Reducing Underage Drinking


Book Description

Alcohol use by young people is extremely dangerous - both to themselves and society at large. Underage alcohol use is associated with traffic fatalities, violence, unsafe sex, suicide, educational failure, and other problem behaviors that diminish the prospects of future success, as well as health risks â€" and the earlier teens start drinking, the greater the danger. Despite these serious concerns, the media continues to make drinking look attractive to youth, and it remains possible and even easy for teenagers to get access to alcohol. Why is this dangerous behavior so pervasive? What can be done to prevent it? What will work and who is responsible for making sure it happens? Reducing Underage Drinking addresses these questions and proposes a new way to combat underage alcohol use. It explores the ways in which may different individuals and groups contribute to the problem and how they can be enlisted to prevent it. Reducing Underage Drinking will serve as both a game plan and a call to arms for anyone with an investment in youth health and safety.




Drugs, Driving and Traffic Safety


Book Description

Drugs, Driving and Traffic Safety gives a comprehensive overview of the effects of different medical conditions like neurological disorders, anxiety and depression and their pharmaceutical treatment on driving ability. In addition, the effects of alcohol and drugs of abuse are discussed. Leading experts present the different methodologies to examine effects of drugs on driving, and summarize the recent scientific evidence including epidemiological studies, roadside surveys, laboratory tests, driving simulators, and the standardized driving test. The volume includes guidelines of the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS) and the ICADTS Drugs List 2007. Drugs, Driving and Traffic Safety is written for physicians, psychiatrists and pharmacists who want to inform their patients who use psychoactive drugs.







One for the Road


Book Description

Don’t drink and drive. It's a deceptively simple rule, but one that is all too often ignored. And while efforts to eliminate drunk driving have been around as long as automobiles, every movement to keep drunks from driving has hit some alarming bumps in the road. Barron H. Lerner narrates the two strong—and vocal—sides to this debate in the United States: those who argue vehemently against drunk driving, and those who believe the problem is exaggerated and overregulated. A public health professor and historian of medicine, Lerner asks why these opposing views exist, examining drunk driving in the context of American beliefs about alcoholism, driving, individualism, and civil liberties. Angry and bereaved activist leaders and advocacy groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving campaign passionately for education and legislation, but even as people continue to be killed, many Americans remain unwilling to take stronger steps to address the problem. Lerner attributes this attitude to Americans’ love of drinking and love of driving, an inadequate public transportation system, the strength of the alcohol lobby, and the enduring backlash against Prohibition. The stories of people killed and maimed by drunk drivers are heartrending, and the country’s routine rejection of reasonable strategies for ending drunk driving is frustratingly inexplicable. This book is a fascinating study of the culture of drunk driving, grassroots and professional efforts to stop it, and a public that has consistently challenged and tested the limits of individual freedom. Why, despite decades and decades of warnings, do people still choose to drive while intoxicated? One for the Road provides crucial historical lessons for understanding the old epidemic of drunk driving and the new epidemic of distracted driving.




Effectiveness of Behavioral Highway Safety Countermeasures


Book Description

TRB¿s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 622: Effectiveness of Behavioral Highway Safety Countermeasures explores a framework and guidance for estimating the costs and benefits of emerging, experimental, untried, or unproven behavioral highway safety countermeasures.




Brain Injury Medicine


Book Description

Covers the full continuum from early diagnosis and evaluation through rehabilitation, post-acute care, and community re-entry. Includes assessment and treatment, epidemiology, pathophysiology, neuroanatomy, neuroimaging, the neuroscientific basis for rehabilitation, ethical and medicolegal issues, life-care planning, and more.




Handbook of Teen and Novice Drivers


Book Description

Despite a growing body of research and targeted remediation, teenage and novice drivers continue to be six to nine times more likely to die in a crash than they are when they are just a few years older. The World Health Organization reports that road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death globally among 15 to 19 year olds. In light of these crash statistics, understanding the teen driver problem remains of paramount public health importance around the world. The Handbook of Teen and Novice Drivers: Research, Practice, Policy, and Directions provides critical knowledge for a broad range of potential readers, including students, teachers, researchers in academics, industry and the federal government, public policy makers at all levels, insurance companies and automobile manufacturers, driving instructors, and parents and their teens.




The Oxford Handbook of Substance Use and Substance Use Disorders


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Substance Use and Substance Use Disorders provides comprehensive reviews of key areas of inquiry into the fundamental nature of substance use and SUDs, their features, causes, consequences, course, treatment, and prevention.




FORENSIC ALCOHOL TEST EVIDENCE (FATE)


Book Description

Everyday problems associated with the consequences of alcohol use disorders require answers, and it is for this reason Forensic Alcohol Test Evidence (FATE) was written. Forensic alcohol test evidence focuses on the evaluation, interpretation and application of the effects of alcohol or an alcohol test result to some legal issue such as a crime, accident or consequence of alcohol exposure. In FATE, many of the issues pertinent to a thorough forensic evaluation and trial testimony are discussed, but most importantly is the focus on consistent, unbiased, and comprehensive application of diverse scientific disciplines and research to questions of forensic interest. This requires evaluating behavioral, analytical, physiological, pharmacological and toxicological evidence in the puzzle; determining if the pieces go together; and reaching a conclusion to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty. The first chapter discusses what is forensic alcohol test evidence and why it is studied. Chapter 2 explores forensic alcohol evidence and what are the types of alcohol and quantitative expression of blood alcohol. Chapter 3 examines alcohol pharmacokinetics, alcohol pharmacodynamics site of alcohol action, and basic neurophysiology. Neuropharmacology of alcohol intoxication is also discussed. Chapter 4 covers laboratory and clinical-based tests of impairment. In Chapter 5, DWI high-risk behaviors and injuries are discussed. Chapter 6 defines alcohol and the law: drunk driving, visible intoxication, and aggression, while Chapter 7 covers the DWI investigation and arrest, elements of the DWI report, outside vehicle test, and obtaining blood samples. Chapters 8 and 9 describe alcohol-drug interactions and medical consequences and toxicological considerations. Chapters 10 and 11 pursue alcohol use, tolerance, dependence, and the need for standardization and estimating blood alcohol levels. The remaining two chapters cover accident reconstruction and neuropsychology. This book will be an essential tool and valuable resource for all law enforcement officers and investigators, forensic examiners and other professionals in the evaluation and interpretation of alcohol evidence in crimes and accidents.