Despite efforts to reduce concerning levels of alcohol consumption in Europe through adopting the WHO European Action Plan on Alcohol (EAPA), the region continues to have the highest prevalence of drinkers, heavy episodic drinking, alcohol consumption per capita, and the lowest proportion of abstainers, compared with other regions around the world.

Efforts to introduce policies that prevent and control non-communicable diseases are frequently hampered by trade agreements, conflicting economic interests, or the challenges of controlling online advertising and sales.

On examination of the...

Executive Summary

Alcohol use disorders are a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and of immense importance to all mental health professionals. This new Series puts heavy drinking and alcohol use disorder in clinical and public health contexts, providing clinicians with a concise but comprehensive summary of current knowledge and future directions for research and care.

Topics include screening, brief intervention, and referral for treatment; evidence-based behavioural interventions; medication-assisted treatment; and technology-based and population-level interventions.

Bhutan is recognised for its development philosophy of Gross National Happiness, which places the well-being of people above gross domestic product. However, over the last few years, the number of patients with mental disorder seeking help from the health care system has grown significantly throughout the country.

Growing drug- and alcohol-related mental health problems are having a clear impact on Bhutan. Policy makers and other professionals claim Bhutan is not progressing at the same speed as the rest of the world and that lack of modernisation, which is leading to limited opportunities...

In terms of global alcohol consumption, Russia has been consistently considered one of the countries with the highest track record of heavy drinking. 

However, recent figure have found Russian alcohol consumption has decreased by 43% from 2003 to 2016, according to a report published by the WHO.

Some explanations as to this positive downward trend include the introduction advertising restrictions, increased taxes on alcohol, a ban on alcohol sales between certain hours, and banned street drinking.

The introduction of alcohol-control measures has coincided with increased efforts to...

It is recognised that harmful alcohol consumption is more common amongst those who have served in the UK armed forces. 

However this is not just an issue for the individual who has served in the army. In a recent study conducted by researchers at Kings College London, they found that alcohol is also an increased problem amongst female spouses and partners of military personnel.

The researchers found that female spouses and partners of military personnel were more likely to describe symptoms of depression and to report binge-drinking than women in the general population.

Further...

The purpose of this study is to characterize the prevalence of the use and abuse of alcohol in high school students in Buenos Aires City. During October 2014, 2870 surveys were collected on a representative sample, probabilistic and two-stages type, of the population of young people in both public and private high schools. The results show that 66.9 % of the students consume alcohol at some point in their life and that the average age of their first consumption is 13.7 years old. Alcohol abuse accounts for the 81.9% of the consumption within the last 30 days the study was conducted.

Could combinations of three strategies - training and support, financial reimbursement, and the opportunity to refer patients to a website - effectively and cost-effectively boost delivery of brief alcohol interventions in five European countries, including England? The aim was to find the best way to narrow the gap in primary care between the number of patients who could benefit from these interventions and those who receive them. An important trial whose findings we analyse in depth, and for which we have updated our analysis of the cost-effectiveness findings.