By BRENDA J. WRIGHT
Published January 2001
The Institute for Addictions Studies and Training (IAST) and the Professional Social Work Continuing Education School of Social Work hosted a December training program featuring William Fals-Stewart, PhD*, a well known research scientist who is now on staff at the Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) in Buffalo, N.Y. The presentation was entitled "Couples Interventions/Treatment for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse: A research to Practice Presentation."
Unlike the family disease approach, BCT deals with both drinking and relationships. The AOD client is seen with family and/or partner to promote cohesion in the relationship: increase positive feelings, share rewarding activities and improve communication skills. Physical violence is not addressed separately outside the relationship but rather within BCT. BCT works to build support for relapse prevention via commitment, daily "sobriety/or antabuse contracts," self-help involvement, behavioral assignments, review of an ongoing recovery plan and weekly urine screens. The research model for BCT for AOD problems is based on 12 to 20 couple sessions over a three to six month period.
Treatment can be provided by practitioners with various educational degrees if they have received comprehensive training in BCT.
BCT compared to individual counseling, one year after treatment showed that:
*Fals-Stewart is currently conducting a research project titled, "Behavioral Couple Therapy in Drug Abuse," sponsored by NIDA, at the Research Institute on Addictions (RIA), University at Buffalo, 1021 Main Street, Buffalo, N.Y. 14203. Telephone: 716-887-2210; http://www.buffalo.edu/ria.html. Email: wstewart@ria.buffalo.edu
Bibliography through 1996 for BCT for AOD http://depts.washington.edu/adai/lib/bibs/tx
General Readings l996-2000:
Fals-Stewart, W., O'Farrell, T. J., & Birchler, G. R. (2000). Behavioral couples therapy vs individual-based treatment for male substance abusing patients: An evaluation of significant individual change and comparison of improvement rates. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 18, 249-254.
O'Farrell, T.J., & Fals-Stewart W. (1999) Treatment models and methods - family models. In B. S. McCrady & E. E. Epstein (Eds.), Addictions: A comprehensive guidebook for practitioners (pp. 287-305). New York: Oxford University Press.
O'Farrell, T. J., & Fals-Stewart, W. (2000). Behavioral couples therapy for alcoholism and drug abuser. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 18, 51-54.
O'Farrell, T. J., Van Hutton, V., & Murphy, C. M. (1999). Domestic violence after alcoholism treatment: A two-year longitudinal study. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 60, 317-321.
Workshops/Trainings: