Effect of CBT Microinterventions on Mechanisms of Behavior Change Among Adults With AUD
Alcohol Use Disorder
About this trial
This is an interventional treatment trial for Alcohol Use Disorder
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
- Age 18 or older
- Current Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) Diagnosis
- Drank Alcohol within 60 days prior to telephone screen
- Able to read and understand English at the 7th grade education level
Exclusion Criteria:
- Participant diagnosed with Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder
- Participant has a head injury with symptoms in the last 30 days
- Current inpatient or outpatient treatment for AUD or Drug use Disorder (DUD)
Sites / Locations
- Elizabeth E Epstein
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Arm 2
Arm 3
Arm 4
Active Comparator
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Control
Functional Analysis
Cognitive Restructuring
Dealing with Cravings
This microintervention is intended to control for the effect of nonspecific therapy factors such as therapeutic alliance, time spent with a therapist, talking about alcohol, and/or effects related to assessment reactivity, and consists of 60 minutes of psycho-education on alcohol and drugs. The therapist will talk about historical and scientific information on different types of alcohol and drugs and will not overlap with CBT treatment. The participants will not be encouraged to personalize this information, make any behavioral changes, or do homework. The control does not have any active interventions that would specifically target or affect our outcome variables.
Functional Analysis (FA) is a core intervention in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for AUD, and helps to "break the chain" of events (external and internal) that lead from cue (trigger) to alcohol use to consequences of use. The FA microintervention teaches the patient to think and behave in new, more controlled ways in response to triggers, to identify maladaptive, impulsive behavior chains and to replace them with more deliberate ones.
Cognitive Restructuring of Thoughts About Alcohol (CR) is a core technique in CBT to help patients identify "automatic" (habituated) thoughts that happen quickly and are often not noticed, and change automatic thoughts occurring in response to alcohol triggers.
Dealing with Cravings (DC) is designed to directly target the reward and arousal systems, helping the patient accept the nature of cravings as time limited and deflated by continued abstinence so that craving is no longer associated with urgency. DC also teaches skills to reduce cravings by conjuring images such as a spider floating in a glass of wine, or of older versions of oneself sitting alone and dejected in a bar. Distraction techniques and breathing skills to reduce physiological arousal occurring in response to alcohol cues are also taught.