The Women's Recovery Group Study: Stage I Trial
Condition: Alcohol-Related Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders
MeSH terms: Substance-Related Disorders; Alcohol-Related Disorders
Intervention: The Women's Recovery Group; mixed-gender Group Drug Counseling
Intervention description: The Women's Recovery Group (WRG) is a manual-based group therapy for women heterogeneous with respect to their substance use disorder, co-occurring psychiatric disorders, trauma history, age, and stage of life. The WRG is a 12-session, structured relapse-prevention group therapy that utilizes a cognitive behavioral approach and includes gender-specific content and single-gender group composition. Individual session content was derived from research on gender-specific substance abuse antecedents, consequences, and treatment outcomes. The overall goals of the treatment are to (1) promote abstinence from all substances including alcohol; (2) improve understanding of specific aspects of SUDs, recovery, and relapse that are relevant to women, and (3) help participants with skills and strategies useful in preventing relapse and promoting recovery.; Group Drug Counseling (GDC) is a standard 12-week, 90-minute mixed-gender group therapy. The overall goals of GDC are to 1) help patients to achieve abstinence from all substances of abuse; 2) educate patients regarding recovery from substance use disorders; 3) increase patients' self-awareness of the problems that their substance use disorder has caused; 4) encourage patients to give mutual support; and 5) help patients learn new ways to cope with problems in order to prevent relapse. The GDC was chosen as the comparison group to approximate group drug counseling that is consistent with treatment as usual within the community.
Phase: Phase 1
Study type: Interventional
Primary purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Enrollment: 46.0
Sex: All
Minimum age: 18 Years
Healthy volunteers: No
Keywords: Gender differences; Women; Substance use disorders; Alcohol use disorders; Treatment outcomes; Group therapy

Summary:

      The purpose of this study was to develop a gender-specific 12-session, manual-based relapse
      prevention group for women with substance use disorders (SUDs).
    

Eligibility criteria:

        Inclusion criteria:

        Participants were included in the study if they:

          -  were diagnosed with at least one substance dependence other than nicotine dependence
             based on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV at the time of enrollment

          -  used substances within 60 days of baseline assessment

          -  were 18 years of age or older

          -  expressed intention to remain within the geographic area to return for follow-up
             assessments

          -  signed permission for the research team to communicate with any other mental health
             professional from whom they were receiving care

        Patients were excluded if they:

          -  had certain co-occurring diagnoses (i.e., bipolar, post-traumatic stress, or psychotic
             disorders) at the time of enrollment

          -  were mandated to treatment

          -  were in residential treatment restricting substance use during the group treatment
             phase

          -  participated in concurrent substance abuse treatment group (not including self-help)
             during the 12-week group treatment phase

          -  showed clinical indication for medical detoxification (these patients were eligible to
             enter the study after detoxification)