Treatment Research with Crack-Cocaine-Dependent Male Veterans: The Efficacy of Different Recruitment Strategies

Abstract

Crack cocaine dependence rapidly leads to physical deterioration and severe social consequences. There is no widely accepted standard of treatment. As such, it is important to attract broad samples of patients into treatment research to improve efficacy and to establish generalizability. Better understanding of what attracts different subgroups of cocaine users into treatment, particularly research-based treatment, is needed. This article assesses the efficacy of six different recruitment strategies for attracting different populations of male veterans into treatment for crack cocaine dependence. New directions are outlined for the examination of recruitment strategies.

Comparison of clinical trial recruitment populations: Treatment-seeking characteristics of opioid-, cocaine-, and cannabis-using participants

“…Stephens et al (2004), reported on a brief intervention, the “Marijuana Check-Up”, for marijuana-dependent individuals who were experiencing adverse consequences from near-daily marijuana use, but were ambivalent about making changes. Piotrowski et al (1994), reported on the efficacy of six different recruitment strategies for a clinical trial of desipramine for the treatment of cocaine-dependent male veterans and found that using a hospital-based substance abuse inpatient unit was most effective at generating large numbers of potential subjects, while media-based strategies and community outreach were more effective at attracting cocaine users into treatment. Sayre et al (2004), reported on the recruitment and screening processes of outpatient substance abuse trials and found that callers referred by friends and family were more likely to be eligible than callers from other referral sources.…”

Does Pathway into 12-Step Programs Influence 12-Step-Related Benefit?

“…They were also more likely to be African American and to have a primary addiction to crack cocaine. In comparison, participants referred from Veterans Affairs hospitals were more likely to be white and to have polysubstance use disorders (Piotrowski, Clark, & Hall, 1994). These findings suggest that recruitment source may introduce systematic heterogeneity into studies on substance abuse treatment.…”