Addiction Assessment and Treatment Research Guide

This searchable journal is a leading outlet for research and theoretical contributions that view addictive behavior as arising from psychological processes within the individual and the social context in which the behaviour takes place as much as from the biological effects of the psychoactive substance or activity involved. This cross-disciplinary journal examines addictive behaviours from a variety of perspectives and methods of inquiry. Disciplines represented in the journal include Anthropology, Economics, Epidemiology, Medicine, Sociology, Psychology and History, but high quality contributions from other relevant areas will also be considered.

This journal features articles specifically related to the treatment and recovery issues of substance use disorders with a focus on alcohol. The journal highlights new and innovative approaches to treatment and recovery, describing clinical problems and solutions, and detailing practical, unique approaches to intervention, therapy, and recovery.

This is an international, interdisciplinary journal that is published six times per year. AJDAA provides a venue for researchers to disseminate clinically relevant research findings and innovative perspectives in the field of addiction. Topics published in AJDAA span preclinical to population-based analyses, including applied methodology, neurobiology, behavioral science, treatment, epidemiology, and public policy. The manuscripts generally present original data analyses or quantitative/narrative reviews of timely developments in our field. Manuscripts exploring behavioral addictions are encouraged. Reviews and Perspectives of emerging fields are given priority consideration. Papers are published on an ongoing basis.

The co-occurrence of mental health and substance use disorders, or “dual diagnosis,” is one of the quintessential issues in behavioral health. Why do such high rates of co-occurrence exist? What does it tell us about risk profiles? How do these linked disorders affect people, their families, and the communities in which they live? What are the natural paths to recovery? What specific treatments are most helpful and how can new ones be developed? This international journal seeks to address these questions.

The aim of this study was to examine the development in drinking patterns in a Danish cohort
of young people from the age of 15 to 25/26. The cohort (born in 1989) is one of the first to be
involved in the recent decline in youth drinking across Western countries.

Alcohol misuse has persisted in Indian country for generations. These disparities persist despite recent advances in services that often promote some combination of western-oriented conceptualizations of treatment with traditional healing and cultural practices. The intractability of alcohol and drug problems in many Indigenous communities suggests that current expressions of
treatment are not sufficient to address substance misuse in these communities and effectively prepare clients for the post-treatment
experiences of recovery. The focus of this paper is to generate hypotheses about what may be missing from the treatment today to improve treatment outcomes for Indigenous clients, and then propose ways for how treatment may be transformed from its current mostly western-oriented perspective to foundationally
align with an Indigenous American worldview concerning well-being and health.

Latino men are disproportionately affected by the consequences of alcohol and substance abuse when compared to non-Latino white men. Latino men also face greater barriers to accessing, engaging, and completing alcohol and substance abuse treatment services. Culturally adapted interventions are promoted to overcome these barriers. However, the effectiveness of these
efforts is unclear. Objectives: The purpose of this review was to summarize the published evidence
regarding gender-adapted and culturally adapted alcohol and substance abuse treatment that aims
to improve physical, behavioral, and social outcomes in Latino men.

The role of stress, trauma, and adversity particularly early in life has been identified as
a contributing factor in both drug and food addictions. While links between traumatic stress and substance use disorders are well documented, the pathways to food addiction and obesity are less established. This review focuses on psychosocial and neurobiological factors that may increase risk for addiction-like behaviors and ultimately increase BMI over the lifespan. Early childhood and adolescent adversity can induce long-lasting alterations in the glucocorticoid and dopamine systems that lead to increased addiction vulnerability later in life. Allostatic load, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and emerging data on epigenetics in the context of biological embedding are highlighted. Aconceptual model for food addiction is proposed, which integrates data on the biological embedding of adversity as well as upstream psychological, social, and environmental factors. Dietary restraint as a feature of disordered eating is discussed as an important contextual factor related to food addiction. Discussion of various public health and policy considerations are based on the concept that improved knowledge of biopsychosocial mechanisms contributing to food addiction may decrease stigma associated with obesity and disordered eating behavior.

Scant research has been published on online addiction treatment, with few studies focusing on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in relation to addiction treatment. Therefore, this study aims to explain the TPB's predictability on intention and behaviors in relation to online addiction treatment among people recovering from substance use disorder (SUD).

The paper describes a case report of a 36-years old female patient suffering from an addiction to seeking fortune-telling services, which is a type of behavioral addiction, or non-substance addiction. This condition is characterized by the addiction to various “occult services”, fortune tellers and other representatives of nontraditional practices who are usually manipulative and self-serving. The authors reveal that this case report of fortune telling addiction possesses all of six components universal for addictions.

Augmented reality (AR) is a rapidly developing technology that has substantial potential as a novel approach for addiction treatment, including tobacco use. AR can facilitate the delivery of cue exposure therapy (CET) such that individuals can experience the treatment in their natural environments as viewed via a smartphone screen, addressing the limited generalizbility of extinction learning. Previously, this paper's authors developed a basic AR app for smoking cessation and demonstrated the necessary mechanisms for CET. Specifically, they showed that the AR smoking cues, compared to neutral cues, elicited substantial cue reactivity (i.e. increased urge) and that repeated exposure to the AR smoking cues reduced urge (i.e. extinction) in a laboratory setting. Here they report the next step in the systematic development of the AR app, in which we assessed the usability and acceptability of the app among daily smokers in their natural environments.

A major concern is how to tackle student smartphone addiction (SSA). First, however, analysis of the definition, causes, and consequences of SSA is necessary. There is a lack of consensus in this regard, and little research considers its multidisciplinary nature. This article first reviews the key literature across different disciplines. Based on this review, a conceptual model of SSA, its causes, and its consequences is proposed. Qualitative analysis is then used to explore this model empirically for the case of elementary and high school students. A total of 90 articles were reviewed. In addition, 33 in-depth interviews with experts and teachers from four European countries were conducted. The literature review shows the multifaceted nature of SSA. According to the literature, SSA is the result of biological, psychological, social, and technological factors and leads to health, performance, and social problems.

Gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) individuals appear to have an increased likelihood of alcohol
use disorders and treatment utilization for alcohol related problems compared to heterosexual individuals. Despite this increase, treatment utilization rates among GLB individuals remain low. In an effort to address this, this paper examined whether or not GLB individuals encounter unique barriers when pursuing treatment for alcohol related problems