Clinical trial NCT02499913: Contingency Management to Reduce Alcohol Use in a Soup Kitchen Sample
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Alcohol Abuse
Contingency Management
Lead sponsor: UConn Health
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
First posted: 2015-07-16
Enrollment: 27
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: Alcohol use and alcohol-related disorders are highly prevalent in soup kitchen users, and this population is overrepresented by minorities and disproportionately affected by alcohol-related morbidity and mortality. Contingency management is a behavioral intervention effective in reducing substance use, but few studies have evaluated the efficacy of contingency management in the context of soup kitchens or homeless programs. The investigators found that contingency management, using a twice weekly testing and reinforcement schedule, had benefits for decreasing drinking in individuals receiving services at a homeless shelter. This study will replicate and extend these earlier findings to a soup kitchen population using more sophisticated alcohol monitoring procedures to better assess the extent of drinking in this group and in response to a contingency management intervention reinforcing submission of negative breath samples. Specifically, 40 hazardous drinkers recruited from a soup kitchen will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions: alcohol monitoring or the same plus reinforcement for provision of daily negative breath alcohol samples. The interventions will be in effect for 3 weeks, and all participants will also wear transdermal continuous alcohol monitors during the intervention period. Objective and subjective indices of alcohol consumption will be evaluated and compared between and within the treatment conditions. This pilot project will provide information regarding the effect size of contingency management reinforcing negative breath samples in an important health disparities group, and results from this study will guide subsequent grant applications focusing on methods to decrease drinking in this underserved population.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* age ≥18
* frequent soup kitchen users who drink alcohol
* willing to wear transdermal alcohol monitor for 3 weeks
* willing to sign a property transfer form and return SCRAMx equipment

Exclusion Criteria:

* uncontrolled, severe psychopathology and/or severe cognitive impairment
* non-English speaking
* in recovery for pathological gambling
* has a medical condition that would interfere with transdermal alcohol readings
* legal charges pending that are likely to lead to incarceration

Primary outcomes:
measure: efficacy of contingency management relative to monitoring only
timeFrame: week 4
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: New Britain
country: United States
facility: Friendship Center
state: Connecticut
Study officials:
affiliation: UConn Health
name: Carla Rash, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: