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One of the factors that increase the likelihood of adolescents starting to exhibit and consolidate anti-social behavior is drug use, with a consistent pattern of consumption of different substance found in young offenders (Aebi, Bessler & Steinhausen, 2021). A cognitive-behavioral group treatment program inspired by the positive psychology approach was developed and applied to drug use in minors deprived of liberty (experimental group); the results were compared to those of a group of adolescents with the same type of drug use in the same center (active control group) at two points in time: during and after incarceration. The fall in the rate of problems associated with drug use after incarceration in the experimental group was statistically significant compared to the control group, and the effect size of the experimental condition was large (ῆ2 = 0.55), much higher than the control group (ῆ2 = 0.16). The treatment program has proven to be an effective tool for reducing problems associated with drug use and is especially effective in reducing alcohol and cannabis consumption.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the alcohol and illicit substance consumption characteristics in a sample of 572 batterers in treatment by court order. The results indicate that the prevalence of alcohol consumption in the past year was 89.3%, whereas within illicit substances, the prevalences were higher for cannabis (27.8%), followed by cocaine 20.3%). In order to analyze the possible effect of consumption on levels of perpetration and victimization of partner-aggression, the sample was divided into 4 groups: nonconsumers (16.3%), alcohol consumers (58.6%), illicit drug consumers (3.5%), and consumers of alcohol and illicit drugs (21.7%), finding that the groups of nonconsumers and alcohol consumers presented the lowest level of perpetration of psychological, physical, and sexual aggression and of victimization of psychological and physical aggression, whereas the group of consumers of alcohol and illicit drugs presented the highest levels. The results reveal the need to assess substance consumption when designing intervention protocols with batterers.

The goal of this study was to determine the evolution of variables such as quality of life, craving, or psychological adjustment during treatment in a sample of 65 patients with alcohol-dependence disorder, 56.3% of whom also presented a personality disorder (PD). Five measurements were taken over the course of the treatment, at 3-month intervals. The analysis of tendencies of the variables craving, quality of life, and psychological adjustment assessed at the five assessment points revealed that the cognitive-behavioral treatment influences each one of these variables differently: a quadratic and cubic relation was identified for craving, whereas for quality of life there were linear, quadratic and cubic relationships in its diverse scales depending on the time point in question, and for psychological adjustment there were linear and quadratic relationships. At the end of treatment, the patients assessed presented significantly higher levels of quality of life than at the beginning, but the results showed that, although the patients with PD had better perceived quality of life at three months, it was lower over the entire course of the treatment compared to patients without PD. It was also found that quality of life and craving at the start of the treatment predicted alcohol use during the first three months. The implications of these results are discussed with a view to psychological intervention with alcohol-dependent patients.

The purpose of this study is to analyze to efficacy of a cognitive-behavioral treatment program, in individual and group format, for people with alcohol problems, and to determine the role of some personality variables in the process of therapeutic recovery. The sample was made up of 80 patients diagnosed as alcoholics, 83.8% of whom were men (n=67) and 16.3% were women (n=13). Mean age was 42.73 years, with a standard deviation of 9.63 years. Basically, we found a high incidence of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and consumption patterns that change as a function of the presence or absence of personality disorders. We also observed that the results varied in relation to physiological variables and environmental situations associated with the presence of craving responses. Treatment of such patients with dual pathology demands greater effort from the therapist to promote treatment adherence, an aspect crucial to completion of treatment programs and to achieve therapeutic success. Cognitive-behavioral intervention for relapse prevention was observed to produce satisfactory results in patients with personality disorders. Neither consumption patterns nor personality disorders predict the type of treatment termination.