Combination of Psychosocial Intervention and Slow Prosecutions for the Treatment of Methamphetamine Abuse/Dependence

National Taiwan University

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Methamphetamine Dependence; Amphetamine Dependence; Amphetamine Abuse; Methamphetamine Abuse

Treatments: Behavioral: Telephone reminding; Behavioral: Psychosocial intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01273701

201011014RB

Details and patient eligibility

About

The hospital where this study will be conducted is responsible for the one-year contingency management treatment for methamphetamine drug offenders referred from the Yunlin District Prosecutors Office. Completing the one-year treatment is prerequisite for offenders to get slow prosecutions.

It is an open-label, parallel-group trial comparing the combination of psychosocial intervention and slow prosecutions with psychosocial intervention alone in treating subjects with methamphetamine dependence

Study Hypothesis

1. Psychosocial interventions in combination with slow prosecutions is more effective than psychosocial interventions alone to achieve abstinence for subjects with methamphetamine abuse/dependance.
2. Inclusion of telephone reminding before each visit will enhance the retention rate and abstinence rate.

Enrollment: 60 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• DSM-IV-TR criteria for amphetamine/methamphetamine abuse or dependence
• 18 - 65 years old
• For TSTSU-N and TSTSU-T arms: methamphetamine offenders referred by the Yunlin District Prosecutors Office
• For OPD arm: psychiatric outpatients referred from the psychiatry clinics in National Taiwan University Hospital, Yunlin Branch

Exclusion criteria

• Concurrent use of other illicit substances
• Co-morbidity with major psychotic disorders (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, other psychotic disorder), mental retardation, acute episodes of major depressive disorder or bipolar affective disorder) or serious personality disorders.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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60 participants in 3 patient groups

TSTSU-N

Experimental group

Description:

TSTSU-N stands for Treatment for Schedule Two Substance Use, No Telephone Reminding. Subjects will be referred by the Yunlin District Prosecutors Office for one-year psychosocial interventions to get slow prosecutions. After the referral, they will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either TSTSU-N group or TSTSU-T group. During the intervention, subjects of TSTSU-N will not receive telephone reminding before each visit.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Psychosocial intervention

TSTSU-T

Experimental group

Description:

TSTSU-T stands for Treatment for Schedule Two Substance Use, Telephone Reminding. Subjects will be referred by the Yunlin District Prosecutors Office for one-year psychosocial interventions to get slow prosecutions. After the referral, they will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either TSTSU-N group or TSTSU-T group. During the intervention, subjects of TSTSU-T will receive telephone reminding before each visit.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Psychosocial intervention

Behavioral: Telephone reminding

OPD

Active Comparator group

Description:

OPD stands for Outpatient Department. Subjects in this arm will be methamphetamine users who voluntarily visit psychiatric clinics for treatment of mental disorders in National Taiwan University Hospital, Yunlin Branch. They will be referred to this study by their treating psychiatrists.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Psychosocial intervention