AddictionPub Date : 2026-04-19DOI: 10.1111/add.70433
Jo-Hanna H Ivers
{"title":"Advancing addiction science through the study of recovery trajectories.","authors":"Jo-Hanna H Ivers","doi":"10.1111/add.70433","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70433","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":109,"journal":{"name":"Addiction","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147721177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AddictionPub Date : 2026-04-16DOI: 10.1111/add.70439
Shyh-Yuh Wei, Chih-Hsin Pan
{"title":"Forensic interpretation and age distribution patterns in substance-related child deaths.","authors":"Shyh-Yuh Wei, Chih-Hsin Pan","doi":"10.1111/add.70439","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70439","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":109,"journal":{"name":"Addiction","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147696770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AddictionPub Date : 2026-04-16DOI: 10.1111/add.70443
Rachel Lees Thorne, Will Lawn, Tom P Freeman
{"title":"Reply to Manthey et al.: Estimating the association between THC and health outcomes requires rigorous research methods and continued monitoring of cannabis markets.","authors":"Rachel Lees Thorne, Will Lawn, Tom P Freeman","doi":"10.1111/add.70443","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70443","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":109,"journal":{"name":"Addiction","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147696808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AddictionPub Date : 2026-04-15DOI: 10.1111/add.70453
{"title":"RETRACTION: Proportions and Correlates of High-Risk Cannabis Use in Australia-A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the 2022-2023 National Drug Strategy Household Survey.","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/add.70453","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70453","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":109,"journal":{"name":"Addiction","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147687123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AddictionPub Date : 2026-04-15DOI: 10.1111/add.70409
Kechna Cadet, Paige Brinzo, Silvia S Martins
{"title":"A population-based study exploring racial and gender inequities in polysubstance-related deaths across the United States from 2004 to 2022.","authors":"Kechna Cadet, Paige Brinzo, Silvia S Martins","doi":"10.1111/add.70409","DOIUrl":"10.1111/add.70409","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aim: </strong>Recent studies have shown that Black men and women have been disproportionately impacted by overdose deaths within recent years, with their mortality rates rising sharply compared with their White counterparts. As the United States is in the fourth wave of the polysubstance use overdose crisis, it is unclear if polysubstance use is contributing to these disparate patterns of overdose mortality across race and gender. This study aimed to measure gender-specific racial disparities in opioid related polysubstance use drug mortality in the United States from 2004 to 2022.</p><p><strong>Design, setting and participants: </strong>In this population-level study of all deaths occurring in the United States, we obtained finalized death records of overdose fatalities identified using codes in the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) from Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention's Wide-Ranging Online Database for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) Multiple Cause of Death file, from 2004 to 2022. Annual Percent Change (APC) and Annual Average Percent Change (AAPC) in age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMR) for White men, White women, Black men, Black women, Hispanic men and Hispanic women were determined using joinpoint regression in this cross-sectional study.</p><p><strong>Measurements: </strong>Joinpoint regression was used to examine mortality rates for opioid-only, opioids with a stimulant, opioids with benzodiazepines, among racial/gender groups to measure temporal trends in age-adjusted overdose mortality due to polysubstance-related overdose.</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>The final analytic sample included n = 627 793 opioid-only deaths, n = 196 001 opioid-stimulant and n = 117 322 opioid-benzodiazepine overdose deaths. Opioid-involved deaths increased across all groups, with the highest absolute rate change experienced by non-Hispanic Black men (53.55 per 100 000, AAPC: 17.3%) and pronounced increases shown to occur between 2011 and 2022 (APC: 29.0%). Opioid-stimulant polysubstance use deaths had the largest increases among non-Hispanic Black men and women, with a 39.5% APC (2011-2022) for men and 36.2% APC (2012-2022) for women. Among Hispanic men, the rates accelerated 33.8% per year (2012-2022). For opioid-benzodiazepine polysubstance use deaths, non-Hispanic White men and women experienced the highest absolute rate change of 3.39 and 2.41 per 100 000, respectively.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In the United States from 2004 to 2022, overdose deaths from polysubstance use escalated sharply across all racial and ethnic groups, with disproportionate increases across non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic individuals, particularly in opioid-stimulant and opioid-only profiles.</p>","PeriodicalId":109,"journal":{"name":"Addiction","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13089300/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147687073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AddictionPub Date : 2026-04-15DOI: 10.1111/add.70383
Janni Leung, Daniel Stjepanović, Gary Chung Kai Chan, Wayne Denis Hall, Danielle Dawson
{"title":"Proportions and correlates of high-risk cannabis use in Australia-A cross-sectional analysis of the 2022-2023 National Drug Strategy Household Survey.","authors":"Janni Leung, Daniel Stjepanović, Gary Chung Kai Chan, Wayne Denis Hall, Danielle Dawson","doi":"10.1111/add.70383","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70383","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aim: </strong>Cannabis use is prevalent in Australia, however, limited research has explored the levels of high-risk cannabis use within nationally representative samples. This study aimed to address this gap by examining the proportion of individuals meeting criteria for high-risk cannabis use and identifying its correlates in a representative Australian dataset.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Observational study using data from the 2022-2023 Australian National Drug Strategy Household Survey on respondents self-reporting cannabis use every few months or more frequently (N = 1504). The outcome variable was the past 3 month cannabis use risk, assessed using the World Health Organization's ASSIST-Lite (WHO-ASSIST-Lite). A multinomial logistic regression on cannabis risk levels (moderate and high vs low) was conducted, with cannabis use patterns, psychological distress, and sociodemographic characteristics as independent variables.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>An estimated 6.2% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.6, 7.8) of people who consume cannabis met criteria for high-risk cannabis use. Prevalence was substantially higher among individuals who used cannabis daily (14.8% [10.2, 19.3]) compared with those who used it weekly (5.5% [2.7, 8.2]; relative risk ratio (RRR) = 5.70 [3.25, 9.98], p < 0.001). Early initiation, particularly before age 15, was also associated with greater risk of high-risk use (RRR = 2.52 [1.25, 5.08], p = 0.009), compared with initiation at age 18 or older. Respondents who reported psychological distress had an increased risk of high-risk cannabis use (RRR = 3.19 [1.66, 6.11], p < 0.001).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>A minority proportion of Australians who consume cannabis appear to meet criteria for high-risk use. Daily use, early age of initiation, and high psychological distress may be key risk factors.</p>","PeriodicalId":109,"journal":{"name":"Addiction","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147687062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AddictionPub Date : 2026-04-14DOI: 10.1111/add.70412
Suzanne Nielsen, Frederick Fox, Tina Lam, Alex Waddell, Monica Jung, Bosco Rowland, Jessica Watterson, Dhruv Basur, Chris Prawira, Joshua Paolo Seguin, Patrick Olivier, Jarrod McMaugh, Paul Dietze, Louisa Picco
{"title":"The Opioid Safety Toolkit: An interactive prescription opioid safety toolkit to increase opioid safety literacy and behaviours among people prescribed opioids for pain-a randomised controlled trial.","authors":"Suzanne Nielsen, Frederick Fox, Tina Lam, Alex Waddell, Monica Jung, Bosco Rowland, Jessica Watterson, Dhruv Basur, Chris Prawira, Joshua Paolo Seguin, Patrick Olivier, Jarrod McMaugh, Paul Dietze, Louisa Picco","doi":"10.1111/add.70412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70412","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Prescription opioid-related harm remains a significant public health concern. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the Opioid Safety Toolkit, a co-designed, interactive online resource, in increasing naloxone uptake and healthcare provider discussions among adults prescribed opioids for pain.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Parallel-group, open-label, randomised controlled trial.</p><p><strong>Setting: </strong>Community-based, online recruitment across Australia.</p><p><strong>Participants: </strong>Adults (n = 314) prescribed opioids for non-cancer pain.</p><p><strong>Interventions: </strong>Participants were randomised to receive either the Opioid Safety Toolkit (intervention, n = 152), which included interactive and tailored educational content on opioid safety, or an active control website presenting evidence-based opioid safety information (n = 162). Both groups were followed for four weeks.</p><p><strong>Measurements: </strong>The primary outcome was self-reported naloxone requests four weeks post-intervention. Other outcomes were intentions to access naloxone immediately post-intervention, and healthcare provider discussions about opioid safety at four weeks, opioid safety knowledge (immediately after the intervention and at four weeks), satisfaction with resources and naloxone possession at four weeks.</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>Participants in the intervention group were more likely to have requested naloxone at four weeks compared with controls [21.7% vs 9.9%, odds ratio (OR) = 2.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.3, 4.8; P = 0.005], and more likely to report intentions to access naloxone immediately post-intervention compared with controls (41.4% vs 15.4%, OR = 3.9, 95% CI = 2.3, 6.6; P < 0.001). Participants in the intervention group were not more likely to have healthcare provider discussions at four weeks compared with controls (OR = 1.1, 95% CI = 0.7, 1.8; P = 0.620). Post-intervention opioid overdose knowledge was statistically significantly higher in the intervention group compared with control group (Mean score 16.6, 95% CI = 15.5, 17.7 vs control mean score 13.3, 95% CI = 12.3, 14.3). Satisfaction with the resource was higher in the intervention group compared with control group (Mean = 20.0, 95% CI = 18.7, 21.3 vs Mean = 18.0, 95% CI = 16.7, 19.3, P = 0.035).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We found good evidence that, compared with a gold-standard opioid information website, the Opioid Safety Toolkit increased naloxone requests among Australian adults prescribed opioids for non-cancer pain. We also observed consistent effects across secondary outcomes, with the Toolkit increasing intentions to access naloxone, enhancing opioid overdose knowledge and yielding higher satisfaction ratings, although it did not increase healthcare provider discussions at four weeks.</p>","PeriodicalId":109,"journal":{"name":"Addiction","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147687035","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AddictionPub Date : 2026-04-12DOI: 10.1111/add.70437
Jürgen Rehm, Daniela Correia, Shannon Lange, Laura Miščikienė, Mindaugas Štelemėkas
{"title":"The Baltics: Benchmarking alcohol control reform for the European Union and surrounding countries.","authors":"Jürgen Rehm, Daniela Correia, Shannon Lange, Laura Miščikienė, Mindaugas Štelemėkas","doi":"10.1111/add.70437","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70437","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":109,"journal":{"name":"Addiction","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147669418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AddictionPub Date : 2026-04-10DOI: 10.1111/add.70420
Andrés González-Santa Cruz, Alvaro Castillo-Carniglia, Jay S Kaufman
{"title":"Excess mortality following discharge from substance use disorder treatment in Chile.","authors":"Andrés González-Santa Cruz, Alvaro Castillo-Carniglia, Jay S Kaufman","doi":"10.1111/add.70420","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70420","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>People with substance-use disorders (SUDs) have increased mortality risk, yet Chilean estimates of SUD-based mortality are scarce. This study aimed to quantify all-cause and cause-specific mortality following SUD treatment in Chile compared with the general population and assess variation across key clinical and demographic subgroups.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>National-level registry-based retrospective data linkage cohort study.</p><p><strong>Setting: </strong>Publicly funded SUD psychosocial treatments offered by the Chilean National Drug Agency, linked with official national mortality records from 2010 to 2020.</p><p><strong>Participants: </strong>70064 adults aged 18-64 years (24% women, median age 35 at treatment entry) were followed after their first treatment episode until death or 31 December 2020.</p><p><strong>Measurements: </strong>Primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes were cause-specific mortality by the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision, underlying and external causes. We estimated age-sex-calendar year directly standardized rates (DSR), and standardized mortality ratios (SMR) compared with the expected rate for the (sub)population. We also stratified rates and ratios by sex (men/women), attained age (18-29, 30-44, 45-59, 60+), setting (ambulatory/residential), primary substance (alcohol; illicit: predominantly cocaine paste base, marijuana and cocaine hydrochloride) and treatment compliance (not completed/completed). Additionally, we estimated rates and SMRs for underlying and external causes of mortality.</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>Over a median 4.9-year follow-up (353 826 person-years), 2996 deaths occurred [DSR = 10.6, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 8.6-13.1]. Overall SMR was 3.65 (95% CI = 3.52-3.79). Excess risk was particularly pronounced for women (SMR = 5.57, 95% CI = 5.14-6.03), patients admitted due to alcohol use disorder (SMR = 4.59, 95% CI = 4.33-4.86), in residential care (SMR = 4.91, 95% CI = 4.45-5.42) and treatment noncompletion (SMR = 4.04, 95% CI = 3.85-4.24). Cause-specific mortality revealed elevated external-cause excess risk for SUD patients, including intentional self-harm (SMR = 6.67, 95% CI = 6.05-7.36), unintentional injuries (SMR = 5.37, 95% CI = 4.79-6.02) and assaults (SMR = 4.98, 95% CI = 4.16-5.96). Notable excess risk was also observed for non-external mortality causes: digestive system (SMR = 8.20, 95% CI = 7.62-8.83), symptoms and signs (SMR = 5.18, 95% CI = 4.29-6.26) and respiratory diseases (SMR = 5.18, 95% CI = 4.47-5.99) were greater than expected.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In Chile, patients with a history of publicly funded substance-use disorder treatment appear to have an all-cause mortality up to 3.7 times higher than the general population, driven predominantly by digestive and respiratory causes, as well as self-harm, unintentional injuries and assaults.</p>","PeriodicalId":109,"journal":{"name":"Addiction","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147643315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}