United Kingdom

• 2009–10 studies and publications
• 2008–09 studies and publications
• 2007–08 studies and publications
• 2001–06 main studies and 2006 articles

• Research institutions
• Funding institutions
• National scientific journals
• Websites
• Recent studies
• Bibliographic references (2009–11)

For a short overview of drug-related research in the United Kingdom, visit the Country overviews. For a more comprehensive overview of drug-related research in the European countries, download our Selected issue on drug-related research. The United Kingdom National Reports are available here.

Main research institutions

• Crime and Drugs Analysis and Research, Home Office
• Crime and Justice Research, Scottish Government
• Drug Misuse Information, Scotland
• Health Protection Agency
• Health Protection Scotland
• Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
• National Public Health Service for Wales
• The NHS Information Centre
• Public Health Research and Information Branch, Northern Ireland

University research groups and institutes currently undertaking drug-related research

• Addictions Research Group (University of Keele)
• Birmingham Alcohol Drugs Gambling and Addiction Research Group (University of Birmingham)
• Centre for Addiction Research and Education Scotland (University of Dundee)
• Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (King’s College)
• Centre for Criminal Justice Economics and Psychology (University of York)
• Centre for Drug Misuse Research (University of Glasgow)
• Centre for Law and Society (University of Edinburgh)
• Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (Sheffield Hallam University)
• Centre for Public Health (Liverpool John Moore’s University)
• Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)
• Department for Health Science (University of York)
• Drug and Alcohol Research Group (Middlesex University)
• International Centre for Drugs Policy (St. George’s Hospital)
• Institute for Applied Health Research (University of the West of Scotland)
• Mental Health Research and Development Unit (University of Bath)
• National Addiction Centre
• National Drugs Evidence Centre (University of Manchester)
• National Centre for Social Research
• School of Health and Social Care (Oxford Brookes University)
• Scottish Addiction Studies (University of Stirling)

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Main funding institutions

• The government directly funds the majority of drug-related research in the United Kingdom. Government research is occasionally carried out in-house but is often commissioned from outside providers, using competitive tendering for contracts. In addition to research programmes such as the Department of Health Drug Misuse Research Initiative, money is available for individual research studies. These include:
  • Community Safety Division, Department of Social Justice, Welsh Assembly Government
  • Crime and Drugs Analysis and Research, Home Office
  • Drugs Analytical Team, Justice Analytical Programme, Scottish Government
  • Drug Misuse Information, Scotland
  • The National Treatment Agency
  • Public Health Research and Information Branch, Northern Ireland
• Research Councils also provide funding for academic research, including drug-related research. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is a publicly funded, independent organisation that funds research and training in social and economic issues. Drug-related research projects can be funded through direct research grants. Similarly, the Medical Research Council provides funding for medical research and is currently funding a number of projects on addiction.
• Another major source of funding for drug-related research is the Joseph Rowntree Foundation a social research charity.  A Drug and Alcohol Research Programme ran from 2001 to 2005 funding a large number of drug-related research projects and a small number of alcohol projects. However, in 2007 a new programme of research began with a sole focus on alcohol.
• In Scotland, the Robertson Trust sponsors drug-related research as a major topic in one of its four priority areas.

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National scientific journals

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Other websites

• Drug Misuse Information Scotland provides information, statistics and research on drug misuse in Scotland as well as links to other UK research.
• Drugscope’s website includes a comprehensive library of drug literature from the UK and beyond.
• The Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University hosts a Drug Prevention Evidence website, which provides details of research.

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Recent studies used for the 2011 National report

The following studies were amongst those used for the 2011 UK National report and could be seen as among the most relevant, recent studies in United Kingdom. Most of the bibliographic references can be found in the next section of this page.

Chapter 1 — National policy and context

• Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis (Nutt, D. J., King, L. A. and Phillips, L. D., 2010)
• Questioning the method and utility of ranking drug harms in drug policy (Rolles, S. and Measham, F., 2011)
• Research for recovery: A review of the drugs evidence base (Best, D., Rome, A., Hanning, K. A., White, W., Gossop, M., Taylor, A. and Perkins, A., 2010a)
• The impact of research on policy in the drugs field (MacGregor, S., 2011)
• Explaining drug policy: Towards an historical sociology of policy change (Seddon, T., 2011a)
• Can policymakers listen to researchers? An application of the design experiment methodology to a local drugs policy intervention (Askew, R., John, P. and Liu, H., 2010)

Chapter 2 — Drug use in the population

• Patterns of polydrug use in Great Britain: Findings from a national household population survey (Smith, G., Farrell, M., Bunting, B., Houston, J. and Shevlin, M., 2010)
• Turn on, tune in, but don't drop out: The impact of neo-liberalism on magic mushroom users' (in)ability to imagine collectivist social worlds (Riley, S., Thompson. J. and Griffin, C., 2010)
• Mephedrone use and associated adverse effects in school and college/university students before the UK legislation change (Dargan, P., Albert, S. and Wood, D. M., 2010)
• Propinquity, sociability and excitement: exploring the normalisation of sensible drug use among 15–16-year-olds in north-west England and north-east Wales (Smith, A., Thurston, M. and Green, K., 2011)
• Tweaking, bombing, dabbing, and stockpiling: the emergence of mephedrone and the perversity of prohibition (Measham F, Moore K, Newcombe R, Welch Z., 2010)
• Attitudes to drug dependence results from a survey of people living in private households in the UK (Singleton, N., 2010)
• Patterns of substance use among young people attending colleges of further education in Northern Ireland (McCrystal, P. and Percy, A., 2011)

Chapter 3 — Prevention

• We don't have no drugs education: The myth of universal drugs education in English secondary schools? (Fletcher, A., Bonell, C. and Sorhaindo, A., 2010)
• A pilot whole-school intervention to improve school ethos and reduce substance use (Bonnell, C., Sorhaindo, A., Strange, V., Wiggins, M., Allen, E., Fletcher, A. et al., 2010a)
• Pilot multi-method trial of a school-ethos intervention to reduce substance use: Building hypotheses about upstream pathways to prevention (Bonnell, C., Sorhaindo, A., Allen, E., Strange, V. and Wiggins, M., 2010b)
• Cluster randomised trial of the effectiveness of Motivational Interviewing for universal prevention (McCambridge, J., Hunt, C., Jenkins, R. and Strang, J., 2011)
• All Wales School Liaison Core Programme (AWSLCP) evaluation report (Stead, J., Lloyd, G., Baird, A., Brown, J., Riddell, S. and Weedon, E., 2011)
• Evaluating interventions for children of substance using parents: A review of outcome measures (Woolfall , K. and Sumnall, H., 2010)
• The development of the recreational drug outreach educational concept ‘Drug idle’ (Wood, D., Who, S., Alldus, G., Huggett, D., Nicolaou, M.. Chapman, K., Oakley, M., Bessim, E., Julian, K., Sturgeon, K., Ramsey, J. D. and Dargan, P. I., 2010a)
• Early intervention: the next steps. An independent report to Her Majesty’s Government (Allen, G., 2011)
• The challenge of external validity in policy-relevant systematic reviews: a case study from the field of substance misuse (Pearson, M. and Coomber, R., 2010)
• Vulnerable young people and substance-use information-seeking: perceived credibility of different information sources and implications for services (Notley, C., Scaife, V., O'Brien, M., McEune, R., Biggart, L. and Millings, A., 2011)

Chapter 4 — Problem drug use

• Estimates of the prevalence of opiate use and/or crack cocaine use, 2008/09: Sweep 5 report (Hay, G., Gannon, M., Casey, J. and Millar, T., 2010a)
• National and regional estimates of the prevalence of opiate and/or crack cocaine use 2008–09: a summary of key findings (Hay, G., Gannon, M., Casey, J. and Millar, T., 2010b)
• What is a problem drug user? (Seddon, T., 2011b)

Chapter 5 — Drug-related treatment

• Dual diagnosis competency among addiction treatment staff: training levels, training needs and the link to retention (Schulte, S. J., Meier, P. S., Stirling, J. and Berry, M., 2010)
• The therapeutic relationship between therapists and substance-using clients: A qualitative exploration (Kothari, G., Hardy, G. and Rowse, G., 2010)
• Outpatient versus inpatient opioid detoxification: A randomised controlled trial (Day, E. and Strang, J., 2010)
• The effectiveness of an innovative model of community opiate detoxification provided on a supported one-to-one basis (Shaw, C., 2010)
• What is the role of harm reduction when drug users say they want abstinence? (Neale, J., Nettleton, S. and Pickering, L., 2010)
• Recovery and straw men: an analysis of the objections raised to the transition to a recovery model in UK addiction services (Best, D., Bamber, S., Battersby, A., Gilman, M., Groshkova, T. et al., 2010b)
• Breaking the habit (Gyngell, K., 2011)
• Specialist drug and alcohol services for young people — a cost benefit analysis (Frontier Economics, 2011)
• Treatment experience and needs of older drug users in Bristol, UK (Ayres, R. M., Eveson, L., Ingram, J. and Telfer, M., 2011)
• Our invisible addicts. College Report CR165, RCPsych (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2011)
• Can a targeted GP-led clinic improve outcomes for street sex workers who use heroin? (Litchfield, J., Maronge, A., Rigg, T., Rees, B., Harshey, R. and Keen, J., 2010)
• Users, carers and professionals’ experiences of treatment and care for heroin dependency: Implications for practice. A preliminary study (Braden, M., McGowan, I. W., McLaughlin, D. F., McKenna, H. P., Keeney, S. and Quinn, B., 2010)
• Using theories of behaviour change to inform interventions for addictive behaviours (Webb, T., Sniehotta, F. and Michie, S., 2010)
• A study to validate a self-reported version of the ONS drug dependence questionnaire (Uddin, M., Maskrey, V. and Holland, R., 2011)
• The Summit Trial: a field comparison of buprenorphine versus methadone maintenance treatment (Pinto, H., Maskrey, V., Swift, L., Rumball, D., Wagle, A. and Holland, R., 2010)
• Comparing methadone and Suboxone® in applied treatment settings: the experiences of maintenance patients in Lanarkshire (Tanner, G. R., Bordon, N., Conroy, S. and Best, D., 2011)
• How does cognitive behaviour therapy work with opioid-dependent clients? Results of the UKCBTMM study (Kouimtsidis, C., Reynolds, M., Coulton, S. and Drummond, C., 2011)
• Cognitive functioning and cognitive style among drug users in maintenance substitution treatment (King, R. and Best, D., 2011)
• How best to measure change in evaluations of treatment for substance use disorder (Marsden, J., Eastwood, B., Wright, C., Bradbury, C., Knight, J. and Hammond, P., 2011)
• Long-term outcomes of aftercare participation following various forms of drug abuse treatment in Scotland (Vanderplasschen, W., Bloor, M. and McKeganey, N., 2010)

Chapter 6 — Health correlates and consequences

• Unlinked anonymous monitoring survey of injecting drug users in contact with specialist services (HPA — Health Protection Agency, 2011a)
• Anonymous unlinked anonymous HIV and viral hepatitis monitoring among IDUs: 2011 update. Health Protection Report (HPA — Health Protection Agency, 2011b)
• The impact of needle and syringe provision and opiate substitution therapy on the incidence of Hepatitis C virus in injecting drug users: pooling of UK evidence (Turner, K. M., Hutchinson, S., Vickerman, P., Hope, V., Craine, N., Palmateer, N et al., 2011)
• Substance use and common child mental health problems: examining longitudinal associations in a British sample (Goodman, A., 2010)
• ICD-10 coding: poor identification of recreational drug presentations to a large emergency department (Wood, D. M., Conran, P. and Dargan, P. I., 2011)
• Survey of ICD-10 coding of hospital admissions in the UK due to recreational drug toxicity (Shah, A. D., Wood, D. M. and Dargan, P. I., 2011)
• Public injecting drug use and the social production of harmful practice in high-rise tower blocks (London, UK): A Lefebvrian analysis (Parkin, S. and Coomber, R., 2011)
• Attentional bias, inhibitory control and acute stress in current and former opiate addicts (Constantinou, N., Morgan, C. J. A., Battistella, S., O’Ryan, D., Davis, P. and Curran, V. H., 2010)
• Differences in decision-making styles in stimulant-dependent and opiate-dependent individuals (Gorodetzky, H., Sahakian, B. J., Robbins, T. W. and Ersche, K. D., 2010)
• Perceptions of the social harms associated with khat use (Sykes, W., Coleman, N., Desai, P., Groom, C., Gure, M. and Howarth, R., 2010)
• ‘Bundle of fun’ or ‘bunch of problems’? Case series of khat-related deaths in the UK (Corkery, J. M., Schifano, F., Oyefeso, A., Ghodse, A. H., Tonia, T., Naidoo, V. and Button, J., 2010)
• Clinical characteristics of mephedrone toxicity reported to the UK National Poisons Information Service (James, D., Adams, R. D., Spears, R., Cooper, G., Lupton, D.J., Thompson, J. P. and Thomas, S. H. L., 2010)
• Mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone; ‘meow meow’): chemical, pharmacological and clinical issues (Schifano, F., Albanese, A. Fergus, S., Stair, J. L. and Deluca, P. Corazza, O., Davey, Z., Corkery, J., Siemann, H. and Scherbum, N, et al., 2010)
• The adverse consequences of mephedrone use: a case series (Mackay, K., Taylor, M. and Bajaj, N., 2011)
• Mephedrone: use, subjective effects and health risks (Winstock, A., Mitcheson, L., Ramsey, J., Davies, S., Puchnarewicz, M. and Marsden, J., 2011a)
• Modelling the adverse effects associated with ecstasy (MDMA) usage (Fisk, J. E., Murphy, P. N., Montgomery, C. and Hadjiefthyvoulou, F., 2011)
• Ecstasy overdose and memory loss (Foëx, B. A., Subramanian, G. and Butler, J. M., 2010)
• Differences in decision-making styles in stimulant-dependent and opiate-dependent individuals (Gorodetzky, H., Sahakian, B. J., Robbins, T. W. and Ersche, K. D., 2010)
• Ketamine use: a review on behalf of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD) (Morgan, C. J. A. and Curran, H. V., 2011)
• Quantifying the psychological effects of Ketamine: from euphoria to the k-Hole (Stirling, J. and McCoy, L., 2010)
• Harms associated with psychoactive substances: findings of the UK National Drug Survey (Morgan, C. J. A., Muetzelfeldt, L., Muetzelfeldt, M., Nutt, D. J. and Curran, H. V., 2010)
• Impact of cannabidiol (CBD) and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on cannabis effects (Morgan et al., 2010a)
• A web-based survey on mephedrone (Carhart-Harris, R. L. and Nutt, D. J., 2010)
• Physical health problems among patients seeking treatment for substance use disorders: A comparison of drug dependent and alcohol dependent patients (Keaney, F., Gossop, M., Dimech, A., Guerrini, I., Butterworth, M., Al-Hassani, H. and Morinan, A., 2011)
• Mortality of those who attended drug services in Scotland 1996–2006: Record-linkage study (Merrall, E.L., Bird, S.M. and Hutchinson, S.J, 2011)
• Risk of death during and after opiate substitution treatment in primary care: Prospective observational study in UK General Practice Research Database (Cornish, R., Macleod, J., Strang, J., Vickerman, P. and Hickman, M., 2010)
• The impact of drug-related death on staff who have experienced it as part of their caseload: An exploratory study (McAuley, A. and Forsyth, A. J., 2011)
• Differences in 5-year survival after a ‘homeless’ or ‘housed’ drugs-related hospital admission: a study of 15–30-year olds in Scotland (Dibben, C., Atherton, I., Doherty, J. and Baldacchino, A., 2010)
• Drug-related deaths following release from prison: a brief review of the literature with recommendations for practice (Leach, D. and Oliver, P., 2011)
• A quantitative exploration of risk factors associated with drug-related deaths involving heroin, alcohol or methadone in the West of Scotland (McAuley, A. and Best, D., 2011)
• Toxicology of Scotland’s drugs-related deaths in 2000–07: Presence of heroin, methadone, diazepam and alcohol by sex, age-group and era (Bird, S. M. and Robertson, J. R., 2011)
• The influence of hepatitis C and alcohol on liver-related morbidity and mortality in Glasgow's injecting drug user population (McDonald, S.A., Hutchinson, S.J., Mills, P.R., Bird, S.M., Cameron, S., Dillon, J.F., Goldberg, D.J., 2011)
• Mephedrone (4-Methylmethcathinone)-related deaths (Maskell, P.D., De Paoli, G., Seneviratne, C., Pounder, D.J., 2011a)
• Identified mephedrone in four Scottish fatalities between February and May 2010 (Torrance and Cooper, 2010)

Chapter 7 — Responses to health correlates and consequences

• Impact of training for healthcare professionals on how to manage an opioid overdose with naloxone: Effective, but dissemination is challenging (Mayet, S., Manning, V., Williams, A., Loaring, J. and Strang, J., 2010)
• Cessation of groin injecting behaviour among patients on oral opioid substitution treatment (Senbanjo, R., Hunt, N. and Strang, J., 2010)
• The availability of injecting paraphernalia in the UK following the 2003 law change to permit supply (Scott, J., 2010)
• Injecting practices and knowledge of the associated risk among 16–19-year-old injecting drug users in Plymouth, UK (Trudgeon, H. and Evans, D., 2010)
• Recreational drug use presentations during a large outdoor festival event: Reduction in hospital emergency department transfer where medical physicians are present (Wood, D., Beaumont, P., May, D. and Dargan, P., 2010c)
• Meeting the health needs of problematic drug users through community pharmacy: A qualitative study (Mackridge, A., Beynon, C., McVeigh, J., Whitfield, M. and Chandler, M., 2010)

Chapter 8 — Social correlates and consequences

• Sinning and sinned against: The stigmatisation of problem drug users (Lloyd, C., 2010)
• Getting serious about stigma in Scotland: The problem with stigmatising drug users (Singleton, N., 2011a)
• The effect of personal use and family history on the attitudes of medical students toward alcohol and drug users (Linden, I., 2010)
• Crime in England and Wales 2010/11: Findings from the British Crime Survey and police recorded crime (first edition) (Chaplin, R., Flatley, J. and Smith, K. (Eds.), 2011)
• Khat: Social harms and legislation: A literature review (Anderson, D. M. and Carrier, N. C. M., 2011)
• The community impact of RIOTT, a medically supervised injectable maintenance clinic in south London (Miller, P., McKenzie, S., Lintzeris, N., Martin, A. and Strang, J., 2010)
• Perceptions of Crime: Findings from the 2009/10 Northern Ireland Crime Survey Research and Statistical Bulletin 2/2011 (Freel, R., Quigley, D. and Toner, S., 2011)
• Scotland’s People Annual Report. Results from 2009/2010 Scottish Household Survey (Scottish Government, 2011b)
• Housing for recovery. Findings from a survey on access to housing on behalf of the Recovery Partnership (Drugscope, 2011)
• The Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) evaluation project final report (executive summary) (Harwin, J., Ryan, M., Tunnard, J., Pokhrel, S., Alrouh, B., Matias, C. and Momenian-Schneider, 2011)
• The policy context: Reversing a state of neglect (Velleman, R., 2010)
• ‘Exiting’ drug use and sex work: Career paths, interventions and government strategy targets (Cusick, L., Brooks-Gordon, B., Campbell, R. and Edgar, F., 2011)
• Working with alcohol and drug use: Exploring the knowledge and attitudes of social work students (Galvani, S. and Hughes, N., 2010)
• Social work services and recovery from substance misuse: A review of the evidence. practitioners’ briefing (Galavani, S. and Forrester, D., 2011b)

Chapter 9 — Responses to social correlates and consequences

• Drug treatment outcomes in the criminal justice system: what non self-report measures of outcome can tell us (Powell, C., Christie, M., Bankart, J., Bamber, D. and Unell, I., 2011b)

Chapter 10 — Drug markets

• Young person’s behaviour and attitudes survey 2010: Topline results (NISRA — Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency, 2011)
• Abdominal x-ray signs if intra-intestinal drug smuggling (Niewiarowski, S., Gogbashian, A., Afaq, A., Kantor, R. and Win, Z., 2010)
• Experiences with mephedrone pre- and post-legislative controls: Perceptions of safety and sources of supply (McElrath, K. and O'Neill., 2010)

Chapter 11 — Drug-related health policies and services in prison

• User views of punishment: The comparative experience of short prison sentences and community-based punishments (Armstrong, S. and Weaver, B., 2010)
• Drug use and perceived treatment need among newly sentenced prisoners in England and Wales (Stewart, D., 2009)

Chapter 12 — Drug users with children

• The Drug Treatment Outcomes Research Study (DTORS): Final outcomes report 3rd Edition. Home Office Research Report 24 (Jones, A., Donmall, M., Millar, T., Moody, A., Weston, S. Anderson, T. et al., 2009)
• Substance misuse in Wales 2010/11 (Welsh Government, 2011b)
• New estimates of children living with substance misusing parents: results from UK national household surveys (Manning, V., Best, D. W., Faulkner, N. and Totherington, E., 2009)
• Parents who use drugs: Accounting for damage and its limitation (Rhodes, T., Bernays, S. and Houmøller, K., 2010)
• Maternal methadone use in pregnancy: factors associated with the development of neonatal abstinence syndrome and implications for healthcare resources (Dryden, C., Young, D., Hepburn, M. and Mactier, H., 2009)
• Ophthalmic, clinical and visual electrophysiological findings in children born to mothers prescribed substitute methadone in pregnancy (Hamilton, R., McGlone, L., MacKinnon, J. R., Russell, H.C., Bradnam, M.S. and Mactier, H., 2010)
• Identification of strabismus in children born to mothers misusing substances during pregnancy: A clinical and research challenge (Ghetau, E., Bloor, R. and Firth, A. Y., 2009)
• Estimating the numbers of children of problematic drug users and their residential circumstances to inform United Kingdom research, policy and practice (Duffy, P., Shaw, C., Woolfall, K., McVeigh, J. and Beynon, C., 2009)
• Interventions for children and families where there is parental drug misuse (Kroll, B.and Taylor, A., 2009)

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2011 National report bibliography (2010 and 2011 references only)

Please consult the bibliography here.

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