Web-Based Treatment of Heavy Drinking Among Women With a History of Sexual Trauma

University of Washington

Status: Completed

Conditions: Sexual Assault; Heavy Drinking

Treatments: Behavioral: Alc-ERDT

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03111056

STUDY00001028

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this study is to empirically evaluate a web-based intervention to reduce heavy drinking among college women with a history of sexual assault who display elevated levels of psychological distress. College women with a history of sexual assault often report more heavy drinking and psychological distress than women without a history of assault. Moreover, women with assault histories often have difficulty regulating their emotions and tolerating distress which can lead to a pattern of drinking to cope distress. Trauma exposure, negative mood, and poor coping strategies have been associated with poor treatment outcomes and relapse following alcohol treatment. Incorporating distress tolerance and emotion regulation skills with an alcohol intervention may enhance treatment effects among women with a history of sexual assault by decreasing their motivation to drink to cope with depression or anxiety and by building adaptive coping strategies. Therefore, the web-based intervention will include cognitive behavioral skills for reducing alcohol consumption and incorporate emotion regulation and distress tolerance skills from Dialectical Behavior Therapy.

Full description

For the small randomized controlled trial, heavy drinking college women with a history of sexual assault will be recruited and randomized to receive the intervention or an assessment only control. Online surveys will be administered at baseline, and post-treatment as well as 1-month and 6-months post-treatment.

Enrollment: 200 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Enrollment at the University of Washington,
• female,
• 18 or older,
• lifetime history of sexual assault (defined as unwanted attempted or completed oral, vaginal, or anal penetration but excluding unwanted sexual contact only),
• at least 2 instances of heavy episodic drinking (defined as 4 or more drinks in 2 hours) in the past 30 days,
• average consumption equal or greater than 7 drinks per week in the past 30 days.

Exclusion criteria

• None

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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200 participants in 2 patient groups

Web-Based Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

In an effort to reduce heavy drinking, participants will be asked to complete a daily monitoring assessment each morning for 14 days. Based on their responses, they will be provided a coping skill to either directly address their alcohol use or attempt to improve their emotion regulation and distress tolerance skills.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Alc-ERDT

Assessment Only Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants will be asked to complete only the daily monitoring assessment each morning for 14 days.