Brief Intervention to Reduce Drinking among Batterers

描述（由申请人提供）： 亲密伴侣的暴力行为会导致各种各样的破坏性后果，包括身心健康问题、离婚、自杀和配偶杀人。有大量证据表明酒精与伴侣暴力之间存在关联。最近的研究表明，饮酒日发生暴力的可能性是不饮酒日的8-20倍。在有酗酒问题的人群中，研究表明，专门为减少酗酒而设计的长期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，特别是在过度饮酒的人中。施虐者治疗结果的研究表明，有酒精问题的人在干预后复发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饮酒的方法，目前还不知道对危险饮酒的治疗在多大程度上会减轻随后的伴侣暴力。 我们建议进行一项随机临床试验，其中326名被逮捕和法院授权参加殴打者干预组的危险饮酒男子将被随机分配到：（a）一个简短的，以动机为重点的酒精干预（改编自项目匹配中使用的动机增强治疗手册）加上标准的殴打者干预或（B）标准的殴打者干预。将在基线、3个月、6个月和12个月随访时评估施虐者的酒精使用、酒精使用引起的问题以及伴侣的身体和心理攻击。打人者的关系伙伴将被纳入研究，以提供关于酗酒和暴力的确证报告，并将获得逮捕记录和保护令，作为暴力惯犯的进一步指标。我们假设，增加一个简短的酒精治疗标准打人者的干预将导致在所有后续评估中较少的酒精使用和伴侣暴力，相对于标准打人者的干预。如果它是有效的，这种短暂的酒精治疗可以很容易地整合到现有的施虐者干预计划。

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.