We work with our partners to research many different facets of addiction.
The link between effective treatment and robust research is as important today as it was when Lady Parkinson and the late Professor Griffith Edwards established Action on Addiction in its original guise in 1989. The charity still actively campaigns to raise funds for vital research into different facets of addiction. Action on Addiction was instrumental in establishing the National Addiction Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London (KCL). As part of the collaboration, Action on Addiction funded research fellowships at KCL, which led to the development of innovative interventions to address adolescent drug use, research on the integration of 12-Step Fellowships within NHS treatment provision, as well as pioneering work developing overdose prevention strategies suitable for family or peer intervention. All four of the Action on Addiction research fellows are now professors in different parts of the world, and all retain a significant interest in addictions.
In recent years, Action on Addiction has overseen a number of important research studies run by researchers at KCL:
Professor Joanne Neale led a study in specialist addictions treatment centres (including Clouds House) to understand whether or not sleeping problems (caused by consistent drug or alcohol consumption) may lead to relapse and/or prevent recovery. The researchers created a new outcome measure called the Substance Use Sleep Scale (SUSS) to provide a simple way of helping clients in residential treatment centres to improve sleep problems. This measure is now being incorporated into a new recovery app - the Substance Use Recovery Evaluator (SURE) - a psychometrically valid, quick and easy-to-complete outcome measure, developed with unprecedented input from people in recovery.
A study of the safety and acceptability of intravenous buprenorphine as maintenance treatment for injecting drug users who persist in injecting opioids during buprenorphine treatment.
A study of the effectiveness of adaptive addiction treatment for opioid use disorder, which involved administering an opioid substitute in a format never previously used in the UK combined with a range of psychological therapies.
The Substance Use Sleep Scale: a simple way of helping clients in residential treatment centres to improve sleep problems.
The Substance Use Recovery Evaluator (SURE): A psychometrically valid, quick and easy-to-complete outcome measure, developed with unprecedented input from people in recovery.
A study of the effectiveness of adaptive addiction treatment for opioid use disorder comprised the administration of an opioid substitute in a format never previously used in the UK and a range of psychological therapies.