Effect of a short motivation enhancing intervention for judicial supervised criminal addicts on entering addiction treatment and treatment drop out.

Recruiting

Conditions: motivation enhancement, judicial supervised addicts, addiction, addictive behaviour, drugs, alcohol, criminal behaviour, criminal addicts, treatment retention

Lead Sponsor: Amsterdam Institute for Addiction Research (AIAR)Academic Medical Center, University of AmsterdamDepartment of Psychiatry

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

1. Sufficient command of the Dutch language to understand the questionnaires and the interview questions;

2. Male;

Exclusion Criteria

1. Severe psychiatric disorder like schizophrenia, current psychotic disorders, or bipolar disorder;

2. Persons under a (suspended) commitment to a forensic psychiatric institution by order of judge;

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The proportion of judicial supervised clients that enter addiction or behavioural change treatment and stay in this treatment for at least two months. Two months is the minimal duration of the addiction and behavioural change interventions in the Netherlands.<br /><br>The main purpose of our intervention is to enhance problem awareness and need for treatment resulting in an increased motivation for entering treatment and treatment engagement after entry into treatment. The first is operationalized as the percentage of clients entering treatment, the second as treatment retention. Both are combined in the primary outcome measure.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
1. Direct effect indicators of the intervention:<br /><br>A. Changes in motivation for change;<br /><br>B. Changes in motivation for treatment.<br /><br>2. Indirect effect indicators:<br /><br>A. Changes in criminal behaviour operationalized in two ways:<br /><br>i. Decrease in number of convictions per year at risk in the one year follow-up period compared to the one year period before the start of the intervention;<br /><br>ii. Proportion of persons reoffending.<br /><br>B. Changes in criminal thinking;<br /><br>C. Changes in addictive behaviour: Proportion regular users, type of drug used and frequency of use at follow-up;<br /><br>D. Changes in social integration: Adequate housing, sufficient income and structured work situation.