Interactive Motivational Media for Perinatal Drug Abuse - 3

• Number of Participants With Drug Use at 3 Months [ Time Frame: 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  The number of participants postive for drug use using participant's self-report of drug use and urinalysis. Participants were considered positive if self-report and/or urinalysis were positive.
• Treatment Engagement [ Time Frame: 3 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Completing at least a single intake or treatment session of any kind, focused on substance use within the previous 3 months.

• Treatment engagement
• Amount of drug use

Interactive Motivational Media for Perinatal Drug Abuse

The goal of this exploratory/developmental proposal is to develop a low-cost, highly adaptable brief motivational intervention for perinatal drug abuse via embedding motivational principles in a self-contained interactive computer system. The Motivation Enhancement System (MES) will utilize a touch-screen, audio enhancement, and an interactive narrator to guide women in the immediate post-partum period through evaluation (thus facilitating self-report) and a one-time motivational intervention. A taxi voucher will be provided to further facilitate entry into treatment, and multiple tailored self-help mailings will be issued following discharge. If validated, this intervention could offer a highly cost-effective, replicable, and prescriptive method for increasing self-change and treatment involvement in drug abusers. Following development of the MES, a preliminary pilot phase will study the use of the MES with post-partum drug-using women and make necessary modifications, using data from participant debriefings and a single-case research design. After optimization of the MES, a clinical trial will randomly assign 120 post-partum drug-using women into treatment or assessment only conditions, with a 3-month blinded follow up to evaluate intervention effects on drug use and treatment involvement. Toxicological and self-report measures, as well as objective analysis of infant development, will be utilized. Participants will be lower socioeconomic status urban women.

• No Intervention: Assessment only
• Experimental: Brief intervention
  Intervention: Behavioral: Brief computer-delivered intervention

• Ondersma SJ, Chase SK, Svikis DS, Schuster CR. Computer-based brief motivational intervention for perinatal drug use. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2005 Jun;28(4):305-12.
• Ondersma SJ, Svikis DS, Schuster CR. Computer-based brief intervention a randomized trial with postpartum women. Am J Prev Med. 2007 Mar;32(3):231-8. Epub 2007 Jan 22. Erratum in: Am J Prev Med. 2007 Jun;32(6):549.

Woman in immediate postpartum period

Inclusion Criteria:

Screen positive for drug use (self-report)

Exclusion Criteria:

Frank psychosis or other cognitive impairment, fatigue, grief over medically compromised infant, inability to communicate in English