Treatment of Intimate Partner Violence and Substance Abuse in a Substance Abuse Treatment Facility

VU University of Amsterdam

Status: Completed

Conditions: Domestic Violence; Substance Abuse

Treatments: Behavioral: Cognitive behavioral therapy addressing substance abuse; Behavioral: substance abuse/domestic violence treatment

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00847873

2008-KP-466

Details and patient eligibility

About

Intimate partner violence is a significant societal problem. There is considerable evidence that a strong relationship between the use of alcohol and other drugs and intimate partner violence exists. Besides, a few studies indicate that reducing substance use may have a positive impact on IPV. Therefore, in this study, patients in substance abuse treatment for the use of alcohol, cannabis or cocaine who also admit to perpetrating intimate partner violence will be randomly assigned to either cognitive behavioral therapy addressing substance abuse combined with treatment for offenders of intimate partner violence or substance abuse treatment alone.

Full description

Intimate partner violence is a significant societal problem. However, treatment of IPV perpetrators is far from effective, which may be partly due to the fact that the role of substance abuse is not taken into account. There is considerable evidence that a strong relationship between the use of alcohol and other drugs and intimate partner violence exists. Besides, a few studies indicate that reducing substance use may have a positive impact on IPV. Therefore, in this study, patients in substance abuse treatment for the use of alcohol, cannabis or cocaine who also admit to perpetrating intimate partner violence will be randomly assigned to either cognitive behavioral therapy addressing substance abuse combined with treatment for offenders of intimate partner violence or substance abuse treatment alone.

Enrollment: 100 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Perpetration of intimate partner violence in the past year
• Substance abuse or dependence (current)
• Currently in a relationship

Exclusion criteria

• Not sufficient fluency in Dutch to complete treatment and measures
• (Ab)use of crack cocaine and/or heroin
• Psychosis
• Psychopathy

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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100 participants in 2 patient groups

Combined SU/IPV treatment

Experimental group

Description:

A combined treatment containing cognitive behavioral therapy addressing partner violence and cognitive behavioral therapy addressing substance abuse

Treatment:

Behavioral: substance abuse/domestic violence treatment

control condition

Active Comparator group

Description:

Cognitive behavioral therapy addressing substance abuse

Treatment:

Behavioral: Cognitive behavioral therapy addressing substance abuse