Improving brief alcohol interventions with a behavioral economic supplement

描述(申请人提供)：大约20%的大学生是经常吸食大麻的人，他们有认知和学习问题、成瘾和危险行为的风险，比如在受损的时候开车。因此，年轻的成年大麻使用者是高危人群，可能需要采取干预措施，通过增加对大麻使用的建设性替代办法的参与来促进大麻的减少。简短的动机干预(BMI)已经证明了对大学生饮酒的有效性，但缺乏对大麻使用有效性的一致证据。该研究团队开发了酒精BMI的补充，无物质活动会议(SFAS)，通过鼓励发展和致力于学术和职业目标，并通过强调日常饮酒模式和学术参与对这些目标的影响，直接针对无物质强化和延迟奖励折扣的行为经济学机制。一项受控的试点试验发现，SFAS改善了大量饮酒大学生的BMI结果，正在进行的针对这一修订的家长试验正在复制和扩展这些结果。拟议的(为期两年)成瘾竞争修正合作研究将使用随机3组(BMI+SFAS与BMI+放松注意力控制与仅评估)先导试验对SFAS进行评估，120名本科生(50%女性，40%少数)在过去一个月的4天内报告使用大麻。结果将通过确定SFAS是否增强标准大麻BMI的疗效来扩展父母资助的目标，并提供指导更大规模试验开发的效果大小估计。据假设，在1个月和下个学期的后续行动(后续行动与学术日历相结合，以便对大麻使用和活动模式进行代表性测量)，BMI+SFAS参与者将报告大麻使用和问题水平显著降低，而且这些减少将超过BMI+REPAGE和仅接受评估的参与者。探索性分析将检验以下假设：(A)BMI+SFAS对于报告更高基线大麻强化效果和延迟奖励折扣的参与者将更有效；以及(B)BMI+SFAS在大麻使用方面的优势将通过更多地参与无物质活动来实现。支持我们的假设将扩展行为经济学理论，并将为一种方法提供初步验证，该方法可以用来减少越来越多的滥用大麻的大学生中的滥用大麻。此外，鉴于SFAS的重点是增加学术/校园参与，这项工作有可能广泛传播。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Approximately 20% of college students are regular marijuana users, and are at risk for cognitive and academic problems, addiction, and risk behaviors such as driving while impaired. Young adult marijuana users are thus a high-risk population and may require an intervention that motivates marijuana reductions by increasing engagement in constructive alternatives to marijuana use. Brief Motivational Interventions (BMIS) have demonstrated efficacy for alcohol use in college students, but lack consistent evidence of efficacy for marijuana use. This research team has developed a supplement to alcohol BMIs, the Substance-Free Activity Session (SFAS), which directly targets the behavioral economic mechanisms of both substance-free reinforcement and delayed reward discounting by encouraging the development of and commitment to academic and career goals, and by highlighting the impact of day-to-day patterns of alcohol use and academic engagement on these goals. A controlled pilot trial found that the SFAS improved BMI outcomes in a sample of heavy drinking college students, and the ongoing parent trial to this revision is replicating and extending those results. The proposed (two-year) Collaborative Research on Addiction Competitive Revision would evaluate the SFAS using a randomized 3-group (BMI + SFAS vs. BMI + Relaxation Attention Control, vs. Assessment Only) pilot trial with 120 undergraduates (50% female, 40% minority) who report using marijuana on > 4 days in the past-month. The results would extend the aims of the parent grant by determining whether the SFAS enhances the efficacy of a standard marijuana BMI, and provide effect size estimates that would guide the development of a larger trial. It is hypothesized that at the 1-month and the next-semester follow-ups (follow-ups are wedded to the academic calendar to allow for representative measurement of marijuana use and activity patterns) BMI+SFAS participants will report significantly lower levels of marijuana use and problems, and that these reductions will exceed those of BMI + Relaxation and Assessment-Only participants. Exploratory analyses will test the hypotheses that (a) the BMI + SFAS will be more effective for participants who report higher baseline marijuana reinforcing efficacy and delayed reward discounting; and (b) the advantage of BMI + SFAS on marijuana use will be mediated by increased participation in substance-free activities. Support for our hypotheses would extend behavioral economic theory and would provide initial validation for an approach that could be used to reduce marijuana misuse among the increasing population of college students who misuse marijuana. Furthermore, given the focus of the SFAS is to increase academic/campus engagement, this work has the potential for widespread dissemination.