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Background and Objectives: Early recovery from substance use disorder (SUD) is often characterized by hopelessness and despair about the future. Optimism, or the expectation that good things will happen, may provide a buffer against despair, and motivate adaptive goal engagement and coping. Study objectives were to (1) compare levels of optimism among individuals in substance use disorder inpatient treatment to other populations and (2) examine correlates of optimism., Methods: This exploratory study utilized a cross-sectional survey design. Participants (n = 355) completed self-report measures assessing sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. The main variable of interest, optimism, was assessed by Life Orientation Test-Revised scores. Multivariate regression was used to examine the association among sociodemographic and clinical variables and optimism., Results: Our sample (n = 342) scored lower on optimism (mean = 11.7) than general population and SUD patients reported in the literature (range = 13.0-18.5). Optimism was higher for SUD inpatients who were college-educated and those with higher scores on the recovery protection factor, while greater anxiety severity was associated with lower optimism scores., Conclusions and Scientific Significance: This study contributes to emerging research on the association between optimism and SUDs. Optimism has not been previously studied among patients in acute, short-term inpatient SUD treatment and doing so may be clinically useful in addressing low optimism as an obstacle to motivation for treatment. Bolstering optimism may be a promising target for intervention and future research., (© 2022 American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.)

Background and Objectives: The rapid scale-up of telehealth services for substance use disorders (SUDs) during the COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique opportunity to investigate patient experiences with telehealth. This study examined patient perceptions of telehealth in an outpatient SUD treatment program offering individual therapy, group therapy, and medication management., Methods: Two hundred and seventy adults receiving SUD outpatient treatment were eligible to complete a 23-item online survey distributed by clinicians; 58 patients completed/partially completed the survey. Data were summarized with descriptive statistics., Results: Participants were predominately male, White, and well-educated. The majority (86.2%) were "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with the quality of telehealth care. "Very satisfied" ratings were highest for individual therapy (90%), followed by medication management (75%) and group therapy (58%). Top reasons for liking telehealth included the ability to do it from home (90%) and not needing to spend time commuting (83%). Top reasons for disliking telehealth were not connecting as well with other members in group therapy (28%) and the ability for telehealth to be interrupted at home or work (26%)., Discussion and Conclusions: Telehealth visits were a satisfactory treatment modality for most respondents receiving outpatient SUD care, especially those engaging in individual therapy. Challenges remain for telehealth group therapy., Scientific Significance: This is the first study examining patients' perceptions of telehealth for outpatient SUD treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic by treatment service type. Importantly, while many participants found telehealth more accessible than in-person treatment, there was variability with respect to the preferred mode of treatment delivery., (© 2021 American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.)

Background and Aims: The COVID‐19 pandemic disrupted health‐care provision in the United States and prompted increases in telehealth‐delivery of care. This study measured alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment trends across visit modalities before and during COVID‐19. Design, Setting, Participants and Measurements: We conducted a national, retrospective cohort study with interrupted time‐series models to estimate the impact of COVID‐19 on AUD treatment in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in the United States during pre‐COVID‐19 (March 2019 to February 2020) and COVID‐19 (March 2020 to February 2021) periods. We analyzed monthly trends in telephone, video and in‐person visits for AUD treatment and compared patient and treatment characteristics of patients receiving AUD treatment between the pre‐COVID‐19 and COVID‐19 periods. AUD was defined using International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD‐10) codes for alcohol abuse (F10.1) and alcohol dependence (F10.2), which have previously been used to study AUD in VHA. Findings: The predicted percentage of VHA patients with an AUD diagnosis receiving any AUD treatment at the beginning of the pre‐COVID period was 13.8% (n = 49 494). The predicted percentage decreased by 4.3% (P = 0.001) immediately at the start of the COVID‐19 period due to a decline in AUD psychotherapy. Despite an increase of 0.3% per month (P = 0.026) following the start of COVID‐19, the predicted percentage of VHA patients with an AUD diagnosis receiving any AUD treatment at the end of the study period remained below the pre‐COVID‐19 period. In February 2021, AUD psychotherapy visits were primarily delivered by video (50%, 58 748), followed by in‐person (36.6%, 43 251) and telephone (13.8%, 16 299), while AUD pharmacotherapy visits were delivered by telephone (38.9%, 3623) followed by in‐person (34.3%, 3193) and video (26.8%, 2498) modalities. Characteristics of VHA patients receiving AUD treatment were largely similar between pre‐COVID‐19 and COVID‐19 periods. Conclusions: Despite increased telehealth use, the percentage of United States Veterans Health Administration patients with an alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnosis receiving AUD treatment declined during COVID‐19 (March 2020 to February 2021) mainly due to a decrease in psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Craving is central in the definition of addictive disorders because of its diagnostic and prognostic value. Its measurement is essential in clinical practice. Previous reviews provided a better overview of existing instruments; however, they do not consider emerging substances and behaviors such as sexual addictions. Our objectives were threefold: (1) to provide a systematic review of craving assessment instruments and their psychometric characteristics within a transdiagnostic approach, (2) to highlight and map their conceptual relationships and (3) to identify potential sexual craving assessment instruments., Methods: The review was conducted using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology. The PubMed, Embase, PsychInfo and Cochrane/Central databases were searched for publications that met the following inclusion criterion: validation studies of craving assessment instruments, regardless of target substance or behavior. The original search identified 4561 references and included 147 articles. Each selected study was a peer-reviewed publication., Results: This review provides a synthesis of the psychometric properties of 36 original instruments and identified 93 variations of these instruments (e.g. translations). We were able to highlight five transdiagnostic families of instruments, each corresponding to a conceptual model. Only one instrument for assessing craving in the domain of compulsive sexual behavior, focused on pornography use, has been identified: the Pornography Craving Questionnaire., Conclusion: This review mapped all craving assessment instruments from a transdiagnostic perspective, finding 36 original instruments and 93 variations. The evolution of instruments to measure craving mirrors the evolution of the concept of craving which has progressively integrated cognitive, conditioning and sensory dimensions, and attests to the importance of the context of assessment. Development of an instrument to measure 'sexual craving' is needed and could be based on the data from our review., (© 2023 The Authors. Addiction published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for the Study of Addiction.)

There is much evidence that good management practice is an important factor that positively affects firms' productivity around the world. However, little evidence on effect of management practices on Vietnamese firms has been drawn. This paper provides results of such a study. The quality of management activities is found to be poor and be positively related to the turnovers of firms, the ages of firms, the numbers of employees, investment capital, and human capital. Also, management practice scores change significantly according to the influencing factors including level of competition, degree of decentralization, types of ownership, types of customer firms are serving, advancement of export market, and types of product firms are selling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]