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Background: A major challenge to psychological treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) is patient non-compliance. A promising new treatment approach that is hypothesized to increase patient compliance is blended treatment, consisting of face-to-face contact with a therapist combined with modules delivered over the internet within the same protocol. While this treatment concept has been developed and proven effective for a variety of mental disorders, it has not yet been examined for AUD., Aims: The study described in this protocol aims to examine and evaluate patient compliance with blended AUD treatment as well as the clinical and cost effectiveness of such treatment compared to face-to-face treatment only., Methods: The study design is a pragmatic, stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled trial. The included outpatient institutions (planned number of patients: n = 1800) will be randomized in clusters to implement either blended AUD treatment or face-to-face treatment only, i.e. treatment as usual (TAU). Both treatment approaches consist of motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy. Data on sociodemographics, treatment (e.g. intensity, duration), type of treatment conclusion (compliance vs. dropout), alcohol consumption, addiction severity, consequences of drinking, and quality of life, will be collected at treatment entry, at treatment conclusion, and 6 months after treatment conclusion. The primary outcome is compliance at treatment conclusion, and the secondary outcomes include alcohol consumption and quality of life at six-months follow-up. Data will be analyzed with an Intention-to-treat approach by means of generalized linear mixed models with a random effect for cluster and fixed effect for each step. Also, analyses evaluating cost-effectiveness will be conducted., Discussion: Blended treatment may increase treatment compliance and thus improve treatment outcomes due to increased flexibility of the treatment course. Since this study is conducted within an implementation framework it can easily be scaled up, and when successful, blended treatment has the potential to become an alternative offer in many outpatient clinics nationwide and internationally., Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov .: NCT04535258 , retrospectively registered 01.09.20.

Background: Despite an initial steep decrease in alcohol misuse among Estonians through structural intervention means and the scaling up of alcohol counselling in the mid-2000's, most of the country's alcohol misuse indicators remain clearly higher than European averages. Consequently, an online self-help program was launched as part of an initial behavioral intervention initiative to foster progress in alcohol prevention on a population level., Methods: A two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) has been designed to compare the efficacy of a culturally-adapted minimal-guidance online self-help program, the 8-week "Selge" online program against a control condition that consists of a self-administered test of alcohol use and advice regarding usual treatment in Estonia. A target sample of 600 individuals will be recruited and randomly assigned to either condition. The program will contain 10 modules based on principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and motivational interviewing (MI). Participants in the control group will have access to the full treatment after they complete their final follow-up assessment. The primary outcome will be change in the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) score between the 6-month follow-up and baseline assessments. Secondary outcomes will include the number of standard drinks consumed and alcohol-free days, drinking motives and motivation for change, as well as changes in mental health. Assessments will be completed at baseline, at the end of treatment, and at 6 months follow-up. Data analysis will follow the intention-to-treat principle and employ (generalised) linear mixed models., Discussion: The "Selge" program is the first and only internet program for the intervention of alcohol misuse in Estonia. If proven effective, it will foster progress in the intervention of alcohol misuse in the Estonian population and be implemented as a standard program amidst the continuum of intervention and care., Trial Registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN48753339 registered 04/06/2019 retrospectively.

Background: Internet-based interventions are seen as attractive for harmful users of alcohol and lead to desirable clinical outcomes. Some participants will however not achieve the desired results. In this study, harmful users of alcohol have been partitioned in subgroups with low, intermediate or high probability of positive treatment outcome, using recursive partitioning classification tree analysis., Methods: Data were obtained from a randomized controlled trial assessing the effectiveness of two Internet-based alcohol interventions. The main outcome variable was treatment response, a dichotomous outcome measure for treatment success. Candidate predictors for the classification analysis were first selected using univariate regression. Next, a tree decision model to classify participants in categories with a low, medium and high probability of treatment response was constructed using recursive partitioning software., Results: Based on literature review, 46 potentially relevant baseline predictors were identified. Five variables were selected using univariate regression as candidate predictors for the classification analysis. Two variables were found most relevant for classification and selected for the decision tree model: 'living alone', and 'interpersonal sensitivity'. Using sensitivity analysis, the robustness of the decision tree model was supported., Conclusions: Harmful alcohol users in a shared living situation, with high interpersonal sensitivity, have a significantly higher probability of positive treatment outcome. The resulting decision tree model may be used as part of a decision support system but is on its own insufficient as a screening algorithm with satisfactory clinical utility., Trial Registration: Netherlands Trial Register (Cochrane Collaboration): NTR-TC1155.

Background: Intensive home treatment (IHT) aims to prevent psychiatric hospitalisation. Although this intervention is well tested, it is still unknown for whom this intervention works best. Therefore, this study aims to explore prescriptive factors that moderate the effect of IHT compared to care as usual (CAU) on symptom severity. Methods: Using data from a randomised controlled trial, 198 participants that experience an exacerbation of acute psychiatric symptoms were included in this secondary analysis. In order to maximise clinical relevance, generally available environmental and clinical baseline factors were included as tentative moderators: age, gender, employment status, domestic situation, psychiatric disorders, psychological symptoms, psychosocial functioning, alcohol and other substance use. The outcome variable symptom severity was measured using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and collected at 26 and 52 weeks post-randomisation. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine which participants' characteristics moderate the effect of IHT on the total BPRS score. Results: Our results suggest that being employed (B = 0.28, SE = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.03–0.53, p = 0.03) at baseline seems to have a moderation effect, which result in lower symptom severity scores at 26 weeks follow-up for patients who received IHT. This effect was not found at 52 weeks. Conclusions: On the basis of the number of factors tested, there is no evidence for robust outcome moderators of the effect of IHT versus CAU. Our conclusion is therefore that IHT can be offered to a diverse target population with comparable clinical results. Trial registration: This trial is registered (date of registration: 2016-11-23) at the international clinical trials registry platform (NTR6151). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Depressive disorders and problematic drinking often co-occur, also among young adults. These co-occurring conditions are associated with various negative health outcomes compared to both conditions alone. Early intervention by addressing alcohol use and depressive symptoms simultaneously in the same treatment might improve both conditions. However, evidence on the (cost-) effectiveness of digital combined depression and alcohol interventions for young adults is currently insufficient. We therefore developed an add-on digital alcohol moderation adherence-focussed guided intervention to complement treatment as usual (TAU) for depressive disorders. The digital intervention is a web-app, including 6 modules based on motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioural therapy. This study aims to evaluate the (cost-)effectiveness of a digital alcohol moderation intervention + TAU compared to TAU on alcohol and depression outcomes among young adults with co-occurring depressive disorders and problematic alcohol use. Methods: One hundred fifty-six participants, aged 18–35 years, with problematic alcohol use and a diagnosed depressive disorder will participate in a pragmatic multicentre two-arm randomized controlled trial. Problematic alcohol use is operationalised as scoring ≥5 for women and ≥ 8 for men on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT). Participants will be randomized to either the experimental group (digital alcohol intervention + TAU) or control group (TAU only). Participants will be recruited at three Dutch mental health care centres and through social media. Assessments take place at baseline and after 3, 6 and 12 months post-randomization. The primary outcome is treatment response at 6-month follow-up, operationalized as a composite score that combines alcohol use and depression measures and indicates whether treatment has been successful or not. Secondary outcomes are depressive symptoms and alcohol use (i.e. number of weekly standard drinks and AUDIT score). An economic evaluation will be conducted alongside the trial. Discussion: This study evaluates the (cost-) effectiveness of an add-on digital alcohol moderation intervention for young adults who are in treatment for depressive disorders. If proven effective, the digital intervention could be implemented in mental health care and improve treatment for people with co-occurring depressive disorders and problematic alcohol use. Trial registration: Pre-registered on October 29, 2019 in The Netherlands Trial Register (NL8122). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alcohol use disorders (AUD) have the worst impact in low-middle-income countries (LMICs), where the disease burden per liter of alcohol consumed is higher than in wealthy populations. Furthermore, the median treatment gap for AUDs in LMICs is 78.1%. The highest prevalence of AUDs worldwide in 2004 was found in the western Pacific region, Southeast Asia, and the Americas. The main aim of this study was to estimate and compare the prevalence of risky alcohol use and the extent of the treatment gap in a rural (Nickerie) and in an urban (Paramaribo) area in Suriname, a LMICs country with a wide variety of ethnic groups. Methods: The respondents were randomly recruited using a specific sampling method of the National Census Bureau. The final samples were 1837 households for Paramaribo and 1026 for Nickerie, reflecting the populations in both regions. The Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) and the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) were used to assess the likelihood of the presence of alcohol use disorder. A score of > 7 for the AUDIT implies risky alcohol use. Results: The results indicated that 2% of the women and 15% of the men in the rural area scored 8 or higher on the AUDIT. In the urban area, these numbers were 3% and 17%, respectively. In both samples, the men had the highest addiction risk at about 16% compared with 2% for females. Married persons are significantly less likely to become alcoholic than singles and other groups in Paramaribo. In both areas, higher education was associated with a lower probability of alcohol abuse and dependence, while handymen showed a higher odd. A treatment gap of 50% was found for alcohol use disorders in the rural area. The corresponding gap in the urban area was 64%. Conclusions: Surinamese men show a high prevalence of the likelihood of AUD. In addition, the treatment gap for these possible patients is large. It is therefore of paramount importance to develop therapeutic strategies with the aim of tackling this physically and mentally disabling disorder. Tailored E-health programs may be of benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]