Date of Award
Spring 2010
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology
First Advisor
Campbell, Todd C.
Second Advisor
Young, Terry
Third Advisor
Melchert, Timothy
Abstract
Numerous neuropsychological factors have been associated with substance dependence, however, very few studies have evaluated the relationship of the neuropsychological functioning and attrition rates in substance dependence treatment. This study examined the relationship of neuropsychological functioning and attrition rates in 68 homeless, substance dependent men participating in outpatient treatment at the 7C's Community Counseling Clinic located in the Guesthouse of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A neuropsychological battery including the Delis Kaplan Executive Functioning System, the Conners' Continuous Performance Test II, the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) and the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading was given to all participants to evaluate neuropsychological function. The neuropsychological functioning was used to predict attrition rates using Survival Analysis and Logistic Regression. The results indicate that the neuropsychological functioning of this group of adult males showed statistically significant impaired functioning on all measures. Of the neuropsychological variables, only the WASI IQ predicated attrition and length of stay which showed a curvilinear relationship to drop out and attrition. Participants with a moderately low WASI IQ score (77-95) were significantly more likely to drop out (p = .012) and more likely to have shorter lengths of stay in treatment (p = .028). In addition, the neuropsychological variables did show a relationship with drop out and length of stay when looking at cases with a median IQ below 94 and those with no prior AODA treatment. Finally, results of calculations on effect size and power analysis show that with a larger sample size (98-170) we could increase the possibility that the neuropsychological variables would predict drop out and attrition and could attain power between .80 and .95.