Efficacy of Contingency Management in the Treatment of Adolescents With Cannabis Use Disorders

May 20, 2009 updated by: Hospital Clinic of Barcelona

Efficacy of a Contingency Management Program in the Treatment of Adolescents With Cannabis Use Disorders in a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology Department

Cannabis use among Spanish adolescents has been increasing in the last decade. It has been related to poor school achievement, delinquency, substance use and psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, psychoactive substance use in adolescents presenting psychiatric disorders can result in the development of substance use disorders or the worsening of psychopathology. Thus, there's an urge to develop efficient interventions in the treatment of these disorders. Therapeutic approaches based on cognitive-behavioural therapy and motivational interviewing have demonstrated a limited efficacy in this population. Programs based on contingency management have been reported to be useful both in adult and adolescents, too. But it still remains unclear whether a combination of these therapeutic approaches is feasible and brings a better cost-benefit relation.

The investigators' project aims to evaluate the added benefits of supplementing a standard intervention on cannabis use, based on combined approach that includes motivational and cognitive-behavioural elements, with a contingency management program. Therefore, pre and post-treatment evaluation will be carried forward in a sample of 30 adolescents (aged 12-18) that initiate treatment for cannabis use related disorder at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department of the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona. Participants will be randomly assigned to a standard treatment group or an experimental group in which standard treatment will be supplemented with a contingency management protocol. As a secondary objective, a prospective assessment of neuropsychological performance related to cannabis use or abstinence will be carried forward.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

30

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 Contact

Study Locations

  • Spain
      • Barcelona, Spain, 08015
        • Recruiting
        • Hospital Clinic Barcelona

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

12 years to 18 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Presence of DSM-IV-TR criteria of cannabis abuse and/or dependence
  • Signed informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Mental retardation
  • Presence of a substance use disorder other than nicotine or cannabis
  • Severe or unstable medical
  • Presence at the moment of inclusion of severe acute psychopathology (acute psychotic symptoms, severe depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation)

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: Standard treatment
Participants will be randomly assigned to a standard treatment group. Patients allocated to this group will receive active treatment in form of a 12-session intervention program. This program includes weekly intervention sessions developed according to the MET/CBT12 treatment protocol (Sampl, Kadden, 2001)
Behavioral: Standard treatment
Participants will be randomly assigned to a standard treatment group. Patients allocated to this group will receive active treatment in form of 12-session intervention program. This program includes weekly intervention sessions developed according to the MET/CBT12 treatment protocol (Sampl, Kadden, 2001). Intervention includes Motivational interviewing (2 sessions) and Cognitive behavioral therapy
Experimental: Experimental
Participants randomly assigned to this group will received standard treatment (including 12 session therapy program) supplemented with an intervention with a contingency management program, designed to improve adherence and efficacy of the treatment program.
Behavioral: Standard Treatment Plus Contingency Management Program
Participants assigned to this group will receive active treatment in form of 12-session intervention program. This program includes weekly intervention sessions developed according to the MET/CBT12 treatment protocol (Sampl, Kadden, 2001). Intervention includes Motivational interviewing (2 sessions) and Cognitive behavioral therapy (10 sessions). This treatment protocol will be supplemented with a contingency management intervention. Intervention will consist in a voucher program: negative urine-screens will be rewarded with vouchers. Voucher will have an increasing value. At the end of the program, vouchers can be changed by gifts. Potential gifts will be selected by the therapists and will be related to pro-social activities, aiming to change preexisting risk behaviours.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Percentage of marijuana active users
Time Frame: 12 weeks
12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Percentage of negative urine-screens
Time Frame: 12 weeks
12 weeks
Percentage of completed intervention sessions
Time Frame: 12 weeks
12 weeks
Scores in psychopathology and drug scales (T-ASI, SDQ, BDI, Cannabis Problem Questionnaire)
Time Frame: 12 weeks
12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Hospital Clinic of Barcelona

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Javier Goti, M.D, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona

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

April 1, 2009

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

December 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 8, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 8, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

April 9, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 21, 2009

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 20, 2009

Last Verified

May 1, 2009

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PI08/90331
  • 4363/2008 (Ethics Comitee HCP)

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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