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CompletedNCT02511808Updated Sep 11, 2020

Adaptive Interventions for Problem Drinkers

An interventional study of Brief Advice and Motivational Interviewing in Alcohol-Related Disorders, Alcohol Use Disorders and Alcohol Drinking, sponsored by Northwell Health. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-09-11.

Sponsored by Northwell Health · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 4 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Mar 2015, registered Jul 2015).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
164
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 75 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The purpose of this study is to understand how certain interventions help people reduce or quit their drinking and how certain interventions may help best at certain points in time in the change process.

Read the detailed description

Problem drinkers (PDs) represent a majority of the estimated 32 million Americans with alcohol problems that spans a spectrum of severity from individuals who drink excessively and experience of occasional negative consequences to those with moderate Alcohol Dependence (AD) and intact psychosocial functioning. PDs can benefit from relatively brief treatment that could be delivered in mainstream healthcare, but less than 5% receive such care. In addition, PD treatment is only modestly effective, and there is a surprising absence of empirical research to guide PD treatment selection. Adaptive Interventions (AI) are a novel approach to treatment development that may have significant advantages over fixed treatments in improving efficacy and fostering adoption of Evidence Based Practices in mainstream healthcare. If study aims are achieved, a set of empirically-derived decision support tools will be created to guide Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD) care similar to tools that exist for other chronic diseases. In addition, new knowledge will be gained about Mechanisms of Behavior Change of AUD that can guide future AUD treatment research. Finally, important progress will be made in methods that capitalize on the remarkable advances in sensor technologies, advanced mathematics, and engineering to create a new type of tailored, near-real time feedback, adaptive behavior therapies.

02

Conditions studied

  • Alcohol-Related Disorders
  • Alcohol Use Disorders
  • Alcohol Drinking
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol Abuse

Keywords

  • Drinking
  • Alcohol Problems
  • Alcoholism
  • Reduced Drinking
  • Problematic Drinking
  • Non-Abstinence-based Drinking
  • Controlled Drinking
  • Heavy Drinking
03

In context

Alcoholism

1,606 studies on the registry are indexed under Alcoholism; 329 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 164 is above the median of 87 across 1,371 interventional studies indexed under Alcoholism.

Browse Alcoholism studies →

Lead sponsor

Northwell Health is the lead sponsor of 463 studies on the registry; 109 are open to participants now.

Of its 40 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 20 (50%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 75 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Eligibility criteria

Primary Inclusion Criteria: Adults who have heavy weekly alcohol consumption (and/or an alcohol use disorder) and are willing to reduce their drinking.

Primary Exclusion Criteria: Adults for whom the level of treatment provided is not appropriate and/or who require more intensive substance use or psychiatric treatment.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Factorial assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
164 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Step-up Treatment: MI

    After receiving one session of Brief Advice (BA), participants will be assessed at week 4 for response to this treatment. Those who are deemed non-responders to the BA will be randomly assigned to receive either Motivational Interviewing (MI) or more BA. In this arm, participants will receive two sessions of MI.

    Behavioral: Motivational Interviewing

  • Other
    Control: BA

    After receiving one session of Brief Advice (BA), participants will be assessed at week 4 for response to this treatment. Those who are deemed non-responders to the BA will be randomly assigned to receive either Motivational Interviewing (MI) or more BA. In this arm, participants will receive one additional session of BA.

    Behavioral: Brief Advice

  • Active comparator
    Step-up Treatment: Specialist Care

    After receiving one session of Brief Advice (BA) and two sessions of Motivational Interviewing (MI) or one session of BA over the first 8 weeks of the study, participants will be assessed at week 8 for response to this treatment. Those who are deemed non-responders will be randomly assigned to receive Behavioral Self-Control Training (BSCT) or more MI if they were randomized to MI at week 4 or five sessions of combined MI and BSCT or one more session of MI if they were randomized to BA at week 4. In this arm, participants will receive four sessions of BSCT if they received MI at the previous randomization or five sessions of combined MI and BSCT if they received BA at the previous randomization.

    Behavioral: Motivational Interviewing · Behavioral: Behavioral Self-Control Training

  • Other
    Control: MI

    After receiving one session of Brief Advice (BA) and two sessions of Motivational Interviewing (MI) or one session of BA over the first 8 weeks of the study, participants will be assessed at week 8 for response to this treatment. Those who are deemed non-responders will be randomly assigned to receive Behavioral Self-Control Training (BSCT) or more MI if they were randomized to MI at week 4 or five sessions of combined MI and BSCT or one more session of MI if they were randomized to BA at week 4. In this arm, participants will receive one session of MI if they received MI at the previous randomization or two sessions of MI if they received BA at the previous randomization.

    Behavioral: Motivational Interviewing

Interventions

  • BehavioralBrief Advice

    Brief Advice (BA) consists of a 20-minute session delivered by a study therapist, adhering to the NIAAA's Clinician Guide to Problem Drinkers. It includes personalized, normative feedback based on NIAAA drinking norms, goal selection, instructions on self-monitoring, discussion of drink reduction strategies, and distribution of the NIAAA bibliotherapy guide.

  • BehavioralMotivational Interviewing

    Motivational Interviewing will consist of standard techniques, such as developing discrepancy, enhancing motivation, and developing a change plan, that have been adapted to treatment for problem drinkers.

  • BehavioralBehavioral Self-Control Training

    Behavioral Self-Control Training will consist of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy adapted to problem drinkers, whose core components include a functional analysis, skills training, daily self-monitoring, homework, and graded exposures and mastery of high risk situations.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Time Line Follow Back

    Calendar-based method of recording drinking patterns. Data will be aggregated into summary variables.

    Time frame: 24 Weeks

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Northwell Health
    Great Neck, New York 11021, United States
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Kuerbis AN, Shao S, Treloar Padovano H, Jadanova A, Selva Kumar D, Vitale R, Nitzburg G, Vadhan NP, Morgenstern J. Context and craving among individuals with alcohol use disorder attempting to moderate their drinking. Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2020 Dec;28(6):677-687. doi: 10.1037/pha0000349. Epub 2020 Jan 23. PubMed 31971419 ↗
09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 11, 2020, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT02511808
Lead sponsor
Northwell Health
Collaborators
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Responsible party
Jonathan Morgenstern (Director, Addiction Services, Northwell Health) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jul 30, 2015
Start date
Mar 2015
Primary completion
Mar 2019
Completion
May 2019
Last update
Sep 11, 2020

Study contacts

Jon Morgenstern, Ph.D.
principal investigator · Northwell Health
Nehal P Vadhan
study director · Northwell Health

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Sep 2020. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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