Identifying the most important research, policy and practice questions for substance use, problematic alcohol use and behavioural addictions in autism (SABA-A): A priority setting partnership

There are many challenges in ensuring that we have robust evidence for interventions that might help people with substance use disorders and behavioural addictions. One is that people seek treatment at a significant range of levels of use, and associated problems, and interventions that may be effective at one end of this spectrum (for example brief interventions) will not be effective in those with longstanding severe dependence. The same is true for people who are on the autism spectrum. Added to this, both groups are marginalised within the health care system whereas research and clinical priorities have traditionally been set by the dominant discourse. The Society for the Study of Addictions funded a priority setting partnership to bring together both experts by experience and experts by training to scope the current literature at the interesction of autism and substance use and addictions, and undertake a formal consensus process to determine the ‘critically important’ priorities for research, policy and clinical practice in this area.

This presentation will summarise the process and findings of SABA-A and highlight some of the structural challenges that need to be overcome to enable substance use disorder and behavioural addiction interventions to be developed in accordance with the principles of person-centred care.