Integration of the Therapeutic Workplace in Drug Court

NCT ID: NCT00607360

Last Updated: 2017-01-10

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: PHASE1
• Total Enrollment: 59 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2004-08-31
• Study Completion Date: 2007-07-31

Brief Summary

Drug Courts were developed as a therapeutic alternative to incarceration of drug-involved offenders by providing 'judicially supervised' drug abuse treatment and probation for nonviolent offenders in lieu of criminal prosecution and incarceration. Outcome studies have shown that drug courts have modest effects on participation in drug abuse treatment, drug use, and employment. The Therapeutic Workplace intervention is an effective employment-based treatment that integrates abstinence reinforcement contingencies in a work setting, intended to treat individuals with histories of drug addiction and chronic unemployment. Under this intervention, drug abuse patients are hired and paid to work. To promote abstinence, patients are required to provide drug-free urine samples to gain and maintain daily access in the workplace. In this way, patients can work and earn salary, but only as long as they remain drug abstinent. Patients using drugs and lacking job skills participate in an initial training phase to initiate abstinence and establish computer data entry skills. Once abstinent and skilled, patients are hired into an income-producing Therapeutic Workplace data entry business. Given that many drug court participants suffer from long histories of drug addiction and unemployment, the Therapeutic Workplace could be ideal for this population. This proposes of this clinical trial is to evaluate the Therapeutic Workplace intervention in a Drug Court.

Conditions

Drug Addiction

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Standard Drug Court

Participants received standard services from drug court

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Drug Court plus Therapeutic Workplace

Participants receive standard drug court services plus therapeutic workplace intervention

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Therapeutic Workplace Intervention

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Therapeutic workplace intervention is intended for individuals with drug addiction and chronic unemployment. Participants are invited to participate in work and receive salary for participation and productivity contingent upon drug abstinence.

Interventions

Therapeutic Workplace Intervention

Therapeutic workplace intervention is intended for individuals with drug addiction and chronic unemployment. Participants are invited to participate in work and receive salary for participation and productivity contingent upon drug abstinence.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Enrolled in Drug Court
• Report using any opiates and/or cocaine during 30 days prior to their arrest
• Unemployed

Exclusion Criteria

Individuals are excluded if they:

• Are at imminent risk of suicide
• Have a psychotic disorder that may limit their workplace functioning or their ability to provide informed consent

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

NIH

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

University of Kentucky College of Medicine

Other Identifiers

7R21DA017885-02

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

05-0865-F2L

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id