Brief Interventions
From AODWiki
The general term Brief Interventions is applied to any low cost, short duration and often opportunistic therapeutic interventions that seek to either change substance abuse behaviors or the patients motivation to make changes. The particular strategy for such interventions is not standardized, but often seems to include an assessment of current use, and a simple intervention tailored to the assessment results.
Though the term is widely used, there is not an agreed upon definition for the brevity aspect of �brief interventions�1. Bien and colleagues2 defined �brief� to be any intervention that was three sessions or fewer.
Many interventions are far fewer than three sessions. Perhaps the leading model for brief interventions are those implemented in emergency rooms. There, either clinical staff, or trained alcohol and drug professionals, conduct interventions that capitalize on substance-use related injury events bringing the patient in to the hospital 3.
Brief interventions have even included automated systems, where patients are assessed and then offered feedback based upon predetermined algorithms. A nice example of that can be found at www.e-chug.com. Many of the interventions have been tested upon college students with the goal of reducing the incidence of Binge Drinking.
References
- Jonson, H., Hermansson, U., Ronnberg; Gyllenhammar, C., et al. (1995). Comments on brief intervention of alcohol problems: A review of a review. Addiction, 90(8), 1118-1120.
- Bien, T. H., Miller, W. R. & Tonigan, J. S. (1993). Brief interventions for alcohol problems: a review. Addiction, 88, 315-336.
- Saitz, R., Sullivan, L., Samet, J., (2000). Training community-based clinicians in screening and brief intervention for substance abuse problems: Translating evidence into practice. Substance Abuse, 21(1), 21-31.
