This study was funded and launched as an internal program evaluation regarding the effects of a four-session weekly individualized cognitive therapy program called the Mind Freedom Plan (MFP) on substance use outcomes, impulsivity, and substance abuse treatment retention in veterans admitted to the intensive outpatient (treatment) program (IOP) for substance abuse at the Richmond Virginia Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center (RICVAMC). Substance use and treatment retention outcomes were compared between veterans randomly assigned to the MFP versus treatment as usual (TAU), which consisted of typical case-management-oriented weekly individual sessions. Veteran participants were approached and consented within a week of admission to the RICVAMC IOP and randomly assigned to either an MFP or TAU practitioner. Assignment was constrained by practitioner new-patient availability in order to place veterans into individualized care sessions as soon as possible.~Participants completed self-reported and interview-based mood, personality and addiction severity assessments at study entry. After one month, participants were reassessed with psychometric symptomatology questionnaires, and also completed a 60-minute neurobehavioral testing session in a follow-up appointment. Subjects completed the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (DKEFS) Tower Test of planning ability, along with a delay-discounting decision-making task, a stop-signal task, and a go-nogo behavior inhibition task that used emotional and expressionless faces as stimuli.
This study was an internal program effectiveness evaluation of the effects of a four-session weekly individualized cognitive therapy program (called the Mind Freedom Plan (MFP)) on substance use outcomes and substance abuse treatment retention in Veterans admitted to an intensive outpatient treatment program for substance abuse at the Richmond Veterans Administration Medical Center (RICVAMC). Substance use and treatment retention metrics of MFP-assigned Veterans were compared with those of Veterans assigned to typical case-management-oriented weekly individual sessions.