Predictors of self-help group attendance in cocaine dependent patients

Objective: While referral to self-help groups for patients dependent on dru gs other than alcohol has become widespread in the substance abuse treatmen t field, little is known about the characteristics of people who attend the se groups. This study examines particular sociodemographic and clinical cha racteristics as possible predictors of attendance at self-help groups in th e National Institute on Drug Abuse Collaborative Cocaine Treatment Study. M ethod: A multicenter study randomly assigned 487 patients (76.8% men) to on e of four psychosocial treatments for cocaine dependence. Patients were tre ated for 24 weeks. Among other measures, the Weekly Self-Help Questionnaire was administered each week and completed, at least once, by 411 subjects. Results: Approximately two thirds of the patients attended one or more self -help meetings during the 24-week period. Patients initially more likely to attend self-help groups frequently were those who were unemployed, had no religious preference, had more severe baseline drug use and reported treatm ent for prior substance-related problems. Patients with more severe baselin e drug use and those who previously received treatment for substance-relate d problems were more likely to maintain frequent attendance throughout the study period. Only severity of baseline drug use predicted more frequent at tendance during Month 6, although there was a trend in Month 6 favoring mor e frequent attendance by women. These findings remained significant when tr eatment condition was added to the models. Conclusions: Although these find ings are consistent with past research on alcohol dependent individuals, th ey challenge popular clinical notions about the types of people who attend self-help groups. These findings demonstrate that self-help groups can appe al to a wide variety of cocaine dependent patients.