Substance Use Research Group

Enhancing the lives of people who use substances: understanding, reducing and preventing harm, and informing optimal service delivery.

Purpose and aims

To provide robust, timely, and useful evidence of what works to improve the health and wellbeing and reduce harms of people who use substances in Scotland and beyond. We do this by valuing and working with people with lived and living experience, service providers, and policy makers, to design, conduct, disseminate, and implement meaningful and impactful research. Our research aims to understand the harms associated with a wide range of substances, and to inform the design and delivery of interventions and services. Our research adopts a broad definition of “harms”, which includes: accidental/non-accidental and fatal/non-fatal overdose; physical, psychological and social harms; harms to families and friends; and harms to wider society. We work with a broad definition of “Substances”, which includes Illicit substances (e.g., heroin, cocaine, cannabis, fake medicines); Licit - whether prescribed or non-prescribed (e.g., opiate substitution treatments; benzodiazepines; antidepressants, over the counter pain relief medications, alcohol, tobacco).

Methods

We use mixed and multiple methods in our research. The group has expertise in a range of quantitative and qualitative methods, e.g., Implementation methods; In-depth qualitative studies; Ethnography; Realist Evaluation; Administrative and birth cohort data analysis; participatory research methods; evidence synthesis (Meta-analysis; Meta-synthesis; Realist synthesis). We use co-production methods to inform and evaluate person-centred interventions to improve health and wellbeing, and to inform the design and delivery of optimal services.

Workstreams

Our work is conducted in two workstreams: 

1. Understanding, reducing, and preventing harms
2. Design and delivery of services

Understanding, reducing, and preventing harms

This workstream focuses on understanding the social, psychological, physical, and environmental influences on the harms experienced by people who use substances, to inform strategies to minimise these harms.

Our specific research areas in this workstream are:

• Harmful effects of opiates in woman and children
• Alcohol licensing
• Tobacco use in severe and enduring mental health problems
• Benzodiazepine prescribing
• Efficacy, tolerability, and safety of antidepressants
• Fake drug safety
• Over the counter pain medication safety

Design and delivery of services

This workstream focuses on improving services for people who use substances and to understand how services interact with and deliver effective services. We work in partnership with people and service providers at all stages of the research process. We also work with the NHS and policy makers to identify effective and sustainable policies and interventions to impact on substance use related health and social care. Our research in this workstream recognises the importance of integrative and collaborative approaches to the delivery of health and social care, including partners from the third sector and independent providers of health and social care services.
Our specific research areas in this workstream are:

•  Primary care-based (dentistry and general practice) alcohol screening
• Care pathways and experience of care for people living with substance use and mental ill-health
• Drug and alcohol service delivery in remote rural locations
• Services for Opiate Substitution therapy and Needle and Syringe Programmes
• Substance use in Prison settings.
• Collaboration with dentistry and other institution (e.g., NHS24) for the education of the community around pain management and the safe use of medication (e.g., paracetamol)
• Presence, impact and use among the population of fake medicines; post-Brexit regulatory aspects of manufacture, importation, and distribution of fake/counterfeit medicines

People

We have backgrounds in: 

• Lived and living experience
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Mental Health
• Public Health
• Social Work
• Medical Anthropology