title: Daily telephone monitoring compared with retrospective recall of alcohol use among patients in early recovery.
abstract: Most studies comparing frequent self-monitoring protocols and retrospective assessments of alcohol use find good correspondence, but have excluded participants with significant comorbidity and/or social instability, and some have included abstainers. We evaluated the correspondence between measures of alcohol use based on daily interactive voice response (IVR) telephone monitoring and a 28-day modification of the Form-90 (Form-28). Participants were 25 outpatients with alcohol use disorder and significant PTSD symptomatology . Overall correlations between the IVR and Form-28 on days drinking and total standard drink units (SDUs) were strong for the entire sample and the subsample of drinkers (n = 7). Day-to-day correspondence between IVR and Form-28 was modest, but much stronger for the most recent week assessed than for the prior 3 weeks. Finally, the drinkers reported significantly greater total SDUs and heavy drinking days on the Form-28 than via IVR. The results indicate a need for further refinement of IVR methodology for treatment seeking populations as well as caution when retrospectively assessing drinking over time periods longer than a week among these individuals.
authors.affiliation: VISN 20 Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, Seattle, Washington, USA. Tracy.Simpson@va.gov
authors.forename: Tracy L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Galloway
authors.forename: Christina F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
authors.forename: Kristen R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Bush
authors.forename: Brittney
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: McBride
authors.forename: Daniel R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Kivlahan
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D017831:Diagnosis, Dual (Psychiatry); D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000379:methods*; D057566:Self Report; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D013689:Telephone