A variety of treatment options for people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) exist. Surveys estimate that 1 in 10 people with AUD utilise treatment, but real-world treatment pathways remain covert. This data-linkage study seeks to characterise treatment utilisation patterns to identify gaps in treatment access and delivery in Germany.

Linking individual-level data from three sources (statutory health insurance, pension funds, outpatient addiction care services) identified seven alcohol-related treatment types delivered in outpatient (brief psychiatric consultation; formal psychotherapy; pharmacotherapy; low-threshold counselling), inpatient (standard, somatic inpatient treatment; intensive inpatient treatment with somatic and psychosocial care), or either of the two settings (long-term rehabilitation treatment) during 2016–2021. For patients with a new AUD diagnosis (ICD-10: F10.1–9), treatment utilisation over 24 months was recorded and patterns were identified using latent class analyses.

Of n = 9,491 patients with a new AUD diagnosis, 30% utilised at least one alcohol-related treatment type. Treatment utilisation was associated with younger age, female sex, unemployment, German nationality, and lower physical comorbidity. Among treatment entrants, nearly half received only brief psychiatric consultation. A similar share of patients utilised standard or intensive inpatient treatment; the latter occasionally followed by rehabilitation treatment. Formal psychotherapy, low-threshold counselling, and pharmacotherapy were rarely utilised and were mostly used in conjunction with other treatments.

The real-world utilisation of alcohol-related treatments contrasts with existing guidelines, as most patients with diagnosed AUD do not receive adequate care. Structural and social barriers should be minimised to ensure healthcare provision for those affected.

Alcohol use is typically established during adolescence and initiation of use at a young age poses risks for short- and long-term health and social outcomes. However, there is limited understanding of the onset, progression and impact of alcohol use among adolescents in India. The aim of this review is to synthesise the evidence about prevalence, patterns and correlates of alcohol use and alcohol use disorders in adolescents from India.

Systematic review was conducted using relevant online databases, grey literature and unpublished data/outcomes from subject experts. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were developed and applied to screening rounds. Titles and abstracts were screened by two independent reviewers for eligibility, and then full texts were assessed for inclusion. Narrative synthesis of the eligible studies was conducted.

Fifty-five peer-reviewed papers and one report were eligible for inclusion in this review. Prevalence of ever or lifetime alcohol consumption ranged from 3.9% to 69.8%; and prevalence of alcohol consumption at least once in the past year ranged from 10.6% to 32.9%. The mean age for initiation of drinking ranged from 14.4 to 18.3 years. Some correlates associated with alcohol consumption included being male, older age, academic difficulties, parental use of alcohol or tobacco, non-contact sexual abuse and perpetuation of violence.

The evidence base for alcohol use among adolescents in India needs a deeper exploration. Despite gaps in the evidence base, this synthesis provides a reasonable understanding of alcohol use among adolescents in India and can provide direction to policymakers.

The process of emotional regulation allows the patient to deal with various situations throughout life, since it includes the ability to create and control emotions, in order to guide action and interaction with others. However, people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) is not always able to give appropriate responses to surronding situations in the face of certain specific emotions.

We aimed to evaluate the use of emotional regulation strategies in people with AUD.

A descriptive and correlational study was conducted. A sociodemographic questionnaire, that included variables to assess aspects related to AUD, and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire were used.

The sample had 25 participants, mostly male, average age of 46.68 years. 44% were married, and most cases had an withdrawal time larger than 3 months. Regarding emotional regulation strategies, it was found that the participants resort more to cognitive reassessment (M=26.59,SD = 7.54), compared to emotional suppression (M = 15.16, SD = 5.03). Statistically significant differences were found between genders in relation to cognitive reassessment (U = 29.00; p = 0.02). No correlations were found between withdrawal time, treatment time, cognitive reevaluation and emotional suppression.

Results show differences between gender, and the absence of a relationship between educational qualifications in cognitive reassessment, contradicting previous findings on general Portuguese population. This data points to the need to implement intervention programs in this population, taking into account the gender variable, and including the development of the ability to identify and express emotions, as well as of strategies to deal with emotional aspects.

The analysis of the impact of individuals’ behaviors on their health involves several variables, namely alcoholism. It is necessary to take in account that when anxiety is excessive it may be very disabling and produce many adverse effects, such as unsatisfactory work performance, anxiety disorders, depressive mood and somatic symptoms. These elements affect the Quality of Life (QOL) drastically, while social support of the patients protect QOL.

To assess the quality of life of patients with alcohol use disorders in treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD).

An exploratory, descriptive and correlational study was carried out. A sociodemographic scale was used, an instrument constructed by the authors that assesses the existence of risk behaviors and protective health behaviors, the Social Support Satisfaction Scale (ESSS), and a quality of life assessment scale (WHOQOL-Bref). Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS 25 statistics.

Sample consisting of 34 patients with Alcohol Use Disorders. Abstinence time is positively correlated with QOL and negatively correlated with social support satisfaction.

This study shows that in treatment of patients with AUD, longer abstinence times have a positive effect on QOL and overall wellbeing of patients, while being associated with a lower satisfaction with social support. Treatment Units dedicated to AUD should keep striving for maintenance of abstinence due to these positive effects.

People with substance use disorders have a well-known increased risk for taking their own life. Previous research has mainly focused on suicide in mental health services, whereas there is limited knowledge regarding suicide after contact with substance misuse services.

The aim of the current study was to describe the utilisation of both mental health services and substance misuse services among people who have died by suicide within a year of contact with substance misuse services.

We used an explanatory observational design, where all suicide deaths in the period from 2009 to 2016 were retrieved from the Norwegian Cause of Death Registry and linked with the Norwegian Patient Registry. The people who had been in contact with substance misuse services within a year before their death were included in the sample (n = 419). The analysis was stratified by gender, and variables with significant differences between men and women were entered into a multivariate logistic regression model.

More women (73.5%) than men (60.6%) had contact with mental health services in their last year (P = 0.01). In the adjusted logistic regression model, poisoning was more common among women (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.81, 95% CI 1.09–3.02) and women were more likely to be diagnosed with a sedative, hypnotic or anxiolytic use disorder (F14) in their last year (AOR = 2.77, 95% CI 1.37–5.68).

This study highlights gender differences for suicide in substance misuse services, and the importance of collaboration and cooperation between substance misuse services and mental health services.

According to a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized, cross-over design 10 drug free panic disorder patients and 16 healthy volunteers underwent a 35% CO2 challenge after intravenous infusion of a moderate dose of ethanol on one test day and of placebo on another test day.

Compared to the placebo condition, the effect of the CO2 challenge was significantly smaller after ethanol infusion (P = 0.041).

A moderate dose of ethanol decreased the response to a 35% CO2 without inducing pre challenge sedation.

The results comfort earlier findings of a direct pharmacological effect of ethanol on panic.

To assess the comorbidity rates of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) in bipolar disorder (BD) and to explore possible sources of heterogeneity.

Studies were identified through database searches. Meta-analytic techniques were employed to aggregate data on lifetime comorbidity and to explore possible sources of heterogeneity. Funnel plots were used to detect publication bias.

In clinical studies, AUDs affected more than one in three subjects with BD. Significant heterogeneity was found, which was largely explained by the geographical location of study populations and gender ratio of participants. AUDs affected more than one in five women and two in five men.

AUDs are highly prevalent in BD. Our study revealed a substantial heterogeneity across studies. Further research including control groups is needed. Patients with BD should be assessed for current and previous AUDs.

Severe alcohol use disorders (AUD, DSM5 criteria, 2013) are associated with changes in the dynamics of emotional processes and emotional experience [1]. The aim of the study was to compare emotional information processing in patients with AUD in short-term abstinence (STA, less than 1 month) and in long-term abstinence (LTA, at least 6 months) with control participants (C). We studied the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system with the heart rate variability (HRV) and more particularly high frequencies (HF). This indicator is recognized as a reliable marker of physiological activation in reaction to emotional stimuli and as a good marker of vulnerability to AUD [2].

The recording was performed for all participants during presentation of high emotional inducing stimuli presenting human interactions [3]. For each participant HRV was recorded before, during and after induction. Participants were asked to evaluate the intensity and the valence of emotional stimuli. In addition, a clinical and cognitive assessment was performed. We proposed in this study for abstinence in short- and in long-term to combine both behavioral and cognitive measures to this physiological indicator.

We observed:

– significant differences in HF-HRV between LTA and STA groups, controls and STA groups but not between LTA and C groups;

– significant correlations between craving scores [4] and HF-HRV results in LTA and STA groups.

The results support the relationship between the ability to process emotional information and the risk of relapse. HF-HRV results indicate specific deficits in regulation in STA group and also recoveries in LTA group. It suggests specific different therapeutic interventions in preventing the risk of relapse or maintenance of addiction.

The current study explored the temporal pathways of change within two treatments, the Healthy Activity Program (HAP) for depression and the Counselling for Alcohol Problems (CAP) Program for harmful drinking.

The study took place in the context of two parallel randomized controlled trials in Goa, India. N = 50 random participants who met a priori criteria were selected from each treatment trial and examined for potential direct and mediational pathways. In HAP, we examined the predictive roles of therapy quality and patient-reported activation, assessing whether activation mediated the effects of therapy quality on depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) outcomes. In CAP, we examined the predictive roles of therapy quality and patient change- and counter-change-talk, assessing whether change- or counter-change-talk mediated the effects of therapy quality on daily alcohol consumption.

In HAP, therapy quality (both general and treatment-specific skills) was associated with patient activation; patient activation but not therapy quality significantly predicted depression outcomes, and patient activation mediated the effects of higher general skills on subsequent clinical outcomes [a × b = −2.555, 95% confidence interval (CI) −5.811 to −0.142]. In CAP, higher treatment-specific skills, but not general skills, were directly associated with drinking outcomes, and reduced levels of counter-change talk both independently predicted, and mediated the effects of higher general skills on, reduced alcohol consumption (a × b = −24.515, 95% CI −41.190 to −11.060). Change talk did not predict alcohol consumption and was not correlated with counter-change talk.

These findings suggest that therapy quality in early sessions operated through increased patient activation and reduced counter-change talk to reduce depression and harmful drinking respectively.

The DSM-5 alcohol use disorder (AUD) criteria proposal contains 11 criteria that include most of the DSM-IV abuse and dependence criteria plus craving. The aims of the current study in a large and international alcohol-consuming sample were to confirm the dimensionality of the DSM-5 AUD criteria and to differentiate grades of severity of DSM-5 AUD in subjects who pass the proposed DSM-5 diagnostic threshold of two criteria.

We used the World Health Organization (WHO)/International Society on Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ISBRA) Study on State and Trait Markers of Alcohol Use and Dependence dataset. Subjects included in the analyses were aged ⩾18 years and were recruited in five countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland and Japan. Assessment of AUD and additional characteristics was conducted using an adapted version of the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule (AUDADIS). Dimensionality of the DSM-5 criteria was evaluated using factor analysis and item response theory (IRT) models. The IRT results led to the classification of AUD patients into three severity groups. External validators were used to differentiate statistically across subgroups.

A total of 1424 currently drinking individuals were included in the analyses. Factor and IRT analyses confirmed the dimensional structure of DSM-5 AUD criteria. More than 99% of the subjects could be allocated to one of the suggested severity subgroups. The magnitude of the external validators differed significantly across the severity groups.

The results confirm the dimensional structure of the proposed DSM-5 AUD criteria. The suggested stages of severity (mild, moderate and severe) may be useful to clinicians by grouping individuals not only in the mild but also in the moderate to severe spectrum of DSM-5 AUD.

Previous studies suggest that alcohol-use disorder severity, defined by the number of criteria met, provides a more informative phenotype than dichotomized DSM-IV diagnostic measures of alcohol use disorders. Therefore, this study examined whether alcohol-use disorder severity predicted first-incident depressive disorders, an association that has never been found for the presence or absence of an alcohol use disorder in the general population.

In a national sample of persons who had never experienced a major depressive disorder (MDD), dysthymia, manic or hypomanic episode (n=27 571), we examined whether a version of DSM-5 alcohol-use disorder severity (a count of three abuse and all seven dependence criteria) linearly predicted first-incident depressive disorders (MDD or dysthymia) after 3-year follow-up. Wald tests were used to assess whether more complicated models defined the relationship more accurately.

First-incidence of depressive disorders varied across alcohol-use disorder severity and was 4.20% in persons meeting no alcohol-use disorder criteria versus 44.47% in persons meeting all 10 criteria. Alcohol-use disorder severity significantly predicted first-incidence of depressive disorders in a linear fashion (odds ratio 1.14, 95% CI 1.06–1.22), even after adjustment for sociodemographics, smoking status and predisposing factors for depressive disorders, such as general vulnerability factors, psychiatric co-morbidity and subthreshold depressive disorders. This linear model explained the relationship just as well as more complicated models.

Alcohol-use disorder severity was a significant linear predictor of first-incident depressive disorders after 3-year follow-up and may be useful in identifying a high-risk group for depressive disorders that could be targeted by prevention strategies.

Clinically ascertained reports suggest that boys and girls with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may differ from each other in their vulnerability to substance use problems.

A total of 1545 Finnish adolescents were assessed for DSM-IV-based ADHD symptoms by their parents and classroom teachers using standardized rating scales at age 11–12 years. At age 14, substance use disorders and psychiatric co-morbidity were assessed with the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism, providing DSM-III-R/DSM-IV diagnoses for Axis I disorders. At age 17.5, substance use was assessed by multi-item questionnaire.

Although baseline ADHD symptoms were less common among females, they were more predictive of adverse substance use outcomes once conduct disorder and previous substance use were controlled for. Only in females were baseline ADHD symptoms significant predictors of alcohol abuse and dependence and illicit drug use at age 14. At the age of 17.5, parents' reports of inattentiveness and hyperactivity were significant predictors for frequent alcohol use in both sexes, but they were more predictive of frequent alcohol and illicit drug use in girls. Impulsivity in teachers' ratings predicted frequent alcohol use and illicit drug use in boys. Parental reports of inattentiveness in their 11-/12-year-old daughters were a consistent predictor for illicit drug use across adolescence.

Inattentiveness and hyperactivity may be more predictive of alcohol use disorders and maladaptive patterns of alcohol and illicit drug use among girls than boys. The importance of these behavioural symptoms should be assessed further in the community, as they could jeopardize adolescents' successful transitioning into adult roles.