Substance abuse training in APA-accredited doctoral programs in clinical psychology: A survey.

Abstract

A survey addressing training provided in the area of substance abuse was mailed to all 160 doctoral clinical psychology programs provisionally and fully accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA). A total of 95 replies were received, yielding a response rate of 59%. This study was conducted to ascertain whether levels of doctoral training in this area have changed appreciably since comparable surveys in 1979 and 1984. Because of the considerable increase in number of APAaccredited PsyD programs since the previous two surveys, it was also possible to compare relative levels of training in substance abuse in PhD, PsyD, and combined PhD/PsyD programs. Survey results did not suggest that substance abuse training either has changed markedly over time or differs substantially across types of degree programs.

The State of Substance Abuse Treatment Training in Counseling and Counseling Psychology Programs: What is and is Not Happening

“…By replicating the Selin and Svanum study, Lubin, Brady, Woodward, and Thomas (1986) actually demonstrated that the importance ascribed to substance abuse training and the number of courses offered in doctoral psychology training decreased. Chiert, Gold, and Taylor (1994) suggested that the state of substance abuse training had not changed from the mid-1980s. Miller and Brown (1997) highlighted reasons why psychologists should be involved in treating SUDs.…”

Substance use, health, and mental health.

“…Harwood, Kowalski, and Ameen (2004) reviewed the literature and found only two studies of clinical psychology training programs that involved substance abuse training. Chiert, Gold, and Taylor (1994) found that only 38% of APA‐accredited doctoral psychology‐training programs offered a course on substance abuse, and Aanavi, Taube, Ja, and Duran (1999) found that only 1 of 10 randomly selected training programs offered an elective course on substance abuse.…”

“…Harwood, Kowalski, and Ameen (2004) reviewed the literature and found only two studies of clinical psychology training programs that involved substance abuse training. Chiert, Gold, and Taylor (1994) found that only 38% of APA-accredited doctoral psychologytraining programs offered a course on substance abuse, and Aanavi, Taube, Ja, and Duran (1999) found that only 1 of 10 randomly selected training programs offered an elective course on substance abuse. Harwood et al (2004), reporting results from a national study of substance abuse training for different mental health professionals, found that psychologists reported between 15% (private practice) and 21% (health organizations) of their cases had either a primary or secondary SUD, with about two-thirds being secondary.…”

Alcohol Education Inventory—Revised: What every mental health professional should know about alcohol

“…Thus, mental health and health care professionals should at least be conversant with the clinical literature regarding alcohol and AUDs. However, many clinical training programs in psychiatry and psychology do not require or offer specialized coursework in the assessment and treatment of AUDs (Carey, Bradizza, Stasiewicz, & Maisto, 1999; Chiert, Gold, & Taylor, 1994). Moreover, there is often a communication gap between the research community and practitioners, such that empirical findings related to alcohol use are often not disseminated to substance use treatment providers let alone mental health professionals.…”