Cochrane

Background Cannabis is the most common illicit drug in the world. Demand by cannabis users for treatment has been increasing in most regions of the world. Currently there are no medications specifically for the treatment of cannabis use. This review sought to assess the effectiveness and safety of medications for the treatment of cannabis dependence. Search ...

Review question We wanted to determine whether talking therapies have an impact on alcohol problems in adult users of illicit drugs (mainly opiates and stimulants) and whether one type of therapy is more effective than another. Background Problematic use of alcohol (that is drinking above the recommended safe drinking limits) can lead to serious ...

Background Drug addiction is a long-term problem caused by an uncontrollable compulsion to seek drugs. It is a serious and growing problem. This makes it important to reduce the number of young people first using drugs, and to prevent the transition from experimental use to addiction. Schools offer the most systematic and efficient way of reaching ...

Review question In this review we ask the question whether banning or restricting the advertising of alcohol in any form will lead to people drinking less alcohol. The form of the ban could include banning alcohol advertisements on television, the internet or billboards, or in magazines. We were also interested in the harms that banning advertisements ...

Background: We reviewed the evidence that School tobacco policies (STPs) might prevent smoking initiation among adolescents, as there may be some evidence that the school environment can influence young people to smoke. STP is intended to regulate whether and where pupils can smoke, adult smoking in school, and penalties for pupils caught smoking. ...

Review question We reviewed the evidence about the effect of exercise programmes in people who want to quit smoking. We looked at whether exercise programmes, either alone or combined with stop smoking programmes, helped more people to quit at six months or longer than stop smoking programmes alone or stop smoking programmes combined with health education. Background Specialist ...

Review question We reviewed the evidence about the effect of maintenance treatment either alone or associated with psychosocial intervention compared with no intervention, placebo, other pharmacological intervention, pharmacological detoxification or psychosocial intervention in adolescents (13 to 18 years). Background Substance abuse among adolescents ...

Background We reviewed the evidence that printed materials giving structured advice about how to stop smoking help people to quit. We looked for trials of any type of printed self-help material which gave structured support and advice about quitting. We also included materials in audio or video format but we did not include internet programmes or ...

Detoxification treatment for heroin dependents adolescents Review question We reviewed the evidence on the effect of detoxification treatment compared with pharmacological maintenance treatment or psychosocial intervention in achieving abstinence on adolescents heroin dependents. Background Substance abuse among adolescents (13 to 18 years old) ...

Smoking is a well-known risk factor for complications after surgery. Stopping smoking before surgery is likely to reduce the risk of complications. We reviewed the evidence about the effects of providing smoking cessation interventions to people awaiting surgery on their success in quitting at the time of surgery and longer-term, and at complications ...