NIDA's Clinical Trials Network was established to allow evidence-based psychosocial and pharmacological treatment technologies to be tested in """"""""real world"""""""" community-based treatment settings. However, it has not been established to what extent the CTN-affiliated treatment programs reflect the """"""""real world."""""""" This may have significant implications for the effectiveness of dissemination efforts to bring research findings into practice outside the CTN. Data will soon be available to assess the representativeness of therapeutic communities and """"""""drug free"""""""" programs in the CTN, but there are no data available with which to assess the representativeness of the 50 methadone units in the CTN. We propose to draw a sample of N=50 methadone programs from the universe of methadone facilities outside the CTN, comprising a valid comparison group. We will collect data from each of these non-CTN units to document organizational characteristics, staffing, service availability, and use of evidence-based practices. These will be augmented with questionnaires to assess clinicians' familiarity with, receptivity to, and use of two practices validated in the CTN for opiate-dependent patients. Specifically, we will examine familiarity with and use of buprenorphine and contingency management in methadone units within and outside the CTN. We hypothesize that CTN-affiliated units are significantly different than non-CTN units in terms of their organizational structure, absorptive capacity, and overall propensity to adopt evidence-based practices. Data on CTN-affiliated units are available at no cost to this project through other ongoing research. The data to be collected in this study will allow for conclusions about potential barriers to effective dissemination of evidence-based treatment for opiate dependence from CTN units to methadone programs in the """"""""real world.""""""""
| Ducharme, Lori J; Knudsen, Hannah K; Abraham, Amanda J et al. (2010) Counselor attitudes toward the use of motivational incentives in addiction treatment. Am J Addict 19:496-503 |
| Ducharme, Lori J; Roman, Paul M (2009) Opioid treatment programs in the Clinical Trials Network: representativeness and buprenorphine adoption. J Subst Abuse Treat 37:90-4 |
