The Impact of Contingency Management on Quality of Life Among Cocaine Abusers With and Without Alcohol Dependence

The use of quality of life measures (QOL) in substance abuse treatment research is important because it may lead to a broader understanding of patients’ health status and effects of interventions. Despite the high rates of comorbid cocaine and alcohol use disorders, little is known about the QOL of this population, and even less about the impact of an efficacious behavioral treatment, contingency management (CM), on QOL. In this study, data from three clinical trials were retrospectively analyzed to examine QOL in outpatient cocaine abusers with and without alcohol dependence (AD) and the impact of CM on QOL over time as a function of AD status. Patients were randomized to standard care (n = 115) or standard care plus CM (n = 278) for 12 weeks. QOL was assessed at baseline and Months 1, 3, 6, and 9. At treatment initiation, AD patients had lower QOL total scores and they scored lower on several subscale scores than those without AD. CM treatment was associated with improvement in QOL regardless of AD status. These data suggest that CM produces benefits that go beyond substance abuse outcomes, and they support the use of QOL indices to capture information related to treatment outcomes

Alcohol Use Disorder in the Age of Technology: A Review of Wearable Biosensors in Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment

Biosensors enable observation and understanding of latent physiological occurrences otherwise unknown or invasively detected. Wearable biosensors monitoring physiological constructs across a wide variety of mental and physical health conditions have become an important trend in innovative research methodologies. Within substance use research, explorations of biosensor technology commonly focus on identifying physiological indicators of intoxication to increase understanding of addiction etiology and to inform treatment recommendations. In this review, we examine the state of research in this area as it pertains to treatment of alcohol use disorders specifically highlighting the gaps in our current knowledge with recommendations for future research. Annually, alcohol use disorders affect approximately 15 million individuals. A primary focus of existing wearable technology-based research among people with alcohol use disorders is identifying alcohol intoxication. A large benefit of wearable biosensors for this purpose is they provide continuous readings in a passive manner compared with the gold standard measure of blood alcohol content (BAC) traditionally measured intermittently by breathalyzer or blood draw. There are two primary means of measuring intoxication with biosensors: gait and sweat. Gait changes have been measured via smart sensors placed on the wrist, in the shoe, and mobile device sensors in smart phones. Sweat measured by transdermal biosensors detects the presence of alcohol in the blood stream correlating to BAC. Transdermal biosensors have been designed in tattoos/skin patches, shirts, and most commonly, devices worn on the ankle or wrist. Transdermal devices were initially developed to help monitor court-ordered sobriety among offenders with alcohol use disorder. These devices now prove most useful in continuously tracking consumption throughout clinical trials for behavioral treatment modalities. More recent research has started exploring the uses for physical activity trackers and physiological arousal sensors to guide behavioral interventions for relapse prevention. While research has begun to demonstrate wearable devices\u27 utility in reducing alcohol consumption among individuals aiming to cutdown on their drinking, monitoring sustained abstinence in studies exploring contingency management for alcohol use disorders, and facilitating engagement in activity-based treatment interventions, their full potential to further aid in understanding of, and treatment for, alcohol use disorders has yet to be explored

Bcl-2 Inhibits the Innate Immune Response during Early Pathogenesis of Murine Congenital Muscular Dystrophy

Laminin α2 (LAMA2)-deficient congenital muscular dystrophy is a severe, early-onset disease caused by abnormal levels of laminin 211 in the basal lamina leading to muscle weakness, transient inflammation, muscle degeneration and impaired mobility. In a Lama2-deficient mouse model for this disease, animal survival is improved by muscle-specific expression of the apoptosis inhibitor Bcl-2, conferred by a MyoD-hBcl-2 transgene. Here we investigated early disease stages in this model to determine initial pathological events and effects of Bcl-2 on their progression. Using quantitative immunohistological and mRNA analyses we show that inflammation occurs very early in Lama2-deficient muscle, some aspects of which are reduced or delayed by the MyoD-hBcl-2 transgene. mRNAs for innate immune response regulators, including multiple Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and the inflammasome component NLRP3, are elevated in diseased muscle compared with age-matched controls expressing Lama2. MyoD-hBcl-2 inhibits induction of TLR4, TLR6, TLR7, TLR8 and TLR9 in Lama2-deficient muscle compared with non-transgenic controls, and leads to reduced infiltration of eosinophils, which are key death effector cells. This congenital disease model provides a new paradigm for investigating cell death mechanisms during early stages of pathogenesis, demonstrating that interactions exist between Bcl-2, a multifunctional regulator of cell survival, and the innate immune response

Prize Contingency Management for Smoking Cessation: A Randomized Trial

Abstract Background Adjunctive behavioral smoking cessation treatments have the potential to improve outcomes beyond standard care. The present study had two aims: 1) compare standard care (SC) for smoking (four weeks of brief counseling and monitoring) to SC plus prize-based contingency management (CM), involving the chance to earn prizes on days with demonstrated smoking abstinence (carbon monoxide (CO) ≤6ppm); and 2) compare the relative efficacy of two prize reinforcement schedules - one a traditional CM schedule, and the second an early enhanced CM schedule providing greater reinforcement magnitude in the initial week of treatment but equal overall reinforcement. Methods Participants (N = 81 nicotine-dependent cigarette smokers) were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. Results Prize CM resulted in significant reductions in cigarette smoking relative to SC. These reductions were not apparent at follow-up. We found no meaningful differences between the traditional and enhanced CM conditions. Conclusions Our findings reveal that prize CM leads to significant reductions in smoking during treatment relative to a control intervention, but the benefits did not extend long-term

Contingency Management Delivered by Community Therapists in Outpatient Settings

Abstract Background Few community-based clinicians have been trained to deliver contingency management (CM) treatments, and little data exist regarding the efficacy of CM when administered by clinicians. Method Fifteen clinicians from four intensive outpatient treatment programs received training in CM. Following a didactics seminar and a period in which clinicians delivered CM to pilot patients while receiving weekly supervision, clinicians treated 43 patients randomized to standard care or CM, without supervision. In both treatment conditions, urine and breath samples were collected up to twice weekly for 12 weeks, and CM patients earned the opportunity to win prizes ranging in value from $1 to$100 for submitting drug-free samples. Primary treatment outcomes were sessions attended, unexcused absences, longest continuous period of abstinence, and proportion of negative samples submitted. Results All therapists completed the training and supervision phase, and 10 treated randomized patients. Patients randomized to CM achieved significantly greater durations of abstinence than patients randomized to standard care (5.0 ± 3.8 versus 2.6 ± 3.7 weeks) and had fewer unexcused absences (4.3 ± 1.2 versus 8.1 ± 5.4), but proportion of negative samples submitted and attendance did not differ significantly between groups. Therapist adherence and competence in CM delivery decreased when supervision was no longer provided, and competence in CM delivery was associated with duration of abstinence achieved and attendance. Conclusions Community-based clinicians can effectively administer CM, and outcomes relate to competence in CM delivery. These data call for further training and supervision of community clinicians in this evidence-based treatment