Research has shown that alcohol dependence often co-occurs with comorbid anxiety disorders and/or depression. Anxiety and depression influence the course and treatment of alcohol dependence and are a major risk factor for alcohol relapse within the first three months after detoxification. Therefore, there is need for combined treatment (integrated therapy) of alcohol dependence and comorbid psychiatric disorders, e.g. anxiety and/or depression. Until today, there are no systematic outpatient treatment offers for this special group of patients in Germany. In this study we want to investigate if integrated outpatient cognitive behavioral therapy can prevent and decrease alcohol relapse within the first three months after detoxification. Therefore we hypothesize that immediate start of integrated outpatient psychotherapy will reduce relapse variables compared to treatment as usual which is characterized by non-immediate start of therapy due to the required application for insurance coverage.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
30
Integrated CBT intervention for alcohol dependence and comorbid psychiatric disorder (we include only patients with comorbid mood or anxiety disorders).
The intervention is a well established form of psychotherapy that has infrequently been used in the German system with this group of patients in contrast to many other countries where it is the standard approach, e.g. the US.
University of Konstanz, Outpatient Clinic for Psychotherapy
Konstanz, Germany
Relapse
We assess whether participants have an alcohol relapse (any drinking of alcohol) in the three months after study inclusion
Time frame: 3 months
Days with heavy alcohol drinking
We assess with the Timeline Follow Back (TLFB, Sobell \& Sobell, 2000) the number of days with heavy alcohol drinking (for a man 5 or more drinks a day, for a woman 4 or more drinks a day) in the three months after study inclusion
Time frame: 3 months
Comorbid psychiatric symptoms
Anxiety, depression and other relevant psychiatric symptoms will be measured by different standardized questionnaires at t1 (before treatment) and after 3 months (t2). We will use standardized symptom change as outcome measure.
Time frame: 3 months
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