(Press-News.org) Contact: Yael Chatav Schonbrun, Ph.D.
Yael_Chatav@Brown.edu
401-455-6547
Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
The effects of Alcoholics Anonymous on women returning from prison
This new research is the first of its kind to analyze the effects of Alcohlics Anonymous attendance in incarcerated women and its effects
The effects of alcohol abuse, as well as recovery from it, have been intensely studied. However, incarcerated women have remained an extremely understudied population despite steadily increasing in recent decades. One of the main ways to help individuals (as well as prisoners) with their recovery is through a 12-step program like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).
A new study released in the March 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, which is currently available at Early View, explores that subject in detail and found that AA attendance of at least once per week greatly increased the chance of a positive outcome.
According to Yael Chatav Schonbrun, a researcher in Butler Hospital at Brown University, this research is only the first step to help a population at risk of mental health disorders, risky sexual behavior and physical health problems.
"Despite the recent growth in this population, and despite the public health problems encountered, incarcerated women remain understudied. It is clear that AA is a widely available and familiar resource for underserved populations, and so it was logical to examine predictors of AA attendance, and how useful it would be for incarcerated women," he said.
The researchers recruited 223 hazardously-drinking women (averaged around 12 drinks per drinking day) from the women's facility at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections Adult Correctional Institute and ran two sessions – one during incarceration and one after release – along with a one-, three- and six-month follow-up to determine alcohol and treatment use. During the sessions, a timeline method was used to assess the alcohol use of the participants in the previous 90 days, as well as determining the severity of their involvement with alcohol, exposure to other drugs and participation in AA.
The data showed that if the women attended AA once a week or more, there was a significant decrease in the levels of alcohol-related consequences, and an overall decrease in the total days spent drinking.
This research is the first of its kind to evaluate AA attendance and alcohol-related outcomes among incarcerated hazardously-drinking women returning to the community. According to Schonbrun, "given that AA is so widely available, and is a familiar resource among incarcerated women, finding a method to increase utilization of AA might have great utility for improving alcohol and alcohol-related outcomes for incarcerated women."
However, future research is still required to answer questions regarding the duration and frequency of AA attendance needed for positive results, as well as evaluating if incarcerated men behave in a similar way.
"We hope that this study will call further attention to the needs of incarcerated women," said Schonbrun, "and that this research will help to arouse increased interest in addressing the needs of this underserved population."
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Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER) is the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. Co-authors of the ACER paper, "Alcoholics Anonymous and Hazardously Drinking Women Returning to the Community After Incarceration: Predictors of Attendance and Outcome," were Bradley J. Anderson and Celeste M. Caviness from Butler Hospital in Rhode Island, along with David R. Strong, Richard A. Brown and Michael D. Stein of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Butler Hospital. The study was funded by a grant for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
END
Contact: John F. Kelly, Ph.D.
jkelly11@partners.org
617-643-1980
Center for Addiction Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital
Keith Humphreys, Ph.D.
knh@stanford.edu
650-617-2746
Stanford University
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
The effects of spirituality in Alcoholics Anonymous on alcohol dependence
New research shows that attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings may increase spirituality and help decrease frequency and intensity of alcohol use
Alcoholics Anonymous is a widely known 12-step program that can ...
Contact: Craig R. Rush, Ph.D.
crush2@uky.edu
859-257-5388
Department of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky Medical Center
Mark T. Fillmore, Ph.D.
fillmore@uky.edu
859-257-4728
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
Alcohol consumption may increase amphetamine abuse
New research indicates that ingesting moderate amounts of alcohol may increase an individual's risk of amphetamine abuse
Amphetamines are part of a large group of drugs known as stimulants, which are commonly misused in the United ...
Contact: Joseph L. Jacobson, Ph.D.
joseph.jacobson@wayne.edu
248-701-2159
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Julie A. Kable, Ph.D.
Julie.Kable@choa.org
404-712-9833
Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
Deficits in number processing in children with ADHD and alcohol exposure: Similar but different
New research shows that ADHD and alcohol exposure in children while similar have different causes
On the surface, children with fetal alcohol exposure and attention deficit hyperactivity ...
CHICAGO --- People will gain significantly less weight by middle age – especially women – if they engage in moderate to vigorous activity nearly every day of the week starting as young adults, according to new Northwestern Medicine research.
Women particularly benefitted from high activity over 20 years, gaining an average of 13 pounds less than those with low activity; while men with high activity gained about 6 pounds less than their low-activity peers. High activity included recreational exercise such as basketball, running, brisk walking or an exercise class or ...
Young adults, particularly women, who maintained high levels of moderate and vigorous activity over a period of 20 years experienced smaller gains in weight and waist circumference during the transition from young adulthood to middle age, compared to individuals with lower activity levels, according a study in the December 15 issue of JAMA.
The prevalence of obesity has increased markedly since 1976, now exceeding 30 percent among U.S. adults, and has well-known associations with illness and disability. Although many studies have examined treatments for obesity, data ...
Use of certain measures for lung preservation after brain death in potential organ donors resulted in a nearly doubling of lungs eligible for donation, compared to a conventional strategy that is used, according to preliminary research published in the December 15 issue of JAMA.
Of patients with relatively normal pulmonary function at the time of brain death, only 15 percent to 20 percent of these patients' lungs are subsequently suitable for transplantation, which may be the result in part from the ventilatory strategy used after brain death. There is controversy as ...
Analysis has identified variations of a gene that are associated with a type of tumor that forms within the adrenal gland, according a study in the December 15 issue of JAMA. The age group in which these variations were found are frequently excluded from genetic screening models for this type of tumor.
Pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas are types of tumors. Pheochromocytomas form in the adrenal gland (gland located above the kidney) causing it to make too much adrenaline. Pheochromocytomas can cause high blood pressure, pounding headaches, heart palpitations, flushing ...
The imaging of tumour growth in zebrafish has revealed for the first time how newly formed cancer cells have the capacity to co-opt the immune system into spreading the disease, leading the way for investigations into potential therapies for eliminating early-stage cancer in humans. Using different coloured fluorescent tags, scientists at the University of Bristol labelled immune cells and tumour-forming cells in the translucent zebrafish in order to track their behaviour and interactions by live cell imaging. These dramatic findings, which are the result of a collaboration ...
Using automated screening techniques developed by pharmaceutical companies to find new drugs, researchers from UC San Diego and three other research institutions have discovered a molecule with the most potent effects ever seen on the biological clock. Dubbed "longdaysin," for its ability to dramatically slow down the biological clock, the new compound could pave the way for a host of new drugs to treat severe sleep disorders or quickly reset the biological clocks of jet-lagged travelers who regularly travel across multiple time zones. The researchers demonstrated the dramatic ...
Neonatal intensive care provides substantial population health benefits in Mexico relative to its costs, even for very premature babies, and as such offers exceptional value for money within the country's Popular Health Insurance (Seguro Popular) program, which offers free access to a specific set of health care interventions. Furthermore, neonatal intensive care could also be cost effective in other middle-income countries. These are the findings of a study by Jochen Profit from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA, Joshua Salomon from the Harvard School of Public ...
