A New Intervention for Alcohol Craving.

A randomised controlled trial of a new intervention incorporating traditional cognitive behavoiur strategies and new craving management strategies to reduce alcohol consumption and craving in a population of alcohol misusers.

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ANZCTR

Registry ID

ACTRN12607000273482

Acronym

CARM

Enrollment

240

Registered

2007-05-21

Start date

2007-05-09

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2020-01-13

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

Brief summary

This study aims to compare a new intervention for alcohol craving with two other evidence-based treatments for alcohol use; 12 hours of CBT and a 2 hour brief motivational intervention. It is hypothesised that the new craving intervention will produce reductions in alcohol consumption and cravings greater than those achieved by the other two treatments.

Interventions

This trial aims to investigate the efficacy of a new intervention for alcohol craving. This new intervention incorporates traditional Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) strategies, as well as new craving reduction and management strategies based on Elaborated Intrusion Theory (Kavanagh, Andrade & May, 2005), such as competing imagery tasks. This new 12-hour craving treatment is delivered over 9 sessions over 11 weeks and is compared against two other evidence-based treatments. One of the comparison treatments is 12 hours of CBT (delivered in 9 sessions over 11 weeks also), incorporating traditional alcohol management strategies such as behavioural scheduling and risk situation planning. The second comparison treatment is a one session 2-hour brief motivational intervention, incorporating Motivational Interviewing, goal setting and basic problem solving for difficult situations.

Study design

Allocation

Randomised controlled trial

Intervention model

Parallel

Primary purpose

Treatment

Masking

Blinded (masking used)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

18 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Drinking above National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recommended limits, meeting diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence and sufficient spoken and written English.

Exclusion criteria

Psychotic disorder, presence of other substance abuse or dependence, injected drug use in preceeding month or currently engaged in other alcohol treatment (psychological or pharmaceutical).

Outcome results