Research Projects

New horizons in the efficacy modeling of innovative treatment interventions targeting impulsive implicit processes with alcohol addict outpatients

Ambito disciplinare Psicologia Applicata

Tipologia finanziamento Istituzionale

Ente Finanziatore ATENEO - Progetti di Ricerca di Ateneo

Data avvio: 17 March 2014

Data termine: 31 March 2016

Abstract:

The present research aimed at the investigation of the efficacy of treatment interventions in addiction disorders, and constitutes a substantive synergy between methodology and formal modeling, and clinical experimental psychology competence and knowledge. 
The interventions are part of a new family of treatment programs, i.e. the Cognitive Bias Modifications paradigms, which try to re-train and modify the automatic cognitive processes implied in the development and maintenance of addiction disorders.
The clinical study follows a Randomized Clinical Trial design to pursuit the controlled experimentation of the combination of the two CBM training programs, combined with standard treatment interventions, on a group of abstinent alcohol addict outpatients in a public health service for addiction in the north-east of Italy (SerD). 
A formal modeling perspective on the CBM trainings premises and outcomes attempts to respond to the need for a quantitative measurement of how these therapeutic interventions work and what are the definite results. A latent trait and a latent class modeling approaches are chosen for the analyses. The treatment effectiveness is evaluated from two parallel points of view: a variable-centered and a person-centered approach. This perspective allows to model the within-subject change along the treatment intervention, thereby evidencing the eventual transition, in terms of probability, from one class at the beginning of the RCT to another class during and at the end of the training program. The research is planned along a period of two years.
The first year of the present research will see an intensive preparation of the study materials and design (Phase 1) and the implementation and launch of the RCT in the experimental setting (Phase 2 ). 
The second and last year will see the conclusion of the RCT experimentation (Phase 2) and the extensive data pre-processing, processing and analyses to fulfill the modeling and measurement purposes (Phase 3). 
At the conclusion of the research, the corpus of results obtained are planned to be presented in national and international scientific congresses and/or submitted for publication to the scientific research journals, with the purpose of sharing with the scientific community the research outcomes and future applied and research perspectives.

Note: PROGETTI DI RICERCA DI ATENEO - BANDO 2013