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Objective: The current study examined the distinction between primary and secondary depression among substance use patients to test whether the primary depressed subgroup presents to treatment with a unique profile of clinical and vulnerability characteristics. Method: The heterogeneous sample comprised 286 individuals (76% male) with alcohol and/or drug abuse or dependence (according to criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised) across four treatment outcome studies conducted at the alcohol research center at the Rutgers University Center of Alcohol Studies. Participants were classified as having comorbid lifetime history of primary depression (21%), secondary depression (24%), or no depression (55%). Results: Participants in the primary depression and secondary depression groups were comparable in severity of substance use, and both of these groups had more severe substance use problems than the no-depression group. The primary depression group presented with more severe depression histories, higher levels of current depressive symptoms, and higher rates of additional Axis I comorbidity at treatment entry. In terms of vulnerability indices, the primary depression subgroup had a uniquely high family history risk for major depressive disorder; underlying personality vulnerability to depression was also evident in the primary depression group, with higher neuroticism and lower extraversion relative to secondary depression patients. Conclusions: The findings suggest that careful assessment of lifetime depression symptoms vis-a-vis substance use history and severity yields important information identifying the primary depression subtype of substance use patients as a group with a unique and more severely affected clinical presentation of depression and other Axis I psychopathology relative to secondary depression patients. Effectiveness of substance use interventions may be augmented with depression treatment for primary depression patients, given their more severe clinical presentation and vulnerability characteristics. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 72, 151-157, 2011), DEPRESSIVE DISORDERS ARE HIGHLY comorbid with drug and alcohol use disorders (i.e., substance use disorders [SUDs]; Grant, 1995; Grant and Hartford, 1995; Grant et al., 1996; Substance Abuse and Mental [...]

Objective: This study tested an integrated relapse model drawing hypotheses from both interpersonal and intra-individual relapse models. It was hypothesized that the relationships between alcohol-specific social support (support for drinking and support for not drinking) and drinking outcomes would be partially mediated by motivation. Method: Participants were 158 women with alcohol use disorders participating in two linked randomized controlled trials. One trial compared standard individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for alcohol use disorders with female-specific CBT for alcohol use disorders; the other compared alcohol behavioral couple therapy with blended individual CBT and alcohol behavioral couple therapy. Measures included the Important People Interview to measure social-support variables, the Timeline Followback to measure drinking variables, and the Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale to measure motivation. Results: Results of structural equation modeling suggested a mediational role of motivation in the relationship between support for drinking and drinking frequency. Individuals with more network support for drinking at baseline had less motivation for abstinence at the end of treatment, which predicted drinking frequency over the 6 months after treatment. The indirect effect of baseline support for drinking on 6-month follow-up drinking frequency was statistically significant. A similar, although only marginally significant, pattern was found for the relationship between support for not drinking and drinking frequency. Individuals with more social network for not drinking at baseline had more motivation at the end of treatment at the trend level, which in turn predicted 6-month follow-up drinking frequency. The indirect effect of baseline support for not drinking on 6-month follow-up drinking frequency trended toward significance. Conclusions: This study offers preliminary evidence that motivation is one mechanism by which abstinence-specific social support affects treatment outcome. (J Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 71, 930-937, 2010), FOR PEOPLE WITH ALCOHOL USE DISORDERS, social support has been found to predict positive drinking outcomes (Hunter-Reel et al., 2009). Lower levels of drinking are correlated with the degree of [...]

The impending shift in the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders from categorical to a hybrid categorical-dimensional diagnosis scheme has generated considerable interest in the relative merits of these respective approaches. This is particularly true for the diagnostically complex category of personality disorders (PDs). The present study assessed whether categorical or dimensional measures better predicted alcohol consumption in a sample of 102 women enrolled in a clinical trial comparing individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to conjoint CBT for alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Linear regression was used to evaluate whether each PD diagnosis (categorical), or the number of PD symptoms endorsed per PD (dimensional) better predicted percent days drinking over the course of six months of treatment. PD criteria (dimensional) better predicted drinking for Paranoid, Borderline, and Obsessive-Compulsive PDs, while diagnosis (categorical) was a better predictor only for passive-aggressive PD. Both schemes predicted drinking outcomes for avoidant, dependent, and depressive PDs, and neither was predictive for narcissistic PD. These findings suggest that the addition of a dimensional approach for PDs potentially enhances the prediction of alcohol use outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undergraduate students attending large research universities often have the opportunity to participate in the design, conduct, analysis, and dissemination of research initiated by faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students. To date, guidelines for the conduct of this specific type of relationship - that of an academic researcher to an undergraduate research volunteer in a large team-based research laboratory - remain absent from the peer-reviewed education literature. The Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University recently called for further integration and depth of experience for undergraduates into the research process. Although not impossible, in order for large research universities to respond, it is necessary to act in a strategic and well-planned manner. Included are specific suggestions for success in facilitating this relationship within the context of a large, research-oriented university department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]