Number of assessments until outcome Does the duration matter? A systematic review of psychosocial interventions for AUD – initial results L. Kramer Schmidt1, A. Søgaard Nielsen 1, K. Andersen 1,2 1 UCAR: Unit of Clinical Alcohol Research – University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark 2 Department of Psychiatry, Odense University Hospital, Denmark Purpose A systematic review of the associations between reduction in drinking and number of sessions, weeks in treatment and number of research assessments/follow-ups. Increase in percent days of abstinence Increase in percent days of abstinence 1 2 Weeks in treat,ment Number of sessions Background In different guidelines for treatment of alcohol use disorders the recommendations on duration are based on consensus decisions There are only a few studies of the duration of psychosocial treatments. These have not found significant associations with the duration Reviews on the subject primarily within substance use disorders. These have found slight advantage for extended treatment (McKay 2005, McKay 2009, Blodgett et al 2013, Lenaerts et al. 2013) Increase in percent days of abstinence Increase in percent days of abstinence 3 4 Number of assessments until outcome Frequency of sessions Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies Population: Adults treated for Alcohol use disorders (DSM) in an outpatient treatment facility with a maximum of 4 weeks of inpatient before outpatient treatment Intervention: Any psychosocial intervention in the alcoholic outpatient care. Face-to-face, e-mail or telephone. Minimum 2 sessions Comparison: Effect of treatment as a function of treatment length Outcome: Percentage of days abstinent, percentage of days with heavy drinking, drinks per drinking day, share of participants abstinent Results No association between number of weeks in treatment number of sessions or the frequency of sessions and the outcome reported in percentage of days abstinent Positive significant associations between research assessments/follow-ups and outcome reported in percentage of days abstinent until 12 assessments These results are based on the 32 studies reporting outcome in percentage of days abstinent Conclusions so far Among the 32 studies in the meta-analysis we have found no association between the duration of treatment and outcome reported in percentage of days abstinent Surprisingly the number of research assessments/follow-ups in the studies had a significant correlation with outcome Speculations on these results are selection bias and an emphasis on the importance of check-ups when having a chronic disease 1 2 3 4 Future analysis Meta-analysis of the remaining data according to outcome reported in percentage of days with heavy drinking, drinks per drinking day and share of participants abstinent Qualitative analysis Include data from the studies on the share of people refusing to participate in the study Statistics Multiple regression analysis of the influence on outcome of 5 different variables: Number of weeks in treatment Number of sessions in treatment Frequency of sessions Number of assessments Time for reported outcome Data weighted by the number of participants in the study Acknowledgements This project is supported by The Lundbeck Foundation, The Region of Southern Denmark and The University of Southern Denmark Also a special thanks to Anders Bo Bojesen, the statistician on this project