Therapeutic Community (TC) treatment can be an effective psychosocial modality for addiction, but premature dropout remains a major problem. Personality disorders are very common in residential programs, and TCs regard personality disturbance as core to all people with addiction. Severe personality dysfunction is associated with higher dropout rates from TCs, and adding cognitive-behavioral treatmentsmay improve retention and outcome. We hypothesize that severe personality disturbance causes significant problems with an individual's initial adjustment and effective utilization of TC processes and techniques. We predict that a behavioral therapy that targets personality pathology will result in better TC engagement, retention, and outcome than will a more standard addiction counseling approach. To begin to improve retention, research should begin to systematically evaluate the impact on TC efficacy of adding interventions targeted at decreasing premature dropouts through controlled clinical trials. We have developed the first empirically tested treatment manual for the full range of personality disorders in substance abusers. This 4-year study proposes to conduct a randomized clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of Dual Focus Schema Therapyin comparison to Individual Drug Counseling as 6-month manualized individual behavioral therapy enhancements to the orientation/early treatment phase of 100 TC residents. In addition to evaluating retention differences, we will analyze the rate and degree of change for these two conditions monthly and at 6, 12, 18, and 24-month follow-up for psychological indicatorsrelated to personality disorder and therapeutic processes related to the TC.
| Carr, W Amory; Ball, Samuel A (2014) Predictors and treatment outcomes of perceived ward atmosphere among therapeutic community residents. J Subst Abuse Treat 46:567-73 |
| Samuel, Douglas B; LaPaglia, Donna M; Maccarelli, Lisa M et al. (2011) Personality disorders and retention in a therapeutic community for substance dependence. Am J Addict 20:555-62 |
| Ball, Samuel A; Maccarelli, Lisa M; LaPaglia, Donna M et al. (2011) Randomized trial of dual-focused vs. single-focused individual therapy for personality disorders and substance dependence. J Nerv Ment Dis 199:319-28 |
