DRUG-TREATMENT CENTERS TRY NEW TACK

Five of Denver's drug-addiction treatment centers will
be testing new therapies with help from the University of Colorado
Health Sciences Center's Division of Substance Dependence.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has awarded the center $11
million over five years to join a nationwide program that will test
the effectiveness of treatments developed at universities on patients
in community clinics.

"It will afford us the opportunity to find out how well these
university-based protocols will work in society," said Robert Booth,
professor of psychiatry at CU and principal investigator of the study.

Ten other universities, including Yale and Johns Hopkins, will be
working with 55 treatment centers to introduce at least three new
therapies proven successful in university tests.

Treatments such as Motivational Enhancement Therapy and Motivational
Incentives Therapy turn away from the confrontational tactics used in
many traditional substance abuse programs.

With Motivational Enhancement, therapists try to get a patient to
recognize that he or she has a problem by weighing the pros and cons
of drug use. This treatment recognizes that addicts will relapse and
develops avoidance strategies instead of punishment.

"When you use a confrontational therapy, the subject gets turned off,"
Booth said. "This therapy is much more about trying to understand the
client's world, rather than the counselor saying, "I understand
addiction more than you understand addiction.' "

In Motivational Incentives the patient is given rewards in the form of
coupons for complying with the treatment plan. When the patient
accumulates enough coupons, he or she can trade them in for rewards
such as a dinner for two or a ski pass.

The third experimental therapy involves a drug called Buprenorphine to
replace Methadone, used to cure heroin addiction.

Clinical trials involving patients will begin in 2001.