Associations between personality disorder characteristics and treatment outcomes in people with co-occurring alcohol misuse and depression.

BACKGROUND: Personality disorders are highly comorbid with alcohol misuse and depressive symptomatology; however, few studies have investigated treatment outcomes in this population. The aim of this study was to examine relationships between baseline personality disorder cluster profiles and overall and treatment-related changes for those with co-occurring alcohol misuse and depression. METHODS: Secondary analysis was conducted using a subset of data (N = 290) from two randomised controlled trials of psychological interventions for co-occurring alcohol misuse and depression, which did not specifically target personality disorders. Baseline dimensional personality disorder cluster scores were derived from the International Personality Disorder Examination Questionnaire (IPDEQ). Four treatment conditions were compared: a brief integrated intervention, followed by no further treatment, or nine further sessions of integrated-, alcohol-, or depression-focused treatment. Associations between IPDEQ scores and changes in alcohol use, depressive symptoms and functioning from baseline to the 6- and the 12-month follow-ups were of primary interest. RESULTS: Personality disorder cluster scores moderately negatively impacted on overall change (primarily Cluster C), as well as treatment-related outcomes (primarily Cluster A), particularly changes in depressive symptoms and psychosocial functioning. Longer interventions appeared to be more effective in the longer-term (e.g., at 12-month follow-up), with integrated interventions relatively more effective than single-focused ones for individuals with higher personality disorder cluster scores. CONCLUSIONS: Greater attention needs to be paid to particular personality disorder clusters during the assessment and treatment of individuals with co-occurring alcohol misuse and depression. Integrated interventions, incorporating motivational interviewing and cognitive behaviour therapy, may provide a useful therapeutic framework. Integrated interventions also provide opportunities for adjunctive components focussing on other issues and coping strategies (e.g., to offset negative affective states), potentially tailored to the characteristics and needs of individual participants.

Interventions for pregnant women who use tobacco and other substances: a systematic review protocol.

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of tobacco smoking in pregnancy remains elevated in some disadvantaged populations of women. One group is those who use alcohol and/or other psychoactive substances during pregnancy, with tobacco use prevalence estimates ranging from 71% to 95%. Although effective evidence-based cessation treatments exist, few women with co-occurring substance use problems successfully stop smoking during pregnancy. There is limited information about treatments that specifically target this group and a summary of the available research is required to assist and enhance the development of innovative cessation interventions. This article describes a protocol for a comprehensive review of studies that have trialled behavioural and/or pharmacological tobacco cessation interventions in populations of pregnant women who are nicotine dependent and use alcohol and/or other psychoactive substances. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The review will undertake literature searches in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, EMBASE and ProQuest databases, as well as the grey literature. Studies of any design methodology will be included if they describe changes to tobacco smoking behaviours in quantitative terms. No restriction on year of publication or published language will apply. Participants include pregnant women of any age, who smoke tobacco, who are seeking or having treatment, or in post-treatment recovery for the use of psychoactive substances. Interventions are any psychological, behavioural or pharmacological treatments used to treat tobacco use. Outcome measures are any that quantitatively report abstinence or reductions in participant tobacco consumption. Key details and tobacco-related outcomes from included studies will be extracted and tabulated before being narratively synthesised. The systematic review protocol has been developed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols guidelines. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval is not required. Findings will be disseminated via peer-reviewed literature, conference presentations, media and social media. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42018108777.