We found among patients with SUD a strong relation between patients' attachment style and their psychological distress. Knowledge of the patient's attachment style may help the therapist to tailor the treatment to the patient's needs. A change from insecure to secure attachment style can be an important goal for a SUD treatment, as it may prevent the patient from using defence strategies involving substance use for regulating emotions and interpersonal relationships.

The main objective of this study was to explore the relationship between alliance and treatment outcome of substance use disorder (SUD) outpatients in routine care. Attachment, type of substance use, and treatment orientation were analyzed as potential moderators of this relationship. Method: Ninety-nine SUD outpatients rated their psychological distress before every session. Patients and therapists rated the alliance after every session. At treatment start and end, the patient completed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT), and the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR-S). Data were analyzed using multilevel growth curve modeling and Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling (DSEM). Results: The associations between alliance and outcome on psychological distress and substance use were, on average, weak. Within-patient associations between patient-rated alliance and outcome were moderated by self-rated attachment. Type of abuse moderated associations between therapist-rated alliance and psychological distress. No moderating effect was found for treatment orientation. Conclusions: Patients' attachment style and type of abuse may have influenced the association between alliance and problem reduction. A larger sample size is needed to confirm these findings.

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Background: Substance use disorder is one of the most important threats to health and welfare in the world. More knowledge is needed about the outcomes of treatments in routine care for patients with substance use disorders (SUDs). These patients often suffer from psychological distress in addition to substance use disorders. Aims: To evaluate the effects of community-based psychological treatment on SUD outpatients' psychological distress and substance use, and also to analyze the importance of their attachment style and the alliance with regard to treatment outcome. Methods: Patients who were referred or self-referred to a social worker or a psychotherapist at three outpatient treatment centers for SUD were invited to participate in the study. At each session the patients filled out an instrument measuring psychological distress, the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) and to evaluate the alliance to the therapist the Working Alliance Inventory-short form revised (WAI-SR). At treatment start and end the patient filled out the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test including the extended version (DUDIT/DUDIT-E) and the Experiences in Close Relationships-short form (ECR-S) categorizing attachment style. Therapists filled out the CORE Therapy Assessment form at treatment start and the End of Therapy form at treatment termination. After each session, they also filled out the Working Alliance Inventory-short form for therapists (WAI-S). Results: Of the 119 patients who agreed to participate in the study, there were 100 patients who filled out two or more CORE-OM and WAI-SR forms. Outcome on substance use as measured with AUDIT-C and DUDIT-C was collected for 63 patients. The analyses showed that CORE-OM mean scores were significantly improved. In total 14% of the patients were recovered, 10% improved and 5% deteriorated. AUDIT-C and DUDIT-C mean scores were significantly improved for patients using alcohol and for patients using illicit drugs, respectively. An insecure attachment style was more common among the patients in this research project, compared to non-clinical groups. The patients with a fearful attachment style scored higher on psychological distress than the patients with a secure attachment style. The associations between the attachment dimensions and psychological distress were stronger than those between attachment and SUD. The causal relationship between attachment style and psychological distress is, however, not clear and can likely go in both directions. Significantly more patients had a secure attachment style at treatment end. Previous studies have found that the associations between alliance and outcome for SUD patients may be weaker than for other clinical groups, which was confirmed in this thesis. Three moderators of the alliance-outcome association-type of substance use, attachment style and treatment orientation-were assessed. None of the potential moderators tested showed any effect on the association bet...