Meet the Researchers!

The website 4researchers.com, a project funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, disseminates “practical ‘how-to’ information about conducting research.” One of their latest offerings, posted January 25, 2012, was an interview with CTN researcher Lisa Rey Thomas, PhD of the Pacific Northwest Node about building partnerships with American Indian and Alaska Native communities as part of protocol CTN-0033.

Several other CTN-related researchers have also contributed both text and video content for 4researchers.org. Check out the pages for these CTN-related folks and get to know a few of them a little better!

Roger Weiss, MD (NEC Node):

http://www.4researchers.org/contributors/1920

José Szapocznik, PhD (FNA Node):

http://www.4researchers.org/contributors/3523

Stephanie O’Malley, PhD (NEC Node):

http://www.4researchers.org/contributors/6894

Dean Fixsen, PhD (NIRN):

http://www.4researchers.org/contributors/6636

Social Media Overview and Strategy Development Webinar

Video and handouts from this morning’s Clinical Coordinating Center Web Seminar on Social Media Overview and Strategy Development, presented by Erin Winstanley of the OV Node and Meg Brunner of our node’s CTN Dissemination Library, are now available online!

To access these materials, as well as videos and slides from previous webinars in the CCC’s series, visit the CTN Dissemination Library’s CTN Training page: http://ctndisseminationlibrary.org/ctntraining.htm (webinars are at the bottom of the page).

Pay particular attention to the Social Media Resource Guide, developed by the Social Media Workgroup of the Research Utilization Committee — this document  is packed with information on the various social media platforms, as well as tips on setting up a strategy for using social media tools and on developing a workplace policy for use.

A second webinar, coming February 29th, will be presented by Erin Winstanley and Gloria Miele, and will focus on more of the nuts and bolts of setting up accounts, and provide more information on how and where social media tools are being used in the health research field.

Don’t forget to follow CTN Training (this seminar series!) on Facebook, and while you’re there, be sure to check out the Facebook page for the CTN Dissemination Library as well!

Community Providers’ Impression of HIV Prevention Research in the CTN

This exploratory survey study, published in Journal of Drug Issues and co-written by Pacific Northwest Node researchers Bryan Hartzler, Mary Hatch-Maillette, and Don Calsyn, as well as Aimee Campbell, Gloria Miele and Susan Tross of the Greater New York Node, assessed staff attitudes as a function of direct research participation, treatment program type, and study performance within 7 methadone maintenance and 8 psychosocial outpatient substance abuse treatment programs participating in CTN-0018 and -0019 (HIV risk reduction in men and women, respectively).

Findings determined that effectiveness trials, such as the ones conducted in the CTN, offer a valuable opportunity to assess provider-level factors associated with adoption and implementation.  This study supports continued research on effective methodology for collaboration between investigators and providers to influence post-study implementation.

Citation:  Campbell ANC, Hartzler B, Hatch-Maillette MA, Calsyn DA, Miele GM, Tross S.  Community Providers’ Impression of HIV Prevention Intervention Research in NIDA’s Clinical Trials Network.  Journal of Drug Issues 2011;41(4):441-460.

Find it in the CTN Dissemination Library!

Preliminary Outcomes from STAGE-12 Presented at AAAP

This presentation at the recent American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) conference, by Dennis Donovan of the Pacific Northwest Node and Dennis Daley of the Appalachian Tri-State Node, describes the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network study CTN-0031, which compared a manual-guided 12-Step Facilitation therapy with usual treatment in a large sample of patients entering treatment for substance problems in community-based treatment programs (including Evergreen Manor and RCKC here in the Pacific Northwest Node).

This protocol was developed to help address the substantial gaps in our knowledge about 12-Step programs such as AA and NA as effective therapeutic options. Preliminary results from the protocol suggest that STAGE-12 increases the probability of abstinence from stimulants during and in the last 30 days of the active treatment phase, and is also associated with greater numbers of days of 12-step self-help meeting attendance. Discussions of the implications for clinical practice are included.

Citation: Donovan DM, Daley DC. 12-Step Facilitation: New Evidence from the National Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network. Presented at the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) annual meeting, Scottsdale, AZ, December 8-11, 2011.

Find it in the CTN Dissemination Library!

Predicting Community Addiction Treatment Attitudes About Contingency Management

This in-press article at Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, by Pacific Northwest Node researchers Bryan Hartzler, Dennis Donovan, and Suzanne Doyle, along with colleagues from the Western Node, reports on an ancillary investigation of data from protocol CTN-0008.  Researchers examined systemic and idiographic staff predictors of contingency management (CM) adoption attitudes using multilevel modeling analyses of organizational, treatment unit, and workforce surveys.

The evaluation found three systemic predictors (clinic provision of opiate agonist services, national accreditation, and lesser shared perception of workplace stress) and five idiopathic predictors (staff with a graduate degree, longer service tenure, managerial position, e-communication facility, and openness to change).

Findings are discussed as they relate to extant literature on CM attitudes, established implementation science constructs, and practical implications.

Citation:  Hartzler B, Donovan DM, Tillotson CJ, et al.  A Multilevel Approach to Predicting Community Addiction Treatment Attitudes About Contingency Management.  Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment2012 (in press).

Find it in the CTN Dissemination Library!

Presentation on CTN-0029 at APHA 2011

This year’s American Public Health Association annual meeting (Oct. 28 – Nov. 2, 2011 in Washington DC) featured two presentations from the CTN, including one by Pacific Northwest node member Andrew Saxon about CTN-0027 (START):

Community-Based Clinical Trials: Site Variation and Adoption of Innovation by Dennis McCarty and colleagues from the Western States Node examined site differences in five CTN trials and found that variation can affect protocol implementation and influence client outcomes.

Protocol NIDA-CTN-oo27: Starting Treatment with Agonist Replacement Therapies (START) by Walter Ling and Andrew Saxon described the outcomes of that study, which compared liver health in opioid-dependent patients after six months of methadone maintenance or six months of buprenorphine/naloxone.  Worsening of liver health was rare and did not differ by medication condition, but participants in the bup/nal group had poorer treatment retention than those on methadone.

For information about upcoming conferences where you could present about the CTN, visit the CTN Dissemination Library’s National/International Conferences calendar.

Primary Outcomes from POATS (CTN-0030) Published

No randomized trials have examined treatments for prescription opioid dependence, despite its increasing prevalence. This paper, in-press at Archives of General Psychiatry and written by Roger D. Weiss, Jennifer Sharpe Potter, David A. Fiellin, and colleagues, reports on the primary outcomes article from the CTN protocol on this subject, CTN-0030.

This study was a multisite, randomized clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of brief and extended buprenorphine-naloxone treatment, with different counseling intensities, for patients dependent on prescription opioids.  The Pacific Northwest Node’s CTP Providence Behavioral Health Services  served as one of the sites for this study, with William Dickinson, DO one of the paper’s co-authors.

The study found that while prescription opioid-dependent patients are most likely to reduce opioid use during buprenorphine-naloxone treatment, when tapered off the medication, even after 12 weeks of treatment, the likelihood of an unsuccessful outcome is high, regardless of type or amount of counseling.

Read the NIH Press Release about this paper: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/nov2011/nida-08a.htm

Citation: Weiss RD, Potter JS, Fiellin DA, et al. Adjunctive Counseling During Brief and Extended Buprenorphine-Naloxone Treatment for Prescription Opioid Dependence: A 2-Phase Randomized Controlled Trial. Archives of General Psychiatry 2011 (in press).

Find it in the CTN Dissemination Library!

Beyond Drug Use: Other Outcomes in Treatment Evaluation

Ron Jackson, MSW, director of the Pacific Northwest Node community treatment program Evergreen Treatment Services, recently served on a panel of substance abuse treatment and research experts convened by NIDA to discuss appropriate outcome measures for clinical trials of substance abuse treatments.

Across the addictions field, the primary outcome in treatment research has been reduction in drug consumption. Despite a compelling rationale for moving beyond drug use as the sole standard for evaluating addiction treatment, the field has yet to adopt any core set of other measures that are routinely incorporated into treatment research.

This report from the panel, currently in-press in Addiction, provides an overview of previous recommendations and outlines specific guidelines for consideration of candidate outcomes. A list of outcomes meeting those guidelines is described with two strongly recommended for inclusion: craving and quality of life. The paper ends with ideas on how to move ahead with incorporating these outcomes into treatment research.

Citation: Tiffany ST, Friedman L, Greenfield SF, Hasin DS, Jackson R. Beyond Drug Use: A Systematic Consideration of Other Outcomes in Evaluations of Treatments for Substance Use Disorders. Addiction 2011 (in press). doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03581.x

Hep B and C Services in US Substance Abuse Treatment Programs

Although substance abuse treatment programs are important contact points for providing health services for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, availability of services in these programs has not been well characterized. This article in Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, by Edmund Bini, Steven Allan Kritz, Lawrence Brown Jr., James Robinson, Pacific Northwest Node researcher Donald Calsyn, and colleagues, reports on a protocol CTN-0012 survey evaluating the spectrum of HBV and HCV services offered by substance abuse treatment programs within the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN).

Despite the importance of substance abuse in sustaining the hepatitis epidemics, the surveys found that few programs offer comprehensive HBV and HCV testing or HCV health care services. Because substance abuse treatment programs are an important point of contact to provide risk-reduction counseling, testing, and treatment for these infections, these identified shortcomings provide opportunities for public health intervention.

Citation: Bini EJ, Kritz SA, Brown LS Jr, et al. Hepatitis B Virus and Hepatitis C Virus Services Offered by Substance Abuse Treatment Programs in the United States. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 2011 (in press).

Find it in the CTN Dissemination Library!

Evergreen Treatment Services Awarded LEAD Contract

Evergreen Treatment Services (ETS), a community treatment programs in the Pacific Northwest Node, has been awarded a contract to develop and execute intervention plans for participants in Washington state’s new Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program.

Funded by private foundations, the $950,000-a-year, four-year pilot program for LEAD offers hand-picked participants individualized alternatives to arrest, from inpatient drug treatment and educational opportunities to housing assistance and micro-loans for would-be business owners.

ETS, a nonprofit outpatient opioid treatment program founded in 1973, was awarded the contract to create the intervention for LEAD participants who must voluntarily agree to be part of the program (in return for their participation, no criminal charges will be filed), and who will be largely selected for it by police officers on the street, who best know the neighborhood’s dealers, users, and prostitutes.

Congratulations to Evergreen Treatment Services for its participation with this new program, and good luck!

Read more about the LEAD program with ETS in The Seattle Times.