Alcohol treatment brief intervention

A number of psychosocial treatments for alcohol and other substance use disorders exist and are widely used. In this chapter, we discuss six of these psychotherapies as they are applied to alcohol, cocaine, and opioid dependence brief interventions, motivational enhancement therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, behavioral treatments (including contingency management and community reinforcement approaches), behavioral marital therapy, and 12-step facilitation. We also describe studies that examined the efficacy of a medication in combination with one or more of the six psychotherapies. In the second section of the chapter, we highlight research that directly studied the interaction between psychosocial and pharmacological treatments. 

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Fiellin DA, Pantalon MV, Pakes JP, et al Treatment of heroin dependence with bu-prenorphine in primary care. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse 28 231-241, 2002 Fleming M, Manwell LB Brief intervention in primary care settings a primary treatment method for at-risk, problem, and dependent drinkers. Alcohol Res Health... 

Brief interventions can be as simple as feedback about the consequences of heavy alcohol use for a person (for example, You have some liver problems, and we can trace it to your drinking ) or advice to cut down or stop drinking. They are based on the idea that alcohol problems exist on a continuum of severity and that interventions can occur at any point along that continuum. The research has shown that for the most part brief interventions have been used with people who have mild to moderate alcohol problems they are effective compared to no treatment in reducing alcohol consumption to below risk levels. There is some speculation about who is most helped by brief interventions and why they work. These clearly are topics for future research. 

The findings about brief interventions have great practical implications for alcohol treatment providers and for saving society a lot of money and suffering. They also have implications for theories of the causes of alcohol problems. For example, what do you think disease or biological model adherents might say about brief interventions ... 

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