Which Brief Intervention Components Work for Young Risky Drinkers in the Emergency Department?
To assess the association of alcohol brief intervention (BI) components with early psychological constructs of behavioral change, researchers analyzed data from an ongoing randomized trial of 783 youths (14–20 years old) drinking risky amounts who presented to the emergency department. Participants were randomized to therapist-delivered BI, computer-delivered BI, or control. The psychological construct outcomes of importance of cutting down, likelihood of cutting down, readiness to stop, and wanting help were measured at baseline and immediately after the BI session was completed. The significant correlations* between BI components and the 4 outcomes are shown in the table:
|
Immediate Post-Intervention Psychological Construct |
||||
|
BI Component** |
Importance of |
Likelihood of |
Readiness to stop |
Wanting help |
|
Therapist BI |
0.13 |
0.14 |
0.17 |
0.14 |
|
Computer BI |
0.17 |
0.15 0.20 |
0.15 0.15 |
0.16
0.33 |
**Not shown are non-significant correlations of an additional 18 components for therapist BI and 3 components for computer BI.
Comments:
This analysis takes the important step of identifying which BI components are correlated with improvements in constructs that might predict behavioral change. Several BI components were positively associated with the constructs, whereas simply giving information, not surprisingly, was negatively associated. Of course, improvement in several psychological constructs measured immediately after a BI does not mean the actual behavior will change; we will need to wait for the results of the parent randomized trial to know that.
Kevin L. Kraemer, MD, MSc
Reference:
Walton MA, Chermack ST, Blow FC, et al. Components of brief alcohol interventions for youth in the emergency department. Subst Abus. 2015;36:339–349.