Development and psychometric evaluation of a rapid intimate partner violence perpetration screening tool.

Current methods of identifying intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration rely upon lengthy screening instruments, partner injury, and legal involvement. There exist no viable, brief screening tools to facilitate the rapid and early identification of IPV perpetration. The development of a brief IPV screening tool would reduce participant burden and compensation in research as well as aid in self-identification and appropriate consultation for treatment.

Therapist empathy, combined behavioral intervention, and alcohol outcomes in the COMBINE research project.

Objective: Common factors such as therapist empathy play an important role in treatment for addictive behaviors. The present study was a secondary analysis designed to evaluate the relation between therapist empathy and alcohol treatment outcomes in data from a large, multisite, randomized controlled trial.

Method: Audio-recorded psychotherapy sessions for 38 therapists and 700 clients had been randomly selected for fidelity coding from the combined behavioral intervention condition of Project COMBINE.

Development of a face-to-face injunctive norms brief motivational intervention for college drinkers and preliminary outcomes.

Findings are presented from the first randomized clinical trial that compared changes in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related consequences among college student drinkers from baseline to follow-up across 4 conditions: (a) a new single component injunctive norms brief motivational intervention (IN-BMI) condition; (b) a single component descriptive norms brief motivational intervention (DN-BMI); (c) a combined IN and DN brief motivational intervention (Combined-BMI); and (d) assessment-only control. DN-BMI focused on the juxtaposition of personal, perceived, and actual alcohol use by typical same-sex students at your university. IN-BMI focused on the juxtaposition of personal, perceived, and actual attitudes about alcohol-related consequences by the typical same-sex student at your university.

"It Might Actually Work This Time": Benefits and Barriers to Adapted 12-Step Facilitation Therapy and Mutual-Help Group Attendance From the Perspective of Dually Diagnosed Individuals.

Most U.S. healthcare professionals encourage mutual-help group involvement as an adjunct to treatment or aftercare for individuals with substance use disorders, yet there are multiple challenges in engaging in these community groups.

Longitudinal trajectories of readiness to change: alcohol use and help-seeking behavior.

Objective: Pre-post changes in readiness for change (RC) are commonly assessed in treatment outcome studies, often with contradictory results. Little is known about 12-month RC trajectories among those initiating change or about the association between RC and either within- or between-person alcohol use or time-lagged help-seeking behavior.

Method: This observational longitudinal study measured RC as ambivalence, problem recognition, and taking steps.

Alcohol, tobacco, and drug use among emergency department patients.

Background: The prevalence of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use among emergency department (ED) patients is high and many of these patients have unrecognized and unmet substance use treatment needs. Identification of patients in the ED with problem substance use is not routine at this time.

Methods: We examined screening data, including standardized measures of ATOD use (HSI, AUDIT-C, DAST-10), from 14,866 ED patients in six hospitals across the United States.

12-step facilitation for the dually diagnosed: a randomized clinical trial.

There are few clinical trials of 12-step treatments for individuals with serious mental illness and alcohol or drug dependence. This randomized trial assessed the effects of adding a 12-session 12-step facilitation therapy (TSF), adapted from that used in Project MATCH, to treatment as usual in an outpatient dual diagnosis program. Participants were 121 individuals dually diagnosed with alcohol dependence and a serious mental disorder, followed during 12 weeks of treatment and 36 weeks post-treatment.

Interpersonal Climate of 12-step Groups Predicts Reductions in Alcohol Use.

Research has shown that increases in the size of abstinence-based social networks helps explain the association between 12-step attendance and increased abstinence. This study investigated whether the quality of social interaction in 12-step groups also predicts reduced substance use. Participants reported their perceptions of engagedness, avoidance, and conflict in their 12-step groups and their substance use in four assessments.

Impressions of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Group Cohesion: A Case for a Nonspecific Factor Predicting Later AA Attendance.

Social support for abstinence in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has been reported to be a consistent factor accounting for AA benefit. However, the nonspecific or unintended effects of such support remain poorly understood and rarely investigated. This prospective study investigated how one nonspecific factor-perceived AA group cohesiveness-predicted increased practice of AA-related behaviors.

Is it beneficial to have an alcoholics anonymous sponsor?

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) attendance is predictive of increased abstinence for many problem drinkers and treatment referral to AA is common. Strong encouragement to acquire an AA sponsor is likewise typical, and findings about the benefits associated with social support for abstinence in AA support this practice, at least indirectly. Despite this widespread practice, however, prospective tests of the unique contribution of having an AA sponsor are lacking.