Matching, Outcomes and Costs in Substance Abuse/Psychiatric Treatment

April 6, 2015 updated by: US Department of Veterans Affairs
This project�s goal is to improve the quality of care and reduce treatment costs for veterans with substance abuse and psychiatric problems.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Background:

This project�s goal is to improve the quality of care and reduce treatment costs for veterans with substance abuse and psychiatric problems.

Objectives:

This project is evaluating a patient-treatment matching strategy to improve residential treatment for substance abuse patients with psychiatric disorders. Its immediate objective is to examine whether the matching strategy results in more effective and cost-effective treatment in VA programs. We hypothesize that patients with severe clinical problems will have better outcomes when they are matched to service-intensive programs; patients with moderate problems will have better outcomes when they are matched to programs having a lower intensity of services. For both patient groups, community treatment should prove to be more cost-effective than hospital treatment.

Methods:

The project utilized a stratified randomized design. We paired each of three VA hospital programs that treat dual diagnosis patients and are high on intensity with a nearby high-intensity community residential facility (CRF) that contracts with the VA. We also paired four VA hospital and four CRFs that are low on intensity. Veterans who applied for substance abuse treatment at VA facilities were randomly assigned to either the VA hospital or CRF. Patient assessments have been conducted at intake (N=230), discharge, and a 4-month follow-up. Primary outcomes are patients� severity of substance abuse and psychiatric problems. Secondary outcomes are patients� functional status and their VA and non-VA health care utilization and its costs.

Status:

Completed.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

236

Phase

  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • Long Beach, California, United States, 90822
        • VA Long Beach Healthcare System, Long Beach, CA
      • Palo Alto, California, United States, 94304-1290
        • VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA
    • Florida
      • Gainesville, Florida, United States, 32608
        • North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System, Gainesville, FL
    • Nebraska
      • Omaha, Nebraska, United States, 68105-1873
        • Omaha VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System, Omaha, NE
    • Oklahoma
      • Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, 73104
        • Oklahoma City VA Medical Center, Oklahoma City, OK
    • Virginia
      • Hampton, Virginia, United States, 23667
        • Hampton VA Medical Center, Hampton, VA

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Patients must be entering a VA inpatient substance abuse or psychiatric treatment program and be clinically judged as appropriate for inpatient or community residential care.

Exclusion Criteria:

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Arm 1
Procedure: Matching Symptom Severity to Service Intensity

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

US Department of Veterans Affairs

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Christine Timko, PhD, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2001

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 14, 2001

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 15, 2001

First Posted (Estimate)

March 16, 2001

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

April 7, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 6, 2015

Last Verified

July 1, 2005

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IIR 95-011

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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