9781444318869

Addiction Research Methods is a comprehensive handbook for health professionals, policy-makers and researchers working and training in the field of addiction.The book provides a clear, comprehensive and practical guide to research design, methods and analysis within the context of the field of alcohol and other drugs. The reader is introduced to fundamental principles and key issues; and is orientated to available sources of information and key literature.

List of contributors
Introduction
Introduction
Where to start?
Does theory matter?
The literature review
Which method suits my question - is a screwdriver better than a saw?
Focus and structure of the book
Terminology
The need for a wider perspective and more careful selection of study design
Research Fundamentals
Reliability and validity
Introduction
Background: Reliability and validity in addiction research
Reliability and validity in addiction research
Strengthening the quality of your results and conclusions: A brief checklist to improve reliability and validity
Summary
Sampling strategies for addiction research
Introduction
Probability sampling
Non-probability sampling
Qualitative sampling
Selecting your sampling approach
Technical considerations
Conclusion
Experimental design issues in addiction research
Introduction
What constitutes an experiment?
Is an experiment appropriate?
What kind of experimental design
What intervention and comparison conditions?
What target population and recruitment strategy?
What sample size?
What outcome measures?
What statistical analyses?
Conclusions
Qualitative methods and theory in addictions research
Introduction
Theory
A recurring debate
Principles for practice
Data generation
Analysis
Conclusions
Ethical issues in alcohol, other drugs and addiction-related research
Introduction
Key concepts
Major ethical frameworks
Addiction-specific ethical issues
Writing an ethics application
Ethical processes in different countries
Influence of funding body
Ethical dissemination
Conclusion
Basic Toolbox
Surveys and questionnaire design
Introduction
Brief history
Survey research designs
Advantages and limitations of survey research designs
Modes of data collection
Questionnaire design
Piloting the questionnaire
Technological assistance
Common challenges
Interviews
Introduction
Why interviews?
Reliability and validity of self-reported information
Interviewing skills
Types of interviews
Types of interview data
Technological resources
Summary
Scales for research in the addictions
Introduction
Screening instruments
Frequency of substance use
Multi-dimensional scales
Dependence
Psychopathology
Summary
Biomarkers of alcohol and other drug use
Introduction
Uses of state biomarkers in research
General principles when considering biomarkers
Summary
Quantitative data analysis
Introduction
Imagining data - planning the study
Collecting data - gathering the measurements
Organising data - structuring the measurements
Describing data - what do the data look like?
Manipulating data
Relationships within the data
Interpreting relationships within the data
Conclusion and exercises
Real World Research Methods
Applied research methods
Introduction
Auditing clinical activity in the city
Needs assessment
Qualitative research approaches
Evaluation research
The audit cycle
Measuring outcomes in applied settings
Overview and conclusions
Conducting clinical research
Conducting clinical research
Discussion and conclusions: The role of the practitioner-researcher
Biological Methods
Psychopharmacology
Introduction
Psychopharmacology: drugs, behaviour, physiology and the brain
Measuring drug effects
Human drug self-administration
Drug withdrawal and craving
Summary
Imaging
Introduction
Introduction to neuroimaging
Imaging techniques 235
Image analysis 241
Some considerations when setting up an imaging study
Genes, genetics, genomics and epigenetics
Introduction
Animal studies
Quantitative genetics
Molecular genetics
Why bother? 263
An addiction gene
Ethics
Concluding remarks
Animal models
Introduction
Basic principles of behaviour: Reinforcement
Basic principles of behaviour: Effects of environmental cues
Drug self-administration: Simple schedules
Drug self-administration: Using dose-effect curves to assess the effects of treatments
Drug self-administration: Measuring the reinforcing effects of drugs
Drug self-administration: Modelling the effects of environmental cues with second-order schedules
Drug self-administration: Reinstatement
Drug self-administration: Modelling the uncontrolled and compulsive nature of addiction
Intracranial drug self-administration and intracranial electrical self-stimulation
Drug self-administration: Advantages and disadvantages
Conditioned place preference
Drug discrimination
Locomotor activity
Adjunct procedures
Integration of behavioural and neuroscience techniques
Specialist Methods
Understanding contexts: Methods and analysis in ethnographic research on drugs
Introduction
Tracing the history of ethnographic drug research
Designing ethnographic research
Getting started
Collecting data
Analysing ethnographic data
Producing ethnographic texts
Conclusion
Epidemiology
Introduction
Origins of epidemiology
Definitions and uses of epidemiology in alcohol and other drug research
Descriptive epidemiology
Epidemiological research designs
Analysis of case-control and cohort studies
Experimental study designs
Potential sources of error in epidemiology
Summary
Meta-analysis: Summarising findings on addiction intervention effects
Introduction
Overview of meta-analytic methods
Issues in meta-analyses of addiction interventions
Limitations
Conclusion
Drug trend monitoring
Introduction
Point of departure - divergent policy perspectives, difficulties in definition and temporal relevance
International, national and local drug monitoring mechanisms
Challenges in monitoring illicit drug use
An overview of common information sources and some of their limitations
Issues for the interpretation and analysis of data
Mixed methods
Triangulation
Reliability and validity
Reflections in a broken mirror: Pragmatic and imperfect solutions to an intractable problem
Drug policy research
Introduction
Methods for quantitatively comparing an intervention's benefits and costs
Issues that arise in quantifying an intervention's benefits and costs
Methods for estimating an intervention's effects
Modelling methods
Summary
Beyond Research
Concluding remarks
Publishing addiction science
Final thoughts
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

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Addiction Research Methods

1444318861

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Table of Contents

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