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Objectives: Opioid misuse is a serious public health concern, yet few people seek treatment for this condition. Hospitals may be one opportunity to identify those with opioid misuse and to teach them skills to help manage their opioid misuse upon discharge. We tested the relationship between opioid misuse status and motivation to change substance use among patients admitted with substance misuse to an inpatient psychiatric unit in a medically underserved area in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who attended at least 1 group session of motivation enhancement therapy combined with cognitive behavioral therapy (MET-CBT) from January 29, 2020, through March 10, 2022. Methods: Of the 419 patients in our sample, 86 (20.5%) appeared to misuse opioids (62.5% male; mean age, 35.0 y; 57.7% non-Hispanic/Latin White). At the beginning of each session, patients completed 2 measures of motivation—importance and confidence to change substance use—from 0 (not at all) to 10 (most). At the end of each session, patients rated perceived session helpfulness from 1 (extremely hindering) to 9 (extremely helpful). Results: Opioid misuse was associated with greater importance (Cohen d = 0.12) and confidence (Cohen d = 0.13) to change substance use and with attending more MET-CBT sessions (Cohen d = 0.13). Patients with opioid misuse rated sessions as highly helpful (score of 8.3 of 9), and these ratings did not differ from patients who used other substances. Conclusions: Inpatient psychiatry hospitalizations may provide an opportunity to identify patients with opioid misuse and introduce these patients to MET-CBT to learn skills to manage opioid misuse upon discharge.

Cannabidiol (CBD), a nonpsychoactive cannabinoid, is used by many individuals to treat medical and mental health conditions, despite limited support for the efficacy of CBD for these conditions. Identification of CBD-related outcome expectancies (i.e., beliefs concerning the anticipated effects of CBD) could be useful in understanding the etiology and maintenance of CBD use and/or be useful in administration or clinical trial research. Although there are several measures of cannabis outcome expectancies, cannabis comprises several active compounds (e.g., tetrahydrocannabinol [THC], CBD). Thus, cannabis outcome expectancies may not reflect CBD-specific outcome expectancies. Yet, no known CBD-specific outcome expectancy measure exists. The present study used a three-phase, mixed-methods approach to develop and test the psychometric properties of the Cannabidiol Outcome Expectancy Questionnaire (CBD-OEQ). The CBD-OEQ assessed endorsement (i.e., how much an individual agrees/disagrees with an expected outcome) and desirability ratings (i.e., how desirable an expected outcome is). The initial item pool was administered to 600 adults who endorsed having heard of or using CBD products. Factor analyses supported a 60-item, six-factor structure. There was an initial support for internal consistency and convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of the CBD-OEQ subscale scores in the present sample. Desirability ratings explained minimal additional variance in CBD variables for most subscales, but moderated the relationship between endorsement ratings and use behaviors for Global Negative Effects and No Effect subscales. The newly developed CBD-OEQ could be used as both a research and a clinical tool. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Engagement in mental health treatment is low, which can lead to poor outcomes. We evaluated the efficacy of offering patients financial incentives to increase their mental health treatment engagement, also referred to as contingency management.We meta-analyzed studies offering financial incentives for mental health treatment engagement, including increasing treatment attendance, medication adherence, and treatment goal completion. Analyses were run within a multilevel framework. All study designs were included, and sensitivity analyses were run including only randomized and high-quality studies.About 80% of interventions incentivized treatment for substance use disorders. Financial incentives significantly increased treatment attendance (Hedges' g = 0.49, [0.33, 0.64], k = 30, I2 = 83.14), medication adherence (Hedges' g = 0.95, [0.47, 1.44], k = 6, I2 = 87.73), and treatment goal completion (Hedges' g = 0.61, [0.22, 0.99], k = 5, I2 = 60.55), including completing homework, signing treatment plans, and reducing problematic behavior.Financial incentives increase treatment engagement with medium to large effect sizes. We provide strong evidence for their effectiveness in increasing substance use treatment engagement and preliminary evidence for their effectiveness in increasing treatment engagement for other mental health disorders. Future research should prioritize testing the efficacy of incentivizing treatment engagement for mental health disorders aside from substance use. Research must also identify ways to incentivize treatment engagement that improve functioning and long-term outcomes and address ethical and systemic barriers to implementing these interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

In a prior study, topiramate reduced heavy drinking among individuals who sought to reduce their drinking, with the effect moderated by a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; rs2832407) in GRIK1, which encodes the kainate GluK1 receptor subunit (Kranzler et al. 2014). The present study sought to replicate prospectively the effect of topiramate and rs2832407 in patients with DSM-5 alcohol use disorder (AUD) who sought to reduce or stop their drinking. We stratified the randomization on genotype (rs2832407*C-allele homozygotes vs. A-allele carriers) and assigned 170 European-American participants (71.2% male) to receive 12 weeks of treatment with topiramate (N = 85), at a maximal daily dosage of 200 mg, or matching placebo (N = 85). At each of nine treatment visits participants received brief counseling to reduce drinking and increase abstinent days. We hypothesized that topiramate-treated patients with the rs2832407*CC genotype would reduce heavy drinking days (HDDs) more than the other three groups. The rate of treatment completion was 91.8% in both groups. The mean number of HDDs per week in the placebo group was 1.67 (95% CI = (1.29, 2.16), p = 0.0001) times greater than in the topiramate group, which was confirmed by the topiramate group’s significantly greater reduction in the concentration of the liver enzyme γ-glutamyltransferase and lower alcohol-related problems score. There was no significant difference in topiramate’s effect on HDDs between genotype groups. Although consistent with other studies showing a reduction in heavy drinking with topiramate treatment, the prior finding of a moderating effect of rs2832407 genotype was not replicated in this prospective trial.

Topiramate, a GABA/glutamate modulator, is efficacious in reducing alcohol consumption, though the mechanisms underlying this effect are not well characterized. This study analyzed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 22 heavy drinkers enrolled in a 12-week placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial of topiramate to examine the effects of topiramate on alcohol cue-elicited brain responses, craving, and heavy drinking in individuals with DSM-5 alcohol use disorder. Patients were randomized to receive either topiramate (maximal daily dosage of 200 mg/day) or placebo and were administered an fMRI alcohol cue-reactivity task at baseline (before starting medication) and after 6 weeks of double-blind treatment. Analyses compared the topiramate (n = 12) and placebo (n = 8) groups on (1) the change in brain responses during alcohol cue exposure (vs non-alcohol cues) within five a priori regions of interest related to reward—the bilateral and medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and bilateral ventral striatum (VS) and (2) change in craving and heavy drinking days (HDDs) from baseline and scan 2. Topiramate, relative to placebo, reduced alcohol cue-elicited activation of the left VS, bilateral OFC, and medial OFC, alcohol cue-elicited craving, and HDDs between baseline and 6 weeks of treatment. The reduction in alcohol cue-elicited activation in the medial OFC correlated with reductions in craving, and reduced activation in the right VS, right OFC, and medial OFC correlated with the reduction in HDD. This preliminary study provides evidence that topiramate’s attenuation of alcohol cue-elicited brain activation and craving are key elements of the drug’s neurobiological mechanism of action in reducing heavy drinking.

Background and aims There is wide inter-individual variability in response to the treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD) with the opioid receptor antagonist naltrexone. To identify patients who may be most responsive to naltrexone treatment, studies have examined the moderating effect of rs1799971, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that encodes a non-synonymous substitution (Asn40Asp) in the mu-opioid receptor gene, OPRM1. The aims of this study were to: (1) conduct a systematic review of randomized clinical trials (RCTs); (2) assess the bias of the available studies and gauge publication bias; and (3) meta-analyze the interaction effect of the Asn40Asp SNP on the response to naltrexone treatment. Methods We searched for placebo-controlled RCTs that examined the effect of Asn40Asp on the response to naltrexone treatment of heavy drinking or AUD. We tested the hypothesis that the minor (Asp40) allele was associated with a greater reduction in five alcohol consumption measures (relapse to heavy drinking, abstinence, percentage of heavy drinking days, percentage of days abstinent and drinks per day) in naltrexone-treated participants by meta-analyzing the interaction effects using a random effects model. Results Seven RCTs met the study criteria. Overall, risk of bias was low and we observed no evidence of publication bias. Of the five alcohol consumption outcomes considered, there was a nominally significant moderating effect of the Asn40Asp SNP only on drinks per day (d = -0.18, P = 0.02). However, the effect was not significant when multiple comparisons were taken into account. Conclusions From the evidence to date, it remains unclear whether rs1799971, the OPRM1 Asn40Asp single nucleotide polymorphism, predicts naltrexone treatment response in individuals with alcohol use disorder or heavy drinking.

Background and aims Studies of the efficacy of gabapentin for treating alcohol use disorder (AUD) have yielded mixed findings. The aims of our study were to estimate gabapentin's effects on six alcohol-related outcomes, test potential moderators, examine publication bias and evaluate the quality of the studies. Methods Meta-analysis of placebo-controlled randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Using PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov, we selected RCTs of gabapentin's effects on alcohol consumption or a biochemical correlate of it, excluding studies limited to other primary outcomes or that combined gabapentin with other medications. We assessed study quality and used a random-effects model to analyze each outcome measure and the Egger regression test and funnel plots to assess publication bias. Results We identified seven RCTs of gabapentin that met study criteria. The quality of the studies overall was good, and there was no evidence of publication bias. Four to seven studies contributed to the analysis of the six outcome measures. For all outcome measures the effect estimates were in a direction that favored gabapentin over placebo. However, only for percentage of heavy drinking days was there good evidence of a benefit (g = -0.64, 95% confidence interval = -1.22 to -0.06). Conclusions Although gabapentin appears to be more efficacious than placebo in treating AUD, the only measure on which the analysis clearly favors the active medication is percentage of heavy drinking days. Additional studies are needed to define more clearly the role of gabapentin in AUD treatment.

Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is the most common illicit substance use disorder and individuals with CUD have high rates of comorbid anxiety disorders. Comorbidity between CUD and anxiety disorders is of public health relevance given that although motivation enhancement therapy (MET) combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an efficacious intervention for CUD, outcomes are worse for patients with elevated anxiety. Integrated cannabis and anxiety reduction treatment (ICART) was developed based on translational research; it integrates a transdiagnostic CBT for anxiety disorders with MET/cognitive behavior therapy (MET-CBT) for CUD, with outcomes comparable to MET-CBT alone. The current study tested whether ICART is more efficacious than MET-CBT alone for patients with more severe baseline cannabis use and use-related problems. Individuals seeking treatment for CUD (56.4% male, Mage = 23.2, 63.3% non-Hispanic White) with at least one comorbid anxiety disorder were randomly assigned to ICART (n = 27) or MET-CBT (n = 28). Baseline severity of cannabis use and use-related problems moderated the relation between condition and posttreatment outcomes, such that among patients with the greatest baseline cannabis use, ICART was associated with less posttreatment cannabis use than MET-CBT alone. Further, among those with the greatest number of cannabis-related problems, patients in ICART reported fewer posttreatment problems than those in the MET-CBT alone condition. These data suggest that for dually diagnosed patients with more severe cannabis use, ICART may be more efficacious than a gold-standard psychosocial CUD treatment, MET-CBT. MET-CBT may be more efficacious for those with less baseline cannabis use. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has contributed to thousands of hospitalizations and deaths worldwide. Although alcohol use has increased in response to the pandemic, no known studies have identified transdiagnostic risk factors for greater drinking in response to COVID-related distress. Individuals with more difficulty with emotion regulation may drink more during the pandemic to manage pandemic-related distress. The current study tested whether difficulty with emotion regulation was related to greater estimated blood alcohol content (eBAC) during a typical week in the past month and if this was due to COVID-related distress and drinking to cope with the pandemic. The sample consisted of 347 past-month drinking undergraduates in Louisiana, a state with some of the U.S. highest rates of COVID-19 infections and related deaths. Difficulty with engaging in goal-directed behaviors was related to greater past-month eBAC and this relation was mediated by the sequential effects of COVID-related worry and drinking to cope with the pandemic. Results indicate that individuals with difficulty engaging in goal-directed behaviors are especially vulnerable to greater eBAC during the COVID-19 pandemic which may be due in part to their vulnerability to more COVID-related worry which may lead to more drinking to cope with the pandemic.

Objectives: Several medications have been shown to be safe and effective for treating alcohol use disorder (AUD); however, these medications are prescribed infrequently. We conducted a survey of the demographics, practice characteristics, and self-perceived knowledge, experience, and opinions of addiction specialists on the use of AUD medications and how to increase their use. Methods: We sent a 19-question survey to members of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) and the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP). Results: We received a total of 395 responses from ASAM members and 194 responses from AAAP members One hundred of the respondents were members of both organizations. The large majority of respondents (92.6%) were prescribers, and 81.6% were non-trainee physicians. The two most frequently used medications for treating AUD were oral naltrexone (27%) and long-acting naltrexone (18%). Respondents were significantly more confident in the strength of the research findings and evidence for the efficacy and safety of naltrexone than other AUD medications (p < 0.001). Respondents identified additional education to current providers about existing medications as the most important potential intervention to increase the use of AUD medications. Conclusions: Compared with a survey published in 2001, in 2018 the proportion of respondents who reported using naltrexone more than doubled and addiction specialists were more confident in their use of AUD medications, rating their efficacy and safety more highly. Consistent with findings from other recent studies, providing more education to practitioners about existing AUD medications may be the most effective way to increase their use.