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Background: Social distancing measures during the COVID‐19 pandemic forced an abrupt transformation of treatment delivery for mental health care. In mid‐March 2020, nearly all in‐person contact was replaced with video conferencing. The pandemic thus offered a natural experiment and a unique opportunity to conduct an observational study of whether alcohol use disorder treatment through video conferencing is non‐inferior to in‐person treatment. Methods: In a large urban substance use disorder treatment center in the Netherlands, treatment evaluation is routine practice. Outcome data are regularly collected to support shared decision making and monitor patient progress. For this study, pre‐test and post‐test data on alcohol use (Measurements in the Addictions for Triage and Evaluation), psychopathology (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales), and quality of life (Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life) were used to compare outcomes of cognitive behavioral therapy treatment for three cohorts: patients who received treatment for a primary alcohol use disorder performed prior to (n = 628), partially during (n = 557), and entirely during (n = 653) the COVID‐19 lockdown. Results: Outcome was similar across the three cohorts: No inferior outcomes were found for treatments that were conducted predominantly through video conferencing during lockdown or treatments that started in‐person, but were continued through video conferencing, compared to in‐person treatments that were conducted prior to COVID‐19. The number of drop‐outs were also similar between cohorts. However, there was a difference in average treatment intensity between cohorts, with treatment partially or fully conducted during the COVID‐19 pandemic lasting longer. Conclusions: Treatment for a primary alcohol use disorder, provided partially or predominantly through video conferencing during the COVID‐19 pandemic resulted in abstinence rates and secondary outcomes similar to traditional in‐person care, in spite of the potentially negative effects of the COVID‐related lockdown measures themselves. These results from everyday clinical practice corroborate findings of randomized controlled studies and meta‐analyses in which video conferencing appeared non‐inferior to in‐person care in clinical effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Even though evidence‐based interventions can enhance clinical outcomes and cost effectiveness, in the field of eating disorders, implementation of empirically supported treatments (ESTs) in routine inpatient and outpatient settings is slow. Objective: This study examined differential (cost‐) effectiveness, after implementing evidence‐based cognitive behavioral therapy‐enhanced (CBT‐E) throughout a Dutch treatment center. Method: Two consecutive cohorts of adult patients, BMI between 17.5 and 40, were compared, with one cohort (N = 239) receiving treatment‐as‐usual (TAU) between 2012 and 2014 and the other (N = 320) receiving CBT‐E between 2015 and 2017. Results: Eating disorder pathology, measured with self‐reports, decreased significantly in both cohorts; overall, no differences in clinical outcomes between both cohorts were found. Treatment costs and treatment duration were considerably lower in 2015–2017. When limiting the cost analysis to direct costs, there is a 71% likelihood that CBT‐E is more cost‐effective and a 29% likelihood that CBT‐E leads to fewer remissions at lower costs, based on the distribution of the cost‐effectiveness plane. The likelihood that TAU leads to lower costs is 0%. Discussion: Findings show that implementing an EST throughout inpatient and outpatient settings leads to lower costs with similar treatment effect and has the advantage of shorter treatment duration and a shorter inpatient stay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]