Patient Centered Assessment and Substance Use Disorder Treatment Study (PCAST)
Substance Use DisordersCalifornia counties are in the process of implementing a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Medicaid 1115 Substance Use Disorder (SUD) demonstration. The demonstration requires that patients be assigned to addiction treatment settings and levels of care systematically, using comprehensive biopsychosocial assessments and guided by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) patient placement criteria. RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Integrated Substance Abuse Programs have been awarded a contract from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study the effects of the ASAM implementation in California. The California 1115 SUD demonstration provides a unique opportunity to learn about the benefits and challenges resulting from system-wide implementation of ASAM criteria. The study will involve surveying patients in counties that are using the ASAM criteria and in counties that have not yet adopted the ASAM criteria. Medicaid patients receiving addiction treatment will be offered the opportunity participate in the study and to be surveyed about their experiences in treatment. The study will also analyze data from the California Outcomes Management System (CalOMS) and conduct interviews with providers, patients, and policymakers in the state. The results of the study will help inform California's efforts to continually improve its addiction treatment systems to better meet the needs of it communities. This study will also produce important and useful information to patients seeking treatment for addiction, and their providers, SUD system administrators, and payers.
SMART Trial: Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Stigma Reduction
StigmaSocial3 moreThe goal of this project is to develop a multicomponent stigma reduction intervention to address intrapersonal (individual) stigma regarding Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). The intervention will address this cost/benefit evaluation among individuals known to face intersecting stigma of OUD and African American race, with treatment elements chosen explicitly to increase the value of treatment using salient forms of reward, and to ease perceived costs through explicit services in an effort to encourage the occurrence of the first treatment visit for OUD.
Mental Health in Latin American Countries With Different Economic Incomes During the Covid-19 Pandemic....
DepressionAnxiety1 moreThe Covid-19 pandemic has generated, in the Latin American population, unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression and substance use associated with the diagnosis of the disease. Consequently, it has been pointed out that a moderating variable for the appearance of these psychological problems is high social and economic vulnerability. OBJECTIVE: To assess differences in psychological problems exposed to the diagnosis of Covid-19 by groups of countries with different incomes. METHODOLOGY: A non-experimental, correlational, prospective, double-blind, cross-sectional study was carried out using the CHERRIES methodological criteria and the sample was Latin American people. The scales used were for depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7) and substance use (ASSIST). Likewise, Latin American countries were classified by their income level according to the World Bank. Also, the Shapiro-Wilk normality test and an ANOVA analysis of variance were performed, with Post Hoc test, with Bonferroni adjustment
Does Delaying Adolescent Substance Use Lead to Improved Cognitive Function and Reduce Risk for Addiction?...
Alcohol Related DisordersSubstance Related DisordersThe Preventure Program is the first and only school-based alcohol and drug prevention program that has been shown to prevent onset and growth in alcohol and substance misuse in British and Canadian youth. Unlike universal programs that tend to promote generic coping skills and balance normative attitudes around substance use, this selected personality-targeted approach is based on a psychosocial model and validated by Dr Patricia Conrod and targets four personality-specific motivational pathways to substance misuse: Hopelessness, Anxiety Sensitivity, Impulsivity and Sensation Seeking, each associated with different motives for substance use, drug use profiles and patterns of non-addictive psychopathology. As a primary goal of the Coventure project, the investigators propose a long-term trial of this intervention strategy to examine how this evidence-based intervention can reduce onset of substance use disorders in young people and related secondary mental health, academic and cognitive outcomes. As a secondary goal, the investigators propose to use sensitive neuropsychological measures to examine how this evidence-based intervention can positively impact on cognitive development over the course of adolescence, to tease apart some of the mechanisms involved in the causal pathway from early onset substance use to poor cognitive development and long-term addiction outcomes.
Understanding Drug Abuse Treatment Outcomes
Drug Abuse/DependenceBackground: Although some treatments for substance abuse are considered effective for some people who are drug dependent, many others do not benefit as much over time. Researchers are working to find out what characteristics predict treatment response. They also want to determine how to design treatments that are more effective for a greater number of substance abusers. This pilot study involves providing drug addicts with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a treatment considered to be one of the most effective in reducing substance-abuse, to identify ways in which the brain works that may predict and explain treatment effects. A comparison group will be included that receives only standard psychotherapy or talk therapy. This approach will enable researchers to determine what factors might be interfering with favorable treatment outcomes and how to refine or develop new treatments that work well for more people. Objectives: - To identify individual characteristics which predict and explain the effects of CBT in people with opiate dependence. Eligibility: Males between 18 and 60 years of age who are dependent on opioids (such as heroin). Participants must be willing to take buprenorphine and receive substance abuse counseling. Design: Participants will be screened with a physical exam and medical history. Researchers will ask questions about participants ability to cope in certain situations, along with questions about drug use and lifestyle issues. These questions will be asked twice, before and after completing treatment. Participants will be placed into one of two groups. One group will have CBT twice a week for 8 weeks. The other group will have standard counseling twice per week. Both groups will take buprenorphine as part of the drug abuse treatment. Participants will have other tests during this study. They will have imaging studies to look at brain function. These studies will test thinking and decision making.
Study of Buprenorphine Maintenance Treatment for Opioid Dependence in Primary Care
Heroin DependenceOpioid-Related Disorders2 moreThe purpose of this treatment research study is to assess the effectiveness of buprenorphine maintenance treatment for opioid dependence delivered in a primary care clinic setting. This study will determine whether buprenorphine treatment in primary care is effective in reducing cravings, reducing illicit opioid use, reducing addiction severity, and retaining patients in primary care treatment for opioid dependence.
HIV Infection and Tobacco Use Among Injection Drug Users in Baltimore, Maryland: A Pilot Study of...
HIV InfectionsAIDS3 moreBackground: The incidence of lung cancer is quite high among people with the human immunodeficiency (HIV) virus. Frequent smoking may explain that cancer increase, given that 50% to 70% of HIV-infected people are current smokers. Recent research suggests that other factors may be involved as well. Smoking habits, such as smoking earlier in life or smoking more cigarettes a day than others do, may have a role. Also, HIV-infected smokers seem to have a greater risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The association of HIV and COPD is important, because COPD itself is linked to an increased risk of lung cancer. About 1,600 subjects from the study known as ALIVE (AIDS Linked to the Intra-Venous Experience), which began in 1988 in Baltimore, Maryland, will be given a detailed questionnaire on smoking behaviors and lung cancer risk factors. They will also have spirometry testing, to evaluate lung function. Objectives: To better characterize smoking habits and compare tobacco use among HIV-infected and uninfected drug users. To compare serum cotinine levels and spirometry results, as a marker of tobacco use and a marker of damage to lung function, respectively. Eligibility: Patients 18 years of age and older who are in the ALIVE cohort. Design: Patients undergo the following procedures: Completing a questionnaire on smoking history. Questions include age when smoking began, periods of quitting smoking, average number of cigarettes per day for specific periods, amount of each cigarette smoked, depth of inhalation, type of cigarette, nicotine dependence, use of other smoked [Note: I would not mention that these drugs are illegal] drugs, exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, past medical history, and recent respiratory symptoms. Spirometry testing. Patients are asked to breathe as deeply as possible and then rapidly exhale into a tube. The forced expiration volume in 1 second reflects the average flow rate during the first second, and it can be used to determine the degree of pulmonary obstruction. Blood samples. Tests measure levels of cotinine, a chemical made by the body from nicotine. African American males, who constitute the majority of the ALIVE cohort, participate in this test. Results would show how much tobacco smoke has recently entered the body. For this test, researchers plan to evaluate 240 current tobacco smokers and 100 participants who report no recent cigarette use.
Learning Effective Approaches to Prevention
Adolescent Substance AbuseThe objective of the study is to test the effectiveness, implementation quality, and cost effectiveness of family-based treatment services for adolescent substance abuse delivered in an agency setting.
Automatic Versus Evaluative Components of Cue Reactivity
Drug DependenceBackground: - Relapse to drug abuse often happens in the presence of stimuli that are associated with previous drug use, also known as cues. Drug-taking behavior appears to be partly controlled by such cues. Some research suggests that cue-induced craving states are responsible for drug use and relapse, but other research suggests that cues can control drug taking without conscious craving or even awareness. Researchers are interested in using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study how individuals respond to drug-related cues and how these cues affect craving on a conscious or unconscious level. Objectives: - To determine how drug-related stimuli (cues) affect thinking, information processing, and body reactions in current drug users. Eligibility: - Individuals between 18 and 50 years of age who are dependent on either tobacco or crack-cocaine, or are healthy volunteers who are not dependent on either drug. Design: The study will require two sessions, a training session and a testing session, that will take place within 48 hours of each other. Between the two test sessions, participants may not consume alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs, and must restrict caffeine consumption. During the first session, participants will complete questionnaires about tobacco/cocaine use and craving, and will be trained on the tasks to be performed in the MRI scanner. During the second session, participants will perform concentration tasks and look at pictures, some of which will be tobacco/cocaine related. Body reactions such as heart rate, pupil dilation, and sweating will be measured during this session. Some participants will have actual MRI scanning, while others will have mock MRI scanning. After the MRI session, participants will complete questionnaires about craving and responses to the scan.
Effects of Nicotine on Cognitive Task Performance and Brain Activity as Measured by fMRI
Nicotine DependenceDrug AbuseBackground: - Many cigarette smokers claim that smoking improves their ability to think and concentrate, and have reported problems in thinking and concentration after quitting smoking. Some research has indicated that nicotine can enhance certain aspects of attention and memory in humans. However, more research is needed to determine how nicotine affects different elements of the brain s ability to think, pay attention, respond to rewards, and make decisions. Researchers are interested in using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the effects of nicotine on brain function and activity. Objectives: - To determine the effects of nicotine on attentional and other thinking processes, including reward-seeking behavior. Eligibility: - Individuals between 18 and 50 years of age who are either current smokers (10 or more cigarettes per day for at least 1 year) or nonsmokers. Design: The study has four experiments. Each experiment requires two MRI scanning sessions and a training session. Participant can do one or all of the experiments. Participants will receive training on the types of computerized tests that will be given during the active portion of the study. Participants will also fill out questionnaires on nicotine use and other alcohol and drug use, and provide breath and urine samples. During the test sessions, participants will have fMRI scanning while performing up to four different sets of tasks that test attention, memory, concentration, reward-seeking behavior, and decision making. Smokers will wear a nicotine patch or placebo patch during the test sessions, but will not be told which patch they are receiving. The order of these sessions will be different for individual participants. Participants will provide blood and urine samples throughout the research study for evaluation purposes.