Intensive Motivational Interviewing for Heavy Drinking among Women.

Objectives: Women suffer more severe consequences related to heavy drinking than men. Relative to men, women who are heavy drinkers experience higher severity of medical, psychiatric, and social problems, even when they have fewer years drinking. Currently there are few gender-specific, evidence-based interventions for heavy drinking among women.

Dose-Response Relationship of Alcohol and Injury Cause: Effects of Country-Level Drinking Pattern and Alcohol Policy.

Background: The dose-response relationship of alcohol and injury and the effects of country-level detrimental drinking pattern (DDP) and alcohol control policy on this relationship are examined for specific causes of injury.

Methods: The dose-response risk of injury is analyzed on 18,627 injured patients in 22 countries included in the International Collaborative Alcohol and Injury Study, using case-crossover analysis by cause of injury (traffic, violence, falls, other), DDP, and the International Alcohol Policy and Injury Index.

Results: Risk of all injury was higher at all volume levels in higher DDP countries compared to lower DDP countries and for each cause of injury.

Drinking context and cause of injury: Emergency department studies from 22 countries.

Background: It is estimated that up to a third of injuries requiring emergency department admission are alcohol-related. While injuries that are alcohol-related are unsurprising to emergency department staff, less is understood about the precursors to the injury event.

Methods: Using data from representative emergency department injury patients in 22 countries, we examined associations between context of injury (private or public), cause of injury (fall or trip, being stuck/cut/ or burned and violence) and alcohol use.

Risk of Alcohol-Related Injury: Does Societal Drinking Context Make a Difference?

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine whether country-level frequency of drinking in a public context and in a private context is associated with rates of alcohol-related injury in emergency department studies from those same countries.

Method: Emergency department data on 5,104 injured patients in 10 countries from the International Collaborative Alcohol and Injury Study (ICAIS) and aggregate level drinking context data from the Gender, Alcohol and Culture: An International Study (GENACIS) are analyzed. The association of societal drinking context (public and private) with variation in the rate of self-reported drinking before injury is examined using multilevel modeling.

Multi-level analysis of alcohol-related injury, societal drinking pattern and alcohol control policy: emergency department data from 28 countries.

Background And Aims: Societal-level volume and pattern of drinking and alcohol control policy have received little attention in the alcohol and injury literature. The aim of this study was to estimate the association between alcohol-related injury, individual-level drinking variables, country-level detrimental drinking pattern and alcohol policy.

Design: Probability samples of emergency department (ED) patients from the International Collaborative Alcohol and Injury Study (ICAIS), which includes four collaborative ED studies on alcohol and injury, all using a similar methodology, were analyzed with multi-level modeling of individual-level drinking variables and aggregate-level variables (country drinking pattern and alcohol policy) on alcohol-related injury in 33 ED studies.

Development of the International Alcohol Policy and Injury Index.

Objective: The current work develops the International Alcohol Policy Injury Index (IAPII) to measure the effectiveness of control policies that impact reduction of alcohol-related injury.

Methods: Using cross-sectional data on alcohol policies from five policy domains ( and ), injury death, and alcohol-attributable fractions (AAFs) for vehicular deaths were accessed from the WHO database for 156 countries. A composite indicator, the International Alcohol Policy Injury Index (IAPII), was created to assess the association between policy and death due to injury.

Comparing substance use and mental health outcomes among sexual minority and heterosexual women in probability and non-probability samples.

Objective: To examine similarities and differences in demographics and key substance use and mental health outcomes in a probability sample of heterosexual women and two samples of sexual minority women (SMW), one recruited using probability and the other using non-probability methods.

Methods: Using data from four waves of the National Alcohol Survey (NAS; n = 315 SMW; 10,523 heterosexual women) and Wave 3 of the Chicago Health and Life Experiences of Women (CHLEW; n = 688 SMW) study, we examined hazardous drinking, drug use, tobacco use, depression, and help-seeking for alcohol or other drug problems.

Results: Compared to SMW in the probability sample, SMW in the non-probability sample were older, more likely to be college educated, and more likely to be in a partnered relationship.

Strengths and coping strategies in the life narratives of sexual minority women.

This study explored self-described strengths and strategies for coping with stress among sexual minority women (SMW), drawing on qualitative narratives of sexual minority and heterosexual women who were recruited from a population based sample. In-depth follow-up qualitative telephone interviews were conducted with 48 women who had participated the National Alcohol Survey, a U.S.

Interaction of Motivation and Social Support on Abstinence among Recovery Home Residents.

Background And Aims: The impetus to abstain from alcohol and drugs is especially robust when individuals seek help. However, motivation to continue abstinence during ongoing recovery is less understood. The present study assessed how social support interacted with motivation to affect abstinence over an 18-monthe time period.

Conducting qualitative interviews by telephone: Lessons learned from a study of alcohol use among sexual minority and heterosexual women.

This study explored effective interviewer strategies and lessons-learned based on collection of narrative data by telephone with a sub-sample of women from a population-based survey, which included sexual minority women. Qualitative follow-up, in-depth life history interviews were conducted over the telephone with 48 women who had participated in the 2009-2010 National Alcohol Survey. Questions explored the lives and experiences of women, including use of alcohol and drugs, social relationships, identity, and past traumatic experiences.

Intensive Motivational Interviewing for Women with Alcohol Problems.

Motivational interviewing (MI) for the treatment of alcohol and drug problems is typically conducted over 1 to 3 sessions. This paper reports on an evaluation of an intensive 9-session version of MI (IMI) compared to a standard single MI session (SMI). Although no differences between IMI and SMI were found for methamphetamine use, there was an unexpected finding that women but not men with co-occurring alcohol problems in the IMI condition reduced the severity of their alcohol problems significantly more than those in the SMI condition at 4- and 6-month follow-up.

Feasibility and acceptability of a novel, computerized screening and brief intervention (SBI) for alcohol and sweetened beverage use in pregnancy.

Background: Recommended screening and brief intervention (SBI) for alcohol use during pregnancy is impeded by high patient loads and limited resources in public health settings. We evaluated the feasibility, acceptability and validity of a new self-administered, single-session, bilingual, computerized Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI) program for alcohol and sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) use in pregnancy.

Methods: We developed and tested the computerized SBI program at a public health clinic with 290 pregnant women.

Gender and Social Pressure to Change Drinking Behavior: Results from the National Alcohol Surveys from 1984-2010.

Objective: Research shows social and institutional pressure influences drinking, yet determinants of who receives pressure are understudied. This paper examines age, time period, and birth cohort (APC) effects on pressure to stop or reduce drinking among U.S.

Pressure to change drinking behavior: An exploratory analysis of US general population subgroups.

Background: General population studies have shown that pressure from others to change drinking can come from different sources. Receipt of informal pressure (IP) and formal pressure (FP) is known to vary by quantity and consequences of drinking, but less is known about how pressure varies among subgroups of the population.

Method: This exploratory study utilizes data from the National Alcohol Surveys from 1995-2010 (N=26,311) and examines associations between receipt of pressure and subgroups of drinkers.

Interaction of motivation and psychiatric symptoms on substance abuse outcomes in sober living houses.

Background: Studies show residents of sober living recovery houses (SLHs) make improvements in a variety of areas including alcohol and drug use, arrests, and employment. Longitudinal measures of motivation (assessed as costs and benefits of continuing sobriety) have been shown to be associated with alcohol and drug outcomes in SLHs. However, how motivation interacts with other potentially important factors, such as psychiatric severity, is unclear.

Alcohol use and injury severity among emergency department patients in six countries.

This study examines the individual and sociocultural factors related to severity of injury among emergency department (ED) patients across six countries (United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Spain, and Italy). Secondary analysis of existing data using probability samples of injured patients from 15 studies (N = 9,599) were analyzed for severity of injury as measured by arrival by ambulance and admission to the hospital, using logistic regression models and multilevel hierarchical linear models. Patients drinking greater quantities of alcohol before the injury were more likely to have arrived to the ED by ambulance or admitted to the hospital after the injury event.

Violence-related injury and gender: the role of alcohol and alcohol combined with illicit drugs.

Introduction And Aims: The positive relationship between alcohol use, gender and violence-related injury is well established. However, less is known about injuries when alcohol is used in combination with other drugs.

Design And Methods: Self-report information was collected on alcohol and illicit drug use in the 6 h before a violence-related injury in probability samples of patients presenting to emergency departments (n=9686).

Intensive motivational interviewing for women with concurrent alcohol problems and methamphetamine dependence.

Motivational interviewing (MI) for the treatment of alcohol and drug problems is typically conducted over 1 to 3 sessions. The current work evaluates an intensive 9-session version of MI (Intensive MI) compared to a standard single MI session (Standard MI) using 163 methamphetamine (MA) dependent individuals. The primary purpose of this paper is to report the unexpected finding that women with co-occurring alcohol problems in the Intensive MI condition reduced the severity of their alcohol problems significantly more than women in the Standard MI condition at the 6-month follow-up.

Sexual orientation differences in the relationship between victimization and hazardous drinking among women in the National Alcohol Survey.

This study examined relationships between past experiences of victimization (sexual abuse and physical abuse in childhood, sexual abuse and physical abuse in adulthood, and lifetime victimization) and hazardous drinking among sexual minority women compared to exclusively heterosexual women. Data were from 11,169 women responding to sexual identity and sexual behavior questions from three National Alcohol Survey waves: 2000 (n = 3,880), 2005 (n = 3,464), and 2010 (n = 3,825). A hazardous drinking index was constructed from five dichotomous variables (5+ drinking in the past year, drinking two or more drinks daily, drinking to intoxication in the past year, two or more lifetime dependence symptoms, and two or more lifetime drinking-related negative consequences).

Pressure and help seeking for alcohol problems: trends and correlates from 1984 to 2005.

Background: Individuals with alcohol problems frequently report receipt of pressure from a variety of formal and informal sources. While some studies have shown a positive association between receipt of pressure and treatment seeking, other studies have not found a clear association. The mix of findings may be due to several study design factors including sample limitations, lack of contextual alcohol measures as moderators, and failure to include assessment of internal beliefs that relate to help seeking.

Prevalence and predictors of risky and heavy alcohol consumption among adult siblings of childhood cancer survivors.

Objective: To describe alcohol consumption patterns and risk factors for risky and heavy alcohol use among siblings of childhood cancer survivors compared with survivors and national controls.

Methods: Secondary analysis of prospectively collected data from two national surveys was performed including a cohort of 3034 adult siblings of childhood cancer survivors (age 18-56 years) and 10,398 adult childhood cancer survivors, both from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, plus 5712 adult participants from the population-based National Alcohol Survey. Cancer-related experiences, self-reported current health, and mental health were examined in relation to alcohol consumption patterns including heavy and risky drinking.

Readiness to change, drinking, and negative consequences among Polish SBIRT patients.

The aim of this study is to examine the longitudinal relationship of readiness to change, drinking pattern, amount of alcohol consumed, and alcohol-related negative consequences among at-risk and dependent drinkers enrolled in a Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) trial in an emergency department in southern Poland. The study examined 299 patients randomized to either an assessment or intervention condition and followed at 3 and 12 months after initial presentation. Patients indicating a readiness or were unsure of changing drinking behavior were significantly more likely to decrease the maximum number of drinks per occasion and the usual number of drinks in a sitting in the 3-months following study entry when compared to those that rated changing drinking behavior as unimportant.

Substance use and motivation: a longitudinal perspective.

Background: Motivation to change substance use behavior is an important component of the recovery process that has usually been studied at entry into treatment. Less studied, but equally important, is the measurement of motivation over time and the role motivation plays in subsequent substance use.

Objectives: The present study sought to examine longitudinal motivation toward sobriety among residents of sober living houses.