Louise Thornton

An improved brief measure of cannabis misuse: the Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test-Revised (CUDIT-R).

BACKGROUND Cannabis is widely used and significant problems are associated with heavier consumption. When a cannabis misuse screening tool, the CUDIT, was originally published it was noted that although it performed well there was concern about individual items. METHODS 144 patients enrolled in a clinical trial for concurrent depression and substance misuse were administered an expanded CUDIT, containing the original 10 items and 11 candidate replacement items. All patients were assessed for a current cannabis use disorder with the SCID. RESULTS A revised CUDIT-R was developed containing 8 items, two each from the domains of consumption, cannabis problems (abuse), dependence, and psychological features. Although the psychometric adequacy of the original CUDIT was confirmed, the CUDIT-R was shorter and had equivalent or superior psychometric properties. High sensitivity (91%) and specificity (90%) were achieved. CONCLUSIONS The 8-item CUDIT-R has improved performance over the original scale and appears well suited to the task of screening for problematic cannabis use. It may also have potential as a brief routine outcome measure.

A systematic review of psychological interventions for excessive alcohol consumption among people with psychotic disorders.

Baker AL, Hiles SA, Thornton LK, Hides L, Lubman DI. A systematic review of psychological interventions for excessive alcohol consumption among people with psychotic disorders.

Recruiting for health, medical or psychosocial research using Facebook: systematic review

Recruiting participants is a challenge for many health, medical and psychosocial research projects. One tool more frequently being used to improve recruitment is the social networking website Facebook. A systematic review was conducted to identify studies that have used Facebook to recruit participants of all ages, to any psychosocial, health or medical research. 110 unique studies that used Facebook as a recruitment source were included in the review. The majority of studies used a cross-sectional design (80%) and addressed a physical health or disease issue (57%). Half (49%) of the included studies reported specific details of the Facebook recruitment process. Researchers paid between

Reasons for substance use among people with psychotic disorders: method triangulation approach

1.36 and

Attitudes and perceptions towards substances among people with mental disorders: a systematic review

110 per completing participants (Mean =

Perceptions of anti-smoking public health campaigns among people with psychotic disorders

17.48, SD =

Recruiting for addiction research via Facebook

23.06). Among studies that examined the representativeness of their sample, the majority concluded (86%) their Facebook-recruited samples were similarly representative of samples recruited via traditional methods. These results indicate that Facebook is an effective and cost-efficient recruitment method. Researchers should consider their target group, advertisement wording, offering incentives and no-cost methods of recruitment when considering Facebook as a recruitment source. It is hoped this review will assist researchers to make decisions regarding the use of Facebook as a recruitment tool in future research.

Healthy lifestyle intervention for people with severe mental disorders

Substance use disorders (SUD) are common among people with psychotic disorders and are associated with many negative consequences. Understanding the reasons for substance use in this population may allow for the development of more effective prevention and intervention strategies. We examined reasons for tobacco, alcohol, or cannabis use among people with psychotic disorders. Sixty-four participants with a diagnosed psychotic disorder completed a self-report reasons for use questionnaire. A subset of eight participants completed semi-structured qualitative interviews. Both the qualitative and quantitative data indicated that reasons for use of tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis differed considerably. Tobacco was primarily used for coping motives, alcohol for social motives, and cannabis for pleasure enhancement motives. Prevention and intervention strategies targeting coexisting psychotic disorders and SUD may improve in effectiveness if they address the perceived beneficial effects of tobacco use, the strong social pressures influencing alcohol use and if they encourage cannabis users to seek alternative pleasurable activities.

Social influence, addictions and the Internet: the potential of Web 2.0 technologies in enhancing treatment for alcohol/other drug use problems

Thornton LK, Baker AL, Johnson MP, Lewin TJ. Attitudes and perceptions towards substances among people with mental disorders: A systematic review.

Free smoking cessation mobile apps available in Australia: a quality review and content analysis

Background. Among marginalised populations, such as people with psychotic disorders, smoking prevalence rates remain much higher than in the general population. Anti-smoking campaigns conducted in Australia have been found to be associated with change in smoking behaviour and attitudes in the general population. However, no previous research has examined the effectiveness of these campaigns among people with mental disorders, like psychotic disorders. Aims. This study aimed to gain an understanding of how people with psychotic disorders perceive anti-smoking campaigns by examining knowledge of tobacco, exposure, acceptability and attitudes regarding anti-smoking campaigns. Method. A mixed method design was employed in which both quantitative and qualitative data were elicited. Eighty-nine participants with a diagnosed psychotic disorder completed a self-report assessment battery; eight of whom also completed semi-structured telephone interviews which were then analysed via interpretative phenomenological ...