Addiction Risk: Psychoeducational Intervention to Change Risk Perception Among Alcohol Patients in Residential Treatment

Addiction Risk: Psychoeducational Intervention to Change Risk Perception Among Alcohol Patients in Residential Treatment

Sub-Project No 8 of the Research Group RISKDYNAMICS: Addiction Risk - the Dynamic of Risk Perception and Risk Behavior in Alcohol Dependence, Work Package 1, Study 1.

Based on previous research (Odenwald & Semrau, 2012) the investigators know that psychoeducation on comorbid mental disorders during residential alcohol detoxification can improve subsequent treatment utilization. In this study they will study a hypothesized psychological mechanism that contributes to this behavior change. The investigators will recruit alcohol dependent patients in residential detox treatment who all receive Treatment as Usual. Participants will be randomly assigned to an additional psychoeducational group therapy (intervention group) or to an additional neuropsychological group training (control group). Measurements will take place on the day before study inclusion, one week later and one month after release from index residential treatment. Measurements will include alcohol-related risk perception, alcohol use, treatment motivation, comorbid psychiatric symptoms and whether the patient has regularly completed treatment and whether he/she has been transferred to subsequent treatment. Furthermore, six months after release from index treatment information on re-admission to the clinic is assessed from patient files. The investigators hypothesize that the behavioral effects of psychoeducational group intervention will be mediated by adaptive changes of the individual's alcohol-related risk perception.

Psychoeducational Group Intervention on Alcohol Drinking Related to Stress: Psychological group intervention with 3 sessions of 60 min (Odenwald & Semrau, 2012). Contains psychoeducation on alcohol drinking related to stress and PTSD.

Cognitive Training: Psychological group intervention with 3 sessions of 60 min. The content is paper-and-pencil based cognitive training of memory and attention functions.

Manualized and standardized psychotherapeutic group intervention with three sessions of 60 min duration each which are to be delivered in a one-week period.

Manualized and standardized psychotherapeutic group intervention with three sessions of 60 min duration each which are to be delivered in a one-week period.

The patient's self-reported rating of the patient's own perception of alcohol-related risks in the German Questionnaire on Alcohol-related Risk Perception (Klepper, Odenwald & Rockstroh, 2016).

Binary variable: The patient regularly completes the residential detox treatment or he/she can prematurely end the treatment (treatment drop out).

Binary variable: Patient is directly transferred from detox treatment unit to subsequent alcohol in-patient or day-clinic treatment.

Inclusion Criteria: Alcohol Dependence (according to ICD-10) Exclusion Criteria: treatment episode is acute crisis intervention acute psychosis acute suicidality no command of German language (reading writing)

Odenwald M, Semrau P. Reducing dropout among traumatized alcohol patients in detoxification treatment: a pilot intervention study. Eur Addict Res. 2012;18(2):54-63. doi: 10.1159/000333336. Epub 2011 Dec 16.