Third European Conference on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies

The Lisbon Addictions 2019 (23-25 October 2019) is a multidisciplinary conference that provides a forum for networking across the addictions. With over 1500 participants this is a great opportunity to share the results of the research projects of Eranid and discuss the implications for research and policy with the audience.

The following projects will be represented during the structured session on Wednesday, 23 October, 2019 - 13:20 to 14:50.

ImagenPathways Understanding the Interplay between Cultural, Biological and Subjective Factors in Drug Use Pathways

This multidisciplinary ImagenPathways (IP) research project extends the ongoing research with the IMAGEN cohort (2000 young adults from 4 EU countries, followed since age 14), with indepth quantitative and qualitative assessments at age 22/23. This project uniquely combines within-person variables (already assessed extensively in IMAGEN, including personality, brain functioning and genetics) with in-depth analysis of psychosocial variables including drug use identities, motives related to specific use patterns, social networks and social media use. Combining the strengths of both approaches, this add-on project is in a unique position to study the interplay of variables at different levels of description in the etiology of drug use pathways, including pathways into non-drug use, functional recreational and problematic drug use.
Speaker: Reinout Wiers | Professor of Developmental Psychopathology | University of Amsterdam

ALAMA-nightlife Understanding the dynamics and consequences of young adult substance use pathways, a longitudinal and momentary analysis in the European nightlife scene.

The general objective of this multi-method study is to gain insight into drug use and nightlife participation in the European nightclub scene, to understand how drug use patterns change over time as well as their short and long term consequences. With a number of complementary and innovative methodologies we will generate a unique and rich data set with a European scope, reflecting different cultures and drug markets to address a wide range of practice and policy based questions.
Speaker: Margriet van Laar | Head of drug monitoring | Trimbos Institute

ATTUNE Understanding Pathways to Stimulant Use: a mixed-methods examination of the individual, social and cultural factors shaping illicit stimulant use across Europe.

This project aims to examine pathways of drug use among users of illicit stimulants in Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic. The project will explore why some individuals exposed to ATS do not start to consume, some users manage to keep their stimulant consumption on a comparatively controlled level and/or stop consumption altogether, while others switch to risky consumption patterns and/or develop dependency. We are also interested in the relationship that stimulant users have with other illicit and licit substances, especially alcohol and new psychoactive substances (“legal highs”). By analysing these individual pathways or trajectories of drug use “careers” the project seeks to identify and understand potential risk and/or resilience factors that might contribute to risky and dependent drug use respectively.
Speaker: Uwe Verthein | Director Centre of Interdisciplinary Addiction Research (ZIS) | University of Hamburg
 

REC-Path Recovery pathways and societal responses in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium

While the recovery model has been increasingly accepted in policy and practice in mental health, there has been less

consistent application of this approach for addictions. Recovery in ENGLAND has been a dominant policy since 2010 (Home Office, 2010), with clear impact on commissioning and service delivery. Yet, the impact in other European countries has only recently begun to take effect. Our study attempts to assess these 'structural' variations in recovery policy and practice, comparing England with two countries only beginning to embed a recovery model in substance use policy - the Netherlands and Belgium - and to advance recovery-oriented strategies and interventions based on individuals’ recovery experiences, while addressing more universal questions about mechanisms of behaviour change and life course transitions.
Speaker: David Best | Professor and head of Criminology | Sheffield Hallam University

IDPSO Illicit drug policies and social outcomes: a cross-country analysis.

The objective of this project is to assess how differences in national drug laws and policies related to illicit drug production, distribution and consumption impact on key drug-related social indicators, with a particular focus on cannabis. In a nutshell, in order to achieve this objective, this research projects aims, first, to translate into quantitative indicators the different ‘written’ policies, typically approved and enacted by law, as well as the perceptions, by stakeholders, of policies ‘in action’. Second, this research project aims to measure their impact on key indicators for drug use.
Speaker: Ricardo Goncalves | Associate professor | Católica Porto Business School

STANDUP Sensory Processing SensiTivity AND drug Use recovery Pathways

The personality trait sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), also termed HSP after highly sensitive person, renders some individuals more sensitive to environmental stimuli compared to others. This environmental sensitivity involves both negative and positive stimuli.In this project the association between SPS, environmental stimuli and drug use is investigated, in human subjects and animals. Also underlying neural mechanisms are investigated, based on the hypothesis that SPS is due to glutamatergic hyperexcitability, increasing sensitivity and reactivity to environmental stimuli.
Speaker: Judith Homberg | Professor Translational Neuroscience | Radboud University