Assessing Alcohol Problems: A Guide For Clinicians and Researchers
NIAAA Project Match
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism – NIAAA – Project Match Monograph Series
Series Editor: Margaret E. Mattson, Ph.D.
It has been more than a decade since the eighth volume of the Project MATCH Monograph Series was published. The initial purpose of this series of manuals was to disseminate methodology developed by the investigators of the multisite clinical trial Project MATCH (1990–1997), an initiative funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The Institute developed these materials with the hope that they would fill a gap in the published literature and would be useful for alcohol treatment researchers and clinicians. That prediction has proven to be accurate. Since the initial publication, the manuals have been reprinted many times and requested by users both in the United States and abroad. Several of the manuals have been translated into other languages for use in other countries, including China, France, and Spain. Requests for the manuals continue even now.
Because of the continued interest in the Project MATCH series, NIAAA has repackaged all eight volumes and made them available online. It is our hope that having this material available in electronic form will make the information even more useful and available to a wider audience.
Background
The Project MATCH manuals (Volumes 1–3), which focus on three forms of behavioral therapy, have been used in clinical practice as a teaching tool in therapist training and as behavioral platforms in clinical trials. The manuals are used in diverse settings, from public and private practices and academic research to pharmaceutical industry trials. Volumes 4–8 focus on assessment instruments and compliance to treatment regimens and research protocols and examine the results and analysis of the causal chains involved in addiction. In the years following the Project MATCH study, the field has moved forward dramatically, both conceptually and methodologically. The core principles and much of the detail presented in the Project MATCH manuals remain solid and relevant.
Volume 1-Twelve Step Facilitation Therapy Manual
Describes twelve step facilitation therapy in which the overall goal is to facilitate patients’ active participation in the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. The therapy regards such active involvement as the primary factor responsible for sustained sobriety (“recovery”) and therefore as the desired outcome of participation in this treatment program. This therapy is grounded in the concept of alcoholism as a spiritual and medical disease.
Volume 2–Motivational Enhancement Therapy Manual
Describes motivational enhancement therapy (MET), a systematic intervention approach for evoking change in problem drinkers. MET is based on principles of motivational psychology and is designed to produce rapid internally motivated change. This treatment strategy does not attempt to guide and train the client, step by step, through recovery, but instead employs motivational strategies to mobilize the client’s own change resources.
Volume 3 – Cognitive Behavioral Coping Skills Therapy Manual
Describes cognitive-behavioral coping skills therapy, which is based on the principles of social learning theory and views drinking behavior as functionally related to major problems in the patient’s life. Emphasis is placed on overcoming skill deficits and increasing the patient’s ability to cope with high-risk situations that commonly precipitate relapse. The program consists of 12 sessions aimed at training the patient to use active behavioral or cognitive coping methods to deal with problems rather than relying on alcohol as a maladaptive coping strategy.
Volume 4-The Drinker Inventory of Consequences (DrlnC
Presents a psychometric instrument, the Drinker Inventory of Consequences (DrInC), developed in support of Project MATCH to assess the adverse consequences of drinking. Presents the background and rationale for the development of the DrInC, the scale construction and item analysis, its test-retest reliability, test procedures, and the test forms.
Volume 5–Form 90: A Structured Assessment Interview for Drinking and Related Behaviors Test Manual
This publication was originally developed for use in Project MATCH, a multisite clinical trial of three psychological treatments for alcohol abuse and dependence, funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Form 90 is a family of assessment interview instruments designed to provide primary dependent measures of alcohol consumption and related variables. The interviews produce a continuous daily record of drinking and documentation of related variables from a 90-day baseline period through the last follow-up point.
Volume 6-Improving Compliance with Alcoholism Treatment
This manual provides a compendium of strategies for enhancing client compliance to psychosocial treatments, as well as therapist compliance with treatment protocols, in treatment and research programs involving alcohol-using populations. Many factors affect compliance, and the authors have addressed a wide range of patient needs. The volume consists of two parts. Part 1 is directed to both clinicians and clinical researchers, with points of particular interest to researchers identified. Part 2 focuses on strategies for enhancing therapist compliance in treatment delivery through the use of treatment manuals and careful supervision of the therapists delivering the intervention.
Volume 7-Strategies for Facilitating Protocol Compliance in Alcoholism Treatment Research
This monograph describes methods for facilitating research compliance in a multisite clinical trial. Practical strategies are offered for retaining participants in trials and for gathering accurate data in a timely manner. Specific examples from Project MATCH are used to illustrate methods of enhancing research compliance. The volume also presents a new organizing framework for addressing compliance problems, a detailed description of numerous compliance strategies, and a systematic way to deliver these strategies.
Volume 8 – Hypothesis: Results and Causal Chain Analyses
This final volume offers a detailed accounting of the vision that shaped the hypotheses tested in Project MATCH. Each of the hypotheses required a rigorous specification of the postulated mechanisms of change, along with the statistical model to be used for analysis. In addition to presenting the a priori hypothesis and causal chain, the volume reports the results of tests from the chain of events in each of the causal models. Each step of every model was carefully examined to see where the postulated model was supported and where it failed. This approach was innovative at the time, both conceptually and statistically, and represented a methodological step forward in behavioral research.
NIAAA COMBINE Monograph Series
NIAAA COMBINE Monograph Series – Volume 1
Volume 1: Combined Behavioral Intervention Manual: A Clinical Research Guide for Therapists Treating People With Alcohol Abuse and Dependence (340 pp. NIH Pub. No. 04–5288, 2004)
NIAAA COMBINE Monograph Series – Volume 2
Volume 2: Medical Management Treatment Manual: A Clinical Research Guide for Medically Trained Clinicians Providing Pharmacotherapy as Part of the Treatment for Alcohol Dependence (132 pp. NIH Pub. No. 04–5289, 2004).