Heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems among American women represent significant social and public health concerns. Unfortunately, relatively little clinical research on these problem drinkers is available. The extant research does, however, converge in indicating that alcohol-related problems are being experienced by a number of women, that drinking among women may be influenced considerably by social/environmental factors, and that women markedly underutilize intervention opportunities. The present research is designed to address methodological limitations in this research and expand current knowledge on problem drinking women and on the development and maintenance of treatment gains. Carefully screened female problem drinkers not physically addicted to alcohol who self-refer in response to advertisements or other recruitment strategies will be assigned randomly in groups to either a behavioral self-control package focusing exclusively on strategies for reducing alcohol consumption or to a program which in addition develops among participants social, coping, and other life-management skills so as to maximally equip them to address antecedents to problem drinking and potential posttreatment relapse situations. Subject groups after treatment then will be assigned randomly to either receive or not receive booster care sessions over a six-month period. A comprehensive 12-month follow-up is planned with subjects and collaterals. In addition, variables or clusters of variables which best predict treatment response and posttreatment functioning will be evaluated. Importantly, this study incorporates methodological advances over previous work in this area. These advances include (a) treatment protocols closely modeled after contemporary methods; (b) strict and explicit exclusion criteria; (c) careful attention to maintenance of the integrity of the treatments provided; (d) comprehensive assessment of subject characteristics; (e) assessment of expectancy and therapist effects; (g) outcome assessment by staff blind to subject-group assignment; (h) quantifiable measures of drinking behavior; and (i) inclusion of multiple sources for verification of self-report and outcome classification.
| Mendoza, Natasha S; Walitzer, Kimberly S; Connors, Gerard J (2012) Use of treatment strategies in a moderated drinking program for women. Addict Behav 37:1054-7 |
| Walitzer, Kimberly S; Connors, Gerard J (2007) Thirty-month follow-up of drinking moderation training for women: a randomized clinical trial. J Consult Clin Psychol 75:501-7 |
| Connors, G J; Walitzer, K S (2001) Reducing alcohol consumption among heavily drinking women: evaluating the contributions of life-skills training and booster sessions. J Consult Clin Psychol 69:447-56 |
