Alcohol Misuse Research

This call has been launched as part of an on-going MRC and ESRC research strategy on the health and social harms caused by alcohol consumption. The research funded under this call will be considered for co-funding by MRC and Alcohol Research UK.

This call focuses on research supporting the aim of defining harms caused by alcohol and linking these to each of the various drinking behaviours prevalent in the UK. Harm is defined broadly and comprehensively; it ranges from damage to the organs, to the health and mental wellbeing of the drinker; to social harms - for example, the impact on the psychological development of children in a family where there is a heavy drinker. As the objective of defining and linking harms to behaviours is medium–term, this call aims to provide research impetus to support this goal.

The closing date for proposals is 16.00 on 29 November 2013. Proposals should be submitted electronically using the Research Councils’ Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) form.

Detailed guidance on the information required as part of proposals is provided in the Je-S guidance notes for applicants (see link below). All applicants should consult the ESRC Research Funding Guide (see link below) which sets out the rules and regulations governing funding. 

Applications should be submitted through MRC responsive mode or ESRC responsive mode depending on where the major emphasis of the research lies. It is strongly recommended that potential applicants contact the scheme contacts to discuss the remit of their proposal. Both Councils will follow the usual peer review process, supplemented by peer reviewers from the sister Council.

For further guidance on applications in the majority of ESRCs remit, please contact:

For further guidance on applications in the MRCs strategic areas, please contact:

Enquiries relating to the Je-S application procedure should be addressed to:

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Yearly Cost of Rx Drug Misuse: $200 Billion

By Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News

The U.S. spends $200 billion each year -- about 8% of the nation's healthcare tab -- on medical care stemming from improper or unnecessary use of prescription drugs, a new report out Wednesday says.

Much of those costs result from unneeded hospitalizations or doctor visits, according to the study by IMS Health's Institute for Healthcare Informatics, which provides data and other consulting services to the healthcare industry. Medical costs are driven up by patients who don't get the right medications or fail to take their drugs, the misuse of antibiotics, medication errors, and inadequate oversight when patients take multiple drugs.

Even though the use of lower cost generic drugs is high, further increases could shave $10 billion in costs, the report says.

Some private and government pilot programs aiming to better coordinate patient care have helped reduce the problems, the report said.

Some provisions in the federal health law that create financial incentives to better coordinate care and to reduce hospital readmissions may further that progress, said author Murray Aitken, executive director of the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.

The report notes "that even though avoidable costs are significant, encouraging progress is being made in addressing some of the challenges that drive wasteful spending in many parts of the healthcare system.

Medication adherence among large populations of patients with three of the most prevalent chronic diseases – hypertension, (high cholesterol) and diabetes – has improved since 2009 by about 3%.

The proportion of patients diagnosed with a cold or the flu – both viral infections that do not respond to antibiotics – who inappropriately received antibiotic prescriptions has fallen from 20% to 6% since 2007.

And, for diseases where lower-cost generic medications are available, use of generics reached 95% in 2012."

This article, which first appeared June 19, 2013, was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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