcohol policies have the potential to reduce rates of heavy drinking, regular or episodic, and alcohol dependence, in three countries, by 5% to 10%. This would take those countries a long way towards achieving the voluntary target of reducing harmful alcohol use by 10% by 2025, a target adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2013 as part of the NCD Global Monitoring Framework. The OECD analysis found that governments’ ability to design and implement wide-ranging prevention strategies, combining the strengths of different policy approaches, is critical to success.

Authors: Romano M, Osborne LA, Truzoli R, Reed P

The study explored the immediate impact of internet exposure on the mood and psychological states of internet addicts and low internet-users. Internet addiction was associated with long-standing depression, impulsive nonconformity, and autism traits. High internet-users also showed a pronounced decrease in mood following internet use compared to the low internet-users. The immediate negative impact of exposure to the internet on the mood of internet addicts may contribute to increased usage by those individuals attempting to reduce their low mood by re-engaging rapidly in internet use.