Impact of psychosocial treatments on associated problems of cocaine-dependent patients

A previous report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse Collaborative C ocaine Treatment Study (P. Crits-Christoph et al., 1999) found relatively s uperior cocaine and drug use outcomes for individual drug counseling plus g roup drug counseling compared with other treatments. Using data from that s tudy, the authors examined the relative efficacy of 4 treatments for cocain e dependence on psychosocial and other addiction-associated problems. The 4 87 patients were randomly assigned to 6 months of treatment with cognitive therapy, supportive-expressive therapy, or individual drug counseling (each with additional group drug counseling), or to group drug counseling alone. Assessments were made at baseline and monthly for 6 months during the acut e treatment phase, with follow-up visits at 9 and 12 months. No significant differences between treatments were found on measures of psychiatric sympt oms, employment, medical, legal, family-social, interpersonal, or alcohol u se problems. The authors concluded that the superiority of individual drug counseling in modifying cocaine use does not extend broadly to other addict ion-associated problems.