Combination of Psychosocial Intervention and Slow Prosecutions for the Treatment of Methamphetamine Abuse/Dependence

Summary

The hospital where this study will be conducted is responsible for the one-year contingency management treatment for methamphetamine drug offenders referred from the Yunlin District Prosecutors Office. Completing the one-year treatment is prerequisite for offenders to get slow prosecutions.

It is an open-label, parallel-group trial comparing the combination of psychosocial intervention and slow prosecutions with psychosocial intervention alone in treating subjects with methamphetamine dependence

Study Hypothesis

1. Psychosocial interventions in combination with slow prosecutions is more effective than psychosocial interventions alone to achieve abstinence for subjects with methamphetamine abuse/dependance.
2. Inclusion of telephone reminding before each visit will enhance the retention rate and abstinence rate.

Conditions

• Amphetamine Abuse
• Amphetamine Dependence
• Methamphetamine Abuse
• Methamphetamine Dependence

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Psychosocial intervention

The treatment is one-year long and composed of 3 stages of psychosocial intervention. Subjects of TSTSU arms receive urine methamphetamine examinations at each visit, while subjects in OPD arm being tested at first/last visits and during stage changes. -Stage 1, early intensive monitoring stage: The visit interval is 1 week. If the urine tests and self-report on methamphetamine use are negative for consecutive 4 visits, subjects can proceed to stage 2. (In OPD arm, the visit interval can be 2 weeks according to subjects' requirements.) -Sage 2, late intensive monitoring stage: The visit interval is 2 week. If the urine tests and self-reports are straightly negative for 4 visits, subjects can proceed to stage 3. Whenever recent methamphetamine is detected, subjects should move back to stage 1. -Stage 3, usual monitoring stage: The visit interval is 1 month until the end of treatment. Whenever recent methamphetamine is detected, subjects should move back to stage 1.

BEHAVIORAL

Telephone reminding

Subjects in TSTSU-T group will receive addition telephone reminding one day before each visit. Each call will be no longer than five minutes. On the telephone, brief motivation enhancement may be conducted.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Taiwan University Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Yi-Ting Lin, M.D. · Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital Yunlin Branch

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2011-01-31

Primary Completion

2012-12-31

Completion

2012-12-31

Countries

• Taiwan