Fall 1996 Issue

Front Page

IBR Web site goes online

Research Highlights

British study evaluates treatment outcomes

New Postdocs appointed

Also in this Issue

NIJ Grant focuses on prison-based treatment

DATAR begins new studies

Conference presentations

IBR Web site goes online

IBR's newly launched Web site has been designed to provide greater access to information about the Institute's projects, publications, and data collection instruments. The home page provides a user-friendly format for browsing and features access to information from IBR's 30 years of social science and drug abuse treatment research.

Communications Specialist Charlotte Pevoto and Associate Research Scientist Dr. Kevin Knight spearheaded the design of the Web site, and IBR Director Dr. Dwayne Simpson sees its goal as a wider sharing of information about the role of applied research in the drug treatment field. "We hope to use this new medium as a way to give research colleagues, as well as students and treatment providers, better access to our findings and methodologies," notes Dr. Simpson.

Recent copies of the Research Roundup newsletter will be available, in addition to staff and project descriptions. Of particular importance to other researchers are the comprehensive lists of IBR studies, grouped according to research topics and by year of publication. Selected data collection forms will be made available in the future, such as scales for assessing motivation and psychosocial functioning.

The Web site has been designed to be used by any type of commercial browser, text or graphic-based, and may be accessed at www.ibr.tcu.edu.

Research Highlights

British study evaluates treatment outcomes

Dr. Michael Gossop, Program Director of the National Treatment Outcome Research Study (NTORS) at The Maudsley Hospital in London, has released preliminary findings on drug treatment services and effectiveness in the United Kingdom. NTORS is the largest study of treatment outcome ever conducted in Britain. Dr. Gossop, who visited IBR in November 1994, based the NTORS design in part on evaluation and longitudinal research studies conducted in the United States, including the DARP and DATAR projects and the new DATOS multisite evaluation.

The study monitors the progress of clients in inpatient units, residential programs, outpatient methadone maintenance programs, and outpatient methadone reduction programs. Early follow-up findings (Month 1 and 2) indicate clients in all modalities showed substantial improvements in many areas of functioning, including reduced heroin use and levels of injection behavior, less criminal activity, and fewer health and psychological problems. Future outcome results from the project will provide data about the long-term impact of Britain's national treatment response to drug abuse problems.

New Postdocs appointed

Drs. Kirk Broome, Mike Czuchry, and Matthew Hiller have been appointed as Postdoctoral Research Associates at IBR. Dr. Broome will be working with the DATOS project, a national multisite drug treatment evaluation cooperative. Dr. Czuchry will continue working with CETOP on studies involving node-link mapping, and Dr. Hiller will concentrate on evaluating prison-based treatment initiatives.

NIJ Grant focuses on prison-based treatment

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) recently provided IBR researchers with funding to complete a series of outcome and treatment process studies of prison-based substance abuse treatment programs. The Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA) funded the first wave of evaluation, carried out at IBR in 1994-95. Focusing on relapse and criminal recidivism rates during the first 6 months following treatment, the evaluation found parolees who completed an In-Prison Therapeutic Community (IPTC) and aftercare program to have better outcomes.

Dr. Dwayne Simpson is Principal Investigator and Dr. Kevin Knight is Co-Principal Investigator for the new project. The planned studies will extend the follow-up period for outcome evaluations. IPTC graduates and an untreated comparison group of parolees will be compared on 1-year outcomes, and treatment process indicators from both the in-prison and aftercare programs will be examined. In addition, criminal justice records will be used for calculating and analyzing 2-year recidivism rates. The project also will focus on treatment process elements associated with recovery.

DATAR begins new studies

The DATAR project will address two primary treatment issues in the coming year involving the optimal frequency of counseling session attendance and the effectiveness of structured induction. Drug Dependence Associates of San Antonio, a private methadone maintenance treatment program directed by J. Thomas Payte, M.D., is the primary research site.

The relationship of frequency of session attendance to during treatment progress, tenure, and outcomes is of growing interest to the clinical field. The variable of counseling session attendance and its relation to positive treatment outcomes will be studied systematically. In addition, the utility of a structured induction program completed by patients during the first 90 days of treatment will be evaluated.

Approximately 200 patients admitted to DATAR next year will be randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions. During the first 90 days of treatment, structured weekly, unstructured weekly, or monthly counseling sessions will be attended by patients. Afterwards, only monthly sessions will be required, with patients free to attend extra sessions as needed. Treatment participation and compliance indicators will be used to make comparisons across these experimental conditions.

Conference presentations

Studies from several IBR projects were presented at the annual American Psychological Association Conference held during August in Toronto. Dr. Dwayne Simpson delivered a symposium presentation "Treatment Retention: Implication for Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Studies on Client Care," and he also participated with Drs. Kevin Knight, Kirk Broome, and Sandra Dees in a symposium on "Evaluating Corrections-Based Treatment Process and Outcomes." Dr. Wayne E.K. Lehman presented a poster on "A Measure of Tolerance for Workplace Drug Use," and Drs. Don Dansereau and Sandra Dees had a poster on "Mapping Enhanced Drug Abuse Counseling: A Theoretical Framework."

In September, Dr. Lois Chatham, IBR Associate Director chaired a panel entitled "Implications of Drug Abuse Treatment: Outcome Studies for Client Care" at the American Psychological Association Conference on Women's Health in Washington, DC. Associate Research Scientist Dr. Grace Rowan-Szal served as one of the discussants for the panel.

IBR Director Dr. Dwayne Simpson delivered an invited address on "Prison-Based Treatment in the United States" to the Addiction and Law Congress held in September in Zürich. He also presented "Treatment Process Studies from DATAR" to a European Cooperative Workgroup on Evaluation of Treatment (from the Pompidou Group) which met in Zürich. Dr. Simpson then traveled to Castelfranco in northern Italy to conduct a 3-day seminar on "Program Evaluation for Dug Abuse Prevention and Treatment" for social service providers. He found a lot of European interest in the data collection forms and treatment process studies from the DATAR project.

Drs. Urvashi Pitre and Dianna Newbern, Associate Research Scientists with the CETOP project participated in the 26th Annual International Congress of Psychology in Montreal. Dr. Newbern presented "Mapping Enhanced Group Counseling: Effects on Session Evaluation Within a Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Facility," and Dr. Pitre had a poster on "The Role of Node Link Maps in Treating Drug Abusers in Therapeutic Communities."

Dr. Joel Bennett, Associate Research Scientist with IBR's Workplace project, will serve as moderator at the Texas Psychological Association's annual conference in Dallas this November for a symposium on "Issues in Workplace Substance Abuse: Applied Perspectives on Drug and Alcohol Policy." He also is the invited Keynote Speaker at an upcoming conference entitled "Risky Business II: Our Troubled Workplace," sponsored by the San Diego National Personnel Management Association.

http://www.ibr.tcu.edu/pubs/newslet/96fall.html -- Revised: 14 October 1996
E-mail Web site comments to: Webmaster