NCT00536900

Clinical Trial of Abstinence-Linked Money Management

Abstinence-Linked Money Management

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 2
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 90 (actual)
• Sponsor: Yale University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This is a randomized controlled trial to test whether a money-management based intervention reduces substance abuse.

Detailed description

While the Social Security Administration (SSA) no longer provides benefits for individuals disabled by drug abuse per se, approximately 50% of recipients have a concomitant substance abuse disorder. Supported by disability payments, this substance abuse impedes recovery/remission from the comorbid mental disorder. Money management is widely implemented in dual diagnosis treatment - in patients assigned payees to manage their funds and in patients receiving case management - but whether money management reduces substance abuse is unproven. If shown to be effective, money management-based therapy can be logically integrated into these existing arrangements. There is no specific substance abuse focus to standard payee and case management arrangements. We have developed a money management-based therapy called Advisor-Teller money manager (the bank-like acronym is ATM). ATM involves having a patient voluntarily allow a therapist/money manager to limit the patients' access to his/her funds, thus preventing unrestricted access to cash from cueing substance use. Patients meet with therapist/money managers at least weekly. Meetings begin with a review of the previous week's expenditures, including expenditures for drugs and alcohol, and an on-site urine toxicology test and breathalyzer. Patients then plan a budget that is incompatible with drug use by budgeting funds for direct payment of expenses (such as rent), abstinence-compatible activities and long-term goals. Budgeting and planning will develop patients' skills at managing their funds. Dispensing procedures build upon the principles of therapeutic contracting. Patients contract to receive their funds for specific expenditures and then review the next week whether the funds were spent as planned. We are conducting a Stage 2 randomized clinical trial in which 120 patients will be randomly assigned to 36-weeks of either ATM or Finance Instruction Therapy (FIT), a low intensity intervention in which patients are given basic financial instruction to determine the efficacy of ATM in reducing substance use.

Conditions

• Substance Abuse

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Advisor-Teller Money Manager	The acronym for the functions of ATM are TTT-- Teller (storing patient funds), Training patients by making and reviewing monthly budgets, and Treatment-Linked Spending in which weekly behavioral contracts link disbursement to completion of abstinence-related activities
BEHAVIORAL	FIT	FIT (finance instruction therapy) involves review of a financial workbook and budgeting sheets

Timeline

• Start date: 2004-06-01
• Primary completion: 2009-04-01
• Completion: 2009-04-01
• First posted: 2007-09-28
• Last updated: 2020-03-30

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States