Journaling and Addiction Recovery: Piloting "Positive Peer Journaling" (PPJ)

The main objective of this study is to pilot test the Positive Peer Journaling (PPJ) intervention and its feasibility and acceptability. A second objective is to compare individuals assigned to PPJ to individuals in a treatment as usual control group.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Addiction
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Positive Peer Journaling (PPJ)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 81
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Minnesota
    • Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, 55413
      • NUWAY

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• meet DSM-V criteria for past-year Substance Use Disorder as primary or secondary diagnosis,
• English literacy sufficient to make short written lists needed to complete PPJ and homework assessments,
• minimum 2 weeks sustained abstinence,
• completed first 2 weeks of treatment at Nuway (approximately 2 weeks), an intensive outpatient substance use disorder treatment program and the recruitment site,
• agree to be audio recorded or transcription recorded in group meetings and in individual meetings with research staff,
• currently are clients in the Nuway outpatient program,
• participants must be English speaking and literacy must be strong enough to write short lists and to understand the questions asked in the questionnaires,
• participants must have an electronic device that connects to the internet and internet connection for online delivery of intervention during COVID-19.

Exclusion Criteria:

• presence of a psychotic disorder, psychiatric condition (e.g., suicidal ideation), or cognitive impairment (e.g., severe dementia, traumatic brain injury) limiting ability to give consent and/or participate in the study;
• severe psychiatric illness (current schizophrenia, major depression with suicidal ideation);
• personality disorders that would interfere with satisfactory participation in or completion of the study protocol,
• inability to give informed, voluntary consent to participate,
• lack of sufficient English literacy to participate, defined as inability to make a list of 5 things they did yesterday and inability to understand questionnaire items,
• any impairment, activity, or situation that in the judgement of the research staff would prevent satisfactory participation in or completion of the study protocol.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Treatment Group; Participants in this group will complete the intervention, Positive Peer Journaling (PPJ), while also continuing to attend intensive outpatient treatment for addiction.	Behavioral: Positive Peer Journaling (PPJ); PPJ is a journaling practice to support addiction recovery. PPJ encourages past 24 hour review and upcoming 24 hour planning to improve subjective wellbeing in recovery and reduce relapse. PPJ uses journals with column headings under which individuals make bullet-pointed lists. On the left hand page, past 24 hours is recalled, itemizing "good" and "bad" things that happened and things for which one is grateful. Good wishes for others are also expressed on this page. On the right hand page, values-based activities for the upcoming 24 hours are planned via headings representing valued life domains such as "recovery," "work/school," "spirituality," "home and household," and "health."
No Intervention: Control Group; There will be no intervention for those randomized to the control group. However, they will complete assessment instruments throughout the study period while also continuing to attend intensive outpatient treatment for addiction.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Satisfaction with Life	Score on the "Satisfaction with Life" scale. This scale has 5 items assessed on a 7 point Likert-type response format. Scores range from 5 to 35 with higher scores representing higher satisfaction with life.	9 weeks
Happiness with recovery	Score on a single item, "In general, I am happy with my recovery." This item uses an 11 point scale ranging from 0 to 11. Higher scores represent higher happiness with recovery.	9 weeks
Commitment to sobriety	Score on a single item, "I will do whatever it takes to recover from my addiction." This item uses an 11 point scale ranging from 0-11. Higher scores represent greater commitment to sobriety.	9 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Minnesota
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Amy Krentzman, MSW, PhD, University of Minenesota

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 7, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 1, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): November 1, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 21, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 30, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): July 7, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 15, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 14, 2021
• Last Verified: December 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Compulsive Behavior; Impulsive Behavior; Behavior, Addictive
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY00004619-2

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No