Examining trends in the representation of young people and alcohol in Australian newspapers over twenty years (2000-2019)

Background: The news media can reflect and influence public opinion, as well as affect individual practice. In the context of significant changes in alcohol consumption among young people over the past twenty years, we examined Australian newspaper reporting of young people (under 18 years) and alcohol to assess whether there have been changes over time in the content and slant of articles that reflect or elucidate these trends. Methods: Factiva was used to search newspaper articles from major Australian newspapers over a twenty year period (2000-2019). After screening, two researchers coded 2,415 newspaper articles across four key domains: article type, article theme, sources cited and topic slant (e.g. approving, disapproving tone). Change over time across the study period was assessed using joinpoint Poisson regression analyses. Results: There was a significant increase in articles on young people and alcohol between 2000 and 2008, before a corresponding decrease to 2019. Policy or prevention strategies were the most common theme of articles (35.8%), followed by articles reporting on risks or harms associated with alcohol use for young people (18.1%). Researchers were the most common source reported (25.1%), followed by politicians (19.0%). Three quarters of articles (75.9%) had a socially disapproving topic slant, which increased significantly up until 2011, with a corresponding decrease thereafter. Conclusion: Attention to, and problematisation of, young people and alcohol increased in the first decade of this millennium which may have acted to sustain or accelerate declining drinking trends. However, this dissipated back to baseline levels in the second decade, which may indicate a lag time in recognition of young people’s drinking becoming less of a public health ‘problem’

Declining drinking among adolescents: are we seeing a denormalisation of drinking and a normalisation of non-drinking?

Background In the early 2000s, alcohol use among young people began to decline in many western countries, especially among adolescents (aged between 12-17 years old). These declines have continued steadily over the past two decades, against the backdrop of much smaller declines among the general population. Argument Hypotheses examining individual factors fail adequately to provide the necessary ‘big picture’ thinking needed to understand declines in adolescent drinking. We use the normalisation thesis to argue that there is strong international evidence for both processes of denormalisation of drinking and normalisation of non-drinking occurring for adolescents in many western countries. Conclusions Research on declining adolescent drinking provides evidence of both denormalisation of alcohol consumption and normalisation of non-drinking. This has implications for enabling policy environments more amenable to regulation and increasing the acceptability of non-drinking in social contexts. Normalisation theory (and its various interpretations) provides a useful multi-dimensional tool for understanding declines in adolescent drinking

Why is adolescent drinking declining? A systematic review and narrative synthesis

Background: Adolescent drinking has declined across many developed countries from the turn of the century. The aim of this review is to explore existing evidence examining possible reasons for this decline. Methods: We conducted systematic searches across five databases: Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Informit Health and Scopus. Studies were included if association between declining alcohol consumption and potential explanatory factors were measured over time. Narrative synthesis was undertaken due to substantial methodological heterogeneity in these studies. Results: 17 studies met the inclusion criteria. Five studies found moderate evidence for changes in parental practices as a potential cause for the decline. Five studies that examined whether alcohol policy changes influenced the decline found weak evidence of association. Three studies explored whether alcohol use has been substituted by illicit substances but no evidence was found. Two studies examined the effect of a weaker economy; both identified increase in adolescent alcohol use during times of economic crisis. One study indicated that changes in exposure to alcohol advertising were positively associated with the decline and another examined the role of immigration of non-drinking populations but found no evidence of association. One study tested participation in organised sports and party lifestyle as a potential cause but did not use robust analytical methods and therefore did not provide strong evidence of association for the decline. Conclusions: The most robust and consistent evidence was identified for shifts in parental practices. Further research is required using robust analytical methods such as ARIMA modelling techniques and utilising cross-national data

GAMBLINGLESS: FOR LIFE study protocol: a pragmatic randomised trial of an online cognitive–behavioural programme for disordered gambling

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Discrimination of delays of reinforcement in aversive conditioning.

<p>(a) The protein level changes of CA125 and LRG1 were confirmed in the larger sample set 2. (b) Marker distributions for the EOC patients with different histological subtypes.</p

Social identity differentiation predicts commitment to sobriety and wellbeing in residents of therapeutic communities

© 2019 Rationale: Therapeutic communities (TC) for alcohol and other drug treatment rely strongly on social factors as agents of recovery; an approach known as ‘community-as-method’. This study adopted a social identity approach in examining the relative strength of participants' recovery group identity and substance using group identity at admission (T1) and after six months (T2) in a TC. Objectives: Were to investigate whether identity differentiation – the extent to which respondents see themselves more as belonging to recovery groups than belonging to substance using groups – (a) is related to individuals' primary substance of concern (i.e., amphetamine type stimulants; alcohol; other drugs), and (b) predicts positive indicators of recovery six months after entering a therapeutic community. Method: Adults (N = 307) entering one of five Australian therapeutic communities (TC) completed measures of identification (user, recovery), commitment to sobriety, psychological distress, and personal wellbeing. Results: Participants' endorsement of the user and recovery identity at T1 and T2 did not differ as a function of primary substance of concern. User identity diminished over the six months while recovery identity remained high, regardless of primary drug category. Identity differentiation measured at T2 accounted for 20–25% variance in commitment to sobriety and wellbeing, after accounting for participant demographics, addiction severity, and T1 identity variables. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of the relative strength of recovery over substance use related identities in supporting recovery indicators and the central role of the TC in supporting this trajectory

Phenotypic alterations in type II alveolar epithelial cells in CD4+ T cell mediated lung inflammation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although the contribution of alveolar type II epithelial cell (AEC II) activities in various aspects of respiratory immune regulation has become increasingly appreciated, our understanding of the contribution of AEC II transcriptosome in immunopathologic lung injury remains poorly understood. We have previously established a mouse model for chronic T cell-mediated pulmonary inflammation in which influenza hemagglutinin (HA) is expressed as a transgene in AEC II, in mice expressing a transgenic T cell receptor specific for a class II-restricted epitope of HA. Pulmonary inflammation in these mice occurs as a result of CD4⁺T cell recognition of alveolar antigen. This model was utilized to assess the profile of inflammatory mediators expressed by alveolar epithelial target cells triggered by antigen-specific recognition in CD4⁺T cell-mediated lung inflammation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We established a method that allows the flow cytometric negative selection and isolation of primary AEC II of high viability and purity. Genome wide transcriptional profiling was performed on mRNA isolated from AEC II isolated from healthy mice and from mice with acute and chronic CD4⁺T cell-mediated pulmonary inflammation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>T cell-mediated inflammation was associated with expression of a broad array of cytokine and chemokine genes by AEC II cell, indicating a potential contribution of epithelial-derived chemoattractants to the inflammatory cell parenchymal infiltration. Morphologically, there was an increase in the size of activated epithelial cells, and on the molecular level, comparative transcriptome analyses of AEC II from inflamed versus normal lungs provide a detailed characterization of the specific inflammatory genes expressed in AEC II induced in the context of CD4⁺T cell-mediated pneumonitis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>An important contribution of AEC II gene expression to the orchestration and regulation of interstitial pneumonitis is suggested by the panoply of inflammatory genes expressed by this cell population, and this may provide insight into the molecular pathogenesis of pulmonary inflammatory states. CD4⁺T cell recognition of antigen presented by AEC II cells appears to be a potent trigger for activation of the alveolar cell inflammatory transcriptosome.</p