Brief Intervention to Reduce Drinking among Batterers

描述(申请人提供)：亲密伴侣暴力会导致各种各样的破坏性后果，包括身体和精神健康问题、离婚、自杀和配偶杀人。有大量证据表明酒精和伴侣暴力之间存在联系。最近的研究表明，在饮酒日发生暴力的可能性是不饮酒日的8-20倍。在有酒精问题的个人人群中，研究表明，专门为减少饮酒而设计的延长干预措施也会减少伴侣暴力。然而，研究表明，对亲密伴侣暴力的治疗相对无效，特别是对过度饮酒的个人。暴力者治疗结果研究表明，有酒精问题的人在干预后再次发生暴力的可能性是没有酒精问题的人的16倍。到目前为止，还没有探索减少男性施暴者酒精使用的方法，危险酒精使用的治疗将在多大程度上改善随后的伴侣暴力，目前尚不清楚。 我们建议进行一项随机临床试验，将326名被逮捕并被法院授权参加施暴者干预小组的危险饮酒男子随机分配到：(A)简短的、专注于动机的酒精干预(改编自Project Match中使用的激励增强治疗手册)加上标准施暴者的干预，或(B)标准施暴者的干预。在基线、3个月、6个月和12个月的随访中，将评估施暴者的酒精使用情况、酒精使用引起的问题以及伴侣的身体和心理攻击行为。施暴者的关系伴侣将被纳入这项研究，以提供酒精使用和暴力的佐证报告，并将获得逮捕记录和保护令，作为暴力再犯的进一步指标。我们假设，与单独的标准施暴者干预相比，在所有后续评估中，在标准施暴者的干预中加入短暂的酒精治疗将导致较少的酒精使用和伴侣暴力。如果有效，这种短暂的酒精治疗可以很容易地整合到现有的击球手干预计划中。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Intimate partner violence results in a wide variety of devastating consequences, including physical and mental health problems, divorce, suicide, and spousal homicide. There is substantial evidence for the association between alcohol and partner violence. Recent research has shown that violence is 8-20 times more likely to occur on a drinking day than on a non-drinking day. In populations of individuals with alcohol problems, research has shown that extended interventions specifically designed to reduce alcohol use also produce decreases in partner violence. However, research suggests that treatment for intimate partner violence is relatively ineffective, particularly among individuals who use alcohol excessively. Batterer treatment outcome research has shown that individuals with alcohol problems are 16 times more likely to recidivate to violence after the intervention than individuals without alcohol problems. To date, methods for reducing alcohol use in male batterers have not been explored, and the extent to which treatment for hazardous alcohol use will ameliorate subsequent partner violence is currently unknown. We propose to conduct a randomized clinical trial in which 326 hazardous drinking men who are arrested and court-mandated to attend batterers' intervention groups will be randomly assigned to: (a) a brief, motivationally focused alcohol intervention (adapted from the Motivational Enhancement Therapy Manual used in Project MATCH) plus standard batterers' intervention or (b) standard batterers' intervention alone. Batterers' alcohol use, problems arising from alcohol use, and partner physical and psychological aggression will be assessed at baseline, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up. Batterers' relationship partners will be included in the study to provide corroborating reports of alcohol use and violence, and arrest records and protection orders will be obtained as further indices of violence recidivism. We hypothesize that adding a brief alcohol treatment to standard batterers' intervention will result in less alcohol use and partner violence at all follow-up assessments, relative to standard batterers' intervention alone. If it is effective, this brief alcohol treatment can be readily integrated into existing batterer intervention programs.