It is estimated that about 10% of all adult drinkers in this country will at some point experience either alcoholism or problem drinking. Unfortunately, long-term treatment effectiveness has been elusive. This has led to efforts to develop, implement, and evaluate new and more effective methods for treating specific subgroups of alcohol abusers and to develop techniques for the maintenance of treatment gains. In this regard, the proposed research has two primary objectives. The first is to assess the influence of aftercare contacts in maintaining treatment gains following participation in an outpatient behavioral treatment program designed to engender nonproblem drinking. Alcohol abusers whose consumption is causing problems in life-functioning, but who are not and have not been physically addicted to alcohol, will initially participate in an intensive 8-week program focused on behavioral self-control strategies designed to engender nonproblematic drinking. Following treatment, subjects will be randomly assigned to one of three aftercare conditions: group aftercare, telephone contact aftercare, or no aftercare. Eight aftercare contacts spanning a 6-month period are scheduled. These contacts are intended to maintain treatment gains and to ease the shift from treatment to no treatment. All subjects will be prospectively and intensively followed for 12 months beyond the end of aftercare. The second primary objective is to evaluate the extent to which the specific components of the behavioral treatment program which precedes the aftercare manipulation are used by participants during the treatment, aftercare, and post-treatment phases. The extent to which this relationship varies as a function of type of aftercare also will be studied. Taken together, the proposed research will contribute significant information regarding the use of aftercare as a treatment maintenance strategy as well as addressing the relationship between the post-treatment use of treatment components and post-treatment drinking behavior and life-functioning. In addition, salient data will be gathered for (a) predicting differential responsivity within a behavioral treatment program, (b) determining the interrelationships among different indices of post-treatment drinking behavior, and (c) identifying high-risk situations faced by alcohol abusers trained to moderate their drinking. These data will be critical for the efficient delivery of treatment services to people with alcohol problems.
| Connors, G J; Tarbox, A R; Faillace, L A (1993) Changes in alcohol expectancies and drinking behavior among treated problem drinkers. J Stud Alcohol 54:676-83 |
| Connors, G J; O'Farrell, T J; Cutter, H S (1991) Drinking experiences in three populations of male drinkers. J Addict Dis 10:25-33 |
| Connors, G J; Maisto, S A; Watson, D W (1988) Racial factors influencing college students' ratings of alcohol's usefulness. Drug Alcohol Depend 21:247-52 |
| Connors, G J; O'Farrell, T J; Pelcovits, M A (1988) Drinking outcome expectancies among male alcoholics during relapse situations. Br J Addict 83:561-6 |
| Connors, G J; O'Farrell, T J; Cutter, H S et al. (1987) Dose-related effects of alcohol among male alcoholics, problem drinkers and nonproblem drinkers. J Stud Alcohol 48:461-6 |
| Connors, G J; O'Farrell, T J; Cutter, H S et al. (1986) Alcohol expectancies among male alcoholics, problem drinkers, and nonproblem drinkers. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 10:667-71 |
