In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim speaks to Dr Emma Beard, a lecturer in statistics and quantitative methods at University College London. The interview covers Emma’s research report titled, ‘How much does the absence of the ‘hidden population’ from United Kingdom household surveys underestimate smoking prevalence?’

· How we normally estimate the smoking prevalence reported in official statistics [01:28]

· Why it is important to consider the hidden population [01:55]

· The consequences of not taking into account the hidden population when estimating smoking prevalence [02:35]

· The ‘workbook method’: how we estimate the hidden population [02:55]

· The key findings and implications of these findings [03:30]

· The size of the hidden population in the UK [04:42]

· The huge undertaking of this research project to find these data [05:25]

· The consideration of adolescent populations within smoking prevalence statistics [06:44]

· What can be done within research to be more inclusive of hidden populations [07:52]

· How Emma’s research can contribute to policy and practice [08:44]

· The argument for more and better data to include hidden populations [10:00]

In Emma’s paper, the hidden population for household surveys was defined as people from or living in communal establishments (e.g. care homes, student residence, prison), immigration detention centres, Gypsy, Roma and Travelling Communities, short-term accommodation, and those experiencing homelessness, including sofa surfing.

About Emma Beard: Dr Beard is a Lecturer in Statistics and Quantitative Methods at University College London. She has over 130 publications on a variety of topics, with a key focus on tobacco harm reduction, high-risk alcohol consumption, and statistical methodology. Her research focuses on evaluating smoking cessation interventions and policies. She is a Deputy Methodological and Statistical Editor for the journal Addiction.

About Tsen Vei Lim: Dr Tsen Vei Lim is an academic fellow supported by the Society for the Study of Addiction, currently based at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. His research integrates computational modelling, experimental psychology, and neuroimaging to understand the neuropsychological basis of addictive behaviours. He holds a PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bath (UK).

Original editorial: How much does the absence of the ‘hidden population’ from United Kingdom household surveys underestimate smoking prevalence? https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70071

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.

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In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth speaks to Professor Joanne Neale from the Addictions Department at King’s College London and Professor Brian Kelly from the Department of Sociology at Indiana University. The interview covers their editorial titled, ‘Over a decade later and Addiction journal is still committed to publishing qualitative research’.

· The origins of the editorial and why it is needed [01:01]

· The goal of the changes Addiction is implementing for qualitative submissions [01:44]

· The importance of increasing the word limit to 6,000 words [02:49]

· Whether similar journals in the addiction field struggle with low numbers of qualitative submissions [04:19]

· The increase in qualitative editors at the Addiction journal since 2013 [05:52]

· Finding consensus among a diversity of disciplines on the editorial board [07:21]

· Semi-quantification over quantification in qualitative research [08:30]

· What the authors hope to achieve with this editorial [09:36]

· The take-home messages for qualitative researchers [11:04]

About Professor Joanne Neale: Jo is Professor of Addictions Qualitative Research based within the National Addiction Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK. She is also Conjoint Professor in the Centre for Social Research in Health at UNSW Sydney, Australia. Joanne trained in social work and is the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Lead for the UK NIHR Addictions Policy Research Unit. Her current research focuses largely on patient perceptions of treatments and interventions for alcohol and other drug use. In the last three years, Joanne Neale has received, through her university, research funding from Mundipharma Research Ltd and Camurus AB and honoraria from Camurus AB and Indivior for presentations.

About Professor Brian Kelly: Brian is a Professor of Sociology at Indiana University and also Senior Research Program Leader at the Irsay Institute. His research examines social contextual influences on health, mainly focusing on substance use. His current research projects include the influence of policy contexts on youth substance use trajectories, sibling socialisation processes of adolescent substance use, and the impact of disasters on community drug-related outcomes.

Original editorial: Over a decade later and Addiction journal is still committed to publishing qualitative research https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70047

Qualitative guidelines for Addiction: (1) https://doi.org/10.1111/add.12408 and (2) https://doi.org/10.1111/add.12857

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to Dr James MacKillop, a clinical psychologist and professor at McMaster University in Canada, and director for both the Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research and the Michael G DeGroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research. The interview covers his research report on the diagnostic validity of drinking behaviour for identifying alcohol use disorder (AUD) with findings from a representative sample of community adults and an inpatient clinical sample.

· What alcohol use disorder is and how it is currently diagnosed [01:41]

· The surprising exclusion of drinking behaviour in AUD diagnosis [03:03]

· Unpacking ‘receiver operating characteristic curves’ [04:42]

· The key findings of the study [05:45]

· Whether James’ findings will change how we think about diagnosing AUD [07:35]

· Why clinicians would benefit collecting how much people are drinking in one session [09:32]

· Whether an indicator of heavy drinking would be helpful in treatment settings [10:35]

· Bringing objective data into clinical application [12:09]

· Whether we can use a similar metric to other drugs, such as cannabis [13:09]

· What we can learn for policy and further research [15:56]

· The barrier of the lack of biomarkers in alcohol use disorder [18:00]

· The take-home message of the paper [19:40]

About Tsen Vei Lim: Tsen Vei is an academic fellow supported by the SSA, currently based at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. His research integrates computational modelling, experimental psychology, and neuroimaging to understand the neuropsychological basis of addictive behaviours. He holds a PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bath (UK).

About James MacKillop PhD, CPsych, FCAHS: Dr. MacKillop holds the Peter Boris Chair in Addictions Research and a Canada Research Chair in Translational Addiction Research at McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. There, Dr. MacKillop directs both the Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research and the DeGroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research. Dr. MacKillop trained as a clinical psychologist at Binghamton University and Brown University and studies addiction using a multidisciplinary approach, integrating psychology, economics, neuroscience, and genetics.

James receives unrestricted research funding from Canadian Institutes on Health Research, the National Institutes of Health, and Correctional Services of Canada and am a senior scientist and principal in Beam Diagnostics, Inc., a technology transfer start-up company. The latter had no relationship to the publication in Addiction.

Original article: Diagnostic validity of drinking behaviour for identifying alcohol use disorder: Findings from a representative sample of community adults and an inpatient clinical sample. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70037

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal. The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.