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Drug and Alcohol Dependence Volume 87, Issues 2-3 , 16 March 2007, Pages 139-145George Fein a, , mailto:george@nbresearch.com
Najat J. Ziyadeh a,
Lisa A. Prokop a,
Laurie B. Fisher b,
SAMHSA Announces Availability of Enhancing Motivation for Change InserviceTraining -TIP 35
Antabuse in Severe Alcoholism: an Open Controlled Study
Davidson D, email: ddavids2@iupui.edu
Gulliver SB,
Longabaugh R,
Wirtz PW,
Swift R.
Department of Psychiatry, Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, 150 South Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02130.
ABSTRACT.
Objective: The current study investigated the treatment effectiveness, during treatment, of a second-generation cognitive-behavioral therapy for alcoholism-broad-spectrum treatment (BST)-compared with motivational-enhancement therapy (MET), when both were offered in conjunction with a therapeutic dose of naltrexone (Revia).
Method: One hundred forty-nine alcohol-dependent patients completed a 3-month randomized, controlled trial of BST and naltrexone versus MET and naltrexone.
Results: Patients receiving BST had a significantly higher percentage of days abstinent than patients receiving MET. The superior effect of BST is particularly strong in interaction with support for drinking, suggesting that the advantage of BST is worth the additional cost for patients whose psychosocial networks are supportive of continued drinking. This effect remains significant when controlling for pretreatment percentage of days abstinent.
Conclusions: In aggregate, these findings suggest that it is either the combination of naltrexone and BST or the unique properties of BST that account for BST's superiority to MET and naltrexone. The results of this initial phase of the trial suggest that a second-generation cognitive-behavioral therapy such as BST may have a meaningful clinical advantage over brief interventions such as MET, at least when combined with naltrexone.
Volume 102 Issue 3 Page 369 - March 2007
Volume 102 Issue 3 Page 381 - March 2007
Volume 102 Issue 3 Page 389 - March 20072Department of Neuroscience, Unit of Pharmacology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Kent Nilsson, Centre for Clinical Research, Central Hospital Västerås (1), S-721 89 Västerås, Sweden. E-mail:
ABSTRACT
Aim To investigate possible interactions between a polymorphism in the monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) gene promoter, family relations and maltreatment/sexual abuse on adolescent alcohol-related problem behaviour among male adolescents.
Design, setting and participants A cross-sectional study of a randomized sample of 66 male individuals from a total population of 16- and 19-year adolescents from a Swedish county. Boys, who volunteered to participate answering an alcohol-related problem/behaviour questionnaire, were investigated with regard to interactions between such problems, family function, maltreatment and MAO-A genotype.
Measurements MAO-A genotype, family relations history, history of being maltreated or abused and alcohol-related problem behaviour.
Findings Boys with the short (three-repeat) variant of the MAO-A gene, who had been maltreated/abused or came from families with poor relations, showed significantly higher scores of alcohol-related problems. We also found that maltreatment/abuse independently showed the strongest relation to alcohol-related problems among boys in our model.
Conclusions The results suggest that both maltreatment and MAO-A genotype may be useful for the understanding of male adolescent alcohol-related problem behaviour.
1Department of Psychological Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK, 2Department of Psychiatry and Human Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA and 3Oxfordshire Community Mental Healthcare Trust, Oxford, UK
Tom Fowler, Department of Psychological Medicine, Cardiff University, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XN, UK. E-mail:
ABSTRACT
Aims To examine the genetic and environmental contributions to the initiation of use and progression to more serious use of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana during adolescence, and to examine the relationship between initiation and progression of substance use.
Design The study used a twin-based design and a new theoretical model, the causal–common–contingent (CCC) model. This allows modelling of the relationship between initiation of use and progression to heavier use as a two-stage model and the examination of genetic and environmental influences on both stages, while taking into account their relationship.
Participants The participants consisted of 1214 twin pairs (69% response rate) aged 11–19 years sampled from the UK population-based Cardiff Study of All Wales and North-west of England Twins (CaStANET).
Measurements Data on adolescent initiation and progression to more serious use of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana were obtained using self-report questionnaires.
Findings Initiation of alcohol and progression to heavier alcohol use had separate but related underlying aetiologies. For cigarette and marijuana use the relation between initiation and progression to heavier use was stronger, suggesting greater overlap in aetiologies. For all three substances, environmental influences that make twins more similar (common environment) tended to be greater for initiation, while genetic influences were stronger for heavier use.
Conclusions These findings have implications for policy decisions aimed at an adolescent and early adult age group. Specifically, these findings suggest that it may be more efficacious to focus alcohol interventions on risk factors for the development of heavier use rather than initiation of use. In contrast, interventions aimed at reducing the initiation of cigarettes and marijuana use may be more appropriate.
Volume 102 Issue 3 Page 432 - March 2007
Volume 102 Issue 3 Page 399 - March 2007
1Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands, 2Behaviour Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, 3Rotterdam Addiction Research Institute, Rotterdam, the Netherlands and 4Department of Psychology, Glasgow University, Glasgow, UK
Tim Schoenmakers, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
E-mail: t.schoenmakers@psychology.unimaas.nl
ABSTRACT
Aims To examine whether alcohol-related attentional bias (AB) can be reduced by training heavy drinkers to attend to soft drinks as an alternative to alcohol. Diminishing AB is important because AB has been suggested to be a significant factor in the development, maintenance and relapse of addictive behaviours. AB was trained in a clinically relevant design, and we studied the generalization of this training.
Design, participants and intervention We assigned randomly 106 heavy drinking male college and university students to the attentional re-training (AR; modified visual-probe task) or control condition (standard visual-probe task).
Setting Laboratory at Maastricht University.
Measurements We measured the effects of AR on the visual-probe task with stimuli that were presented in the AR and with new stimuli, and on an alternative measure of AB, the flicker paradigm. We further measured effects on craving and preference for either an alcohol beverage or a soft drink.
Findings After AR, participants had learned to avoid alcohol stimuli and had developed an AB for soft drinks. This effect was restricted to stimuli used in the AR. The flicker task, where AB for alcohol was found in both the AR and control groups, was not affected by the AR. No effect was found on craving and the preference task.
Conclusions Although heavy drinkers can learn to attend selectively to an alternative category for alcohol, a single AR is not sufficient to decrease symptoms of problem drinking.
Contributor: Libby Ranzetta AlcoholPolicy UK February 08, 2007
February 2, 2007
Drinkaware Trust Board appointed
Alcohol misuse in the South East region - new reportfrom SEPHO
