Substance Abuse Treatment: The Case for Adaptive Interventions

Abstract

The call for investigators is to develop flexible substance abuse treatments, which can be modified, based on clients/ couples presenting issues or concerns, in contrast to the one-sizefits-all approach typically developed and tested in clinical trials. Unfortunately, dissemination has become a major obstacle for researchers and treatment developers alike in that empirically supported models are not being widely adopted in community settings. Thus, there is a need to identify strategies for modifying and delivering these interventions to allow for easier and more widespread implementation into community practice, while not comprising the integrity of these treatments. To that end, clinicians and researchers alike may wish to shift the focus of treatment from the macro (empirically supported treatments applied across specific conditions regardless of unique client differences) to the micro (practice-based evidence based on individual progress reported on an ongoing basis).