? Parent Award Obtaining alcohol specialty care for alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with improved drinking outcomes and recovery, yet a small percentage of individuals with AUD obtain treatment. Use of Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) interventions is a potential strategy to increase treatment seeking, yet there is little evidence that these interventions increase participation in alcohol-related care and meager evidence that such care serves as a mechanism for improved drinking outcomes. The current randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Treatment Engagement (CBT-TE), a one session intervention delivered by telephone, seeks to address these gaps in evidence.
The specific aims are to show that treatment nave research volunteers ages 18 and older with AUD who are assigned to CBT-TE compared to an information control condition are more likely to initiate alcohol specialty care (aim 1), have decreased frequency of alcohol use (as measured by percent days abstinent) and intensity of alcohol use (as measured by drinks per drinking day) (aim 2), and that use of treatment serves as a mediator of the improved drinking outcomes (aim 3). Innovations of CBT-TE include that it is based on the theory of planned behavior and cognitive behavioral treatment principles, was developed for phone administration from the onset, and was explicitly designed to promote treatment engagement. The project is in response to PA-18-194, Alcohol Use Disorders: Behavioral Treatment, Services, and Recovery Research. It builds on a smaller efficacy trial that showed that the intervention leads to increased engagement in alcohol-related care (Stecker et al., 2012) and extends that study in several ways including plans to determine efficacy of the intervention to improve drinking outcomes and that treatment engagement serves as a mediator of the improved outcomes.
Summary ? Parent Award: A small percentage of individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) obtain alcohol-related care despite research showing that treatment is effective. This randomized controlled trial tests the efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Treatment Engagement (CBT-TE), a one session phone intervention, to lead to treatment use, improve alcohol-related outcomes, and show that treatment use is a mechanism for the improved outcomes in individuals with AUD with no prior history of AUD treatment.
