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Published on: May 31, 2019
An analysis of relapse prevention factors and their ability to predict sustained abstinence following treatment
David Farabee1, Michael McCann, Mary-Lynn Brecht
1Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California-Los Angeles, CA 90025, USA. dfarabee@ucla.edu
Background & Objectives:
This study assessed the role of 14 specific relapse-prevention activities and their underlying factors in maintaining abstinence among subjects (N = 302) completing outpatient treatment for stimulant dependence.
Methods:
We examined what broader dimensions might subsume the 14 items constituting the Drug Avoidance Activities checklist (Farabee et al. J Subst Abuse Treat 2002;23:343-350), and how well these derived factors predicted concurrent drug use at baseline and again 3 and 12 months later.
Results:
Although four factors were identified consistently for the three time points, only avoidance strategies had sufficient internal consistency to be retained for further analysis. Controlling for age, gender, and ethnicity, the avoidance subscale was a significant predictor of UA results at all time periods: a one-point increase in the avoidance strategies scale was associated with an 86% increase in odds of a negative UA at baseline (OR = 1.86, 95% CI = 1.37-2.53, p < .001), a 77% increase at 3-month follow-up (OR = 1.77, CI = 1.37-2.29, p < .001), and a 37% increase at 12-month follow-up (OR = 1.37, CI = 1.04-1.81, p = .026).
Conclusions:
Although correlations of individual items with UA results showed statistically significant (p < .05) results for 8 of 14 items at one or more observation points, avoidance-related behaviors showed the strongest associations with sustained abstinence.
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