LINK: Aftercare Monitoring Project

July 26, 2018 updated by: VA Office of Research and Development

Improving Longterm SUD Outcomes With Telephone Case Monitoring

The prevalence of substance use disorders (SUD) in the VA is rising, making SUD(s) among the most commonly diagnosed disorders in the VA. A substantial body of data attests to the effectiveness of substance use disorder treatment; further the predictor most consistently associated with positive addiction treatment outcomes is duration. Despite the body of evidence supporting length of treatment as one of the stronger predictors of long-term SUD outcomes, only 36% of SUD treatment programs in the VA are meeting the continuing care performance criterion specified by the Office of Quality Performance. This randomized clinical trial investigates whether substance use disorder patients assigned to telephone case monitoring (TCM) for continuing care will do better than those attending face-to-face continuing care as usual (CCAU)(standard outpatient care).

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Background: The prevalence of substance use disorders (SUD) in the VA is rising, making SUD(s) among the most commonly diagnosed disorders in the VA. A substantial body of data attests to the effectiveness of substance use disorder treatment; further the predictor most consistently associated with positive addiction treatment outcomes is duration. Despite the body of evidence supporting length of treatment as one of the stronger predictors of long-term SUD outcomes, only 36% of SUD treatment programs in the VA are meeting the continuing care performance criterion specified by the Office of Quality Performance. The proposed randomized clinical trial investigates whether substance use disorder patients assigned to telephone case monitoring (TCM) for continuing care will do better than those attending face-to-face continuing care as usual (CCAU)(standard outpatient care).

Objectives: The objective of this research is to test, in a randomized clinical trial, whether in-person CCAU following intensive outpatient SUD treatment leads to better SUD outcomes when compared with TCM. In addition, we will investigate whether continuing care condition interacts with distance from providers such that telephone case monitoring (TCM) produces increasingly stronger results relative to continuing care as usual (CCAU) as distance from care increases. Should we find an interaction, we will test whether the interaction is due to TCM producing better proximal outcomes such as level of participation in continuing care and satisfaction with treatment. Finally, we will investigate the cost of providing telephone care relative to continuing care as usual.

Methods: The design of this study is a randomized controlled trial of telephone case monitoring versus face-to-face continuing care as usual with 2 sites and up to 500 patients per site recruited over 1.5 years for a total of up to 1000 patients. Patients will be involved in the intervention for up to 6 months and data collection will occur at baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months via mailed surveys. Data of interest include self-report of substance use, psychiatric symptoms, and quality of life. Data analyses will be conducted using hierarchical linear modeling.

Status: Patient recruitment has ended. Treatment and follow-up are on-going.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

667

Phase

  • Not Applicable

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

    • California
      • Palo Alto, California, United States, 94304-1290
        • VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA
    • Kansas
      • Topeka, Kansas, United States, 66622
        • VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center, Topeka, KS
    • Missouri
      • Saint Louis, Missouri, United States, 63106
        • St. Louis VA Medical Center John Cochran Division, St. Louis, MO

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:

Participants will be recruited from all patients who complete at least 14 days of intensive outpatient (IOP) substance use disorder treatment over an 18-month period in 2 VA IOP SUD programs.

Exclusion Criteria:

Completion of less than 14 days of IOP treatment.

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
Active Comparator: Telephone Case Monitoring Aftercare
Telephone Case Monitoring involves telephone delivery of continuing care treatment post intensive outpatient SUD treatment. It includes brief weekly phone calls with a counselor for up to 6 months.
Other Names:
  • TCM
Active Comparator: Continuing Care as Usual
Continuing Care as Usual will include standard group outpatient SUD treatment.
Other Names:
  • CCAU

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Rates of Substance Use
Time Frame: Rates of substance use measured at 3 months
Percentage of days abstinent from alcohol use. Each person is followed for 3 months. For each person, we then calculate the number of days they were abstinent and the percentage of days abstinent (days abstinent/ all days in 3 months).
Rates of substance use measured at 3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Psychiatric Symptoms
Time Frame: Psychiatric symptoms measured at 3 months, 6 months, 12 months post randomization
3 month, 6 month and 12 month measures of psychiatric symptoms, as measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Minimum observed score was 22; maximum observed score was 110. Higher score is worse. Minimum score possible is 22. Maximum score possible is 110.
Psychiatric symptoms measured at 3 months, 6 months, 12 months post randomization
Health Related Quality of Life
Time Frame: 3 months, 6 months and 12 months after randomization
Physical and mental health subscales from the 12-item Medical Outcomes Study Short-form Health Survey, adapted for Veterans (VR-12). Observed scores on the MCS ranged from 2.89 to 70.39. Scores on the PCS ranged from 13.26 to 70.10. Higher scores denote better health. The minimum and maximum scores possible are 0 and 100, respectively.
3 months, 6 months and 12 months after randomization

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: John D. McKellar, 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 Start

November 1, 2006

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 12, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 12, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

December 14, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 16, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 26, 2018

Last Verified

July 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

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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