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Grigg J, Volpe I, Tyler J, Hall K, McPherson B, Lubman DI, Manning V. Ready2Change: Preliminary effectiveness of a telephone-delivered intervention program for alcohol, methamphetamine and cannabis use problems. Drug Alcohol Rev 2021; 41:517-527. [PMID: 34343370 DOI: 10.1111/dar.13363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2020] [Revised: 06/18/2021] [Accepted: 07/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Telehealth has considerable potential to overcome many of the barriers to accessing care for substance use problems, thereby increasing the opportunity for earlier intervention. The Ready2Change program is a multiple-session outbound telephone-delivered cognitive and behavioural intervention for mild-to-moderate substance use disorders, embedded within a long-established 24/7 alcohol and drug helpline. We sought to analyse routinely collected program data in a preliminary study to examine the effectiveness of Ready2Change in reducing substance use problem severity and psychological distress. METHODS A retrospective analysis of program data from December 2013 to June 2018 was performed. Analysed cases were 249 clients living in Victoria, Australia with alcohol (n = 191), methamphetamine (n = 40) or cannabis (n = 18) as their primary drug of concern. A within-subjects design was used to examine pre- and post-intervention substance use problem severity and psychological distress. RESULTS For alcohol cases, there was a statistically significant decrease in alcohol problem severity [AUDIT, mean difference = -12.7, 95% confidence interval (CI) -14.0, -11.5]. Statistically significant reductions in drug problem severity (DUDIT) were observed for methamphetamine (mean difference = -17.3, 95% CI -20.9, -13.7) and cannabis (mean difference = -15.9, 95% CI -22.3, -9.6) cases. All groups showed reductions in problem severity for other substances used (P < 0.05) and psychological distress (P < 0.001). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Results suggest Ready2Change benefits clients with alcohol, methamphetamine and cannabis use problems, with the potential to improve treatment access for health inequity groups including those living in remote areas. These findings warrant further investigation into the effectiveness of this program.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jasmin Grigg
- Turning Point, Eastern Health, Melbourne, Australia.,Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.,Monash Addiction Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Isabelle Volpe
- Turning Point, Eastern Health, Melbourne, Australia.,Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.,Monash Addiction Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | | | - Kate Hall
- School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.,Centre of Drug, Addictive and Anti-social Behaviour Research, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
| | | | - Dan I Lubman
- Turning Point, Eastern Health, Melbourne, Australia.,Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.,Monash Addiction Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Victoria Manning
- Turning Point, Eastern Health, Melbourne, Australia.,Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.,Monash Addiction Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
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Watson DP, Staton MD, Dennis ML, Grella CE, Scott CK. Variation in brief treatment for substance use disorder: a qualitative investigation of four federally qualified health centers with SBIRT services. SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT PREVENTION AND POLICY 2021; 16:58. [PMID: 34261499 PMCID: PMC8278761 DOI: 10.1186/s13011-021-00381-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Background Brief treatment (BT) can be an effective, short-term, and low-cost treatment option for many people who misuse alcohol and drugs. However, inconsistent implementation is suggested to result in BT that often looks and potentially costs similar to regular outpatient care. Prior research is also rife with inconsistent operationalizations regarding the measurement of BT received by patients. As such, there is a need to more explicitly identify and document variations in BT practice. Methods A qualitative investigation of BT in four Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) was undertaken as a sub study of a larger clinical trial. Researchers interviewed 12 staff (administrators and clinicians) involved in BT oversight, referral, or delivery within the four FQHCs. Data were analyzed following an inductive approach guided by the primary research questions. Results Findings demonstrate considerable differences in how BT was conceptualized and implemented within the FQHCs. This included a variety of ways in which BT was presented and described to patients that likely impacts how they perceive the BT they receive, including potentially not understanding they received substance use disorder treatment at all. Conclusions The findings raise questions regarding the validity of prior research, demonstrating more objective definitions of BT and fidelity checklists are needed to ensure integrity of results. Future work in this area should seek to understand BT as practiced among a larger sample of providers and the direct experiences and perspectives of patients. There is also a need for more consistent implementation, quality assurance guidelines, and standardized stage of change assessments to aid practitioners.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dennis P Watson
- Chestnut Health Systems, 221 W Walton St, 60610, Chicago, IL, United States.
| | - Monte D Staton
- Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science, Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, 818 S. Wolcott, 60612, Chicago, IL, United States
| | - Michael L Dennis
- Chestnut Health Systems, 448 Wylie Dr, 61761, Normal, IL, United States
| | - Christine E Grella
- Chestnut Health Systems, 221 W Walton St, 60610, Chicago, IL, United States
| | - Christy K Scott
- Chestnut Health Systems, 221 W Walton St, 60610, Chicago, IL, United States
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Yousefi PD, Richmond R, Langdon R, Ness A, Liu C, Levy D, Relton C, Suderman M, Zuccolo L. Validation and characterisation of a DNA methylation alcohol biomarker across the life course. Clin Epigenetics 2019; 11:163. [PMID: 31775873 PMCID: PMC6880546 DOI: 10.1186/s13148-019-0753-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2019] [Accepted: 09/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recently, an alcohol predictor was developed using DNA methylation at 144 CpG sites (DNAm-Alc) as a biomarker for improved clinical or epidemiologic assessment of alcohol-related ill health. We validate the performance and characterise the drivers of this DNAm-Alc for the first time in independent populations. RESULTS In N = 1049 parents from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) Accessible Resource for Integrated Epigenomic Studies (ARIES) at midlife, we found DNAm-Alc explained 7.6% of the variation in alcohol intake, roughly half of what had been reported previously, and interestingly explained a larger 9.8% of Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) score, a scale of alcohol use disorder. Explanatory capacity in participants from the offspring generation of ARIES measured during adolescence was much lower. However, DNAm-Alc explained 14.3% of the variation in replication using the Head and Neck 5000 (HN5000) clinical cohort that had higher average alcohol consumption. To investigate whether this relationship was being driven by genetic and/or earlier environment confounding, we examined how earlier versus concurrent DNAm-Alc measures predicted AUDIT scores. In both ARIES parental and offspring generations, we observed associations between AUDIT and concurrent, but not earlier DNAm-Alc, suggesting independence from genetic and stable environmental contributions. CONCLUSIONS The stronger relationship between DNAm-Alcs and AUDIT in parents at midlife compared to adolescents despite similar levels of consumption suggests that DNAm-Alc likely reflects long-term patterns of alcohol abuse. Such biomarkers may have potential applications for biomonitoring and risk prediction, especially in cases where reporting bias is a concern.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Darius Yousefi
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol, BS82BN, UK.
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
| | - Rebecca Richmond
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol, BS82BN, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Ryan Langdon
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol, BS82BN, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Andrew Ness
- National Institute of Health Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Bristol Dental School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Chunyu Liu
- Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Daniel Levy
- The Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA
- The Population Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Caroline Relton
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol, BS82BN, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Matthew Suderman
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol, BS82BN, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Luisa Zuccolo
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol, BS82BN, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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Exploring the association between problem drinking and language use on Facebook in young adults. Heliyon 2019; 5:e02523. [PMID: 31667380 PMCID: PMC6812202 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2019] [Revised: 08/26/2019] [Accepted: 09/23/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent literature suggests that variations in both formal and content aspects of texts shared on social media tend to reflect user-level differences in demographic, psychosocial, and behavioral characteristics. In the present study, we examined associations between language use on Facebook and problematic alcohol use. We collected texts shared on Facebook by a sample of 296 adult social media users (66.9% females; mean age = 28.44 years (SD = 7.38)). Texts were mined using the closed-vocabulary approach based on the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) semantic dictionary, and an open-vocabulary approach performed via Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). Then, we examined associations between emerging textual features and alcohol-drinking scores as assessed using the AUDIT-C questionnaire. As a final aim, we employed the Random Forest machine-learning algorithm to determine and compare the predictive accuracy of closed- and open-vocabulary features over users' AUDIT-C scores. We found use of words about family, school, and positive feelings and emotions to be negatively associated with alcohol use and problematic drinking, while words suggesting interest in sport events, politics and economics, nightlife, and use of coarse language were more frequent among problematic drinkers. Results coming from LIWC and LDA analyses were quite similar, but LDA added information that could not be retrieved only with LIWC analysis. Furthermore, open-vocabulary features outperformed closed-vocabulary features in terms of predictive power over participants’ AUDIT-C scores (r = .46 vs. r = .28, respectively). Emerging relationships between text features and offline behaviors may have important implications for alcohol screening purposes in the online environment.
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Development and validation of a virtual agent to screen tobacco and alcohol use disorders. Drug Alcohol Depend 2018; 193:1-6. [PMID: 30321739 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2018.08.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2018] [Revised: 08/08/2018] [Accepted: 08/24/2018] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Substance use disorders are under-detected and not systematically diagnosed or screened for by primary care. In this study, we present the acceptability and validity of an Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) designed to screen tobacco and alcohol use disorder, in individuals who did not seek medical help for these disorders. METHODS Individuals were included from June 2016 to May 2017 in the Outpatient Sleep Clinic of the University Hospital of Bordeaux. DSM-5 diagnoses of tobacco and alcohol use disorders were assessed by human interviewers. The ECA interview integrated items from the Cigarette Dependence Scale-5 (CDS-5) for tobacco use disorder screening, and the "Cut Down, Annoyed, Guilty, Eye-opener" (CAGE) questionnaire for alcohol use disorder screening. Paper version of CDS-5 and CAGE questionnaires and acceptability questionnaire was also self-administered. RESULTS Of the 139 participants in the study (mean age 43.0 [SD = 13.7] years), 71 were women, and 68 were men. The ECA was well accepted by the patients. Paper self-administered CDS-5 and CAGE scores had a strong agreement with the ECA (p < 0.0001). The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis of the ECA interview showed AUC of 0.97 (95% CI, 0.93-1.0) and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.69-0.98) for CDS-5 and CAGE respectively with p-value <0.0001. CONCLUSIONS This ECA was acceptable and valid to screen tobacco or alcohol use disorder among patients not requesting treatment for addiction. The ECA could be used in hospitals and potentially in primary care settings to help clinicians to better screen their patients for alcohol and tobacco use disorders.
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