Do patients change in the ways we intend: assessing acquisition of coping skills among cocaine-dependent patients

Article Abstract:

The Cocaine Risk Response Test (CRRT) is a measure of patients' development of coping skills which has been adapted from the SCT developed by Chaney et al to use with abusers of cocaine. Data was used from treatment trials for cocaine dependence evaluating a range of treatments. Pyschometric analyses showed internal consistency and interrater reliability, and an increase in coping skills in terms of quality and quantity after treatment. The response in terms of coping skills tended to reflect the treatement that the patients had received. The study does not show that treatment outcome is mediated by treatment-specific coping skills, but the CRRT could be used to carry out this type of analysis in future research.

Therapeutics, Drug abuse treatment, Cocaine abuse, Drug abuse

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Listening to smoking researchers: negative affect and drug abuse treatment

Article Abstract:

New strategies for the treatment of smoking could be developed by acknowledging the likely affective bases of withdrawal, but the role of negative affect in drug withdrawal requires further research. Negative affect has been acknowledged as a major factor in clinical drug treatments for some time, but research has so far failed to show that changes in substance use are fostered by reducing the negative affect. Some drug abusers find to difficult to articulate affect states, but this is required as part of cognitive-behavioral treatments.

Psychological aspects, Drug addicts, Drug abusers, Drug withdrawal symptoms, Substance withdrawal syndrome

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Methodological issues and problems in the assessment of substance use

Article Abstract:

Substance use researchers and clinicians can overcome many of the problems normally found in psychological assessment by using behavioral observation instead of total absorbtion with self-reports. Detection of clinical change, verification of self-reports, extended baseline and follow-up periods, use of standard diagnostic instruments to study samples and multiple measures of substance use are also necessary methodologies that are becoming common in assessment research.

Methods, Analysis, Substance abuse, Problem solving, Methodology, Research methods

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