The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

STASH, Vol. 16(3) - Can volunteers with lived experience fill the treatment gap for parents of people with substance use disorder?

This week, as part of our Special Series on Community Approaches to Addiction, STASH reviews a study that evaluated a telephone intervention administered by trained volunteers for parents of individuals suffering from substance use disorder. Read more →

STASH, Vol. 16(2) - Who, what, where, and when? Examining adolescent substance use with routine activity theory

This week, as part of our Special Series on Theories of Addiction, STASH reviews a study by Molly Block and colleagues that examines adolescent substance use with an approach informed by routine activity theory. Read more →

STASH, Vol. 16(1) - Patient-centered care in substance addiction research - How far have we come and where are we going?

Today’s review is part of our month-long Special Series on Open Science Practices in addiction research. During this special series, The BASIS features recent publications that have used contemporary open science practices. Recently, patient centered care (PCC) has been gaining momentum as a treatment strategy. Simply put, PCC aims to prioritize each patient's unique needs by fostering patient-physician communication and shared decision making. This flexible method of care might be especially important in a complex disease such as addiction with its diverse array of expressions. However, different researchers have used different definitions of PCC and we know little about how... Read more →

STASH, Vol. 15(13) - Narrative identity and microdosing psychedelics

This week, STASH reviews a qualitative study by Megan Webb and colleagues that looked at individuals’ practices, reasons, and perceived benefits behind microdosing psychedelics and how they reconcile the use within their identity. Read more →

STASH, Vol. 15(12) - From childhood maltreatment to substance use: The role of attachment style in this relationship

This week, STASH reviews an article by Rajan Hayre and his colleagues that looks at the impact of recent maltreatment and caregiver attachment style on adolescent substance use. Read more →

STASH, Vol. 15(11) - Mapping the opioid epidemic in Massachusetts: How prescribing practices relate to the incidence of fatal opioid overdoses between 2011-2015

This week, STASH reviews a study by Thomas J. Stopka and colleagues that examined how potentially inappropriate prescribing practices could be related to fatal opioid overdoses in Massachusetts between 2011 and 2015. Read more →

STASH, Vol. 15(10) - Local trends in adolescent heroin and injection drug use in the United States between 1999 and 2017

This week, STASH reviews a study by Sherri-Chanelle Brighthaupt and her colleagues that examined the prevalence of adolescent lifetime heroin and injection drug use in major American cities. Read more →

STASH, Vol. 15(9) - WhatsApp with social media and smartphone messaging apps in the illicit drug market?

In 2018, 18% of college students reported having used an illicit drug other than marijuana in the previous year, a rate that is higher than other age groups. These students, and other people their age, might be experimenting with social media apps as a new method for buying and selling drugs. This week, as part of our Special Series on Addiction and Social Media, STASH reviews a study by Leah Moyle and her colleagues looking at how social media applications are currently being used to facilitate drug transactions. What was the research question? What are common practices and motivations for... Read more →

STASH, Vol. 15(8) - Nature vs. nurture: The interaction between early-life adversity and genetics in adult drug use

This week, STASH reviews a study by William Lovallo and colleagues that examined how experiencing adversity during childhood and COMT gene expression interact to play a role in an individual’s adult drug use. Read more →

STASH, Vol. 15(7) - Do medical marijuana laws reduce deaths from prescription opioid and heroin overdoses?

This week, STASH reviews a study by David Powell and colleagues that examined how changes in medical marijuana laws affected deaths due to prescription opioids and heroin. Read more →