Treatment for Alcohol Problems: Finding and Getting Help National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIAAA

We waited until students were back on campus and living in residence halls again; thus, the study began with recruitment in the fall semester of 2021. Participants in the control condition of the RCT will be asked to view a series of text-based slides regarding general drinking behavior. These slides were accessible to be viewed on mobile phones, with content based on information obtained from the Rethinking Drinking website from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

Excessive consumption of alcohol among young people has been recognized as a significant public health issue due to its association with numerous health, social, and economic problems [1]. Undergraduate students tend to be a particularly high-risk group as they frequently engage in risky patterns of alcohol consumption such as binge-drinking [5-7]. The intervention will comprise two components, motivational and self-control training.

Participant timeline 13

Involvement of Families
Family development research clearly supports the need for
understanding an adolescent’s relationship with his or her family
and including families in therapy wherever possible. For instance, family involvement can be particularly important in
retaining teenagers in treatment, while alcohol problems among other
family members can influence youths to continue engaging in heavy
drinking. Family involvement usually includes education about
treatment and how families can support the treatment process. Families sometimes need intervention in order to change the
environment or structure they provide to the underage drinker in
treatment (Spoth et
al., 2001). In addition, family interventions need to be
prepared to address familial alcoholism, which represents a
significant risk factor for youth alcohol use and future
dependence. Access Limitations
Family and community interventions that have been shown
to be effective included a focus on limiting youth access to
alcohol (see also Chapter 9).

Often, the student
is also provided information regarding the prevalence of his
or her alcohol use pattern. Prevention strategies have used
different modalities to provide this feedback, including
one-on-one interviews, small groups, and such media as
online web-based programs (Marlatt et al., 1995;
Borsari
and Carey, 2000). The variety of modalities
through which this approach can be delivered may make it a
viable option for wide use on campuses, rather than only
with identified heavy drinkers. Additional research in this
area, especially concerning the comparative effectiveness of
different modes of delivery, is needed. Interventions focused on students who drink heavily may have
significant positive effects on the health and well-being of
students and the quality of the college environment (Knight et al.,
2002; Park,
1967; Perkins et al., 1980).

Types of Professionals Involved in Care

These conflicting messages can make choosing a mortgage deal difficult – for example, people who may have opted for a tracker, thinking rates will go down, might now pause for reflection. While interest rates may be nearer their peak, the message from the US Fed this week is that they may stay high for longer than previously anticipated – a statement that has impacted markets. It is likely that evening services on some lines will be affected on the days before each strike.

Colleges should pursue strategies to strengthen linkages
between policy and enforcement. The judicial process on many
college campuses offers an important—and
underutilized—opportunity to send consistent messages to
students and ensure that intervention programs reach
students whose drinking has become a problem for the campus. Interventions based upon motivational enhancement, skill
development, and normative clarification can promote values
that are consistent with the values already found within the
university culture. Research on social norms campaigns has indicated some
promise, although research has generally been limited to
case studies of individual campuses, generally without
appropriate comparison or control groups, and they often do
not control for other interventions aimed at reducing
drinking problems. Given the limitations of social norms
evaluations, such interventions should be further evaluated.

Data collection and management

Such
a circumstance creates inconsistent enforcement of policies
and sends mixed messages to students. School-based interventions that use normative education to
undermine youth beliefs that alcohol use is prevalent among
their peers and that their peers universally approve of this
behavior appear to have promise. Efforts to establish nonuse
norms—implemented in conjunction with a critical look at both
alcohol advertising and media and other cultural messages that
make alcohol use symbolic of qualities youth want to attain
(e.g., https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/how-art-therapy-can-help-in-addiction-recovery/ maturity, independence, popularity)—may also be
promising. Gottfredson and Wilson (2003), Tobler (1992), Tobler and Stratton
(1997), and Botvin et al. (1995) have
found that programs using such approaches, especially when they
are delivered in an interactive manner, may produce reductions
in alcohol use for several years after the initial program
delivery. In addition, there is some evidence that these
approaches may be effective with a broad range of youths,
including ethnic minorities (Perry and Kelder, 1992).

FAST scores will be used as a means to screen participants for heavy alcohol consumption that is indicative of alcohol dependency. Participants identified as heavy or dependent drinkers will be excluded from the study how to do an intervention for an alcoholic prior to engaging in the protocol. Participants identified as heavy or dependent drinkers by the FAST will be provided with a leaflet providing advice on how to seek professional help for their alcohol consumption.

TREATMENT PROGRAMS

After this first step, outlying values for continuous variables and consistency between some key questions are evaluated. Initially filled in on paper by the dietitians, schools’ audit questionnaires are entered into a form developed using the Limesurvey® software. They include categorical questions which are coded, and free-space texts, which are also entered to facilitate their subsequent analysis. Since the randomisation follows a factorial plan, the comparators will include different control schools for each domain of intervention (Fig. 1). We will compare (1) groups #1 and #3 to groups #2 and #4 for assessing the effectiveness of nutrition-based actions, (2) groups #2 and #3 to groups #1 and #4 for sustainability-based actions, and (3) groups #3 and #4 to groups #1 and #2 for assessing any interaction between the two intervention types. Therefore, only schools allocated to group #4 will not benefit from the research intervention packages.

Although there is a substantial logic favoring a youth campaign
approach, there are also some contrary arguments. First, the
hypothesis that increasing the proportion of youths who perceive
great risk in heavy drinking will reduce heavy drinking among
youths by an equivalent amount may be unfounded. The hypothesis
rests on the assumption that the oft-demonstrated relationship
between risk perception for heavy drinking and actual heavy
drinking is a causal one. However, since most of the available
data are cross-sectional, one cannot be confident of that causal
relationship.

Preventing Underage Drinking

Therefore, we desire to show support for a one-time event-specific approach–the effects of which are anticipated to generalize to future pregaming events once individuals learn to moderate their pregaming drinking effectively. As this is the first randomized controlled trial test of the intervention, we want to determine if the intervention targeting pregaming alone is efficacious. If it is not, or if it is only efficacious for certain students, then future work can refine this initial approach to enhance the intervention to possibly include repeated delivery after pregaming or perhaps during multiple pregaming events. School-based approaches designed to prevent substance use among
students are common in the United States (see Hansen and Dusenbury, 2004, for
descriptions of specific programs). Delivery of such programming
through schools offers the benefits of reaching a wide (and captive)
audience, as most young people (especially elementary and
middle-school-aged children) are enrolled in school. In addition,
schools offer the potential to ensure that intervention programs are
institutionalized and run by trained staff members and that boosters
to initial exposure to programs are delivered at specific
developmental intervals.

Social and Emotional Skill Development
There has been limited research on alcohol prevention
among preschool and elementary school children. Norm-setting
approaches, discussed above, are promising for older elementary
school students (Donaldson et al., 1995). In addition, there is
evidence that good academic achievement and such characteristics
as good school climate, cooperative learning, and strong bonds
between children and school have the potential to help prevent
subsequent alcohol use (Battistich et al., 1996;
Hawkins et
al., 1999). Research has clearly shown that the
causes of early alcohol use are related to the failure to
develop social and personal competencies. These competencies
include the ability to make good decisions and solve problems,
set and achieve goals, effectively manage emotions and stress,
communicate effectively, and build relationships that support a
positive peer group. The problem of excessive alcohol consumption is particularly exacerbated among student populations.

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