Improving acceptance of naltrexone in community addiction treatment centers: a pilot study.

Alcoholism pharmacotherapies are underused in community addiction treatment settings, in part because individuals who practice in these settings--nonmedical addiction counselors and administrators--lack knowledge about and confidence in the value of adjunctive alcohol pharmacotherapies. We developed and tested an intervention to improve knowledge and attitudes about naltrexone. A team of researchers, physicians, addiction treatment counselors, and administrators collaborated to develop a naltrexone educational intervention designed for nonmedical addiction professionals. The intervention was compared with a control condition in a pilot study with 6 addiction treatment agencies (3 agencies per group). Participants (counselors and administrators, N = 84) were assessed before and 6 months after the intervention. Results revealed that the intervention significantly improved naltrexone knowledge, and participants who received the intervention reported greater satisfaction with the education they received, as well as greater use of the information. The effect of the intervention on attitudes about naltrexone was encouraging but did not to reach statistical significance. This study is the first reported attempt to develop and test an intervention specifically to improve acceptance of adjunctive medications for alcoholism among nonmedical addiction professionals.