Women Veterans' Substance Abuse Treatment

Substance use disorder (SUD) is problem among women military Veterans, especially younger ones. The goal of this study was to examine the efficacy a gender-focused model of SUD treatment (A Woman's Path to Recovery, WPR) compared to an evidence-based active comparator that is not gender-specific (12-Step Facilitation, 12SF), in a sample of for women Veterans. The investigators randomized 66 women Veterans, ages 18-65, who were diagnosed with current SUD and used substances in the last 90 days. The treatment phase was 12 weekly individual therapy sessions and all participants could also obtain treatment-as-usual (any other treatments they chose to attend). Assessments were conducted at baseline, end of treatment and 3-month follow up. Sample size was based on power analysis (an effect of .80 at a .05 level of significance). The primary outcome variable was substance use, with various secondary outcomes also studied (e.g., psychosocial functioning, psychiatric symptoms, coping skills, 12-step attendance). Urinalysis / breathalyzer (biological measures) were also included to validate substance use self-report. The investigators hypothesized that participants in the experimental condition (WPR) would have more positive outcomes on both primary and secondary variables compared to those in the comparison condition (12SF). The investigators also hypothesized that WPR patients would increase coping skills more and 12SF would increase 12-step attendance more, relative to the other condition.