What is Recovery?

描述(由申请人提供)：“恢复”一词在研究文献中被广泛使用。它也出现在NIAAA的战略计划中，并出现在其一个部门的标题中。康复是酒精治疗的一个目标。不再喝酒并试图改善生活方式的酗酒者说，他们正在康复。然而，尽管它的用法如此之多，而且似乎是核心，但在酒精文献中，对这个术语的定义还没有达成一致。在缺乏定义的情况下，康复通常被等同于禁欲或研究中的症状缓解，尽管那些声称自己正在康复的人并不那么狭隘地将其定义为康复。这项酒精疗法发展研究旨在开发一种康复量表，该量表基于经历过康复的人如何定义这个术语。为了开发量表的潜在项目，我们将对戒酒生活和戒酒治疗计划的校友团体成员、康复组织的成员(其中许多人将没有参加过戒酒互助会/戒酒协会或戒酒治疗)以及从报纸和在线广告招募的康复个人进行调查和定性访谈(n=200)。这一抽样战略将惠及在接受治疗和不接受治疗的情况下以及在戒酒协会参与和不参与的情况下实现康复的各种个人。将召集一个专家小组(包括酒精研究人员、校友团体和康复组织的代表)，进一步就招聘和项目建设提供建议。结果项目和其他相关工具(如世界卫生组织/世卫组织生活质量量表和成瘾严重程度指数)将被应用于从200人中抽取的抽样框架(估计受访者人数为11,240人)，以研究潜在量表项目的表现及其与其他相关衡量标准的关系。我们将进行深入的心理测量学分析，以开发出具有较强收敛和区分效度的节俭和可靠的恢复量表。我们将分析根据年龄、性别、种族、参与治疗和12个步骤的小组以及恢复阶段(1年-早期；2-5年-持续；5年以上-稳定)，恢复(由世卫组织量表和新的康复量表定义)有何不同。一种心理测量学验证的成瘾康复量表，反映了人口统计学上不同的人群中不同的视角、途径和康复时间，将被研究人员广泛使用，这些研究人员正在对新的酒精治疗方案进行临床试验，在普通人群中进行酒精依赖和缓解的流行病学研究，以及在不进行成瘾治疗的情况下进行康复的卫生服务研究。全面的恢复量表将说明可预期的与康复相关的个人和社会素质，并将提供一个框架，教育公众和政策制定者从酒精和药物依赖中恢复需要什么。 与公共健康相关：我们的恢复量表将提供一个框架，教育公众和政策制定者，当有严重酒精问题的人戒酒时，可以现实地期待什么。这将导致对酒精治疗计划和卫生服务的更适当评估，并导致酗酒者寻求帮助的水平更高。与那些正在从其他慢性疾病(如癌症)中恢复的人不同，许多正在从酒精成瘾中恢复的人(和他们的家人)对宣布他们的康复状况持谨慎态度。传播基于康复量表的研究应有助于消除康复者仍面临的酗酒污名，因为它将衡量积极的生活变化以及康复所代表的个人和社会品质。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The term 'recovery' is widely used in the research literature. It also appears in NIAAA's strategic plan, and in the title of one of its divisions. Recovery is a goal of alcohol treatment. Alcoholics who no longer drink, and are trying to pursue an improved way of living/being, say that they are 'in recovery.' Yet for all its use, and seeming centrality, there is no agreed upon definition of the term within the alcohol literature. Lacking a definition, recovery usually is equated with abstinence or symptom remission in research, even though it is not so narrowly circumscribed by those who say they are in recovery. This alcohol methods development study aims to develop a Recovery Scale that is based on how people who have been through the experience of recovery define the term. To develop potential items for the scale, we will conduct surveys and qualitative interviews (n=200) with members of alumni groups from sober living and treatment programs, members of recovery organizations (many of whom will not have attended Alcoholics Anonymous/AA or treatment), and recovering individuals recruited from newspaper and online advertisements. This sampling strategy will reach diverse individuals who have achieved recovery with and without treatment, and with and without AA involvement. An Expert Panel (including alcohol researchers and alumni group and recovery organization representatives) will be convened to further advise us on recruitment and item construction. The resultant items, and other relevant instruments (such as the World Health Organization/WHO Quality of Life scales and the Addiction Severity Index) will be administered to the sampling frames from which the 200 individuals were drawn (estimated n of respondents = 11,240) in order to study the performance of the potential scale items and their relationship with other relevant measures. We will conduct intensive psychometric analyses to develop a parsimonious and reliable Recovery Scale with strong convergent and discriminant validity. We will analyze how recovery (defined by the WHO scales, and by the new Recovery Scale) differs based on age, gender, ethnicity, involvement in treatment and in 12-step groups, and stage of recovery (1 year-early; 2-5 years- sustained; and over 5 years-stable). A psychometrically validated scale of addictions recovery that reflects diverse perspectives, pathways, and lengths of recovery among a demographically heterogeneous population will be used extensively by researchers conducting clinical trials of new alcohol treatment options, epidemiological studies of alcohol dependence and remission in the general population, and health services research on recovery without addiction treatment. A comprehensive Recovery Scale will illustrate the personal and social qualities associated with recovery that can be expected, and will provide a framework for educating the public and policymakers about what recovery from alcohol and drug dependence entails. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Our Recovery Scale will provide a framework for educating the public and policymakers about what can be realistically expected when people with serious alcohol problems quit drinking. It will lead to more appropriate evaluations of alcohol treatment programs and health services, and to higher levels of help-seeking among alcoholics. Unlike those in recovery from other chronic disorders, such as cancer, many people in recovery from alcohol addiction (and their families) are cautious about announcing their recovery status. Dissemination of research based on the Recovery Scale should help to dispel the stigma of alcoholism that those in recovery still face, because it will measure the positive life changes and the personal and social qualities that recovery represents.