Distinctions between seeking- and non-seeking-treatment research participants: implications for clinical trials effectiveness

ACION, LAURA; ZWICK, JANET; ROJAS SAUNERO, L. PALOMA; ARNDT, STEPHAN

American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse

Taylor and Francis Ltd

Año: 2017 p. 1 - 3

0095-2990

The paper by Ray and her colleagues, ?Differences between Treatment-Seeking and Non-Treatment-Seeking Participants in Medication Studies for Alcoholism: Do They Matter?? (1), is interesting and thought provoking. Ray et al. characterize how people who do versus who do not seek treatment for alcohol use disorders (AUD) differ both in AUD-related and demographic characteristics. The authors note several important differences between these two groups. In thesamples examined, treatment seekers were older, slightly more educated, more often female andCaucasian, less often single, and had a more severe AUD (both in terms of severity of the disorder and its duration) compared to participants not seeking treatment. After establishing these differences, the authors show that, for a large multisite clinical trial for combined pharmacotherapies and behavioral interventions (COMBINE study) (2), most of these characteristics were associated with at least one of the treatment efficacy outcomes.