Personalised feedback interventions with Marilyn Piccirillo, Katherine Walukevich-Dienst, and Elizabeth Lehinger

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to: Dr Marilyn Piccirillo from the Department of Psychiatry at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Drs Katherine Walukevich-Dienst and Elizabeth Lehinger from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The interview covers their research report on the longer-term efficacy of brief, alcohol-focused personalised feedback interventions among young adults in two universities on the West coast of the US.

Note for listeners: The acronym PFI is used throughout this episode, which stands for ‘personalised feedback intervention’.

· What is an alcohol-focused personalised feedback intervention? [01:48]

· An example of how one of these interventions would work in practice [03:03]

· The importance of considering distress [03:46]

· The key findings of the study [07:24]

· Why ‘less is more’ when it comes to alcohol interventions [12:19]

· How the findings contribute to policy or practice [14:46]

· The pioneers of personalised feedback interventions [17:41]

About Marilyn Piccirillo: Dr Piccirillo is a licensed psychologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. She is also a Core Faculty member of the Rutgers Brain Health Institute and a member of the Rutgers Addiction Research Center. Dr Piccirillo uses person-centered frameworks to study motivating and maintenance factors for substance use problems, particularly for those experiencing co-occurring anxiety, trauma, and stress. She also examines how digital tools can be used to support treatment and recovery and optimise the design and delivery of treatments for substance use problems and addiction.

About Katherine Walukevich-Dienst: Dr Walukevich-Dienst is a clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on developing and testing digital interventions to reduce substance use and improve mental health among young adults. She uses methods such as ecological momentary assessment to examine real-time behavior and intervention engagement. Dr Walukevich-Dienst has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and leads National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded projects aimed at improving outcomes for cannabis and alcohol use through scalable, evidence-based approaches.

About Elizabeth Lehinger: Dr Lehinger is an Acting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She has two primary areas of research: 1) college student alcohol prevention, and 2) trauma recovery for individuals with co-occurring substance use disorders. Her research focuses on reward processes underlying these research areas.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Original article: Examining the longer-term efficacy of brief, alcohol-focused personalized feedback interventions for individuals with internalizing distress: Secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70044

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