Evaluating a rehabilitative intervention for substance-dependent patients with and without their accompanying children in Germany (KontextSucht): study protocol for a non-randomised trial.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: People suffering from substance use disorders often live in social contexts with children or are parents themselves. Addicted parents show specific substance-related problems while raising their children, which often leads to various lifelong consequences for the children. The German rehabilitative treatment system allows bringing children to inpatient treatment centres. This mixed-methods study evaluates a newly developed intervention, called 'KontextSucht' or 'AddictionContext', for parents in rehabilitation treatment centres concerning the effectiveness of the intervention in parenting and abstinence outcome. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The study uses a two-stage parallel mixed-methods design. A feasibility study (stage 1) and a benefit assessment (stage 2) will be conducted to evaluate the intervention. Both parts of the study will be carried out with qualitative and quantitative work packages. German-speaking parents of children 0-14 years will be included in this study. Qualitative data will be analysed using qualitative content analyses, whereas quantitative data will be analysed descriptively using regression analysis as well as linear mixed models. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION All participants will receive detailed information on the study and sign informed consent before data collection. The research team has obtained the approval of the Ethical Review Committee at the Technical University of Munich in Germany and will follow all legislation rules regarding data protection. The study results will be published in peer-reviewed national and international journals. Furthermore, the study results will be included in an intervention manual distributed to treatment centres. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER DRKS00030950.