The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

Learning to cope, together: How my son's experience with addiction inspired me to launch a family support network

This month’s Special Series on Community Approaches to Addiction focuses on ways to bring addiction prevention and recovery beyond medical settings and into communities. Today, we feature the second in a series of interviews with inspiring people who have led efforts to reduce the impact of addiction on their own communities. In 2004, Joanne Peterson founded Learn to Cope, a non-profit support network that offers “education, resources, peer support and hope” for family members coping with a loved one’s addiction. Learn to Cope, which includes over 11,000 members, is a nationally recognized model for peer support and prevention programming. Here, Ms. Peterson discusses her efforts to launch and sustain Learn to Cope with Heather Gray, Senior Editor of The BASIS. Read more →

Building bridges to problem gambling solutions: Our experience leading the New Hampshire Council on Problem Gambling

This month’s Special Series on Community Approaches to Addiction focuses on ways to bring addiction prevention and recovery beyond medical settings and into communities. Today, we feature the first in a series of interviews with inspiring people who have led efforts to reduce the impact of addiction on their communities. Ed Talbot and Dot Duda serve as Executive Director and President, respectively, of the New Hampshire Council on Problem Gambling (NHCPG), which was first incorporated in 1997. The NHCPG became inactive for a number of years, but Mr. Talbot, Ms. Duda, and others brought it back to life. In the following, Mr. Talbot and Ms. Duda discuss their work with Heather Gray, Senior Editor of The BASIS and former member of the NHCPG Board of Directors. Read more →

Introduction to the Special Series on Community Approaches to Addiction

Adam O’Malley was at a pub in the northern English city of Leeds when something caught his attention: a coaster that read, “Is there a mate missing around this table? Reach out to him.” O’Malley flipped the coaster over to find another message: “If your mate’s acting differently, it could be a sign of a mental health problem: Reach out to him, be yourself, do what you love together.” Surprised and impressed by this approach to promoting men’s mental health, O’Malley posted photos of the coasters on Twitter, where they went viral. It turns out the coasters are part of... Read more →

Models and Theories: How We Understand Responsible Gambling

Editor’s note: This op-ed about the application of models and theories to our understanding of responsible gambling, was written by Howard Shaffer, Morris E. Chafetz Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Field of Behavioral Sciences at Harvard Medical School and Distinguished Faculty at the Division on Addiction at Cambridge Health Alliance, Robert Ladouceur, Professor Emeritus in the School of Psychology at the Université Laval, and Alex Blaszczynski, Professorial Research Fellow & Co-Director or the Gambling Treatment & Research Clinic, Brain and Mind Centre, at the University of Sydney, as part of this month’s Special Series on Theories of Addiction. Read more →

Recognizing Stigma Embedded in Diagnostic Criteria for Substance Use Disorders

Editor’s note: This op-ed about the enduring consequences of the moral model of addiction, was written by Tanya Freedland, MPS, LADC, a Clinical Trainer and Research Associate at the Center for Practice Transformation, and Robert Krueger, PhD, Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, is part of this month’s Special Series on Theories of Addiction. Read more →

A Paradigm Shift

Editor’s note: This op-ed was written by Elda Chan, PhD, the Director of St. John’s Cathedral Counselling Service and the Clinical and Research Consultant for the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals’ Integrated Center for Addiction Prevention and Treatment in Hong Kong, as part of this month’s Special Series on Theories of Addiction. Read more →

Introduction to the Special Series on Theories of Addiction

More than 30 years ago, Dr. Howard Shaffer, then Director of the Division on Addiction, warned about “conceptual crises” in the field of addiction. In that paper, he noted that the field was characterized by many “mini-theories,” a “lack of integration between research, theory, and practice,” and a general lack of agreement on the key components of addiction. Though the field has made immense progress in the past three decades, it still struggles with the absence of a single integrated theory of addiction and the presence of multiple definitions and models. But why does it matter? Why do we need... Read more →

Open Science Practices to Support Addiction Research

Editor’s note: This op-ed was written by David Mellor, PhD, of the Center for Open Science, as part of this month’s Special Series on Open Science Practices in addiction research. Being able to replicate a colleague’s reported empirical observations is a central premise of how scientific discoveries are expected to be disseminated. This ideal has been central to the expectations of scientific processes for centuries and separates credible findings from incredible observations. The motto of the Royal Society, “Nullius in verba” or “On the word of no one,” exemplifies this ideal by specifying that demonstrating a finding is more important... Read more →

Can the Open Science Revolution Revolutionise Gambling Research?

Editor’s Note: This editorial was written by Drs. Robert Heirene & Sally Gainsbury as part of our Special Series on Open Science Practices. The crisis Over the last 8-10 years there has been a sharp increase in meta-research––that is, research of research; studies of studies. These studies have highlighted a host of poor practices used by scientists when conducting and reporting their research, including P-hacking, (S)HARKing, biased publication decisions, selective outcome reporting, and the use of small, under-powered sample sizes (see Box 1). These practices pose serious concerns for our confidence in the scientific enterprise and are thought to be... Read more →

Introduction to The BASIS Special Series on Open Science Practices

During January 1996, the Division on Addiction created The WAGER, which was the precursor to The BASIS. We created The WAGER because academic research, including addiction research, often is locked behind paywalls. This history suggests that The WAGER was an early open science initiative. We have carried this support for open science forward into our work for The BASIS. The BASIS’s mission is to minimize addiction’s harmful effects by providing the general public, treatment providers, policy makers and others with access to addiction research. Today, interest in open science is growing, in part due to the replication crisis first observed... Read more →