Masur J and Monteiro M. (1983). Validation of the “CAGE” alcoholism screening test in a Brazilian psychiatric inpatient hospital setting. Brazilian journal of medical and biological research = Revista brasileira de pesquisas medicas e biologicas, 16(3), 215–218.
One of my first publications, validating a screening questionnaire for use in Brazil, which led to my interest in screening tests and biological markers for alcohol use and dependence.
Monteiro MG and Masur J. (1987). Correlation between biological state markers of alcohol abuse and severity of alcohol dependence syndrome. Alcohol, 4(2), 135–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/0741-8329(87)90012-7
This was one of the publications related to my doctorate thesis, on biological markers of alcohol use. That work connected me to Dr Marc Schuckit, who was working on genetic markers at UCSD, and I did my post-doctoral research training under his supervision. During that period, I was involved in the WHO international collaborative study on state and trait markers of alcohol use and dependence as well, connecting me with the work of WHO HQ.
Babor TF, Higgins-Biddle JC, Saunders JB, and Monteiro MG (2001). AUDIT: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test: Guidelines for use in primary care (2nd ed.). Geneva: World Health Organization.
This was an update of the AUDIT manual of WHO but it led me to get involved in the WHO work on screening and brief interventions, the collaboration led by WHO EURO, and the creation of INEBRIA, under the leadership of Nick Heather. I also supported the creation of INEBRIA LATINA after a couple of years, when I moved to work in Washington DC at PAHO.
Glanz J, Grant B, Monteiro M, Tabakoff B, and WHO/ISBRA Investigators. (2002). WHO/ISBRA study on state and trait markers of alcohol use and dependence: Analysis of demographic, behavioral, physiologic, and drinking variables that contribute to dependence and seeking treatment. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 26(7), 1047–1061. https://doi.org/10.1097/00000374-200207000-00015
This was one of my first international collaborations, and connected me with dozens of researchers worldwide, ISBRA and ESBRA.
Room R, Jernigan D, Carlini-Cotrim B, Gureje O, Mäkelä K, Marshall M, Monteiro M, Medina-Mora ME, Parry CDH, Partanen J, Riley L, and Saxena S. (Eds.). (2002). Alcohol and the developing world: A public health perspective. Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/42645
This was a landmark study about alcohol use in developing societies, differences and commonalities between countries and cultures and the need for an integrated public health approach to alcohol problems.
Chisholm D, Rehm J, Van Ommeren M, and Monteiro M (2004). Reducing the global burden of hazardous alcohol use: a comparative cost-effectiveness analysis. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 65(6):782–793. doi:10.15288/jsa.2004.65.782
This was a study demonstrating that policies like taxation, marketing control, and brief interventions could lead to reductions in population level consumption and harms, and their use in conjunction was better than choosing one (despite taxation being the most cost-effective policy).
Rehm J, Room R, Monteiro M, Gmel G, Graham K, Rehn N, Sempos CT, and Jernigan D (2004). Alcohol as a risk factor for global burden of disease. In M Ezzati, AD Lopez, A Rodgers, and CJL Murray (Eds.), Quantifying selected major risks to health (Vol. 1, pp. 959–1108). Geneva: World Health Organization.
This analysis and several others that were done prior (and after!) for the first time demonstrated the impact of alcohol as a risk factor to the global burden of disease, and not only as health condition. The importance of alcohol became clear and guided global, regional and country actions on policy changes in the years to come.
Monteiro MG (2007). Alcohol and public health in the Americas: A case for action. Washington DC: Pan American Health Organization. https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/2826
This was the first PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) report dedicated to alcohol in the Americas. It helped guide the development of a regional plan of action and many initiatives to prevent and reduce the harm from alcohol in that region.
Taylor B, Rehm J, Caldera JT, Bejarano J, Cayetano C, Kerr-Correa F, Piazza M, Gmel G, Graham K, Greenfield T, Laranjeira R, Lima MC, Magri R, Monteiro MG, Medina Mora ME, Munné M, Romero MP, Tucci AM, and Wilsnack S (2007). Alcohol, gender, culture and harms in the Americas: PAHO multicentric study final report. Washington DC: Pan American Health Organization. https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/2827
This was a large collaborative initiative on gender, alcohol and harms in the Americas, which led to many publications, visibility of alcohol as a gender issue, and the need to analyze data by sex and with a gender perspective, to better serve countries in the region, guiding their actions. It led to the book Unhappy Hours: Alcohol and intimate violence in the Americas, which inspired more studies and initiatives in the region as well.
Humeniuk R, Ali R, Babor TF, Farrell M, Formigoni ML, Jittiwutikarn J, De Lacerda RB, Ling W, Marsden J, Monteiro M, Nhiwatiwa S, Pal H, Poznyak V. and Simon S. (2008). Validation of the alcohol, smoking and substance involvement screening test (ASSIST). Addiction, 103: 1039–1047. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2007.02114.x
This was a pioneering initiative to develop a screening instrument for use in primary care, like the Alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT), but for all major psychoactive substances. It was followed by the development of a brief intervention as well as a self-help guide, which have been used worldwide.
Cherpitel C, Borges G, Giesbrecht N, Monteiro M, and Stockwell T (Eds.). (2013). Prevention of alcohol-related injuries in the Americas: From evidence to policy action. Washington DC: Pan American Health Organization.
This is a publication of the main findings of the PAHO collaborative study on alcohol injuries in emergency rooms, which led to many other publications, collaborations and to another study on alcohol and cannabis use in non-fatal road injuries as well.
Zhang C and Monteiro M (2013). Tactics and practices of the alcohol industry in Latin America: What can policy makers do? International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research, 2(2), 75–81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v2i2.95.
This was a call for the need to regulate the actions of the alcohol industry, documenting how it was interfering with policy actions in Latin America, through the sponsorship of studies on alcohol epidemiology that were not fully valid and influencing Ministries of Health to consider drinkers as the problem (to be solved with treatment) instead of alcohol products (to be solved with regulation and taxation).
Noel JK, Babor TF, Robaina K, Feulner M, Vendrame A, and Monteiro MG (2016). Alcohol marketing in the Americas and Spain during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Tournament. Addiction, 112(Suppl. 1), 64–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.13487
This was an original study to document the extent of alcohol marketing in soccer, at the World Cup, to show why marketing regulation was needed. It was supportive of other work on alcohol marketing regulation led by PAHO, proposing all possibilities for reguation, including a full ban, and how it related to human rights violations, particularly for children.
Lange S, Probst C, Heer N, Roerecke M, Rehm J, Monteiro MG, Shield K, Oliveira C, and Popova S (2017). Actual and predicted prevalence of alcohol consumption during pregnancy in Latin America and the Caribbean: Systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, 41, e89. https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2017.89
This analysis clearly showed how much women drank during pregnancy and the potential impact on the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) by country. It helped inform actions in various countries, capacity-building activities, and training on identification of FASD, and it increased awareness about this problem in the Americas.
Valente JY, Sohi I, Garcia-Cerde R, Monteiro MG, and Sanchez ZM (2021). What is associated with the increased frequency of heavy episodic drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic? Data from the PAHO regional web-based survey. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 221, Article 108621. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108621
This was a large web-based survey during COVID that revealed how drinking was changing during the pandemic, by type of drinker and by sex. It led to other studies worldwide which usually had similar findings. People who were drinking excessively already before the pandemic increased their drinking during the pandemic, while overall levels of consumption decreased due to less availability of alcohol.
Monteiro MG, Martins CB, Sanchez ZM, Rehm J, Shield K, Falade R, MacDiarmid J, and Trangenstein P (2021). Assessing Sustainable Development Goal Target Indicator 3.5.2: Trends in alcohol per capita consumption in the Americas 1990–2016. Revista panamericana de salud publica, 45, e142. https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2021.142
The adoption of the SDG agenda and the inclusion of alcohol in target 3.5.2. led to the need to document the level of consumption and harms in the Americas, and this study provided information needed not only for monitoring purposes but also for policy action.
Monteiro MG, Pantani D, Pinsky I, Hernandes Rocha TA (2022). The development of the Pan American Health Organization digital health specialist on alcohol use. Frontiers in Digital Health, 4, 948187. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2022.948187. PMID: 36386047; PMCID: PMC9643434.
This was a pilot and innovative initiative to develop the first digital health specialist dedicated to topics related to alcohol use and possible brief advice for those interested in reducing or stopping use. The AI health specialist was named Pahola, and it spoke four languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese and French) to an unlimited number of users, via video and/or text. It had a human-like appearance, and it was a prototype which had the potential to be very helpful as an educational and health promotion tool.
Roche M, Sandoval RC, and Monteiro MG (2023). Comparing taxes on alcoholic beverages in the Region of the Americas. Addiction, 118(7), 1389–1395. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16146
This was the first time PAHO collected data on alcohol prices, taxes and the tax structure in most countries of the Americas, following the work done already in tobacco. It demonstrated how low the taxes are and how they could be changed to make alcohol products less affordable to the public but still generate revenue for governments while reducing the harms due to alcohol consumption.
