Reducing Alcohol Misuse and Promoting Treatment Initiation Among Veterans Through a Brief Internet-Based Intervention: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Young adult veterans who served after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 (ie, post-9/11) are at heightened risk for experiencing behavioral health distress and disorders including hazardous drinking, posttraumatic stress disorder, and depression. These veterans often face significant barriers to behavioral health treatment, and reaching them through brief mobile phone-based interventions may help reduce drinking and promote treatment engagement.

Objective: Following a successful pilot study, this randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to further test the efficacy of a brief (ie, single session) mobile phone-delivered personalized normative feedback intervention enhanced with content to promote treatment engagement.

An Examination of Pregaming Behavior and Motives among Sexual and Gender Minority College Students.

Pregaming is a popular but high-risk drinking behavior common among college students. Although sexual and gender minority (SGM) college students are a vulnerable population with regards to hazardous alcohol use and alcohol consequences, there is currently limited research investigating the pregaming behavior of this group. The present study aimed to (1) examine mean level differences in pregaming behaviors and motives between SGM and non-SGM college students and (2) explore how SGM status was associated with pregaming behaviors and if SGM status moderated the association between motives and pregaming behaviors.

A latent profile analysis of social anxiety, depression, and pregaming motives among heavy-drinking college students.

Background: Pregaming is a high-risk drinking behavior that is associated with heavy drinking and negative alcohol-related consequences. College students may engage in pregaming for several reasons, including to enhance social experiences or cope with negative affect. Research shows that associations between drinking, social anxiety, and depression are multifaceted.

Barriers and Facilitators to Behavioral Healthcare for Women Veterans: a Mixed-Methods Analysis of the Current Landscape.

Women veterans have historically faced barriers to behavioral health treatment, particularly through the VA. In conjunction, there have been changes in behavioral healthcare delivery resulting from efforts to improve care for women veterans and the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g.

Considerations Around the Use of Intensive Outpatient Programs for Service Members Who Experienced Sexual Trauma in the U.S. Military.

Section 702 of the fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act directed the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility and advisability of using intensive outpatient treatment programs to address posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and associated mental health problems among service members who have experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault while in the military.

Study protocol for a sequential multiple assignment randomized trial to reduce risky drinking among service members and their partners.

Background: Military spouses and partners in relationships with a heavy drinking service member report high levels of mental health concerns and consequences, which are compounded when both partners drink heavily. Military spouses and partners -termed "concerned partners" (CPs)-may be an important gateway for motivating service members (SMs) to seek care. However, CPs may first need to reduce their own drinking and improve their communication to effectively support and encourage changes for their service member partner.

Longitudinal associations between insomnia, cannabis use and stress among US veterans.

Insomnia is highly prevalent among military veterans, with rates nearly double that of civilian populations. Insomnia typically co-occurs with other psychological problems, including substance use (e.g.

A mobile-based pregaming drinking prevention intervention for college students: A pilot randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Pregaming is among the riskiest drinking behaviors in which college students engage, often leading to elevated blood alcohol levels and negative alcohol-related consequences. Yet, tailored interventions to reduce risk associated with pregaming are lacking. The present study was designed to develop and evaluate the efficacy of a brief, mobile-based intervention targeting heavy drinking during pregaming among college students, called Pregaming Awareness in College Environments (PACE).

High Spirits? Exploring "Halloweekend" Alcohol and Cannabis Use Among Heavy-Drinking College Students.

Objective: Specific events are associated with heavier and riskier substance use behaviors among college students, including holidays like Halloween, which may include several days of themed parties/events ("Halloweekend"). The current study compared drinking, pregaming (i.e.

Study design to evaluate a web-intervention to prevent alcohol and cannabis-impaired driving and use among adolescents in driver education.

Background: Alcohol and cannabis are the most commonly used substances among adolescents in the U.S. The consequences related to using both substances together are significantly higher relative to use of either substance alone.

Injunctive and descriptive normative feedback for college drinking prevention: Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts?

Objective: Single-component personalized normative feedback (PNF) interventions and multicomponent personalized feedback interventions (PFI) have been shown to reduce alcohol consumption among college students. The present study compared the efficacy of PNF interventions targeting descriptive norms alone (descriptive PNF), injunctive norms alone (injunctive PNF), or their combination (combined PNF), against a multicomponent PFI and an attention control condition.

Method: Undergraduates ( = 1,137) across two universities who reported a minimum of one past-month episode of heavy episodic drinking (i.

Increased Risk for Sexual Violence Victimization on Drinking Days Involving Pregaming.

Alcohol consumption has been associated with increased risk for sexual violence victimization and perpetration. Pregaming, a popular activity among college students that involves heavy and quick drinking prior to going out for the night and often results in high blood alcohol levels (BALs), may convey increased risk for sexual violence-potentially due to greater likelihood of contact with intoxicated perpetrators and significantly impaired victim ability to consent or resist. Yet no published work has evaluated whether there is increased risk for victimization on drinking days that involve pregaming.

A Longitudinal Study of Alcohol and Cannabis Use in Young Adulthood: Exploring Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Effects of Peer and Parental Influences From Middle Adolescence.

Objective: This study assessed how changes from middle adolescence to young adulthood in peer and parental influences relate to frequency of alcohol and cannabis use in young adulthood and evaluated the differences between three racial/ethnic groups.

Method: The analytic sample ( = 2,808; 52.9% female; 54% Hispanic, 22.

Military Behavioral Health Staff Perspectives on Telehealth Following the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted sweeping changes to behavioral health care delivery in the Military Health System (MHS), which turned to telehealth to minimize disruptions and ensure continuity of care for service members. Four to seven months into the pandemic, MHS behavioral health staff at ten military treatment facilities shared their experiences using telehealth and their perspectives on its utility, barriers to its wider integration in the MHS, and concerns about its use in the post-pandemic future. Telehealth use was previously low across the MHS, but it increased dramatically with the onset of the pandemic.

A mobile-based pregaming drinking prevention intervention for college students: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Pregaming is a high-drink context popular among college students that often leads to elevated blood alcohol levels and negative consequences. Over 15 years of research studies have demonstrated that pregaming represents one of the riskiest known behaviors among college students, yet no pregaming-specific interventions have been developed to help prevent this behavior. General brief interventions for students do not reduce pregaming behavior and may not be appropriate, as they do not help students develop skills unique to the pregaming context that could help them drink less.

What's sleep got to do with it? Longitudinal associations between insomnia, PTSD, and alcohol use among U.S. Veterans.

U.S. veterans are at risk for insomnia, which often co-occurs with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use.

Protective Behavioral Strategies and Alcohol Use While Pregaming: The Moderating Role of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms.

The study evaluated the moderating role of anxiety and depression symptoms on the association between subscales on the Protective Behavioral Strategies for Pregaming (PBSP) scale (safety and familiarity, setting drink limits, pacing drinking, and minimizing intoxication) and alcohol consumption during pregaming. Participants were 359 traditional age undergraduate college students ( = 20,  = 1.37; 61.

Why Young Adults Obtain a Medical Marijuana Card: Associations with Health Symptoms and Heaviness of Use.

Objective: Prior studies documenting more frequent and problematic use among young adults who have acquired medical marijuana (MM) cards have broadly compared those who use medically to those who use recreationally. Gaining a better picture of how health symptoms and problematic use vary both within those who have a MM card for specific condition domains and between those who do not have a MM card can provide key information for medical practitioners and states interested in adopting or updating MM policies.

Method: The current study categorizes young adults authorized to use MM into three mutually exclusive groups based on endorsements of qualifying conditions: (1) Physical Health only (e.

Multifaceted impulsivity as a moderator of social anxiety and cannabis use during pregaming.

Individuals may drink or use cannabis to cope with social anxiety, and drinking or using cannabis prior to social situations (e.g., pregaming) may be a way to limit the experience of anxiety when entering social settings.

Cognitive-Affective Change Mechanisms in Personalized Normative Feedback via the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations Paradigm.

The research explored explanatory mechanisms of change for a personalized normative feedback (PNF) intervention, through an adapted application of the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situation (ATSS) cognitive think-aloud paradigm. A sample of 70 (51% female) U.S.

Development of a Measure to Assess Protective Behavioral Strategies for Pregaming among Young Adults.

Although most young adults drink alcohol, there are specific drinking contexts that are associated with increased risk for alcohol-related consequences. One such drinking context is pregaming, which typically involves heavy drinking in brief periods of time and has consistently been linked to consequences within the pregaming event itself, on a night after pregaming, and in the long-term. Intervention efforts that specifically target this risky behavior are needed, but these efforts need to be informed by empirical work to better understand what behaviors young people engage in that can protect them from pregaming-related harms.

The Protective Behavioral Strategies for Marijuana Scale: Further examination using item response theory.

Given recent state legislation legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes and majority popular opinion favoring these laws, we developed the Protective Behavioral Strategies for Marijuana scale (PBSM) to identify strategies that may mitigate the harms related to marijuana use among those young people who choose to use the drug. In the current study, we expand on the initial exploratory study of the PBSM to further validate the measure with a large and geographically diverse sample (N = 2,117; 60% women, 30% non-White) of college students from 11 different universities across the United States. We sought to develop a psychometrically sound item bank for the PBSM and to create a short assessment form that minimizes respondent burden and time.

A parent-based intervention reduces heavy episodic drinking among first-year college students.

A randomized controlled trial tested an interactive normative feedback-based intervention-codenamed "FITSTART"-delivered to groups of 50-100 parents of matriculating college students. The 60-min session motivated parents to alter their alcohol-related communication by correcting normative misperceptions (e.g.

Examining the Role of Source Credibility and Reference Group Proximity on Personalized Normative Feedback Interventions for College Student Alcohol Use: A Randomized Laboratory Experiment.

Background: Personalized normative feedback (PNF) interventions are designed to reduce misperceived drinking norms by delivering feedback regarding the actual drinking behavior of college students, thereby leading to subsequent reductions in one's own drinking.

Objective: We examined the roles of data source credibility and reference group proximity in the effectiveness of a laboratory-based PNF intervention to reduce perceived drinking norms and thereby decrease intentions to drink.

Method: Following completion of an online preintervention survey and using a 2 (highly credible data source/low credible data source) × 2 (proximal reference group/distal reference group) between-subjects factorial design, 104 college student drinkers were randomly assigned to condition.