Brief Report: Competency-Based Supervision in Motivational Interviewing for Advanced Psychology Trainees: Targeting an A Priori Benchmark.

Motivational interviewing (MI) is an evidence based intervention with considerable support for promoting behavior change across a broad range of health and mental health issues. Despite its effectiveness, challenges associated with learning the approach may limit its full implementation in many clinical settings. The aim of the present study was to evaluate a supervised MI training practicum implemented within a doctoral internship/postdoctoral fellowship training Program.

The efficacy of Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in VA primary care.

Focused Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (FACT) is a brief intervention based on traditional Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Although there is a growing body of research on the efficacy of ACT for a variety of populations and disorders, there is little research to date on the use of FACT in group settings. This project is 1 of the first of its kind, as it examines data on psychological flexibility, health and mental health status, and symptom reduction from a 4-week FACT group.

Does hangover influence the time to next drink? An investigation using ecological momentary assessment.

Background: Measures of hangover are associated with current and future problematic alcohol use. At present, it is not known whether these associations reflect any direct influence of hangover events on near-term drinking behaviors. The current study aimed to determine whether hangover following a drinking episode influences time to next drink (TTND) and, if so, to determine the direction of this effect and identify any moderating personal or contextual factors.

Concerns related to eating, weight, and shape: typologies and transitions in men during the college years.

Objective: How to best classify concerns related to eating, weight, and shape (CREWS) in men remains an open question. Research on men considering CREWS during different developmental periods could be particularly informative.

Method: Focusing on one potentially dynamic developmental period, this study charts the course of CREWS in men over the college years.

The subjective effects of alcohol-tobacco co-use: an ecological momentary assessment investigation.

Alcohol and tobacco use covary at multiple levels of analysis, and co-use of the 2 substances may have profound health consequences. To characterize the motivationally relevant processes contributing to co-use, the current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine the subjective consequences of naturally occurring simultaneous use of alcohol and tobacco. Current smokers who reported frequently drinking alcohol (N=259) used electronic diaries to monitor their daily experiences for 21 days.

Hangover and risk for alcohol use disorders: existing evidence and potential mechanisms.

Hangover may be related to propensity to develop alcohol use disorders (AUDs). However, the etiological role, if any, played by hangover in AUD is unclear. From a motivational perspective, hangover can be construed as either a deterrent to future alcohol consumption or a setting event for negative reinforcement that could promote deviant drinking practices (e.

Stability and change in patterns of concerns related to eating, weight, and shape in young adult women: a latent transition analysis.

Although college women are known to be at high risk for eating-related problems, relatively little is known about how various aspects of concerns related to eating, weight, and shape are patterned syndromally in this population. Moreover, the extent to which various patterns represent stable conditions or transitory states during this dynamic period of development is unclear. The present study used latent class and latent transition analysis (LCA/LTA) to derive syndromes of concerns related to eating, weight, and shape and movement across these syndromes in a sample of 1,498 women ascertained as first-time freshmen and studied over 4 years.

Reasons for abstaining or limiting drinking: a developmental perspective.

The cross-sectional and longitudinal relations between reasons for abstaining or limiting drinking (RALD) and abstention were examined in a 16-year longitudinal study (N = 489) of college students with and without a family history of alcohol problems. Results indicated that RALD based upon upbringing or religiosity were associated with increased rates of abstention, whereas RALD based upon perceived or experienced negative consequences of drinking were associated with lower rates of abstention and increased alcohol consumption among drinkers. In addition, changes in RALD over time coincided with alcohol consumption transitions.

Are there developmentally limited forms of bipolar disorder?

Bipolar spectrum disorders have traditionally been thought to be chronic in course. However, recent epidemiologic research suggests that there may be developmentally limited forms of bipolar disorder. Two large, nationally representative studies reveal a strikingly high prevalence of bipolar disorders in emerging adulthood (5.

College student receptiveness to various alcohol treatment options.

Objective: Heavy episodic drinking remains a significant problem on college campuses. Although most interventions for college students are behavioral, pharmacological treatments, such as naltrexone, could provide additional options.

Participants: The authors evaluated receptivity to various alcohol treatment options in a general population of college student drinkers (N = 2,084), assessed in 2005.

The effect of dialectical behavior therapy skills use on borderline personality disorder features.

We assessed the effect of DBT skills utilization on features of borderline personality disorder as measured by the Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline Features Scale (PAI-BOR). Participants were outpatients (N = 27) enrolled in a dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) program in a university-affiliated community mental health clinic. Diary cards were collected each week to track self-reported skills use.

A brief readiness to change drinking algorithm: concurrent validity in female VA primary care patients.

Brief primary care interventions for alcohol use should be tailored to patients' readiness to change; however, validated measures of readiness to change are too lengthy to be practical in most primary care settings. We compared a readiness to change drinking algorithm (RTC Algorithm) based on three standardized questions to a validated 12-item readiness to change questionnaire (Rollnick RTCQ) in 85 hazardous drinking female Veterans Affairs (VA) patients. Results from comparisons of mean Rollnick RTCQ scale scores across RTC Algorithm categories suggest good concurrent validity.

Comparison of 3 Depression Screening Methods and Provider Referral in a Veterans Affairs Primary Care Clinic.

BACKGROUND: Concern about underdiagnosis and undertreatment of depression in primary care has led to support for routine screening. Although multiple screening instruments exist, we are not aware of studies to date that have compared different screening strategies, e.g.

Using alcohol screening results and treatment history to assess the severity of at-risk drinking in Veterans Affairs primary care patients.

Background: Primary care providers need practical methods for managing patients who screen positive for at-risk drinking. We evaluated whether scores on brief alcohol screening questionnaires and patient reports of prior alcohol treatment reflect the severity of recent problems due to drinking.

Methods: Veterans Affairs general medicine outpatients who screened positive for at-risk drinking were mailed questionnaires that included the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and a question about prior alcohol treatment or participation in Alcoholics Anonymous ("previously treated").

The TWEAK is weak for alcohol screening among female Veterans Affairs outpatients.

Background: The optimal brief questionnaire for alcohol screening among female patients has not yet been identified. This study compared the performance of the TWEAK (tolerance, worried, eye-opener, amnesia, cutdown), the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), and the AUDIT Consumption (AUDIT-C) as self-administered screening tests for hazardous drinking and/or active alcohol abuse or dependence among female Veterans Affairs (VA) outpatients.

Methods: Women were included in the study if they received care at VA Puget Sound and completed both a self-administered survey containing the AUDIT and TWEAK screening questionnaires and subsequent in-person interviews with the Alcohol Use Disorders and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule.

Two brief alcohol-screening tests From the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): validation in a female Veterans Affairs patient population.

Background: Primary care physicians need a brief alcohol questionnaire that identifies hazardous drinking and alcohol use disorders. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) questions 1 through 3 (AUDIT-C), and AUDIT question 3 alone are effective alcohol-screening tests in male Veterans Affairs (VA) patients, but have not been validated in women.

Methods: Female VA patients (n = 393) completed self-administered questionnaires, including the 10-item AUDIT and a previously proposed modification to AUDIT question 3 with a sex-specific threshold for binge drinking (>/=4 drinks/occasion), and in-person interviews with the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule.

Screening for post-traumatic stress disorder in female Veteran's Affairs patients: validation of the PTSD checklist.

We evaluated the screening validity of a self-report measure for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the PTSD Checklist (PCL), in female Veterans Affairs (VA) patients. All women seen for care at the VA Puget Sound Health Care system from October 1996-January 1999 (n=2,545) were invited to participate in a research interview. Participants (n=282) completed the 17-item PCL, followed by a gold standard diagnostic interview for PTSD, the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS).

Alcohol-related discussions during general medicine appointments of male VA patients who screen positive for at-risk drinking.

Objective: This study describes primary care discussions with patients who screened positive for at-risk drinking. In addition, discussions about alcohol use from 2 clinic firms, one with a provider-prompting intervention, are compared.

Design: Cross-sectional analyses of audiotaped appointments collected over 6 months.