Dissemination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Substance Use Disorders in the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System: Description and Evaluation of Veteran Outcomes
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online April, 2021
Dissemination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Substance Use Disorders in the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System: Description and Evaluation of Veteran Outcomes
As part of the nation's largest dissemination and implementation of evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs) and the promotion of EBPs for substance use disorders (SUDs), the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is working to nationally implement Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for SUD (CBT-SUD). The current manuscript describes the approach to system-wide training and reports Veteran outcomes associated with CBT-SUD implementation.
Methods
Four-hundred fifty-eight Veterans with a range of treatment goals received treatment through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) CBT-SUD Training Program. Veteran outcomes related to substance use, substance use-related problems, and quality of life were assessed with the Brief Addiction Monitor, the Short Inventory of Problems, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF.
Results
Statistically significant reductions in alcohol use, heavy alcohol use, other drug use, and substance use-related problems, as well as significant improvements in quality of life, were observed over the course of treatment.
Conclusions
Program evaluation findings suggest that large-scale training in and implementation of EBPs for SUDs is associated with improvements in substance use and other functional outcomes. Limitations from this real-world implementation project, including the lack of a control group and missing post-treatment data, are discussed.
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