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Trial registered on ANZCTR


Registration number
ACTRN12625000925448
Ethics application status
Approved
Date submitted
15/08/2025
Date registered
25/08/2025
Date last updated
25/08/2025
Date data sharing statement initially provided
25/08/2025
Type of registration
Prospectively registered

Titles & IDs
Public title
Piloting a tailored telehealth program for managing stimulant use in traumatic brain injury
Scientific title
A pilot randomised controlled trial of bioSocial Cognitive model of Occupational Functioning (biSCOF) therapy for stimulant use disorder in individuals with traumatic brain injury
Secondary ID [1] 315138 0
None
Universal Trial Number (UTN)
Trial acronym
Linked study record

Health condition
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied:
Stimulant Use Disorder 338565 0
Traumatic Brain Injury 338566 0
Condition category
Condition code
Mental Health 334867 334867 0 0
Addiction
Neurological 334868 334868 0 0
Other neurological disorders
Injuries and Accidents 334869 334869 0 0
Other injuries and accidents

Intervention/exposure
Study type
Interventional
Description of intervention(s) / exposure
Treatment comprises 10 x 1hr weekly telehealth sessions with a psychologist and occupational therapist (week 1-10), followed by 2 x 1hr booster sessions occurring in weeks 14 and 18. The treatment is a synthesis of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and occupational therapy with co-designed optimisation for individuals with a brain injury and substance use disorder (Gullo & Gullo, 2024, Diagrammatic representation of the bioSocial Cognitive model of Occupational Functioning (biSCOF) - substance use. doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.27713220). The treatment addresses person and environment factors involved in stimulant use and helps individuals develop effective coping strategies for them to facilitate pursuit of goals and strengthen confidence in the ability to control their stimulant use (i.e., refusal self-efficacy). Therapists will develop a collaborative relationship with participants (and carers) to work together as a team to modify personal and environmental factors that lead to stimulant use and impede occupational performance and participation. Therapists express empathy and reinforce participant autonomy in sessions, while having a structured agenda.

Key elements will include craving management, learning to identify and manage high-risk situations for using (e.g., high anxiety, social pressure), learning to identify and modify exaggerated positive expectations of stimulant use (e.g., “Only stimulants can…reduce my anxiety” or “...make a party fun”), motivational enhancement, and increasing non-substance related activities. Consistent with gold-standard CBT for substance use disorder manuals (e.g., Carroll, A cognitive-behavioral approach: Treating cocaine addiction, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1998; Kadden, R., Carrol, K., Donovan, D., Cooney, N., Monti, P., Abrams, D., Litt, M., & Hester, R. (1995). Cognitive-behavioral Coping Skills Therapy Manual: A Clinical Research Guide for Therapists Treating Individuals with Alcohol Abuse and Dependence. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. NIH Publication No. 94–3724), the beginning phase of intervention will involve case formulation, assessment and personalised feedback, and psychoeducation (sessions 1-4). It will also include immediate strategies to reduce access to substances and stimulus control (i.e., removing craving triggers). The second phase will involve a personalised sequence of modules that is based on the case formulation (e.g., managing unhelpful thoughts, craving management) and participation goals (sessions 5-9). The final phase focuses on long-term relapse prevention and maintaining progress towards participation goals (session 10).

In addition to utilising saliva drug tests to validate participants are not intoxicated during treatment or assessment sessions, financial reinforcement of negative (“clean”) saliva tests will be incorporated into the intervention, i.e., Contingency Management. Each session will involve an on-camera saliva drug test to confirm self-report of substance use/abstinence and facilitate rescheduling of sessions for intoxicated participants. In order to better accommodate and support the remote, telehealth delivery of the 10-week intervention, additional twice weekly check-in video calls will be made to observe an on-camera drug saliva test. Participants will be asked to self-administer and share results of the oral fluid testing device by positioning it in front of the camera used for synchronous video during the telehealth session. Participants will receive AUD$15 per negative (“clean”) test result and, after three in a row, earn a bonus AUD$10 (i.e., maximum AUD$55 per week per participant). Amounts are in line with existing evidence and our co-design input from consumers (Gullo et al., in preparation; Clay et al., 2023; Ronsley et al., 2020). Incentives will be provided in the form of gift vouchers.

Treatment sessions will be videotaped for review in therapist supervision to assist in maintaining fidelity (fortnightly, provided by senior psychologist researcher). Participants may refuse to have their sessions recorded during the informed consent process or at any time without comment or penalty. Participants may also ask to pause the recording at any time during sessions if there are some parts of the session that they do not want recorded. For reporting purposes, a random session will be selected each month for fidelity rating by a member of the research team (greater than or equal to 15% sessions rated).
Intervention code [1] 331763 0
Treatment: Other
Intervention code [2] 331764 0
Behaviour
Comparator / control treatment
Wait-list control group who will receive the intervention after 37 weeks.
Control group
Active

Outcomes
Primary outcome [1] 342495 0
Methamphetamine Use
Timepoint [1] 342495 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Primary outcome [2] 342496 0
Severity of Stimulant Use Disorder
Timepoint [2] 342496 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Primary outcome [3] 342497 0
Community participation
Timepoint [3] 342497 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [1] 451042 0
Quality of Life
Timepoint [1] 451042 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [2] 451043 0
Self-reported social participation
Timepoint [2] 451043 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [3] 451044 0
Caregiver-reported social participation
Timepoint [3] 451044 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [4] 451045 0
Self-reported wellbeing
Timepoint [4] 451045 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [5] 451046 0
Caregiver-reported wellbeing
Timepoint [5] 451046 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [6] 451047 0
Depression
Timepoint [6] 451047 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [7] 451048 0
Anxiety
Timepoint [7] 451048 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [8] 451049 0
Reward Drive
Timepoint [8] 451049 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [9] 451050 0
Rash Impulsiveness
Timepoint [9] 451050 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [10] 451051 0
Occupational Performance and Participation
Timepoint [10] 451051 0
Assessment will be conducted by the Occupational Therapist in Session 1, 10 and 12 (Week 1, 10 and 18).
Secondary outcome [11] 451052 0
Past-week methamphetamine use
Timepoint [11] 451052 0
Every treatment session: Weeks 1-10 (Treatment group only), and Weeks 14, 18 (Treatment group only)
Secondary outcome [12] 451053 0
Recent methamphetamine use
Timepoint [12] 451053 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36). Plus, 3 times per week during the 10-week treatment period: Weeks 1-10 (Treatment group only).
Secondary outcome [13] 451054 0
Craving
Timepoint [13] 451054 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36). Plus, every treatment session: Weeks 1-10 (Treatment group only), and Weeks 14, 18 (Treatment group only).
Secondary outcome [14] 451055 0
Stimulant Refusal Self-Efficacy
Timepoint [14] 451055 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36). Plus, every treatment session: Weeks 1-10 (Treatment group only), and Weeks 14, 18 (Treatment group only).
Secondary outcome [15] 451056 0
Positive stimulant expectancies
Timepoint [15] 451056 0
Baseline (Week 0), Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [16] 451057 0
Acceptability of Intervention
Timepoint [16] 451057 0
Treatment Group only at Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [17] 451058 0
Intervention Appropriateness
Timepoint [17] 451058 0
Treatment Group only at Post-Treatment (Week 11), Follow-Up (Week 36).
Secondary outcome [18] 451059 0
Telehealth Feasibility
Timepoint [18] 451059 0
Treatment Group only at Post-Treatment (Week 11)

Eligibility
Key inclusion criteria
Participants will have a traumatic brain injury (TBI), be aged greater than or equal to 18 years, and meet criteria for a DSM-5-TR Stimulant Use Disorder and seeking to reduce their methamphetamine use. Participants must have the capacity to provide informed consent without a substitute decision maker.
Minimum age
18 Years
Maximum age
No limit
Sex
Both males and females
Can healthy volunteers participate?
No
Key exclusion criteria
Undergoing other substance use treatment at the time of enrolling in the trial (including pharmacotherapy for substance use disorders), pregnancy, a diagnosed primary psychotic disorder (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder). If an alcohol user and highly dependent on alcohol or drinking >700gm ethanol/week, or engaged in other substance use that may require medical assessment prior to treatment, they will obtain a physical assessment and agree to any medical treatment required. Other exclusions are insufficient English to read or converse without translation, insufficient cognitive ability to complete questionnaires and therapy tasks (even with carer assistance), unmodified hearing impairment, acute current suicidality, and insufficient technology to access and participate in video telehealth sessions.

Study design
Purpose of the study
Treatment
Allocation to intervention
Randomised controlled trial
Procedure for enrolling a subject and allocating the treatment (allocation concealment procedures)
Sequentially Numbered Opaque Sealed Envelopes
Methods used to generate the sequence in which subjects will be randomised (sequence generation)
Stratified random allocation. Random permutations, stratifying for gender, will be generated by the Random Allocation Software to ensure balanced groups [Saghaei, M. (2004). Random allocation software for parallel group randomized trials. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 4, 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-4-26].
Masking / blinding
Blinded (masking used)
Who is / are masked / blinded?


The people assessing the outcomes
The people analysing the results/data
Intervention assignment
Other design features
Phase
Not Applicable
Type of endpoint/s
Statistical methods / analysis

Recruitment
Recruitment status
Not yet recruiting
Date of first participant enrolment
Anticipated
Actual
Date of last participant enrolment
Anticipated
Actual
Date of last data collection
Anticipated
Actual
Sample size
Target
Accrual to date
Final
Recruitment in Australia
Recruitment state(s)
QLD

Funding & Sponsors
Funding source category [1] 319715 0
Government body
Name [1] 319715 0
National Injury Insurance Scheme, Queensland (NIISQ)
Country [1] 319715 0
Australia
Primary sponsor type
University
Name
Griffith University
Address
Country
Australia
Secondary sponsor category [1] 322223 0
Individual
Name [1] 322223 0
Associate Professor Matthew Gullo, Princess Alexandra Hospital
Address [1] 322223 0
Country [1] 322223 0
Australia

Ethics approval
Ethics application status
Approved
Ethics committee name [1] 318268 0
Metro South Human Research Ethics Committee
Ethics committee address [1] 318268 0
Ethics committee country [1] 318268 0
Australia
Date submitted for ethics approval [1] 318268 0
12/06/2025
Approval date [1] 318268 0
14/08/2025
Ethics approval number [1] 318268 0

Summary
Brief summary
Trial website
Trial related presentations / publications
Public notes

Contacts
Principal investigator
Name 143646 0
A/Prof Matthew Gullo
Address 143646 0
School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Brisbane South (Mt Gravatt), 176 Messines Ridge Rd, Mt Gravatt QLD 4122
Country 143646 0
Australia
Phone 143646 0
+61 737351069
Fax 143646 0
Email 143646 0
Contact person for public queries
Name 143647 0
Matthew Gullo
Address 143647 0
School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Brisbane South (Mt Gravatt), 176 Messines Ridge Rd, Mt Gravatt QLD 4122
Country 143647 0
Australia
Phone 143647 0
+61 737351069
Fax 143647 0
Email 143647 0
Contact person for scientific queries
Name 143648 0
Matthew Gullo
Address 143648 0
School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Brisbane South (Mt Gravatt), 176 Messines Ridge Rd, Mt Gravatt QLD 4122
Country 143648 0
Australia
Phone 143648 0
+61 737351069
Fax 143648 0
Email 143648 0

Data sharing statement
Will the study consider sharing individual participant data?
Yes
Will there be any conditions when requesting access to individual participant data?
Persons/groups eligible to request access:
Researchers
Conditions for requesting access:
Yes, conditions apply:
Requires a scientifically sound proposal or protocol
Requires approval by an ethics committee
What individual participant data might be shared?
All de-identified individual participant data
What types of analyses could be done with individual participant data?
Any type of analysis (i.e. no restrictions on data re-use)
When can requests for individual participant data be made (start and end dates)?
From:
After publication of main results
To:
A finite period of: 15 years
Where can requests to access individual participant data be made, or data be obtained directly?
Email of trial custodian, sponsor or committee: [email protected]

Are there extra considerations when requesting access to individual participant data?
No


What supporting documents are/will be available?

No Supporting Document Provided


Results publications and other study-related documents

Documents added manually
No documents have been uploaded by study researchers.

Documents added automatically
No additional documents have been identified.