Network Therapy for Addiction: Assessment of the Clinical Outcome of Training

Mental health practitioners in the office setting are often seen as deficient in addiction treatment skills. Relevant training is often quite limited, and trainees are generally not introduced in an effective office-based modality. We studied the feasibility of teaching beginning therapists how to a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse 1997-01, Vol.23 (3), p.355-367
Main Authors: Galanter, Marc, Keller, Daniel S., Dermatis, Helen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Ambulatory Care
Biological and medical sciences
Clinical outcomes
Cocaine
Cognitive Therapy - education
Crack Cocaine
Curriculum
Desintoxication. Drug withdrawal
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Internship and Residency
Male
Medical sciences
New York City
Outcome and Process Assessment (Health Care)
Psychiatry - education
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Social Support
Substance Abuse Detection
Substance abuse treatment
Substance-Related Disorders - psychology
Substance-Related Disorders - rehabilitation
Therapy
Treatments
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Summary:Mental health practitioners in the office setting are often seen as deficient in addiction treatment skills. Relevant training is often quite limited, and trainees are generally not introduced in an effective office-based modality. We studied the feasibility of teaching beginning therapists how to apply Network Therapy, a cognitive-behavioral approach to achieving abstinence and preventing relapse that augments individual therapy with support from family and friends. The therapists were 19 psychiatric residents without experience in substance abuse treatment or outpatient therapy, and the patients were 24 cocaine-dependent patients who received a 24-week course of Network treatment. The patients remained in treatment for an average of 15.4 weeks. Seventy-nine percent of their observed weekly urine toxicologies were negative for cocaine, and 42% of patients produced clean urines in the 3 weeks immediately before termination. The overall outcome compares favorably with that reported in studies on cocaine treatment where experienced therapists were employed. Our results suggest that naive mental health trainees can be taught to apply Network Therapy for effective substance abuse management. This is particularly relevant to technology transfer for general mental health trainees, who are often thought to be perceived to be refractory to learning about the outpatient management of addiction.
ISSN:0095-2990
1097-9891
DOI:10.3109/00952999709016882