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ABSTRACT Background In 1804 Thomas Trotter, a recently retired Physician to the Fleet, published his 'Essay on Drunkenness'. This was the first ever book-length consideration of the phenomenon of alcohol dependence and its treatment. Aims The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of that treatise on the evolution of relevant ideas over the years that have followed. Methods A factual analysis of the content of the Essay is the starting-point, followed by an examination of sequential published appraisals on the significance, or lack of significance, of this work. Findings and Conclusions To the modern reader, Trotter is likely to be seen as prescient, with his assertion that 'the habit of drunkenness is a disease of the mind', setting the scene for two centuries of debate. The literature, however, seems to suggest that Trotter did not, in fact, achieve much impact either on professional opinion or on the emergent temperance movement. It was Benjamin Rush's 1785 pamphlet on 'Ardent Spirits' which achieved iconic status. Rush and Trotter, although in some ways overlapping in their ideas, differed in other respects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers world new briefs. Yuri V. Fedotov, currently the Russia's Ambassador to Great Britain, will replaced Antonio Maria Costa in leading the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) starting the end of July 2010. City authorities in Moscow banned the selling of vodka from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m., part of a series of effort to cut the country's drinking habit. A coroner in Great Britain confirmed the first person in Northern Ireland who died after taking in the drug mephedrone.

In 1965 the British government was forced to admit that the country had an escalating heroin problem, with the supply coming mainly from prescribing by private practitioners. Within the official responses to what was seen at that time as a very worrying public health situation was the decision to fund the setting-up of the Addiction Research Unit (ARU) at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. The US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) generously sponsored a study tour for the nominated director of the ARU shortly before the opening of the British research centre. Extensive contemporaneous diary notes of a visit included contact with administrators, researchers, clinicians, parish priests, narcotic agents and addicts themselves. From a mass of often conflicting advice, some insights could be derived. In particular, these included the need for an awareness of any country's way of dealing with drug problems as a dynamic, multi-factorial total system—a holistic ‘national response’. A further conclusion was to see policy itself as a complex subject for analysis: drug policy should be as much an issue for research as drug taking. Besides these broad conclusions, the experience provided many specific leads to development of a British addiction research programme, and fostered professional friendships of immeasurable worth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds upon the work of previous authors who have explored the evolution of ideas in the alcohol arena. With revisions in the relevant sections of ICD and DSM forthcoming, such matters are of considerable contemporary importance. The focus here will be upon the history of the last 200 years. The main themes to be explored include the flux of ideas on what, over time, has counted as the trouble with drink, ideas on the cause of the problem and the impact of this thinking on public action. Medical authorities of the late Enlightenment period made the revolutionary suggestion that habitual drunkenness constituted a disease, rather than a vice. The thread of that idea can be traced to the present day, but with an alternative perception of drink itself or alcohol-related problems generally, as cause for concern, also having a lineage. There are several inferences to be drawn from this history: the need for vigilance lest disease formulations become stalking-horses for moralism and social control, the need to integrate awareness of alcohol dependence as a dimensional individual-level problem, with a public health understanding of the vastly amorphous and at least equally important universe of alcohol-related problems; the dangers lurking in scientific reductionism when the problems at issue truly require a multi-disciplinary analysis; and the need for global consensus rather than cultural imposition of ideas on what counts as the problem with drink. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims This paper has as its focus a study tour made by the author in 1961. Diary notes are used to capture a historical moment in the evolution of alcohol studies. The paper will argue for the continuing value today of such experiences in support of career development and the building of ‘the field’. Data sources Diary notes and personal recollection. Findings The United States was at the time more active than the United Kingdom in its response to alcohol problems. There was, however, a disjunction between the elite American research world and the world of action, which was not informed greatly by research. For the most part, treatment services and prevention strategies seemed driven by opinion rather than by evidence. But at the level of serious scientific endeavour there was opportunity to meet influential figures including Seldon Bacon, Morris Chafetz, Milton Gross, Ebbe Curtis Hoff, Harris Isbell, E. M. Jellinek, Mark Keller, Benjamin Kissen, Robert Strauss, Wolf Schmidt and Abraham Wikler, who generously made their time available. Conclusions These diary notes provide a snapshot of a field of endeavour at a critical stage of transition from uninformed assumptions towards establishment of a research base which can inform public action. The visit was of tangible value to the visitor in several different identified ways. Such an experience is inevitably time-bound and personal, but there are general conclusions to be drawn as to the benefits which will be derived from early travel opportunities in a field such as alcohol studies, which is all too easily culture-bound in its horizons and assumptions. Alcohol science needs to be more reflective on its history and the mechanisms that help to make it happen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the series of 13 commissioned statements published by "Addiction" depicting the life and times of a range of societies dealing with alcohol and drugs. The international coverage of the series includes reports from North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australasia. Lists of societies and dates of foundation and key features are also presented in the article. Twelve of the organizations are identifiable as national societies with the 13th international in its membership and intention.

Background In 1977 the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report entitled ‘Alcohol-Related Disabilities’. The crucial contribution of this report was to differentiate between alcohol dependence, on one hand, and alcohol-related disabilities (or problems) on the other hand. Essentially, it offered a bi-axial mapping of the field of concern. Aims This paper seeks to identify the multiple influences which shaped the evolution of this report. Methods Use is made of unpublished archival material and recall of personal involvement, together with relevant published material. Results Three major influences made it possible to move beyond the confines of previous WHO thinking on alcohol: the multi-disciplinary nature of the input; the internationality of the enterprise; and the expectations set that the concepts developed should speak to the practical world. Conclusions The arena of drug and alcohol policy has, for more than a century, been rich in its reports. This case study, although limited in its immediate content, points to the need for further analysis of the history of such reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provenance This paper derives from a lecture given before the Society for the Study of Addiction in November 2004, on the author's retirement from the position of Editor-in-Chief of Addiction, one of the Society's journals. Aim To identify the live processes which have influenced the journal's evolution since its foundation in 1884. Conclusions Over the 120-year period a strong, continuing historical thread has been the fluctuating success of the journal's engagement with its ‘Invisible College’, the community which it seeks to serve. It is argued that the journal's future success will depend on its capacity to explore and nurture further this two-way relationship. Addiction is a journal with an active and clearly articulated, multiple vision of it purpose, and this vision is outlined. It dares to try to influence its future with the authority so to do rooted in its ability to reflect the aspirations and concerns of its readers. It is ‘a journal of the second kind’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In October 2004 the "Addiction" periodical published an editorial criticizing the decision of the British Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to appoint the Chief Executive of the Portman Group, a drinks industry lobby, to the Board of the Alcohol and Education Research Council. We argued that this appointment was contrary to the public interest and should be reversed. We took our stand from the proposition that protecting ‘the integrity of the science base from distortion by industry lobbyists is our concern and duty whatever the country, whatever the research or training body, and across the whole spectrum of vested interests’.

Editorial. Details the Addictions Horizons exercise organized by the journal 'Addiction' aimed at increasing involvement of the scientific constituency in the making of editorial choices. Intentions; Methods; Outcome.

Editorial. Comments on the conflict of interest in the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) publication. Publication of the book 'Health Issues Related to Alcohol Consumption, 2nd Edition'; Financial funding from the drinks industry; Information about ILSI.

This paper seeks to identify the main questions which have emerged from the preceding papers concerning the supply side of alcohol. On any rational analysis these issues are of thoroughly legitimate concern to public health researchers. We list them under seven headings: (1) what drives the alcohol supply side? (2) What is the impact of alcohol supply on demand? (3) What are the benefits and risks to health and safety stemming from deregulation and what are the possibilities to avoid negative effects? (4) What is the size and significance of the alcohol supply which may derive from other than the officially approved channels? (5) Who are the important actors in the alcohol supply system? (6) What are local influences on alcohol supply and its distribution throughout communities? (7) What is to be learned from tobacco and other risky commodities about the importance of supply? Finally, we outline a series of possible next steps for a supply side initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Evaluates the mission of the periodical `Addiction.' Definition of the mission of `Addiction'; Examination of the intentions of several types of the features that constitute the journal's regular output; Contribution of the features to the fulfillment of the periodical's central purpose; Emphasis on the commitment of the periodical to a partnership with its constituency.

Editorial. Describes the `Addiction' convention, which was a two-day meeting of editors of peer-reviewed journals within its specialized field, held in July 1997. Identification of peer-reviewed journals publishing in the specialist field of substance use and related problems; Purpose of the endeavor; Description of the Farmington Consensus.

Suggests that the target for public policy is the prevention of population-wide alcohol-related problems, with problems broadly defined. Alcohol and public policy project; Alcohol problems perspective; Alcohol policies in the problems perspective; Rationality as basis for a European way in responding to alcohol problems.

Editorial. Discusses the editorial review process in the periodical `Addiction.' Submission by a New York University professor of a jargon-laden parody to a scholarly journal to see whether meaningless nonsense would pass editorial review; History of the periodical; Bases for the acceptance or rejection of articles.

Presents a reply to commentaries on the topic `Alcohol Policy and the Public Good,' which was published in the February and November issues of `Addiction.' Interaction between alcohol policies and national diversities; Aims and means of harm reduction; Bias as an issue.

Editorial. Comments that scientists are becoming more involved in the field of alcohol research. Offer of the Portman Group for British scientists; Support of a research center from a major wine producer in California to study alcohol genetics.

Editorial. Presents a comparative study of biomedical ethics and its role in biomedical journal publishing. Ethical problems; Failure at self-regulation; Ethical standards and safeguards made to strengthen scientific publishing; Prevention of the publication of fraudulent reports.

Focuses on exploration of the possible interaction between treatment intensity, patient characteristics with particular reference to degree of dependence on alcohol and 12-month treatment outcome. Empirical evidences of the study; How the study was done; Results of the study.

Attempts to delineate the meaning of a concept of addiction and reductionism in the analysis of ideas. The respectable meaning of reductionism; Good and bad of reductionism; Reductionism and the world of addiction; The challenge to addiction studies.

The casenotes of 144 doctors who had received treatment for substance misuse were analysed. There were no differences between general practitioners (n = 61) and hospital doctors (n = 58) in terms of their substance misuse histories or the problems they incurred. Differences emerged between the consultant (n = 24) and the non-consultant (n = 34) grades of hospital doctor. The consultants were older at onset of problematic use (42.6 ± 8. 6 vs. 29. 9 ± 9. 8 years); they suffered fewer career problems and misused fewer substances. The most frequent pathways into substance use were personality difficulties (76 subjects, 52.8%) and anxiety or depression (46 subjects, 31.9%). A history of depression (n = 36) was associated with perceived stress at work (p = 0.014), and at home (p = 0.06). Past neurotic disturbances (n = 20) were associated with personality difficulties (p = 0. 035), anxiety or depression (p = 0.004), and with an earlier onset of problematic substance use (30.2 ± 8.3 vs. 36.5 ± 9.8 years, p = 0.014). Principal components of possible antecedents yielded one major component on which all elements loaded; this was labelled the 'disturbance score'. This score showed a reduction with increasing age of onset of problematic substance use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors reflect on the need for the abolishment of the death penalty for people convicted of drug trafficking and other drug-associated offences. They mention the responsibility of the international addictions science community to back the abolitionist cause. They present both sides of the argument by citing several cases that have the same impact as drug trafficking.

Presents an obituary for president of the organization Society for the Study of Addiction Robert Kendell who died in November 2002.

Presents an obituary for Max Glatt, researcher and editor of the 'British Journal of Addiction.' Personal background; Academic background; Awards and achievements; Contributions to the Society for the Study of Addiction.

Editorial. Comments on the failure of the journal 'Addiction' to promote addiction treatment. Presentation of several treatments published in the journal; Claims for the efficacy and safety of any treatment for substance abuse; Responsibility of addiction treatment specialists to protect patients.

Editorial. Comments on a meeting regarding alcoholism and other addiction. Identification of some dangers related to addiction; Benefits clinicians gain from patients; Rewards of a bridge to understanding addiction.

States the findings in the previous study regarding the differential characteristics of patients with drinking problems who at two-year follow-up were abstinent or drinking in a controlled fashion. Implications of the analysis indicating absence of matching effects over the initial 12-month follow-up; Conclusions.

The author presents an excerpt from the book "The Duxhurst industrial farm colony for female inebriates," by L.H. Somerset. In the book, Somerset, shared her experiences of helping inebriate women through "Our Farm Home," the first institution employing women in outdoor work of farm and gardens. The author comments that the book is a foundation of the belief that inebriate women could be relieved by removal from 'intoxicated' environment.

Excerpts from "Preparations: new and old," which is a listing of recently published memoranda, and an extensive section of book reviews in the January 1912 issue of British Journal of Inebriety, is presented.

The article focuses on a report regarding pulque-drinking in Mexico by English surgeon John Bland-Sutton which was published in "The British Journal of Inebriety" in 1912. According to the report, pulque was produced by fermentation of the sap of the maquey (Agave Mexicana) in England, London. It describes the aguamiel from the plant as sweet, pale yellow fluid with good taste and very attractive to insects. Moreover , the process of fermentation was more than 24 hours.

The article features T. D. Crothers, a medical superintendent at the Walnut Lodge Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut who edited "The American Journal of Inebriety." It states Crothers' personal friendship of the British journal's editor Norman Kerr and the inaugural Kerr Memorial Lecture Crothers has delivered in 1906. It says that Crothers article "Neuro-psychoses in inebriety" uses the term neuro-psychoses to embrace the wide range of pathologies. It presents several quotations from the paper of Crothers on various topics including alcoholism, inebriety, and the impact of alcohol in orchestra leaders and individuals who depend on sound recognition. Moreover, the author concludes that the article has provided more focus on the dangers inherent to spirit drinking than other beverages.

The article features Mary Scharlieb, president of the Society for the Study of Inebriety and her presidential address. It mentions that Scharlieb was the first woman president of the Society since its foundation in 1884. It states that in her introductory paragraph, she lectures about the origin of the Society and the task scope, and she refers to the scientific development published to their journal "The British Journal of Inebriety." Furthermore, he suggested that the Society was a group of seekers for the truth and race regeneration.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article “The Alcohol Dependence Syndrome: 30 Years Later: A Commentary," by T. Li, B. Hewitt, and B. F. Grant in a previous issue.

The article presents a response to the eight commentaries on the paper "Addiction: a journal and its Invisible College," by Griffith Edwards in a 2006 issue. The author asserts that the "Addiction" journal is committed to supporting individual creativity while at the same time being based strongly on the concept of an editorial collective. He also points out that there is an invisible college of addiction researchers to which many individuals belong.

Presents a letter to the editor to point out the importance of the Journal Interview series because it provides the live sense of people who care about the field of addiction.

This article presents information on the extent of the involvement of alcohol industry in alcohol research funding. In a surprising move, the British government has recently appointed the chief executive of the drinks industry lobby organization, The Portman Group, to the Board of the Alcohol Education and Research Council (AERC). The Portman Group has consistently propagated interpretations of the research evidence that promote the commercial interests of the drinks industry while seeking to discredit research findings that would lead to effective policy measures supporting the interests of public health. AERC is a body that was established in 1982 with funds which had originally been put aside to compensate pub owners who had been adversely affected by licensing provisions during the early part of the 20th century. The AERC has over the years funded valuable research and has supported professional training. It has won the trust and respect of the academic community. There is a cumulative background to present concerns in that the AERC previously had the chairman of The Portman Group on its council and has allowed The Portman Group on occasion to share in joint funding of research projects.

Presents news updates on substance abuse as of February 2003. Vacation habits of addiction researchers; Effects of Nordic alcohol policies; Amsterdam cohort studies on HIV infection and AIDS.

Presents an obituary for Joy Moser, World Health Organization consultant who died on 2001 in Great Britain.

Editorial. Presents the guidelines of the 'Addiction' journal in responding to infringements of ethical publishing expectations. Need to prevent plagiarism, duplicate publication, failure to declare conflict of interest, fraud, inappropriate attribution of authorship credits, breaches of informed consent and abuse of human subjects.

Editorial. Comments on the use of time-series analysis as a contemporary statistical tool in the field of substance abuse. Genesis of the journal 'Addiction'; Capacity of the statistical method for distortion; Rules for the application of time-series regression to alcohol studies.

Editorial. Comments on the use of substance abuse initiatives for conflict resolution. Description of scientist activities for the prevention and treatment of substance abuse; Interface of scientist activities with substance abuse policy; Impact on the peace and security level of the population.

Focuses on the establishment of the International Society of Addiction Journal Editors. Mission and vision of the society; Implication for the international journal publishing enterprises; Rule and bylaws for membership and voting rights.

Editorial. Comments on the selection of Max Glatt as the Distinguished Fellow by the Society for the Study of Addiction in Leeds, England. Purpose of the selection; Educational background; Career history.

Editorial. Comments on the meaning of authorship in modern science. Comparison with classical music and literature; Issues on multiple authorship of research communications; Authorship and the integrity of science.

Reviews the report `Rollestone Committee Report,' by Wayne Hall.