Substance Abuse and Trauma in Incarcerated Women

Substance Abuse and Trauma in Incarcerated Women: An Effectiveness Study

The proposed study will evaluate Covington's Helping Women Recover (HWR) plus Beyond Trauma (BT) curriculum with female offenders at Eddie Warrior Correctional Facility in Taft, Oklahoma. The purpose of the proposed study is to expand previous findings by including a comparison group of women that are not receiving treatment but are otherwise eligible, and by using outside evaluators to conduct the assessments. Furthermore, this study will extend the outcomes measured in previous evaluations by including measures of sleep disturbance, posttraumatic cognitions, and a more extensive assessment of trauma-related symptoms. The hypotheses for this study are listed below:

1. Incarcerated women with substance use disorders and history of trauma enrolled in the integrated treatment program (HWR plus BT) will report significantly fewer symptoms on measures of posttraumatic stress and associated cognitions, substance use, depression, and related symptoms following treatment than those in the comparison group.
2. Those in the treatment group will improve significantly more than those in the comparison group on the symptoms listed above.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Trauma; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; Substance Abuse; Integrated Treatment; Incarcerated Women
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Helping Women Recover/Beyond Trauma

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 95
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Oklahoma
    • Taft, Oklahoma, United States, 74463
      • Eddie Warrior Correctional Facility

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Incarcerated women at Eddie Warrior Correctional Center (EWCC) in Taft, Oklahoma

• The following 6 criteria are then employed at EWCC for HWR/BT treatment eligibility:

  1. An Level of Service Inventory (LSI) score of 30 or greater
  2. An LSI protective score of 15 or less
  3. 1.5 years or less remaining in prison
  4. A Case Plan identifying substance abuse treatment need
  5. Ability to read and comprehend
  6. 18 years of age or older

Exclusion Criteria:

• Under age 18
• Not incarcerated
• More than 1.5 years remaining in prison
• LSI score less than 30 or a protective of more than 15
• No identified substance abuse need
• Inability to read and comprehend

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: cognitive behavioral group treatment; Helping Women Recover/Beyond Trauma integrated substance abuse and trauma treatment group. (Dr. Covington)	Behavioral: Helping Women Recover/Beyond Trauma; Four treatment rounds will be conducted, and a goal of 20 women (10 from each group) will be recruited to participate in each round. A new treatment group will start every four months. Sessions are approximately 2 hours each, 3-4 times per week over four months in a group format. This treatment program will focus on the integrated treatment of trauma and substance abuse in women. Versions of the curriculum exist both for community and corrections populations. In this intervention the corrections version will be used.
No Intervention: comparison group; a comparison group of incarcerated women will receive the pre and post assessments with no interventions.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
PTSD checklist (change from baseline at one week post treatment)	17 item post traumatic stress disorder symptoms checklist will be administered pre treatment and one week following 4 month treatment completion.	one-week before treatment, one week post treatment
Trauma Related Nightmare Survey (change from baseline at one week post treatment)	brief assessment of nightmare frequency and severity to be administered pre-treatment and one week following 4 month treatment completion.	one week before treatment, one week post treatment
Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (change from baseline at one week post treatment)	36 item assesment of cognitions related to world, self and blame to be administered pre-treatment and one week following 4 month treatment completion.	one week before treatment, one week post treatment
CES-D, NIMH (change from baseline at one week post treatment)	Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), NIMH is a 20 item depression inventory to be administered pre-treatment and one week following 4 month treatment completion.	one week before treatment, one week post treatment
Drug-Taking Confidence Questionnaire (change from baseline at one week post treatment)	50 item assessment of alcohol and drugs self efficacy to be administered pre-treatment and one week following 4 month treatment completion.	one week before treatment, one week post treatment
Trauma Symptoms Inventory (change from baseline at one week post treatment)	100 item trauma symptoms questionnaire to be administered pre-treatment and one week following 4 month treatment completion.	one week before treatment, one week post treatment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Parenting Stress Index for Incarcerated Women (change from baseline at one week post treatment)	two scales from the PSI and selected parenting issues from incarcerated women to be administered pre-treatment and one week following 4 month treatment completion.	one week before treatment, one week post treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Tulsa
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Rachael Swopes, M.S., University of Tulsa

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: November 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 1, 2012
• Study Completion (Actual): March 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 3, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 9, 2011
• First Posted (Estimate): August 10, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): March 18, 2014
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 17, 2014
• Last Verified: March 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: treatment; substance abuse; Trauma; incarceration
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; Wounds and Injuries
• Other Study ID Numbers: TU 11-18