Self-reported alcohol consumption during participation in a text messaging-based online drinking moderation platform.

Background: Many individuals with excessive alcohol consumption desire moderation but do not seek formalized treatment. Commercially available, technology-assisted options are flexible and highly accessible, yet often not empirically validated.

Methods: Individuals desiring alcohol moderation (age 21+) self-selected to use Sunnyside®, a web application with tailored and adaptive text messaging.

Improving Access and Quality of Behavioral Health Services for Health Care Employees.

To describe key features and the initial implementation of an employer-sponsored program designed to increase access to quality mental health treatment for employees of a large health care system. Methods: Retrospective data were collected on employer's efforts to develop a programmatic solution to address barriers to accessing quality mental health treatment among its employees and on initial program implementation. Results: Data from the initial cohort ( N = 1049) of program participants support the use of low threshold digital tools to enhance access to care, the importance of care navigation and a robust curated provider network in matching employees to appropriate care options, and the value of providing online, evidence-based psychotherapy to facilitate high rates of treatment engagement.

The Role of Daily Goal Setting Among Individuals with Alcohol Use Disorder.

Introduction: Individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) who seek help to reduce their drinking are expected to vary with respect to drinking goal, with some choosing abstinence and others moderation. The present research explored whether drinking goals vary day to day among individuals with AUD planning to enter treatment and the relationship of specific daily goals to actual drinking behavior in daily life.

Methods: Participants were 153 individuals with AUD who enrolled in a study of stepped care brief interventions and completed smartphone momentary assessments in daily life.

"I Felt I Was Reaching a Point with My Health": Understanding Reasons for Engagement and Acceptability of Treatment Services for Unhealthy Alcohol Use in Primary Care.

Introduction/objectives: Despite increasing need, there are large gaps in provision of care for unhealthy alcohol use. Primary care practices have become increasingly important in providing services for unhealthy alcohol use, yet little is known about the reasons patients engage in these services and their views on acceptability of such programs. The purpose of this study was to examine primary care patients' reasons for engagement, experiences with, and acceptability of a primary care practice-based program for treating unhealthy alcohol use.

An efficacy trial of adaptive interventions for alcohol use disorder.

Background: Adaptive interventions, sometimes referred to as "stepped care", are those interventions in which the type or dosage of treatment offered to patients is tailored to baseline clinical presentation and then adjusted over time in response to patient progress or lack thereof. Currently, no adaptive brief interventions exist specifically for alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Method: This study used a sequential multiple assignment randomized trial design with 160 individuals with AUD recruited both locally and nationally who had a goal to reduce or abstain from drinking.

Drink goal difficulty effect on outcomes in moderation-based alcohol treatment for sexual minority men.

Sexual minority men (SMM) who drink heavily are at a greater risk for developing alcohol use disorders (AUD) and associated negative consequences. Barriers to treatment prevent SMM from accessing traditional care, and moderation-based alcohol treatment is a more desirable alternative. As such, investigating effective goal setting in moderation-based alcohol treatment, particularly, which goals yield the most effective outcomes, is warranted.

Exploration of treatment matching of problem drinker characteristics to motivational interviewing and non-directive client-centered psychotherapy.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a known effective intervention for alcohol use disorder (AUD). MI's mechanisms of action remain inconsistently substantiated, and research in this area has been reliant on identifying relationships through strength of association rather than experimental manipulation of active ingredients. In two previous studies, a pilot and a larger replication study, we disaggregated MI into its hypothesized active ingredients by creating three conditions: MI, Spirit Only MI (SOMI, in which evocation of change talk was proscribed), and a non-therapy condition (NTC).

Dismantling motivational interviewing: Effects on initiation of behavior change among problem drinkers seeking treatment.

Motivational interviewing (MI) is an efficacious treatment for alcohol use disorders. MI is thought to enhance motivation via a combination of 2 therapeutic strategies or active ingredients: 1 relational and 1 directional. The primary aim of this study was to examine MI's hypothesized active ingredients using a dismantling design.