Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Outcomes of an Integrated Telemedicine Intervention Combining Naltrexone and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Alcohol Use Disorder

BACKGROUND

A small fraction of individuals in need of treatment for alcohol use disorders (AUDs) seek care, owing largely to barriers to accessing treatment. In the present pilot study, we examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of an m-health intervention combining cognitive behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy for individuals with AUD.

METHODS

Adults with AUD (N = 26) recruited through online, social media-based advertising were enrolled in a 12-week, integrated telemedicine intervention combining psychosocial treatment with medical management: Quit Genius for AUD (QG-A). Feasibility, acceptability, perceived helpfulness, treatment engagement, retention, completion, and clinical outcomes including alcohol use and secondary mental health outcomes were assessed.

RESULTS

Participants found the QG-A intervention to be acceptable and helpful in facilitating action toward their therapeutic goals concerning alcohol use. Treatment completion, achieved by the majority (85%) of participants, was excellent. On average, participants reduced their past 30-day alcohol use from baseline (mean proportion of days of abstinent = 0.13) to follow-up (M = 0.59), t(19) = -4.97, p < 0.001, and consumed fewer drinks per drinking day from baseline (M = 6.7) to follow-up (M = 2.0), t(19) = 3.61, p < 0.001. Concurrently, reductions were observed in depressive (t[22] = 5.39, p < 0.001) and anxiety (t[22] = 2.87, p < 0.01) symptom severity, from the moderately severe range at baseline to the mild range at treatment-end, with increases in resilience (t[22] = -3.54, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Addressing AUDs using an integrated m-health intervention to deliver evidence-based psychosocial and pharmacological treatment is feasible and may produce improvements in both alcohol use and psychiatric symptoms.

Decision strategies while intoxicated relate to alcohol-impaired driving attitudes and intentions

OBJECTIVE

Approximately 28 million individuals engage in alcohol-impaired driving (AID) every year. This study investigated individuals' AID decision making strategies under intoxication, their variability across the breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) curve, and the association between strategy and AID attitudes, intentions, and behavior.

METHOD

Seventy-nine adults (mean 23.9 years, 57% female) who drank alcohol ≥2 days per week and lived >2 miles away from their typical drinking locations completed an alcohol administration protocol and AID decision making task. AID attitudes, intentions, and behaviors were assessed repeatedly across the BrAC curve. Bayesian cognitive modeling identified decision strategies used by individuals on the AID decision making task, revealing whether alcohol consumption level and/or ride service cost factored into individuals' decisions to drive while impaired or obtain a ride. Additional analyses tested whether AID attitudes and intentions were related to individuals' decision strategies.

RESULTS

Two decision strategies were examined on the ascending and descending limbs of the BrAC curve: compensatory (both consumption level and ride service cost factored into AID decisions) and non-compensatory (only consumption level factored into AID decisions). Switching to a compensatory strategy on the descending limb was associated with lower perceived intoxication, perceiving AID as less dangerous, and being willing to drive above the legal BrAC limit.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest that risk for engaging in AID is higher for those using a cost-sensitive, compensatory strategy when making AID decisions under intoxication. Future research is needed to test whether AID countermeasures (e.g., subsidized ride services) are differentially effective according to decision strategy type. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).