Objective: Contingency management (CM) is an evidence-based treatment, but few clinicians deliver this intervention in community-based settings. Method: Twenty-three clinicians from 3 methadone maintenance clinics received training in CM. Following a didactics seminar and a training and supervision period in which clinicians delivered CM to pilot…

Objective: Contingency management (CM) reduces drug use, but questions remain regarding optimal targets and magnitudes of reinforcement. We evaluated the efficacy of CM reinforcing attendance in patients who initiated treatment with cocaine-negative samples, and of higher magnitude abstinence-based CM in patients who began treatment positive.…

Objective: This study examined the relation of process variables to the outcome of group drug counseling, a commonly used community treatment, for cocaine dependence. Method: Videotaped group drug counseling sessions from 440 adult patients (23% female, 41% minority) were rated for member alliance, group cohesion, participation, self-disclosure,…

Objective: Relapse is a major problem in drug addiction treatment. Both drug craving and drug-related cognitions (e.g., attentional bias and implicit attitudes to drugs) may contribute to relapse. Using ecological momentary assessments, we examined whether craving and cognitions assessed during drug detoxification treatment were associated with…

Objective: The effects of cognitive-behavioral relapse prevention (RP), contingency management (CM), and their combination (CM + RP) were evaluated in a randomized trial with 100 cocaine-dependent patients (58% female, 89% African American) who were engaged in treatment for at least 2 weeks and had an average of 44 days of abstinence at baseline.…

The authors examined the effectiveness of motivational interviewing (MI) on club drug use and risky sex in non-treatment-seeking men who have sex with men (MSM). MSM (N = 150) were assessed and randomly assigned to 4 sessions of MI or an educational control intervention. Follow-up occurred at quarterly intervals for 1 year. Primary outcomes were…

The study was a randomized placebo-controlled trial testing whether fluoxetine selectively enhances cessation for smokers with a history of depression. Euthymic smokers with (H+, n = 109) or without (H-, n = 138) a history of major depression received 60 mg fluoxetine or placebo plus group behavioral quit-smoking treatment for 12 weeks. Fluoxetine…

A previous randomized trial with 224 alcohol and/or cocaine addicts who had completed an initial phase of treatment indicated that 12 weeks of telephone-based continuing care yielded higher abstinence rates over 24 months than did group counseling continuing care. The current study examined mediators of this treatment effect. Results suggested…

Tests of addiction treatments seldom reveal where treatment exercises its effect (i.e., promoting initial abstinence, preventing lapses, and/or impeding progression from lapse to relapse). The authors illustrate analyses distinguishing effects on these milestones in a randomized trial of high-dose nicotine patch (35 mg; n = 188) versus placebo (n…

Four successive randomized clinical trials studying contingency management (CM), involving various treatment arms of drug-abstinent housing and work therapy and day treatment (DT) with a behavioral component, were compared on common drug abstinence outcomes at 2 treatment completion points (2 and 6 months). The clinical trials were conducted from…

Examined effectiveness of implosive therapy with heroin addicts during detoxification from methadone. Treatment groups received 12 sessions of implosive therapy or eclectic counseling and were followed for a six-week period. The implosive therapy group were the only ones to significantly reduce their methadone level during treatment and follow-up.…

Examined extent to which personality disorders and associated symptom criteria were found among 117 cocaine- and opioid-dependent men in drug dependence treatment unit. Drug groups were distinguished by higher rates of antisocial and borderline symptomatology rather than by features associated with other personality disorders. Different…

Compares three prevalent techniques used in classifying drug addicts. (Author)

Previous Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) research has largely failed to detect differences using standard univariate methods. The current study used multiple discriminant analysis successfully to generate two orthogonal functions that accounted for virtually all of the variance between groups. (Author)

Identifies common problems in research on the addictions and offers suggestions for remediating these methodological problems. The addictions considered include alcoholism and drug dependencies. Problems considered are those arising from inadequate, incomplete, or biased reviews of relevant literatures and methodological shortcomings of subject…