CARF adds OBOT accreditation and ASAM certification

CARF is launching two new programs: (1) an addition to its accreditation programs, this time for office‐based opioid treatment programs (OBOTs), and (2) a certification program in which CARF is partnering with the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) to certify residential treatment programs; programs eligible for the certification will be at specific levels of care in the ASAM criteria.     

THIRD‐PARTY CERTIFICATION AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VOLUNTARY POLLUTION ABATEMENT PROGRAMS: EVIDENCE FROM RESPONSIBLE CARE

We analyze whether third‐party certification has been successful in improving the performance of voluntary pollution abatement in the Responsible Care (RC) program which made certification mandatory from 2005 onward. We use facility‐level panel data from 821 plants between 1996 and 2010, and exploit the change in the program requirements to estimate the causal impact of third‐party certification on participating facility emissions compared to non‐RC plants in the U.S. chemical industry. We address endogenous selection into RC via instrumental variables, and explore heterogeneity in the treatment effect. We find that, on average, there is no statistically discernible effect of third‐party certification on facility emissions, and that this result is robust to a variety of models that correspond to different assumptions related to identification. (JEL Q53, Q58, L60)     

Briefly Noted

Last month, the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) released a plan for advocacy, focusing on strengthening the addiction treatment workforce and standardizing the delivery of treatment. “We need comprehensive solutions to address such a complex problem,” said Paul H. Earley, M.D., ASAM president, in releasing the plan. “With the Advocacy Roadmap as our guide, ASAM will continue to advocate for equitable access to and coverage for evidence‐based addiction treatment services, increased funding for addiction research, and better education among professionals and the public to challenge the stigma and discrimination surrounding individuals with addiction.” Noting that there are still challenges in the field of addiction treatment, Earley said progress has been made, adding that “ASAM remains dedicated to treating addiction compassionately and effectively and, by doing so, saving lives.” There are 6,000 physician members of ASAM. For the “roadmap,” go to https://www.asam.org/docs/default‐source/advocacy/asam_report_feb2020_final.pdf?sfvrsn=f73f51c2_2 .     

Table of Contents

Schick Shadel Making a Comeback in New Era of Medicine‐Based Treatment State Grant Restores Bed Capacity at Indiana Community‐Based Center ASAM Admits Error in Omitting NIAAA in Definition Publicity Addiction Medicine a Medical Specialty? Honoring Betty Ford's Vision Pay Per Click: Using Search Engine Marketing to Attract Patients Letter to the Editor Briefly Noted In the States Resources Names in the News Coming up     

Coregulation and the Quality of the Relationship in Full‐Term and Very Low‐Birthweight Preterm Infant‐Mother Dyads During Face‐To‐Face Interactions

Interactions with parents build the foundation for infants' social–emotional development. This study investigated coregulation of the interaction and quality of relationship between mothers and their 6‐month‐old full‐term (n = 43) and very low‐birthweight/preterm (VLBW/preterm; n = 44; ages corrected for prematurity) infants. The objectives were to examine (1) how coregulation changed following a perturbed interaction, (2) how coregulation differed between full‐term and VLBW/preterm infant–mother dyads, and (3) the association between coregulation and relationship quality. Coregulation was coded using the Revised Relational Coding System (Fogel et al., 2003). Quality of the relationship was measured using the Emotional Availability scales (Biringen et al., 2014; Carter et al., 1998). Dyads participated in the Still‐Face (SF) procedure (Tronick et al., 1978) consisting of two natural and one SF period where mothers assumed a neutral expression, refraining from interacting with their infants. Following the SF period, dyads engaged in more symmetrical and more disruptive patterns of coregulation. While full‐term dyads engaged in more sequential‐symmetrical, VLBW/preterm dyads engaged in more resonant‐symmetrical coregulation. These results suggest that VLBW/preterm dyads may show more emotional reactivity in their interactions than full‐term dyads; however, in both groups infant responsiveness and parenting stress influenced the types of coregulation exhibited.     

Global‐Before‐Basic Object Categorization in Connectionist Networks and 2‐Month‐Old Infants

A 3‐layered backpropagation connectionist network, configured as an autoassociator, learned to form global (e.g., mammal) before basic‐level (e.g., cat) category representations from perceptual input. To test the predicted global‐to‐basic order of category learning of the network, 2‐month‐olds were administered the familiarization/novelty‐preference procedure and examined for representation of global and basic‐level categories. Infants formed a global category representation for mammals that excluded furniture but not a basic‐level representation for cats that excluded elephants, rabbits, or dogs. The empirical results are consistent with the global‐to‐basic learning sequence observed in the network simulations.     

Table of Contents

Gitlow as ASAM President and Orexo Medical Director: Conflict of Interest? Centers Take Baby Steps to Combat Turnover, with Solutions Elusive Conflict of Interest Rules for DSM‐5 Task Force and Work Groups A Year after Newtown, What Has Changed? NAADAC Faults SAMHSA, HRSA in Lack of Workforce Planning Researchers Find Gene Linked to Excessive Alcohol Consumption NIDA Terminates CEWG; Data to Be Collected under New System Coming up     

Coming Up…

Cancelled, going virtual: The annual conference of the American Society of Addiction Medicine will be held April 2–5 in Denver . For more information, go to https://www.eventscribe.com/2020/ASAM/ .     

Coming Up…

Cancelled, going virtual: The annual conference of the American Society of Addiction Medicine will be held April 2–5 in Denver . For more information, go to https://www.eventscribe.com/2020/ASAM/ .     

RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES AND REGIONAL HIGH‐TECH FIRM START‐UP AND EXIT

If localized knowledge spillovers are present in the university setting, higher rates of both start‐up and/or survival would be observed in areas that are geographically proximate to the university. Using a detailed industry data set for Texas for 1999:3–2005:2, we analyze start‐up and exit rates for high‐tech firms. Based on a Poisson quasi‐maximum likelihood estimation, we find evidence that the level of R&D and proximity of a research institution positively affects the likelihood of technology start‐ups. However, using both the Cox proportional hazards model and Kaplan–Meier approach, our results suggest that geographic proximity to knowledge centers does not reduce hazard rates. (JEL R12, R53, O18)     

QUANTIFYING BIAS IN DRIVING‐UNDER‐THE‐INFLUENCE ENFORCEMENT

As the marginal suspect and propensity to commit crime are unobserved across racial categories, it is difficult to quantify racial bias with law enforcement outcomes data. We test for racial bias in driving‐under‐the‐influence of alcohol enforcement. The assessment outcome variable, blood alcohol content (BAC), provides information about motorist's choices and allows for a more refined test for racial bias compared with other law enforcement outcome data. We find no evidence of racial bias in the relevant range where our model applies. However, we do find differences in find rates at the lowest levels of BAC, where there should be no impairment. (JEL J7, K42)     

PRIZE‐BASED MECHANISMS FOR FUND‐RAISING: THEORY AND EXPERIMENTS

We study the optimal design of mechanisms for the private provision of public goods in a setting in which donors compete for a prize of commonly known value. We discuss equilibrium bidding in mechanisms that promote both conditional cooperation and competition (i.e., the lottery and the all‐pay auction with the lowest‐bid payment rule) and rank their fund‐raising performance vis‐à‐vis their standard (pay‐your‐own‐bid) counterparts. The theoretically optimal mechanism in this model is the lowest‐price all‐pay auction—an auction in which the highest bidder wins the prize and all bidders pay the lowest bid. The highest amount for the public good is generated in the unique, symmetric, mixed‐strategy equilibrium of this auction. In the laboratory, the theoretically optimal mechanism generates the highest level of donations with three bidders but not with two bidders. (JEL D44, D64)     

Perceived Parental Acceptance‐Rejection and Psychological Adjustment: A Meta‐Analysis of Cross‐Cultural and Intracultural Studies

Meta‐analytic procedures were used to pool information from 43 studies worldwide to test one of the major postulates of parental acceptance‐rejection theory (PARTheory). Specifically, using child and adult versions of the Parental Acceptance‐Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ) and the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ), these studies allowed us to assess the claim within PARTheory's personality subtheory that perceived parental acceptance‐rejection is associated universally with a specific form of psychological (mal)adjustment among children and adults, regardless of differences in gender, race, geography, language, or culture. Results of the analysis showed that the predicted relation emerged without exception in all studies. The mean weighted effect sizes across the full range of sociocultural and ethnic groups studied were r= .51 for children and r= .46 for adults. Analysis of fail safe N showed that 3,433 additional studies, all with nonsignificant results, would be required to disconfirm the pancultural association between the PARQ and PAQ among children; 941 such studies would be required to disconfirm this relation among adults.     

Clients’ perceptions of marriage and family therapists’ way‐of‐being: a phenomenological analysis

Previous research highlights the influence of therapist factors on treatment outcomes. One therapist factor proposed as fundamental to the process of therapy is the therapist's way‐of‐being, a relational concept that refers to how the therapist regards a client—either as a person or object (Fife et al., [2014] Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 40, 20–33). Although this case has been made conceptually, there is little empirical research on therapists’ way‐of‐being with clients. The primary purpose of this research is to investigate clients’ perceptions of their therapists’ way‐of‐being. Utilizing a common factors perspective, the study seeks to explore: (a) how clients experience their therapists’ way‐of‐being and (b) the influence therapists’ way‐of‐being has on clients’ engagement. Phenomenological methods were used to gain a nuanced understanding of the phenomenon. Qualitative data were collected through semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews with clients (N = 10) who received individual therapy from a marriage and family therapist. Results were organized into two main themes: core tenets (attunement, congruency, and aligning with clients) and operational tenets (providing affirmation and validation, balancing flexibility and structure, and accomplishing goals). Findings are used to make a case for adding the concept of way‐of‐being as an overarching construct for several well‐established therapist factors. Clinical and training implications are discussed.     

Evaluating the Nature of the Still‐Face Effect in the Double Face‐to‐Face Still‐Face Paradigm Using Different Comparison Groups

The current study explored two possible comparison groups for the double Face‐to‐Face Still‐Face (FFSF) paradigm to evaluate their effects on infant behavior and different hypotheses about the nature of the Still‐Face (SF) effect, an effect not fully understood. Mothers and their 4‐month‐old infants were randomly assigned to one of three groups, a double FFSF group (Group_FFSF, n = 44), a control, semi‐structured play group (Group_Story, n = 46), or a control, unstructured play group (Group_Play, n = 28). As hypothesized, Group_FFSF infants exhibited the classic SF response (decreased positive affect and gaze to mother; increased negative affect) and Group_Play infants showed an increase in negative affect over episodes. Contrary to expectations, Group_Story infants displayed a similar, but less intense, pattern of behavior as Group_FFSF. Taken together, the findings indicate that multiple episodes of face‐to‐face play exceeded 4‐month‐olds' regulatory capacities and that infants are sensitive to shared communicative intentions and violations of social expectations, whether these violations are negative or positive in nature.     

Analysis: The so‐called ‘Freedom Model’ of addiction treatment

The below comments were originally posted, in shortened form, on the Facebook Broken No More page. We asked the author to revise for ADAW, and he did. He refers to the article “Widespread Use of Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT) Has Not Resulted in Less Overdoses” (and we resisted the almost overwhelming temptation to change “less” to “fewer”). For the article, go to https://www.thefreedommodel.org/suboxone‐has‐not‐reduced‐deaths‐in‐the‐us/ .     

Coming Up…

Cancelled, going virtual: The annual conference of the American Society of Addiction Medicine will be held April 2–5 in Denver . For more information, go to https://www.eventscribe.com/2020/ASAM/ .     

Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of the Gap‐Overlap Task in 10‐Month‐Old Infants

Understanding the development of attention is key to understanding cognitive maturation. The gap‐overlap task can be administered at all ages and is widely used to study the development of overt visual attention. However, studies using the gap‐overlap task report different measures and little is known about the tasks’ psychometric properties, especially in infants. We tested the 1‐week test–retest reliability of two frequently used gap‐overlap measures of attentional disengagement in 10‐month‐old infants; the gap effect as measured by the difference between the gap and overlap condition and the gap effect as measured by the difference between the gap and baseline condition. Sixty‐seven infants performed the gap‐overlap task twice, of which 45 infants had sufficient data quality for further analyses. Test–retest reliability of the overlap‐gap gap effect was higher (r = .50) than the baseline‐gap gap effect (r = .29). Moreover, the shared variance between overlap and baseline saccadic reaction times was moderate to high across sessions. In light of these results and the methodological challenges and limitations of infant research, we consider the overlap‐gap gap effect to be a good measure to study the development of attentional disengagement in infants and suggest the exclusion of the baseline condition in future studies.     

Hierarchical Processing in Seven‐Month‐Old Infants

Hierarchical structures are crucial to many aspects of cognitive processing and especially for language. However, there still is little experimental support for the ability of infants to learn such structures. Here, we show that, with structures simple enough to be processed by various animals, seven‐month‐old infants seem to learn hierarchical relations. Infants were presented with an artificial language composed of “sentences” made of three‐syllable “words.” The syllables within words conformed to repetition patterns based on syllable tokens involving either adjacent repetitions (e.g., dubaba) or nonadjacent repetitions (e.g., du ba du ) . Importantly, the sequence of word structures in each sentence conformed to repetition patterns based on word types (e.g., aba‐ abb ‐ abb ). Infants learned this repetition pattern of repetition patterns and thus likely a hierarchical pattern based on repetitions, but only when the repeated word structure was based on adjacent repetitions. While our results leave open the question of which exact sentence‐level pattern infants learned, they suggest that infants embedded the word‐level patterns into a higher‐level pattern and thus seemed to acquire a hierarchically embedded pattern.