Assessing the European impact of alcohol misuse and illicit drug dependence research: clinical practice guidelines and evidence-base policy

Abstract

BackgroundDespite alcohol and illicit drug dependence being one of the most common diagnoses in Europe, there is heterogeneity of research evidence used in policy and practice.ObjectiveWe sought to (1) evaluate European research outputs on alcohol misuse and drug addiction in 2002–2018 in the Web of Science, (2) compare these with their burden of disease and (3) determine their impact in several ways.MethodsA bibliometric research was undertaken including an assessment of the citation counts, the influence of research on members of national health advisory committees, and their contribution to the evidence base of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs).FindingsThere were 3201 analysed references cited in 28 CPGs across 11 European Countries on alcohol misuse and illicit drug abuse. Research conducted in the USA dominated both sets of CPGs, while many European countries were overcited relative to their research presence. The illicit drug research appeared to be adequate relative to the evidence of harm in Europe. However, alcohol misuse research appeared grossly inadequate to the harm it causes by a factor of 20.ConclusionsThe volume of research on illicit drug addiction is commensurate to the European burden, whereas alcohol misuse is far below what is needed to curb a significant source of harm.Clinical implicationsThe research asymmetries call for attention to the causes of the problem. Development of research-based solutions to a serious social harm is needed, including minimum pricing and collaborative work to harmonise efforts on disease management and treatment practices across European countries.

Mental health disorders research in the countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), 2008–17, and the disease burden: Bibliometric study

“…It is also of note that alcohol abuse is apparently receiving an appropriate amount of attention at 3.9% of the total on an adjusted basis. This compares favourably with the situation in Europe, where research on alcohol misuse is grossly neglected [11]. It is relatively most strongly researched in Uganda (UG), the UAE (AE) and Lebanon (LB).…”

“…We found over 130 papers, of which more than 80 appeared since 2010. Most of them were about particular disorders, notably depression (19), suicide & self-harm ( 13), Alzheimer's disease (11), and addiction and anxiety (10 each). We could find no previous bibliometric study of mental health in this particular political grouping, but mental health research in the 22 Arab countries in 2009-18 was investigated recently [1].…”

“…They also found a rapid increase in output in the last decade. Recent bibliometric studies on individual mental health disorders have included ones on depression [3][4][5], suicide & self-harm [6,7], Alzheimer's disease [8][9][10] and addiction [11][12][13][14]. Most of these papers described the growth in the world literature, or in individual countries or regions.…”

Global burden of female breast cancer and its association with socioeconomic development status, 1990–2044

“…As European countries have a traditional wine‐oriented diet, 50 their total per capita alcohol consumption is higher than that of most developing countries, 51 with the existence of alcohol dependence and abuse. 52 The results of most epidemiological as well as experimental animal studies, 47 suggest that alcohol intake can lead to the development of FBC through different mechanisms. In some African regions, the disease burden from high fasting plasma glucose is even worse.…”

Statistical analysis and machine learning in psychoactive substance use: a bibliometric analysis

“…Significant studies conduct a conceptualization, literature review, or bibliometric analysis of psychoactive substance use (Guo et al 2019;Pallari et al 2020;Schäfer, Hiemke, and Baumann 2016;Schneider et al 2014). One of the first articles referring to bibliometric analysis in the use of psychoactive substances is the work of Herrán et al (1996), who developed a descriptive study based on the review of the journal Atención Primaria on mental health between 1984 and 1995 (Herrán, Artal, and Vázquez-Barquero 1996).…”