Women with alcohol dependence: A randomized trial of couple versus individual plus couple therapy

Couple therapy for women with alcohol use disorders (AUDs) yields positive drinking outcomes, but many women prefer individual to conjoint treatment. The present study compared conjoint cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for women with AUDs to a blend of individual and conjoint therapy. Participants were 59 women with AUDs (95% Caucasian, mean age = 46 years) and their male partners randomly assigned to 12 sessions of Alcohol Behavioral Couple Therapy (ABCT) or to a blend of 5 individual CBT sessions and 7 sessions of ABCT (Blended-ABCT). Drinking and relationship satisfaction were assessed during and for 1-year posttreatment. Treatment conditions did not differ significantly on number of treatment sessions attended, percentage of drinking days (PDD), or percentage of heavy drinking days (PDH), during or in the 12 months following treatment. However, effect size estimates suggested a small to moderate effect of Blended-ABCT over ABCT in number of treatment sessions attended (d = -.41), and first- and second-half within treatment PDD (d = -.41, d = -.28), and PDH (d = -.46, d = -.38). Moderator analyses found that women lower in baseline sociotropy had lower PDH across treatment weeks 1-8 than in Blended-ABCT than ABCT and that women lower in self-efficacy had lower PDH during follow-up in Blended-ABCT than in ABCT. The 2 treatment groups did not differ significantly in within-treatment or posttreatment relationship satisfaction. Results suggest that blending individual and conjoint treatment yields similar or slightly better outcomes than ABCT, is responsive to women's expressed desire for individual sessions as part of their treatment, and decreases the challenges of scheduling conjoint sessions. (PsycINFO Database Record