Brief Intervention to Reduce Drinking among Batterers

描述（由申请人提供）：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、自杀和杀害配偶。有大量证据表明酒精和伴侣暴力之间存在关联。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。在有酒精问题的人群中，研究表明，专门为减少酒精使用而设计的长期干预措施也能减少伴侣暴力。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人。对施暴者治疗结果的研究表明，有酒精问题的人在干预后再犯暴力的可能性是没有酒精问题的人的16倍。迄今为止，尚未探索减少男性施暴者酒精使用的方法，目前尚不清楚治疗有害酒精使用将在多大程度上改善随后的伴侣暴力行为。

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.