University of Twente Student Theses
The effects of alcohol treatment as usual with approach-avoidance training on alcohol consumption and depression : A two-armed randomized controlled trial
Hülsmann, P.K. (2020) The effects of alcohol treatment as usual with approach-avoidance training on alcohol consumption and depression : A two-armed randomized controlled trial.
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| Abstract: | Background: The field of cognitive bias modification (CBM) programs is arising nowadays which aims to retrain cognitive biases. These kinds of programs are also used for the treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, the effectiveness of CBM interventions in clinical settings is already proven while the effectiveness in addition to outpatient treatment is not much researched yet. Objective: Therefore, the present study investigated the effect of one online CBM program, namely of the Alcohol Avoidance Training (AAT) in addition to treatment-as-usual (TAU) in outpatients suffering from AUD. The second aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the CBM AAT on individual’s depressive symptomatology since the comorbidity between AUD and depression is high. Method: Pre-and post-assessment data from a double blind randomized controlled trial study were used in order to investigate the effectiveness of 8 sessions of AAT in addition to TAU by means of a total of 139 outpatients (at least 18 years old) who had web-based or face-to-face TAU due to their suffering from AUD. They were recruited by their therapists and randomly assigned to either the CBM AAT condition (n=72) or to the CBM Placebo group (n=67). Results: ANCOVA results revealed no significant between group differences from pre-to post-treatment with regard to individual’s alcohol consumption as well as individual’s depressive symptoms. Conclusion: These findings suggest that AAT did not lead to significantly better outcomes. The specific reasons of why AAT was not effective are unclear until now. It was assumed that the setting, individual’s motivation and hope might be important influential factors. However, due to the fact that there is limited research concerning CBM interventions for AUD outpatients, the reasons of why no effectiveness was found should be investigated further in order to be able to make improvements with regard to AAT. This might be meaningful in order to be able to offer it as an additional successful treatment option for outpatients. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/82496 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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