Alcohol and Substance Use Initiation, Escalation and Recovery

Welcome to the first issue of the 41st volume of the Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly (ATQ). Of particular note is that this volume and issue mark the ATQ’s 13th year of publication with Taylor & Francis. Over the years, we have found our partnership with the publishing house to be effective and helpful in presenting high quality research related to alcohol use disorders (AUD) and other substances use disorders (SUD). Our thanks are extended to all involved.

In the next section, we provide a brief overview of the articles included in this issue. Each article contains thoughtful and beneficial information across alcohol and substance use disorder science within several themes. This issue includes several articles with insights about perceptions and decision-making as they relate to alcohol and substance use initiation, escalation and/or recovery. Each work has something for relevant for healthcare professionals, educators and researchers.

In the first section of this issue, a study regarding the internalized stigma and self-esteem within individuals with alcohol and risky substance use disorder is presented. Akhan and Gezgin Yazici present research from a study with 233 participants undergoing treatment for AUD or SUD at a training hospital. They sought to determine the internalized stigma and self-esteem levels of patients and identify related influential factors, and then explored correlations alcohol and substance use disorder progression. The results indicate that self-esteem and internalized stigma can be important concepts to explore in clinical settings as both may be related to progression. Nichols and colleagues explored the association between problem drinking, depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Their goal was to expound on the literature and provide more precision for examining links between AUD, major depression, and suicidal ideation. These authors drew from the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (ITOS) and utilized structural equation modeling to explore a complex phenomenon.

The next articles present relevant and useful information specific to women and recovery. First, Nowakowski-Sims and Ferrante present their findings from a qualitative study centered around Integrative Body-Mind-Spirit (IBMS) practice among women in a residential recovery program. In this research article the authors detail the need for a gender-responsive approaches to the treatment process. The authors reported that IBMS may be useful as an alternative coping mechanism to alcohol and substance use. Next, Antunes de Campos and colleagues share ethnographic research detailing how women in Brazil conceive and experience their recovery from AUD. This article presents information that contributes to the understanding of gender inequalities in peer self-help group settings. Owens, Banta-Green and Newman provide a thought-provoking piece on a recovery community center model. The authors utilized a grounded theory qualitative approach to explore the perceptions of staff and member facilitators regarding their ideas about which components of the center model were helpful. Among the several themes that emerged from the research, the authors highlighted concepts, such as recovery capital and mechanisms of recovery, that merit further research.

Nelaturi and peers present an updated review on the relationship of alcohol use to hypertension, from a hospital-based prospective case-control study involving 139 study subjects. The authors describe the relationship between alcohol use, body mass index, metabolic syndrome and hypertension. Further, AUD was identified as a contributing factor for the progression of hypertension.

In the next section, we present two articles related to collegiate populations. O’Shields and Baldwin-White present a review and analysis of the effect of Social Networking Sites (SNS) have on college student drinking. Data from a sample of 330 college students was used to explore the impact of SNS on drinking behaviors. The authors make targeted recommendations for future research. Ferreira and peers assessed components of brief interventions for alcohol use among university workers. They found the items that most influenced participants feedback, empathy, and counseling access.

Haverfield and Theiss provide an insightful analysis of the role of parental communication and adolescent emotional regulation regarding families with harmful parental alcohol use. The study used Baumrind’s parenting styles typology as a theoretical foundation. The authors reported that adolescent perceptions of parental communication were strong predictors of adolescent emotion regulation. Additionally, the researchers report on the effect of parental alcohol use impacting the process. We close this issue with a review of cinema depicting aspects of alcohol use disorder. Rodriguez and peers present a thoughtful analysis of how artforms can be used to share stories and reflect a variety of human conditions, including alcohol, in a different medium

This issue of the ATQ is both focused and wide-ranging. This continues the traditions we have at ATQ and reflects the breadth and depth of problems that can be associated with alcohol and other substance use. As always, the ATQ editors invite you, the readers, to respond to the content of this issue and to submit articles and reviews. Our journal provides gathering place for a wide range of alcohol and substance use disorder topics. We are consistently happy to work with both seasoned and novice authors.