Understanding and Treating Substance Use Disorder and Comorbid Conditions in Veterans' Real-Life Settings
NCT Number: NCT06580457
Acronym: PATH
Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
Phases: NA
Conditions: Substance Use Disorder
Interventions: BEHAVIORAL: Personal Causal Model + Personalized Feedback
Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
Collaborators: Emory University|University of Minnesota
Sex: ALL
Age: ADULT, OLDER_ADULT
Enrollment: 74
Study Design: Allocation: RANDOMIZED|Intervention Model: PARALLEL|Masking: NONE|Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
Start Date: 2025-05-01
Completion Date: 2029-12-01
Locations: Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, MN, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55417-2309, United States

Summary:
An important part of substance use treatment for many people is learning what triggers their substance use and urges, and how they can better manage those triggers. In this study, the investigators will generate a model for each individual that shows likely causal links between their substance use, urges, and comorbid symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, and PTSD), and the investigators will examine these models as a group to draw conclusions about common causes for substance use (and recovery) among Veterans with substance use disorders. The investigators will also test whether receiving a personal model and clinical feedback improves substance use disorder and comorbid symptom outcomes. Results will include both patient-reported and statistically-determined causes of substance use for individuals and groups, clinical impact of a personalized model and feedback session, and participant feedback about the relevance of this study and intervention.

Primary Outcome Measures: Substance use, Substance use will be measured as number of days each substance was used in the past 30 days using National Survey on Drug Use and Health questions. Substances measured are nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine/crack, heroin, hallucinogens, inhalants, methamphetamine, pain relievers, tranquilizers, sedatives, and prescription stimulants. For alcohol, we will also obtain number of drinks consumed on each day, and will analyze whether average number of drinks per drinking day has changed during each follow-up period., 4-, 8-, and 12-week follow-ups|Substance-related problems, Substance-related problems will be measured for the past month using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT). Scores range from 0 to 40. Scores will be analyzed for changes at each follow-up point., 4-, 8-, and 12-week follow-ups
Secondary Outcome Measures: PTSD Symptoms, PTSD Checklist 5 or PCL-5 measures past 30 day PTSD symptoms. Scores range from 0 to 80. Scores will be analyzed for changes at each follow-up point., 4-, 8-, and 12-week follow-ups|Anxiety Symptoms, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) measures anxiety symptoms over the last 2 weeks. Scores range from 0 to 21. Scores will be analyzed for changes at each follow-up point., 4-, 8-, and 12-week follow-ups|Depression Symptoms, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) measures depression symptoms over the last month. Scores range from 0 to 63. Scores will be analyzed for changes at each follow-up point., 4-, 8-, and 12-week follow-ups