Trial reportJournal of consulting and clinical psychology2016
Therapist empathy, combined behavioral intervention, and alcohol outcomes in the COMBINE research project.
Trial report in Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychosocial interventions to reduce alcohol consumption in concurrent problem alcohol and illicit drug users.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- A multivariate meta-analysis of motivational interviewing process and outcome.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2017Pooled it
- Examining the influence of active ingredients of motivational interviewing on client change talk.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2019Trial
- Article
- Understanding effects of the group process on drinking outcomes for emerging adults experiencing homelessness.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2024Article
- Primary Care Professionals' Empathy and Its Relationship to Approaching Patients with Risky Alcohol Consumption.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Therapists' first impression of treatment motivation moderates the relationship between the client-rated therapeutic alliance and drinking outcomes during treatment.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2023Article
- Mechanisms of Behavior Change in Substance Use Disorder With and Without Formal Treatment.Annual review of clinical psychology · 2022Review
- Can a pure motivational interviewing intervention be manualized and still efficacious? A test of feasibility and initial efficacy.Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.) · 2021Article
- Does the therapist matter? Therapist characteristics and their relation to outcome in trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for children and adolescents.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2020Article
- Mechanisms of behavior change in motivational interviewing: do we understand how MI works?Current opinion in psychology · 2019Review
- Determinants of Successful eHealth Coaching for Consumer Lifestyle Changes: Qualitative Interview Study Among Health Care Professionals.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Article
- Short- and Long-Term Effects of Within-Session Client Speech on Drinking Outcomes in the COMBINE Study.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2018Article
- Emotion Regulation Enhancement of Cognitive Behavior Therapy for College Student Problem Drinkers: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of child & adolescent substance abuse · 2018Article
- The Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity Code (MITI 4): Rationale, Preliminary Reliability and Validity.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveCommon factors such as therapist empathy play an important role in treatment for addictive behaviors. The present study was a secondary analysis designed to evaluate the relation between therapist empathy and alcohol treatment outcomes in data from a large, multisite, randomized controlled trial.
methodAudio-recorded psychotherapy sessions for 38 therapists and 700 clients had been randomly selected for fidelity coding from the combined behavioral intervention condition of Project COMBINE. Sessions were evaluated by objective raters for both specific content (coping with craving, building social skills, and managing negative mood) and relational components (empathy level of the therapist). Multilevel modeling with clients nested within therapists evaluated drinks per week at the end of treatment.
resultsApproximately 11% of the variance in drinking was accounted for by therapists. A within-therapist effect of empathy was detected (B = -0.381, SE = 0.103, p < .001); more empathy than usual was associated with subsequent decreased drinking. The Social and Recreational Counseling module (B = -0.412, SE = 0.124, p < .001), Coping with Cravings and Urges module (B = -0.362, SE = 0.134, p < .01), and the Mood Management module (B = -0.403, SE = 0.138, p < .01) were also associated with decreased drinking. No between-therapist effect was detected, and the Empathy × Module Content interactions were not significant.
conclusionsThe results of the study appear consistent with the hypothesis that skills building and therapist empathy are independent contributions to the overall benefit derived from the combined behavioral intervention.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.