Initiation and retention in couples outpatient treatment for parents with drug and alcohol use disorders.

Abstract

The focus of the current study was to identity mental health, relationship factors, substance use related problems, and individual factors as predictors of couples-based substance abuse treatment initiation and attendance. Heterosexual couples with children that met study criteria were invited to attend 12 sessions of outpatient behavioral couples therapy (BCT). Men were more likely to initiate treatment if they had a higher income, had greater relationship satisfaction, were initiating treatment for alcohol use disorder only, if they were younger when they first suspected a problem, and had higher depression but lower hostility or phobic anxiety. Men attended more treatment sessions if they reported less intimate partner victimization, if they sought treatment for both alcohol and drug use disorder, if they were older when they first suspected a substance use problem, and if they were more obsessive-compulsive, more phobic anxious, less hostile, and experienced less somatization and less paranoid ideation. For women, treatment initiation was associated with less cohesion in their relationships, more somatization, and being older when they first suspected an alcohol or drug use problem. Trends were observed between women’s treatment retention and being older, experiencing more somatization, and suspecting drug-related problems when they were younger; however, no predictors reached statistical significance for women. Results suggest that different factors may be associated with men and women’s willingness to initiate and attend conjoint treatment for substance abuse.

Predictors of Utilization of an Addiction-Specific Behavioural Couple Therapy in Alcohol Dependence

“…We assumed that relationship satisfaction played an important role for utilization, which was supported by prior findings for men [10] and women [11]. Nevertheless, our results do not support this assumption.…”

“…In prior studies in outpatient settings, age was not a significant predictor for the utilization [8, 10, 11]. A possible explanation for this difference could be the pre-selection of our BCT-sample: all individuals had already decided upon (an individual) inpatient treatment.…”

“…Prior empirical data concerning comorbid disorders was mixed. Braitman et al [10] found that, for example, depressive symptoms were associated with an increased probability, but obsessive-compulsive symptoms or anxiety was not. Our results suggest an effect that decreases the probability of utilization, but future studies should use a more differentiated approach.…”

“…material, see www.karger.com/doi/10.1159/000489559; Table 1). Different socio-demographic variables were not significant predictors, for example, employment status [8, 10] or education levels [8]. For addiction symptoms (e.g., number of symptoms or age when drug problems cropped up first) and comorbid psychiatric symptoms, inconsistent results were found [9, 10].…”

“…Different socio-demographic variables were not significant predictors, for example, employment status [8, 10] or education levels [8]. For addiction symptoms (e.g., number of symptoms or age when drug problems cropped up first) and comorbid psychiatric symptoms, inconsistent results were found [9, 10]. Two studies examined the relationship satisfaction indicating that greater relationship satisfaction was associated with an individual’s increased probability of utilizing BCT [10, 11].…”