As probably you will know, the Cochrane Collaboration, launched in 1992, is a global cooperative organization aimed to produce, update and disseminate systematic reviews of the effect of health care interventions. Reviews are timely updated and the results are disseminated to clinicians, decision-makers, patients. Systematic reviews are useful because size and availability of primary studies are huge and increasing, access to results of research is sometime random, quality of research is heterogeneous and many studies are too small (low statistical power). The reviews allow to judge whether there are sufficient evidences of effectiveness of the intervention and whether it is necessary to conduct further studies for the evaluation of a treatment and which aspects should be considered. A systematic review is a true research project in which “patients” are primary studies and it can be carried out in a reasonable short (from 6 to 18 months) amount of time. It is therefore suitable for students thesis or other research developments.

Actually there are 50 Review Groups in the Cochrane Collaboration, with different topics covered.

 

List of the Cochrane Groups

 

1.                  Acute Respiratory Infections Group

2.                  Airways Group

3.                  Anaesthesia Group

4.                  Back Group

5.                  Bone, Joint and Muscle Trauma Group

6.                  Breast Cancer Group

7.                  Colorectal Cancer Group

8.                  Consumers and Communication Group

9.                  Cystic Fibrosis and Genetic Disorders Group

10.              Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group

11.              Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Group

12.              Developmental, Psychosocial and Learning Problems Group

13.              Drugs and Alcohol Group

14.              Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders Group

15.              Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group

16.              Epilepsy Group

17.              Eyes and Vision Group

18.              Fertility Regulation Group

19.              Gynaecological Cancer Group

20.              Haematological Malignancies Group

21.              Heart Group

22.              Hepato-Biliary Group

23.              HIV/AIDS Group

24.              Hypertension Group

25.              Incontinence Group

26.              Infectious Diseases Group

27.              Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Functional Bowel Disorders Group

28.              Injuries Group

29.              Lung Cancer Group

30.              Menstrual Disorders and Subfertility Group

31.              Methodology review Group

32.              Metabolic and Endocrine Disorders Group

33.              Movement Disorders Group

34.              Multiple Sclerosis Group

35.              Musculoskeletal Group

36.              Neonatal Group

37.              Neuromuscular Disease Group

38.              Oral Health Group

39.              Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care Group

40.              Peripheral Vascular Diseases Group

41.              Pregnancy and Childbirth Group

42.              Prostatic and Urologic Cancers Group

43.              Renal Group

44.              Schizophrenia Group

45.              Sexually Transmitted Diseases Group

46.              Skin Group

47.              Stroke Group

48.              Tobacco Addiction Group

49.              Upper Gastrointestinal & Pancreatic Diseases Group

50.              Wounds Group

 

 The Cochrane Group on Drug and Alcohol established in 1998, has the editorial base in Rome at the Department of Epidemiology of ASL RM E. As part of the Cochrane collaboration, the group produces, updates and disseminates systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials on prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of the problematic use of drugs and alcohol. The editors of the group are: Marina Davoli (Italy), Robert Ali (Australia), Marc Auriacombe (France), Zhao Chengzheng (China), Fabrizio Faggiano (Italy), Michael Farrell (UK),  David Foxcroft (UK), Walter Ling (USA).

 

The reviews are published on the Cochrane Library (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com) and indexed on PubMed; furthermore starting from 2007 an impact factor will be attributed to the Cochrane reviews.

 

As of February 2006 the group published 31 reviews, 16 review protocols:

 

  There are still many topics uncovered for which it should be interesting to develop new reviews. Particularly, we will be very interested in reviews on treatments for the alcohol abuse/dependence, psycho stimulants and poly-drug use, a frequently recurring modality of dependence.

We made a preliminary search of the published trials for treatment of these type of abuse and we found many studies available.

In the attachment you will find a list of the publications of the Group and a list of the topics still uncovered with the number of published trials related to them. Please consider that this is just a preliminary search and not all studies could be relevant, but this helps selecting topics on which some sort of primary research is available

This list, of course, does not cover all the possible issues on addiction and if you are interested to conduct, or to stimulate one of your students or colleagues to develop a review on a topic not quoted in the list, we might help you anyway.

 

  Our group is very interested in supporting the development of systematic reviews on uncovered topics and to identify new areas for further researchers.  Our Trial Search Coordinator, if needed, can perform the search strategy on the group's specialised register and forward the results to the new reviewer, and we can offer some tutorial on the basis of the identified needs.

Please, do not hesitate to contact us for any clarification or new suggestions you might have.

 

For the Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group