Randomized controlled trial of enhanced telephone monitoring with detoxification patients: 3- and 6-month outcomes

Abstract

Telehealth interventions have the potential to deter repeated detoxification episodes and improve outcomes. Using a sample of 298 detoxification inpatients, this randomized controlled trial compared Enhanced Telephone Monitoring (ETM) to usual care (UC) on the primary outcome of reducing subsequent detoxification, and secondary outcomes of linking patients to addiction treatment and mutual-help, and patients' experience of improved substance use and mental health outcomes. At the 3-month follow-up (i.e., at the end of the ETM intervention), compared to UC patients, ETM patients were significantly less likely to have received additional inpatient detoxification, but no more likely to have participated in 12-step groups or received outpatient addiction treatment. Even so, ETM patients had better alcohol, drug, and mental health outcomes. In contrast, at the 6-month follow-up, patients in ETM and UC generally did not differ on primary or secondary outcomes. Findings suggest that ETM deters additional detoxification episodes while the intervention is ongoing, but not after the intervention ends. Because telephone monitoring is low-intensity and low-cost, its extension over time may help reduce repeated detoxifications.

Systematic Review of Criminal and Legal Involvement After Substance Use and Mental Health Treatment Among Veterans: Building Toward Needed Research

“…62 In addition to linkage through VTCs, research has shown that substance use patients and patients with cooccurring substance use and mental health disorders can be successfully linked to treatment and to 12-step groups, which in turn improves substance use and mental health as well as criminal justice-related outcomes. [63][64][65] These linkage interventions are brief and practical to apply on a routine basis in health care settings and could be investigated in selected samples of veterans with a history of criminal activity.…”

Dynamics of neurotransmitter and extracellular vesicle-derived microRNA landscapes during heroin and methamphetamine withdrawal

“…To date, although a cascade of neurotransmitter and neuroendocrine abnormalities and neuronal damage are well-recognized consequences following long-term abuse of illegal substances, only limited molecular biomarkers have been identified for the associated symptoms (Volkow et al, 2015). Diagnosis is thus mainly left to the use of subjective questionnaires, particularly during the detoxification stage within the first 3 to 6 months (Stein et al, 2020;Timko et al, 2019). We observed that the plasma serotonin was significantly increased in patients with SUDs and anxiety (HAM-A) was significantly correlated with higher plasma serotonin concentration as compared with HCs, supporting the notion that changes in plasma serotonin seem to be more associated with the presence of psychiatric comorbidity than other neurotransmitters such as GABA and choline (Araos et al, 2019;Fava et al, 2018).…”

Telehealth interventions to reduce alcohol use in men with HIV who have sex with men: Protocol for a factorial randomized controlled trial

“…Third, this study will examine the duration of intervention needed to produce optimal effects. Outside of studies that have tested telephone-based continuing care for patients receiving addictions treatment [[84], [85], [86], [87], [88], [89]], few behavioral alcohol interventions have based the number of sessions and the duration of the intervention on empirical data, relying instead on clinical judgement, precedent, or pilot testing to set these intervention parameters. The present study is novel in its inclusion of intervention quantity/duration as an experimental factor in an alcohol intervention among people with HIV.…”