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Call for papers: Substance use and related harm in conflict-driven displaced populations

Harm Reduction Journal and Conflict and Health invite you to submit to our cross-journal thematic series, “Substance use and related harm in conflict-driven displaced populations.”

Substance use, particularly psychoactive drug use, and related harm among conflict-driven displaced populations is a neglected area of public health. The limited research that does exist points to a potential increase in risk of HIV and other blood-borne infections among displaced drug users due to an increase in transition from non-injection to injection drug use and an increase in syringe sharing due to reduced access to injecting equipment or disruption of harm reduction interventions. Other harms which have been documented include a range of health, social and protection problems such as injury, sex and gender violence, sexually transmitted infections, disruption to medical care, and negative impacts on household economy. Moreover, there have been few attempts to adapt effective harm reduction interventions to populations displaced by conflict. This joint thematic series of Harm Reduction Journal and Conflict and Health seeks to examine this neglected and timely topic.

We encourage articles on any aspect of substance use and harm reduction in conflict settings and among conflict-driven displaced populations. In particular, we are interested in research derived from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) which are under-represented in social sciences research published in international peer-reviewed journals. We welcome quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research papers, reviews, short reports, commentaries and policy or history articles.

Manuscripts should be formatted according to each journal’s submission guidelines and submitted via the online submission system. Please visit the websites for Harm Reduction Journal and Conflict and Health for these links. All articles in this series will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process. In the submission system, please make sure the correct collection title is chosen at the ‘Additional Information’ step. Please also indicate in the covering letter that the manuscript is to be considered for the “Substance use and related harm in conflict-driven displaced populations” special series.

This is an open-ended series and articles will be accepted for on-going publication. For further information, please contact the Editors at Harm Reduction Journal or Conflict and Health.

Harm Reduction Journal articles will be edited by Prof Kaveh Khoshnood and Prof Nick Crofts
Conflict and Health articles will be edited by Prof Nadine Ezard and Prof Bayard Roberts


  1. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Harm Reduction grant program expanded access to several harm reduction strategies to mitigate opioid overdose fatalities, including expa...

    Authors: Matthew R. Filteau, Brandn Green, Frances Kim and Ki-Ai McBride
    Citation: Harm Reduction Journal 2022 19:111
  2. Police action can increase risky substance use patterns by people who use drugs (PWUD), but it is not known how increased police presence affects utilization of low-barrier substance use disorder bridge clinic...

    Authors: Karrin Weisenthal, Simeon D. Kimmel, Jessica Kehoe, Marc R. Larochelle, Alexander Y. Walley and Jessica L. Taylor
    Citation: Harm Reduction Journal 2022 19:86
  3. Populations affected by humanitarian emergencies are vulnerable to substance (alcohol and other drug) use disorders, yet treatment and prevention services are scarce. Delivering substance use disorder treatmen...

    Authors: M. Claire Greene, Stephanie Haddad, Anja Busse, Nadine Ezard, Peter Ventevogel, Lina Demis, Sachi Inoue, Jan-Christopher Gumm, Giovanna Campello, Wietse A. Tol and Jeremy C. Kane
    Citation: Conflict and Health 2021 15:71
  4. Syrians have been the largest group of refugees in Germany since 2014. Little is known about Syrian refugees` perspectives on substance use. The aim of this study is to investigate the perspective of male refu...

    Authors: Jutta Lindert, Ulrike Neuendorf, Marta Natan and Ingo Schäfer
    Citation: Conflict and Health 2021 15:26
  5. Alcohol and other drug misuse are significant but neglected public health issues in conflict-affected populations. In this article, we review the literature on the challenges and strategies for implementing su...

    Authors: M. Claire Greene, Jeremy C. Kane, Kaveh Khoshnood, Peter Ventevogel and Wietse A. Tol
    Citation: Harm Reduction Journal 2018 15:58
  6. Relations among and interactions between exposure to armed conflict, alcohol misuse, low socioeconomic status, gender (in)equitable decision-making, and intimate partner violence (IPV) represent serious global...

    Authors: Jennifer J. Mootz, Florence Kyoheirwe Muhanguzi, Pavel Panko, Patrick Onyango Mangen, Milton L. Wainberg, Ilana Pinsky and Kaveh Khoshnood
    Citation: Conflict and Health 2018 12:37