Alcohol-related changes in behaviors and characteristics from the baseline to the randomization session for treatment and non-treatment seeking participants with alcohol use disorder

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Participants who are enrolled in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) may be more motivated to change their behaviors after being enrolled in a study and that motivation may vary by treatment status. Objectives The objectives of this secondary analysis were to investigate if changes in alcohol-related behaviors/characteristics from the baseline to the randomization session differed overall and to assess those differences between non-treatment and treatment seeking individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Methods Our sample included participants from eight RCTs conducted at Brown University (N = 281, 34% female). To assess differences across alcohol-related behaviors/characteristics, we investigated changes in craving (obsessive compulsive drinking scale) and alcohol drinking (percent abstinent days, drinks per week (DPW) and percent heavy drinking days (HDD)) overall and between treatment status. Results Results showed that there were baseline differences, such as increased AUD severity and craving for alcohol in treatment seeking participants (p’s < .05) in the overall sample. Next, we showed that craving, DPW and HDD decreased and percent abstinent days increased from baseline to randomization (p’s < .05). When controlling for treatment status and sociodemographic characteristics, treatment seeking, compared to non-treatment seeking participants, had a greater reduction in alcohol craving (p < .001) and a greater increase in percentage of drinking days (p < .01). Conclusions These findings demonstrated that alcohol-related behaviors and characteristics changed after enrollment. Severity, craving and drinking behaviors also differed between treatment-seeking status, which can potentially impact medication development stages for AUD such as clinical trial eligibility, enrollment and study outcomes.