Abstract
The lithium-alcohol research project was funded for 3 years through the National Institute of Mental Health. Its purposes are to study the efficacy of lithium use on suppressing drinking behavior in humans with the disease of alcoholism, and to relate the efficacy to the presence or absence of preexisting or concurrent depression. The sample size comprises 200 subjects randomly assigned to medication; 100 were assigned to the placebo, the other half to the active medication, lithium. Neither the subject nor the research nurse know the individual patient medication assignment. Each subject is required to meet both medical and psychiatric criteria before being accepted into the research project. The study volunteers are monitored for an 18-month period after their hospitalization for alcoholism treatment.
During initial screening and recruitment at the hospital of origin, the availability of patient volunteers for the study was small. The consulting psychologist from the hospital initiated discussions with the executive management from the second hospital. His efforts paved the way for the research team to expand the research project to the second hospital. The second hospital, a 94-bed specialty hospital, focused on the treatment of addiction. This article presents considerations of the nurse researcher and the director of nursing of the specialty hospital in introducing the established research project to a new setting.