Brief group-delivered motivational interviewing is equally effective as brief group-delivered cognitive-behavioral therapy at reducing alcohol use in risky college drinkers

Abstract

College students are particularly vulnerable to risky alcohol use, which increases their likelihood of developing an alcohol use disorder in the future. As such, preventing and reducing alcohol use among college students should be a priority for health and social policies. This work was aimed to show that brief group-delivered MI is as effective as brief-group CBT at reducing alcohol use in college students. Eighty-nine college students (69 females; mean age = 21.01, SD = 2.85) with risky alcohol use, as measured by the AUDIT-C, were assigned to two groups, receiving three sessions of either brief group-delivered MI or CBT (bMI/bCBT). Alcohol use was assessed 3 and 6 months after the interventions, and analyzed according to an Intention-to-treat design. Changes in alcohol use at both points (relative to baseline) as well as post-intervention scores of intention to continue treatment and satisfaction with the psychologist were compared across groups, using one-sided Bayesian t-tests. Alcohol use decreased in both groups at the 3- and 6-months measurement points (relative to baseline). However, using bCBT superiority as an alternative hypothesis and the absence of such superiority as a point-null hypothesis, the Bayes factors supported the null at both the 3- and the 6-months follow-up (BF01 = 7.13, and BF01 = 5.22 respectively). Furthermore, the intention to continue treatment was substantially higher in the bMI group (BF10 = 9.77). These results are considerably robust to changes in analyses’ priors. This study suggests that bCBT is not more effective than bMI at reducing alcohol use in our college student group (in which females are overrepresented). Additionally, bMI showed higher intention to continue treatment scores. The comparable results of brief and group-delivered CBT and MI interventions in alcohol use reduction allows clinicians to select treatments based on their own skills or preferences without any detriment to efficacy.

Intervenciones para reducir el consumo de alcohol en jóvenes universitarios

“…Por otra parte, en relación con el estudio realizado por Martín-Pérez et al, (20), aunque la TCC es el enfoque de intervención predominante en el tratamiento de adicciones y la prevención terciaria (36), los profesionales deben tener en cuenta que la entrevista motivacional puede proporcionar una ventaja adicional al impulsar la intención de los estudiantes universitarios de seguir tratamientos prolongados (37)(38).…”

“…De la misma manera, Kamal, et al, (19) probaron la ecacia de las pruebas de detección e intervención breve basadas en el individuo; en sus resultados obtuvieron cambios en la puntuación media de AUDIT. Paralelamente, Martín-Pérez et al, (20) mostraron que la entrevista motivacional breve administrada en grupo es tan efectiva como la terapia cognitivo-conductual (TCC) breve en grupo para reducir el consumo de alcohol en estudiantes universitarios.…”

Awareness of cognitive abilities in the execution of activities of daily living after acquired brain injury: an evaluation protocol

“…The comparison analyses will be conducted using an ANOVA (or analysis of covariance, to control for any demographic, lesion or functioning variable that significantly correlates with the COG-Awareness ADL Scale variable of interest), or a non-parametric test when the data distribution is not normal (Kruskal-Wallis test). If a non-parametric test is required, the method proposed by Martin-Pérez et al 60 will be applied, using an unstandardised regression coefficient for these covariates to correct the discrepancy index of the Cog-Awareness ADL Scale.…”

A full-factorial randomized controlled trial of adjunct couples HIV testing and counseling components addressing drug use and communication skills among sexual minority male couples

“…This study also furthers research on applications of Motivational Interviewing with couples. Previous research on the involvement of relationship partners in Motivational Interviews have met with mixed results [7][8][9][10]13]. Unlike these previous studies, which conceptualized couples Motivational Interviewing in terms of relationship partners involved as adjunct participants in the treatment of an identified client, the framework for couples Motivational Interviewing that underlies the SUM component tested here conceptualizes the couple in toto as the client [24,27].…”