Beverly Pringle

Bio: Beverly Pringle is an academic researcher from National Institute on Drug Abuse. The author has contributed to research in topics: Randomized controlled trial & Psychological intervention. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 5 publications receiving 782 citations.

Addressing substance abuse in health care settings

Abstract: This article summarizes the proceedings of a roundtable discussion at the 2005 annual meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in Santa Barbara, California. The chair was William R. Miller. The presentations were as follows: (1) Screening and Brief Intervention for Alcohol Problems, by Allen Zweben; (2) Three Intervention Models and Their Impact on Medical Records, by Denise Ernst; (3) Pharmacotherapies for Managing Alcohol Dependence in Health Care Settings, by Roger D. Weiss; (4) The Trauma Center as an Opportunity, by Carol R. Schermer; (5) Motivational Interviewing by Telephone and Telemedicine, by Catherine Baca; (6) Health Care as a Context for Treating Drug Abuse and Dependence, by Wilson M. Compton; and (7) Interventions for Heavy Drinking in Health Care settings: Barriers and Strategies, by Mark L. Willenbring.

Treatment Services for Adolescent Substance Abuse

Abstract: Adolescent substance abuse has been a public health concern for decades, but the scientific knowledge base on the services engaged to treat this problem is comparatively new. This nascent knowledge base is poised to expand exponentially, as researchers and treatment providers struggle to meet a rising demand for evidence-based treatment services. Until recently, research on adolescent substance abuse consisted primarily of a limited set of large-scale national studies of adults that included adolescent samples (e.g., Drug Abuse Reporting Program, Treatment Outcome Prospective Study, National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study), small studies with methodological problems, and program evaluations. Within the past decade, adolescent substance abuse and its treatment have developed as important topics of inquiry in their own right, with more resources and high-quality research efforts being targeted on this persistent and pressing public health issue. These advances notwithstanding, few communities provide sufficient treatment services for adolescents who use alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, and other illicit drugs. Only about 10% of adolescents who need substance abuse treatment currently receive it (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, [SAMHSA], 2002), and of those who receive treatment, only about one quarter receive the full range of services prescribed (Dennis & McGeary, 1999). This chapter focuses on the nature of adolescent substance abuse and the services intended to treat it. For clarity, we use the term, treatment services, broadly to denote the full range of health and social services employed to contend with substance abuse disorders in adolescents. These

Motivational Interviewing in Health Care: Helping Patients Change Behavior

Abstract: Behavior change is a critical part of effective health care. The final decision to become healthier, however, is that of the patient and not the practitioner. Anyone who has treated patients knows ...

A tutorial on propensity score estimation for multiple treatments using generalized boosted models.

Abstract: The use of propensity scores to control for pretreatment imbalances on observed variables in non-randomized or observational studies examining the causal effects of treatments or interventions has become widespread over the past decade. For settings with two conditions of interest such as a treatment and a control, inverse probability of treatment weighted estimation with propensity scores estimated via boosted models has been shown in simulation studies to yield causal effect estimates with desirable properties. There are tools (e.g., the twang package in R) and guidance for implementing this method with two treatments. However, there is not such guidance for analyses of three or more treatments. The goals of this paper are twofold: (1) to provide step-by-step guidance for researchers who want to implement propensity score weighting for multiple treatments and (2) to propose the use of generalized boosted models (GBM) for estimation of the necessary propensity score weights. We define the causal quantities that may be of interest to studies of multiple treatments and derive weighted estimators of those quantities. We present a detailed plan for using GBM to estimate propensity scores and using those scores to estimate weights and causal effects. We also provide tools for assessing balance and overlap of pretreatment variables among treatment groups in the context of multiple treatments. A case study examining the effects of three treatment programs for adolescent substance abuse demonstrates the methods.

Acute migraine medications and evolution from episodic to chronic migraine: a longitudinal population-based study

Abstract: Background.—Though symptomatic medication overuse is believed to play a major role in progression from episodic to chronic or transformed migraine (TM), population-based longitudinal data on these agents are limited. Objectives.—To assess the role of specific classes of acute medications in the development of TM in episodic migraine (EM) sufferers after adjusting for other risk factors for headache progression. Methods.—As a part of the American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention study (AMPP), we initially surveyed a population sample of 120,000 individuals to identify a sample of migraineurs to be followed annually over 5 years. Using logistic and linear regression, we modeled the probability of transition from EM in 2005 to TM in 2006 in relation to medication use status at baseline. Adjustments were made for gender, headache frequency and severity, and prevention medication use. Results.—Of 8219 individuals with EM in 2005, 209 (2.5%) had developed TM by 2006. Baseline headache frequency was a risk factor for TM. Using acetaminophen user as the reference group, individuals who used medications containing barbiturates (OR = 2.06, 95%CI = 1.3-3.1) or opiates (OR = 1.98, 95%CI = 1.4-2.2) were at increased risk of TM. A dose–response relationship was found for use of barbiturates. Use of triptans (OR = 1.25, 95%CI = 0.9-1.7) at baseline was not associated with prospective risk of TM. Overall, NSAIDs (OR = 0.85, 95%CI = 0.63-1.17) were not associated with TM. Indeed, NSAIDs were protective against transition to TM at low to moderate monthly headache days, but were associated with increased risk of transition to TM at high levels of monthly headache days. Conclusion.—EM sufferers develop TM at the rate of 2.5% per year. Any use of barbiturates and opiates was associated with increased risk of TM after adjusting for covariates, while triptans were not. NSAIDs were protective or inducers depending on the headache frequency.

Peer Contagion in Child and Adolescent Social and Emotional Development

Abstract: In this article, we examine the construct of peer contagion in childhood and adolescence and review studies of child and adolescent development that have identified peer contagion influences. Evidence suggests that children's interactions with peers are tied to increases in aggression in early and middle childhood and amplification of problem behaviors such as drug use, delinquency, and violence in early to late adolescence. Deviancy training is one mechanism that accounts for peer contagion effects on problem behaviors from age 5 through adolescence. In addition, we discuss peer contagion relevant to depression in adolescence, and corumination as an interactive process that may account for these effects. Social network analyses suggest that peer contagion underlies the influence of friendship on obesity, unhealthy body images, and expectations. Literature is reviewed that suggests how peer contagion effects can undermine the goals of public education from elementary school through college and impair the goals of juvenile corrections systems. In particular, programs that "select" adolescents at risk for aggregated preventive interventions are particularly vulnerable to peer contagion effects. It appears that a history of peer rejection is a vulnerability factor for influence by peers, and adult monitoring, supervision, positive parenting, structure, and self-regulation serve as protective factors.

Development and Validation of the GAIN Short Screener (GSS) for Internalizing, Externalizing and Substance Use Disorders and Crime/Violence Problems Among Adolescents and Adults

Abstract: The Global Appraisal of Individual Needs (GAIN)1 is a 1-2 hour standardized biopsychosocial that integrates clinical and research assessment for people presenting to substance abuse treatment. The GAIN - Short Screener (GSS) is 3-5 minute screener to quickly identify those who would have a disorder based on the full 60-120 minute GAIN and triage the problem and kind of intervention they are likely to need along four dimensions (internalizing disorders, externalizing disorders, substance disorders, and crime/violence). Data were collected from 6,177 adolescents and 1,805 adults as part of 77 studies in three dozen locations around the United States that used the GAIN. For both adolescents and adults the 20-item total disorder screener (TDScr) and its four 5-item sub-screeners (internalizing disorders, externalizing disorders, substance disorders, and crime/violence) has good internal consistency (alpha of .96 on total screener), is highly correlated (r = .84 to .94) with the 123-item longer scales in the full GAIN. The GSS also does well in terms of its receiver operator characteristics (90% or more under the curve in all analyses) and has clinical decision-making cut points with excellent sensitivity (90% or more) for identifying people with a disorder and excellent specificity (92% or more) for correctly ruling out people who did not have a disorder. The GSS has good potential as an efficient screener for identifying people with co-occurring disorders across multiple systems and routing them to the right services and more detailed assessments.