Acceptability of non-abstinence goals among students enrolled in addiction studies programs across the United States

ABSTRACT

Background: Previous studies of acceptability of non-abstinence recruited older, experienced addiction professionals; it's possible that younger, emerging addiction professionals may be more accepting of non-abstinence, perhaps due to training in harm reduction. Methods: One hundred seventy graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in college/university-based programs offering training in addiction studies across the United States were recruited to complete a Web-based questionnaire assessing whether acceptability of non-abstinence outcome goals varied depending on the specific substance a client consumes, severity of diagnosis, and finality of outcome goal. Results: More respondents rated non-abstinence an acceptable Intermediate goal for clients diagnosed with a Moderate cannabis use disorder (57%) or Moderate alcohol use disorder (45%) than for clients diagnosed with any other listed Moderate substance use disorder (32% to 36%). Similarly, larger proportions of respondents rated non-abstinence an acceptable Final goal for clients diagnosed with a Moderate cannabis use disorder (37%) or Moderate alcohol use disorder (31%) than for clients diagnosed with any other listed Moderate substance use disorder (19% to 23%). Only 14% to 26% of respondents rated non-abstinence an acceptable Final goal for clients diagnosed with a Severe substance use disorder, but 28% to 42% rated non-abstinence acceptable for clients diagnosed with a Severe substance use disorder when non-abstinence was an Intermediate goal. Conclusions: Compared with previous research examining the acceptability of non-abstinence, these results suggest that students enrolled in addiction studies training programs may be more accepting of clients who decide to pursue non-abstinence either as an intermediate step on the way to abstinence or as a final goal.

KEYWORDS:

• Controlled drinking
• controlled drug use
• harm reduction
• non-abstinence

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank their research mentor, Dr. Harold Rosenberg, for his guidance, support, and help with editing the manuscript. The authors would also like to thank their undergraduate research assistant, Breanne Hitchen, who was responsible for coding all open-ended responses in the survey. Additionally, they would like to thank Lisham Ashrafioun for proof reading the submission draft of the manuscript. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Author contributions

The first author was responsible for study conceptualization. Both authors contributed substantially to study design, data collection, data analyses, and manuscript writing and editing.