We released a pretty cool dataset/preprint today looking at video game play, cognition, time-use and a ton of self-reported psych measures at osf.io/preprints/ps... with @nballou.bsky.social @matti.vuorre.com @thomashakman.bsky.social @rpsychologist.com and @shuhbillskee.bsky.social RRs coming soon

THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent sheep I have met on walks. You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.

Utility of Substance-Free Alternatives in Treating and Preventing Harmful Substance Use: A Narrative Review of the Translational Research Spectrum This is an important literature review on a crucial topic in the prevention and treatment of addictions. 1/2 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

SARG Director @jholmessheff.bsky.social was part of an expert panel that supported the development of 'A Healthier Future: A long-term vision to tackle alcohol harm in the UK', a significant new report published by the Institute of Alcohol Studies @ias.org.uk this week. @fohsheffield.bsky.social

🌍 Alcohol causes 2.6 million premature deaths each year, yet remains the world’s favourite drug. 🍺 A major Lancet Public Health study shows most countries are far off WHO’s 2030 target to cut drinking by 20%. 🧵 THREAD #PublicHealth #Addiction #AlcoholPolicy #GlobalHealth

Voters in the German city of Hamburg recently rejected the idea of a free payment for all residents.

Listening to Tommy Robinson What did I learn by giving the right-wing activist my ears for 90 minutes? https://tomstafford.substack.com/p/listening-to-tommy-robinson

🚨NEW - Train hero who saved passengers during attack confuses racists by being a Muslim Click for more: open.substack.com/pub/mrhenrym...

Great article on the spread and impact of gambling in the USA in @psychologytoday.com. Thanks for inviting me to contribute. www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/... @uofgsps.bsky.social @uofgussp.bsky.social @psychologytoday.com

THREAD A week ago, we published this statement by the Greater Manchester Asylum Hotels Group. The response has been overwhelming. The group has had many messages of support from our local area and beyond, and people have been inspired to share the message far and wide in their own communities.

📣 Introducing new funding schemes from the SSA and Office for Life Sciences tinyurl.com/mrxwrh8k | Applications for PhD studentships and fellowships open on 3 November

Our experimental alcohol administration study on the tension reduction hypothesis has been published in Addiction! 🎉 See preprint thread below for a summary :) Https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70213

The SSA are running several webinars about key stages of a research career, including applying for a PhD, fellowship and research grant. These have a great speaker line up -I highly recommend to any addiction researchers!

www.theguardian.com/society/2025... Self regulation in action Its almost too egregious to be true Ill have it on loud repeat at every licensing committee meeting Im at

Lots of coverage today on these new government proposals to reform the alcohol licensing system. I can see an inherent popular appeal to allowing pubs to stay open later, but I have a lot of thoughts about why these plans are an extremely bad idea.. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

My GREAT Centre colleague, Jamie Torrance, has written this piece about the worrying rise in influencer-led gambling on livestream platforms theconversation.com/why-people-a...

Gambling Survey for Great Britain 2024 report now live! Findings include associations between in-play betting & gambling harms; socio-economic disparities btw weekly gamblers. Data in UK Data archive soon! www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-a... @uofgsocsci.bsky.social @uofgussp.bsky.social

The ACTUAL truth about moderation substack.com/@jamesmorris...

It's odd that Republicans can do the mental gymnastics to link Tylenol to autism, but not link gun deaths to guns.

Sober months like Dry January have become increasingly popular in recent years, but do they actually change how we drink? In this blog, @aishamoolla.bsky.social outlines the findings from recent @sarg-scharr.bsky.social research on the short and long-term impacts. www.ias.org.uk/2025/09/23/d...

this exists it is called thinking

So that’s the end of my 10 day trip - solo travelling around Andalucia (Seville, Cádiz, Granada) ending with a conference in Almeria where I caught up with old friends and made some new ones. It’s a really lovely region to visit, couldn’t pick a favourite, but I do want to come back!

This is good - to add to my daily Wordle and Worldle (yes, two different things)

laugh then think that’s the spirit of the Ig Nobel Prize! 🎉 Our study on alcohol and foreign language skills was honored yesterday. Study team: Jessica Werthmann, Inge Kersbergen & @fieldmatt.bsky.social Here is a link to the full show for everybody who missed it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1cP...

Other exciting news - my brilliant colleague Lucy Burke has had her 1st PhD paper published in BMJ Public Health. It looks as associations between the reasons why we drink alcohol and whether we drink no- and low-alcohol drinks and has some important implications for the NHS 10-year plan.

Extremely proud and a bit jealous that my excellent colleagues @fieldmatt.bsky.social and Inge Kersbergen have won this year's Ig Nobel Peace prize for showing that being a bit tipsy makes you better at speaking Dutch. arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Well. This was nice www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

What a monumental bellend. I was in a documentary he hosted in the distant past. Little did I know…

"I'm a stupid moron with an ugly face and a big butt and my butt smells and... I like to kiss my own butt"

Was great to share findings from the CONGAM project on contingency management for gambling harm at the #EABCT conference in Glasgow with @fieldmatt.bsky.social @carolagetty.bsky.social @clinpsych.bsky.social and to compete with Comic Con for attendees! 🦸‍♂️

🆕Research from @uofglasgow.bsky.social shows gambling-related harms affect not only individuals but also their partners’ emotional wellbeing. Find out more: tinyurl.com/4xybkamk @shwardle.bsky.social

This just published. Great work by Michelle Oxtoby. Full article: Lower caution, not inhibitory control, predicts gambling severity – a Registered Report www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Great thread! ⬇️

📢 New SARG paper 📢 This study aimed to investigate whether drinking occasion characteristics differ between those who moderate their drinking and those who do not, and among different subtypes of moderators. #alcoholresearch #publichealth

'Immigration doesn't bother me but it seems to bother everyone else' – Everyone. This is what happens when the media runs away with Hard Right narratives.

🎉 Huge congratulations to SARG researcher @ambercopeland.bsky.social who has secured almost £600k funding from the @wellcometrust.bsky.social to develop a cutting-edge computational model that explores how a person's environment influences their attempts to cut down on alcohol. #PublicHealth

The SSA explored the background of ketamine and the drug's therapeutic potential with former PhD student Merve Mollaahmetoglu, who reviewed 83 studies of ketamine treatment. Read the full interview here: www.addiction-ssa.org/features/int...

I remember when academic summers involved sitting in the garden reading, thinking and writing papers. Where and when did it all go wrong?

UK gambling industry launches summer charm offensive to head off tax rise www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Can you use off the shelf generative LLMs (eg ChatGPT, Claude) to assess personality from brief bits of unconstrained, open-ended text? If so, how well do they do? Turns out you can, and they do amazingly well. I couldn't believe how well. Here's our pre-print on it and a 🧵

More evidence on how 'othering' is a barrier to problem recognition amongst at-risk/heavy drinking groups. Great novel study led by the excellent @melissaoldham.bsky.social and colleagues.. Open access 👇

Trains. Looks like Delay Repay will continue to be an important source of income.

We're looking for people in Sheffield who regularly drink alcohol, experience financial difficulties and don't often drink no and low alcoholic drinks. As a thank you, you'll receive £20 Love2shop voucher for taking part. Find out more about the project and how to take part: tinyurl.com/mwrtp9we

I was on the BBC Radio Sheffield yesterday talking about our @ias.org.uk funded project on exploring whether no and low alcoholic drinks can help people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds to reduce their alcohol consumption.

New paper from myself and Matt Gaskell (Northern Gambling Clinics) out today. Commentary on excellent article from Phil Newall. Perhaps of interest if you like your commercial determinants of health applied to addiction. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

People think money has ruined football but the sight of a rapist dictator standing next to a corrupt football official in front of a big gold trophy at a competition bankrolled by Saudi Arabia reminds me the game still belongs to us.

Publish, baby, publish and perish by getting drown while making us rich! 3 points to reckon and think about: www.theguardian.com/science/2025... 1/

the plausibility that dysfunctions in the first three to be traced in the brain (i.e., DA, 5HT and NE) caused the major psychiatric disorders strains to the breaking point any sense of credulity. 2/2