HELP-SEEKING AND RECOVERY PROCESSES IN PROBLEM DRINKERS

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DESCRIPTION (Provided by applicant): This K02 renewal application requests a second 5-year Independent Scientist Award (ISA) for Jalie A. Tucker, Ph.D., MPH, to support continued development of knowledge and skills in public health that are pertinent to her research on help-seeking and recovery processes in problem drinkers. The initial K02 award supported her completion of a MPH degree in health care organization and policy. A second award will support additional knowledge acquisition relevant to developing a telehealth intervention for problem drinkers. Her current research is aimed at understanding why most problem drinkers do not seek help and how a subset of them recover on their own. A longer term goal is to devise and evaluate interventions that may appeal to this untreated majority and that better capture the natural forces that support resolution. The candidate is the PI on an R01 award that involves two prospective studies of environmental influences on recovery attempts by problem drinkers with different help-seekng experiences. The research is guided by a behavioral economic analysis of alcohol abuse and is investigating the natural forces that influence recovery pursued through different pathways, the circumstances conducive to help-seeking, and how interventions interact with the recovery process. One study involves an innovative, computerized Interactive Voice Response telephone system to collect daily reports of drinking and environmental variables from untreated problem drinkers who recently stopped drinking abusively. The study will support a fine-grained analysis of the natural resolution process and will provide a measurement technology suitable for telehealth applications with problem drinkers. Such low threshold (and potentially less costly) interventions are needed to increase the diversity and accessibility of services, can be accessed throughout the often lengthy resolution process, and do not require clinic visits, but can facilitate access to them when needed. A second K02 award will support the candidate's acquisition of rapidly emerging, specialized knowledge about telehealth care and will cover topics in health communications, expert systems, telehealth applications and ethics, and tailored interventions for drinking and related high-risk behaviors. Renewal of the ISA would allow Dr. Tucker to continue her current level of research involvement and development and would relieve her from reliance on short term mechanisms of support.