EATA Spring Regional Meetings

Winning statutory bids & contracts and implementing the new national drug strategy

The European Association for the Treatment of Addiction (EATA) has organised a special series of regional meetings this Spring, aimed at bringing together members and selected invited guests for an informative and valuable day of workshops, discussions about the latest policy developments and networking.

‘Winning statutory bids & contracts and implementing the new national drug strategy’ – takes place in Bristol on Tuesday 22 April, Manchester on Wednesday 30 April and London on Thursday 15 May.

Running workshops and regional meetings is part of EATA’s commitment to increase the capacity and effectiveness of drug and alcohol treatment organisations. This includes providing training opportunities and speakers at a much lower cost to delegates than if their organisations provided the workshop themselves.

‘We are looking for several outcomes with these events. They are the first three events of our reinstated regional meetings programme, and we want members and other delegates to feedback on the possible topics for future ones, said Sharon Carson, EATA Chief Executive. ‘We also want our members to take away with them a deeper insight into the complex and highly competitive tendering and bidding process, so they can apply it for the benefit of their organisations.

As members of EATA treatment-now.com would thoroughly recommend these events and for further information and to book your place go to the EATA website. These seminars promise to be useful and interesting events.

’

Alcohol and Pregnant Women

The Government and NICE release new guidelines

Pregnant women and those who are trying for a baby should avoid alcohol completely, according to new government advice.

The new advice from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) replaces previous advice that stated,

“Excess alcohol has an adverse effect on the foetus. Therefore it is suggested that women limit alcohol consumption to no more than one standard unit per day. Each of the following constitutes one ‘unit’ of alcohol: a single measure of spirits, one small glass of wine, and a half pint of ordinary strength beer, lager or cider.”

Experts now recommend that alcohol should be avoided during the first three months of pregnancy because of an increased risk of miscarriage. Women who choose to continue drinking while pregnant should have no more than one to two units once or twice a week as there is no evidence of any harm to the unborn child at these levels. The guidance actually states that women who are pregnant or trying to conceive should ideally abstain from alcohol.

The change follows concern from some sectors that there is no safe amount of alcohol that mothers-to-be can drink.

The problem with all of these guidelines is that while heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy is known to be damaging to the unborn child, the effects of more moderate intake are less clear.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says there is no evidence that a couple of units once or twice a week will do any harm to the baby. The Department of Health said the revision was not based on new scientific evidence but was needed to help ensure that women did not underestimate the risks to their baby.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Fiona Adshead said: “We have strengthened our advice to women to help ensure that no-one underestimates the risk to the developing foetus of drinking above the recommended safe levels.

Anti-depressants are not working

Prozac and other SSRIs found to be ineffective

Recent research is suggesting that the current crop of antidepressants is often no more effective than placebos or dummy pills. The research, one of the most thorough investigations into the efficacy of new generation antidepressants, known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), was looking at four commonly-used antidepressants and the clinical trials submitted to gain licensing approval.
The medications reviewed included antidepressants regularly prescribed in the UK, including fluoxetine (Prozac), venlafaxine (Efexor) and paroxetine (Seroxat).
The researchers found that the drugs had little or no more effect than a placebo for mildly depressed patients, and for most people suffering severe depression and that even trials suggesting benefit for severely depressed people did not provide evidence of clear clinical benefit.
The review group, led by Professor Irving Kirsch, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Hull, analysed 47 clinical trials using data released under Freedom of Information rules by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Professor Kirsch said: “The difference in improvement between patients taking placebos and patients taking antidepressants is not very great. This means that depressed people can improve without chemical treatments. Given these results, there seems little reason to prescribe antidepressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients, unless alternative treatments have failed to provide a benefit.”

Advice from professionals in the Mental Health field on the back of this research is clear, “It is important that people should not stop taking the anti-depressants immediately, as doing so could lead to severe rebound depression.”
The pharmaceutical companies have argued their products are effective, and said that one study should not be used to cause unnecessary concern for patients.

Warnings in the media about Crystal Meth

We are being warned again about the next big drug problem in the UK

Police chiefs, through the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), and the media are again warning of the possibility of the rise in use of Crystal Meth in the UK. The news reports say that ACPO revealed that 19 crystal meth “factories” had been raided in the last two years across the UK.

In truth there is little evidence of the epidemic that has been promised over the last couple of years. However, complacency is not an option. Whilst we have not seen the levels of use that were feared by many, enforcement agencies and treatment providers across the country need to be vigilant and preparing for a rise in both the availability and use of crystal meth. Strict controls of the precursor chemicals and manufacturing facilities and preparation for the provision of quality services to crystal meth users (and in fact all stimulant users) is vital.

Educating Reefer - A recent survey report from Rethink

Cannabis and Mental Illness

The evidence of a link between cannabis and psychosis/mental health issues is becoming far better established and evidenced in recent years. However, some of the results from this survey indicate a gap in knowledge when one can see that almost one in four people believe that cannabis is better for you than coffee.

Using a public survey, Rethink campaigns examined attitudes to cannabis and suggests that health warnings should be given to the general public.

This document highlights some interesting findings and may be of interest to you.

Cannabis and Mental Health - a recent report

Rethink is the largest national voluntary sector provider of mental health services in the UK. They have a history of campaigning for the rights of people with severe mental illness and their families and carers.

Operations Director elected to the Board

Monday 21st January 2008

We are extremely pleased to announce that Ben Hughes, the Operations Director of treatment-now.com, has been elected to the Board of the European Association for the Treatment of Addiction (EATA). EATA is the umbrella organisation for the independent drug and alcohol treatment and aftercare sector and represents services throughout the continuum of care. EATA is a registered charity, working to ensure that people with substance dependencies get the treatment they need. EATA works on behalf of its members alongside governmental bodies to help ensure improved access and quality of treatment for people with substance dependencies.

Leona Cronin, Chief Executive Officer, said it was a recognition of how Ben is viewed in the addiction treatment industry and his experience and skills will only serve to enhance the work of EATA.  

The NTA announce drug treatment budgets for 2008/9.

So the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) have announced the new 2008/9 budgets for Drug Treatment in the public sector. They state on their website that they “welcome the Government’s continued commitment to substantial investment in drug treatment”.

Now does anybody else feel that this is a bit of spin? Clearly a huge amount of new monies have been made available over the last few years but they do identify that the funding for 2008/9 is to be maintained at the same levels as 2007/8. Forgive me for being slightly cynical but in “real terms” this would appear to be a cut in funding. When  taking into account the increased costs involved in providing treatment (wages, drug costs etc.) and inflation this would seem to me to be a reduction across the board.

Granted the method for allocating the budget is moving towards a fairer system and should actually allocate the monies based upon the number of problemmatic drug users requiring treatment in any area, however, when you take into consideration the uncertainty about the veracity of some of this data many areas may suffer financially.

Check out the information as it appears on their website and let’s keep an eye on how things develop.   

Updated - Drug Misuse and Dependence: UK Guidelines on Clinical Management

The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) on behalf of the Department of Health and devolved administrations recently published an updated version of Drug Misuse and Dependence: UK Guidelines on Clinical Management (28/9/07). This is a new version of the 1999 Clinical Guidelines, commonly called the “Orange Book”. The new Clinical Guidelines build on the previous evidence-based and well-established Clinical Guidelines but reflect some of the considerable changes that have occurred in drug treatment over the past eight years. The latest Clinical Guidelines also reflects the recent suite of guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). Hard copies will be available late October 2007. Go to www.nta.nhs.uk for further details.

The “All New” treatment-now.com website.

After much work and the support of Nixon McInnes (our web design company - many thanks Pat!) and many hours of cursing the whole IT thing the new website is here and ready for you to browse.

We hope you find everything you want and need here. We will be adding more content as time goes by and should you have any suggestions for new pages or additional content please do contact us at either 0207 100 9931 or email us at info@treatment-now.com