Oscar Lozano

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at University of Huelva

Substance use disorder treatment faces challenges such as dropout, relapse, and readmission. This study aims to identify factors associated with readmission and those influencing dropout among dual diagnosis (DD) patients (those with both a substance use disorder and another psychiatric disorder) attending outpatient addiction centers. Retrospectiv...

Background. Gender-specific interventions are crucial in addressing substance use disorders —particularly cannabis use disorder — as they allow for tailored therapeutic approaches and increase the likelihood of successful outcomes. However, differences in therapeutic processes and outcomes between males and females are often not observed, making th...

Objective: The aim of this work was to examine the profile and treatment outcomes of patients with dual pathology depending on whether the patients were attending addiction centers or are being treated in a coordinated model by mental health services. Methods: Data from 7225 dual diagnosis patients were used, of whom 2417 (33.5%) received treatment...

Introduction: Patients with cocaine use disorders have very high readmission rates. Our aim was to model the relationships between attributes of patients with cocaine use disorder at the beginning of treatment, therapeutic process indicators of time in treatment or proportion of appointments attended, and treatment outcomes, including outcomes at...

https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42024500356

Abstract Objectives Alcohol Protective Behavioral Strategies (PBS) have consistently shown to be effective in reducing alcohol use and its associated consequences. We aimed to examine the explanatory value of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) for using five PBS, studying the role of habit, and its potential variation across genders. Methods Tar...

Person-centered approaches in personality allow greater understanding of how different subpopulations with specific personality profiles are linked with relevant outcomes. Studies under the Five Factor Model agree on the observation of a Resilient, an Undercontrolled and an Overcontrolled profile. However, studies using maladaptive traits are much...

Objectives: Alcohol Protective Behavioral Strategies (PBS) have consistently shown to be effective in reducing alcohol use and its associated consequences. We aimed to examine the explanatory value of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) for using five PBS, studying the role of habit, and its invariance across genders. Methods: Targeted sampling wa...

Background Patients readmitted for Cocaine Use Disorders are, along with Opiates Use Disorder, one of the group of patients with highest demand of treatment in specialized centers of addiction and with greater therapeutic failure. Objective Our aim is to apply the Texas Christian University Process Model to modeling the relationships between patie...

Measurement of externalizing disorders such as antisocial disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or borderline disorder have relevant implications for the daily lives of people with these disorders. While the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) have provided...

El presente informe presenta resultados preliminares del proyecto “PSICOCANN, Reducción del Uso de Cannabis y sus Consecuencias en Jóvenes: un Estudio Psicosocial Longitudinal desde la Teoría de la Conducta Planificada y las Estrategias de Protección”. Se trata de un proyecto financiado por la Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Ministerio de Ciencia...

Background: Alcohol use and the use of social media and other forms of digital communications is characteristic of young adults. The present study prospectively examined the relationship between social drinking motives and positive urgency and the engagement in regretted online social risk behaviors while drunk (having posted on social media, calle...

The objective of this study was to compare performance on a comprehensive impulsivity battery of SUD outpatients who dropout versus those who do not dropout and of abstainers versus relapsers at 3 and 12 months of treatment follow-up. Impulsivity was measured at the start of treatment and adherence and relapse at 3 and 12 months. The participants a...

The Externalizing Spectrum Inventory–Brief Form (ESI-BF) measures tendencies toward disinhibition, lack of control, aggression, and substance use. This study adapts the ESI-BF to the Spanish population and assesses its psychometric properties. The study included 742 community adults obtained by stratified random sampling with proportional allocatio...

Tests and scales measuring psychological disorders should provide information about how scores relate to other constructs such as quality of life or functional impairment. Such information is necessary to allow that their scores contribute to clinical decision making. The current study analyzes the clinical utility of the Spanish version of the Inv...

Background: Health care provision during the COVID-19 pandemic and confinement has led to significant changes in the activity of addiction centers. These changes in healthcare activity may have had a greater impact on patients with dual pathology. The aim of this study is to compare the treatment indicators of patients with dual pathology in addic...

Introduction Treatment retention and adherence are used as outcomes in numerous randomized clinical trials and observational studies conducted in the addiction field. Although usual criteria are 3/6 months of treatment retention or number of sessions attended, there is not a methodological support for conclusions using these criteria. This study an...

Background: Personality disorders show strong comorbidities with alcohol-use disorder (AUD), and several personality traits have been found to be more frequent in people with AUD. This study analyzes which personality facets of those proposed in the Alternative Model of Personality Disorder (AMPD) of DSM-5 are associated with the diagnostic criter...

Background Tests and scales measuring psychological disorders should provide information about how scores relate to other constructs such as quality of life or functional impairment. Such information is necessary to allow that their scores contribute to clinical decision making. The current study analyzes the clinical utility of the Inventory for D...

Background: The conceptualization of substance use disorders (SUDs) was modified in successive editions of the DSM. Dimensionality and inclusion/exclusion of several criteria was studied using various analytic approaches. Objective: The study aimed to deepen our knowledge of the interrelationships between the diagnostic criteria for cocaine use...

This systematic review identifies the psychological variables associated with the use of harm reduction strategies (HRS) among university students who use alcohol or cannabis. The reviewed studies are categorized according to the psychological variables studied and the different analytic approaches used (direct effects, mediation, and moderation)....

Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms-II (IDAS-II) constitutes a useful measurement tool with demonstrated psychometric properties that is contributing to the advancement of knowledge of emotional disorders within transdiagnostic models. To implement its use in clinical settings it is important that the scores can be interpreted in order to...

Objective: Although previous studies have shown that protective behavioral strategies (PBS) predict alcohol use and its related consequences in college students, it is not known whether a broader population of young adults also benefit from PBS use. We longitudinally examined the relationship between PBS use and alcohol-related outcomes in a commu...

Background: The impact of dual pathology on treatment outcomes is unclear, with the literature reporting both favorable and unfavorable evidence. The main aim of this study was to determine how dual pathology affects treatment outcomes using real world data obtained from inpatients that began treatment in therapeutic communities. Method: The dat...

Dual pathology is often found in addiction and mental health centers. Although there are integrated services for these patients, most countries have developed joint action protocols between addiction and mental health centers. The objective is to analyze the progress of patients diagnosed with dual pathology, comparing the therapeutic outcomes of t...

The visual probe paradigm allows for evaluating attentional bias (AB), distinguishing between approach vs avoidance patterns of attention and assessing two different processes when the exposure time to images is manipulated: initial orienting and maintenance of attention. The present study aimed to analyze the predictive capacity of these two proce...

Background Relapse in drug use constitutes a research topic on addiction that is relevant for understanding both the addictive process and its clinical implications. The objective of this study was to explore if it is possible to identify patient profiles according to their performance on cognitive tasks whilst examining the relationship between su...

Objective The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Delay Discounting Test (DDT) are two of the most widely used decision-making tests within the field of addiction research. The IGT creates a context of uncertainty where immediate rewards or long-term benefits are chosen, whilst the DDT measures the change in value of a reward as the time taken to obta...

Background: Protective behavioral strategies (PBS) have shown utility in reducing alcohol-related negative consequences. The Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale (PBSS) is one of the most widely used and well-validated instruments for evaluating these strategies. However, a Spanish adaptation of this or any other measure of PBS is not available....

Objective The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the evidence for impaired executive functioning in patients diagnosed with a dual pathology of personality disorder (PD) and substance use disorder, and to identify whether differences exist in comparison to those with a single diagnosis. Methods: A systematic search was conducted to id...

Background Various authors have described the elements of impulsive approach and inhibitory control in drug users. These two components have been studied in terms of personality traits, performance on tasks that measure impulsive behavior, and neurophysiology. However, few studies have analyzed the association between these constructs. Thus, the ai...

Objective: The purpose of this study is to provide reliability and validity evidence of the Adult Self-Report Scale (ASRS) scores on different versions and scoring procedures in a Spanish substance use disorder (SUD) sample. Method: The sample was made up of 170 outpatients diagnosed with SUD. The ASRS, the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Inter...

This study identifies patterns of simultaneous polysubstance use (SPU) in partygoers, their associated characteristics, and their differences in terms of acute effects experienced. We used a web-based survey with 1345 partygoers who reported using at least one substance during the past year, collecting information on drug use and drug-related acute...

Background The Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS-II) is composed of 99 items organized into 18 specific scales that provides dimensional assessment of depression, anxiety and bipolar symptoms. To date, IDAS-II is only available in the English and Turkish population. The main purpose of this study is to adapt the IDAS-II to the Span...

La evaluación de trastornos de personalidad comórbidos en pacientes consumidores resulta de especial relevancia en el ámbito clínico. Este trabajo analiza la capacidad discriminativa del Inventario de Personalidad PID-5 para detectar deterioro funcional en un grupo de pacientes con TUS. Además, se compara el uso de un criterio funcional y otro norm...

The Alternative Model for Personality Disorders defined in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Fifth edition (DSM-5) has recently attracted considerable interest in empirical research, with different hypotheses being proposed to explain the discordant results shown in previous research. Empirical network analysis has begun to be a...

Background: The specialized literature provides solid evidence that substance use disorders (SUD) and personality disorders (PD) are interrelated. Given the relative novelty of the Alternative Model for PD, there are still few studies that have analyzed the relationship between the different facets, substance use disorder, and the various consumpt...

Background: Facial emotion recognition is impaired in addiction and personality disorders. Dysfunctional personality beliefs reflect negative interpersonal schemas that may underpin emotion recognition deficits. We aimed to examine the association between personality beliefs and emotion recognition among participants with cocaine use disorder inclu...

Dual patients are usually treated in drug users services, mental health units, or both. However, each patient can choose the service to receive the health care. The aim of this study is to analyze the similarities and differences of the patient profiles that are treated in each one of these centers. The sample consists of 170 patients diagnosed wit...

The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the profile of dual patients treated in mental health units or drug user services with patients using both. The sample consisted of 170 patients diagnosed with dual pathology, recruited using an accidental sampling technique. Of the sample, 64 were being treated at Addiction Center of Huelva (ADH), 5...

Background Some authors have pointed out the usefulness of the levels of substance use disorder (SUD) as a treatment outcome. However, in order to use this variable as an outcome measure, its impact needs to be addressed within a clinical context. The aim of this study was to analyze the sensitivity of SUD levels as a measure for detecting reliable...

Background: Interpretation bias tasks such as word association tests have shown a moderate relation with substance use, but most studies have been conducted in nonclinical samples and these tasks are difficult to rate. Objectives: To provide: (1) reliability evidence of the Word Association Task for Drug Use Disorder (WAT-DUD), a novel and easy-to-...

People who use ecstasy and other drugs recreationally adopt strategies to minimize drug-related negative consequences. However, there are no studies that empirically analyze which strategies relate to fewer self-reported health consequences in polysubstance users who consume ecstasy. The main aim of this study was to examine harm reduction strategi...

Introduction: Impulsivity has been consistently associated with poorer addiction treatment outcomes. However, impulsivity is a multifaceted construct and current evidence have failed to unravel which specific aspects explain this relationship. There is also limited research examining long-term outcomes. We aimed to examine the longitudinal associa...

Background: Individuals with cocaine use disorder (CUD) often display behaviours that are paradoxically misaligned with their situation. Typical examples include poor treatment motivation and inconsistent self-reported craving. These behaviours may reflect impairments in the awareness of one's own behaviour. Objectives: We examined whether impai...

Objective: WHODAS 2.0 is currently one of the most used instruments in disability assessment. The objective of this study is to analyze the clinically reliable change of WHODAS 2.0 by applying both Classical Test Theory (CTT) and the Item Response Theory (IRT). Study design and setting: The sample consisted of 179 patients with dual pathology. T...

Background: Until now, no specific tool has been available to measure heroin-dependent patient satisfaction with buprenorphine-naloxone as a medication. The purpose of the present study was to develop the Scale to Assess Satisfaction with Medications for Addiction Treatment-Buprenorphine-Naloxone for Heroin addiction (SASMAT-BUNHER) and to examine...

Escala de Perfil de Riesgo de Consumo de Drogas (EPRCD)

The UPPS Impulsive Behaviour Scale (with five dimensions of impulsive behaviour) is being widely used. One of the handicaps of this instrument is its relatively long administration time. This has led to the development of a short version: SUPPS-P. There are no studies comparing the relationship between the SUPPS-P scores and the original UPPS-P sco...

Data file with measures reported. (ZIP)

Section III of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition proposes an alternative diagnostic model for personality disorders based on the identification of pathological personality facets. Despite the existing evidence for the relationship between personality disorders and impulsivity in patients with substance use dis...

Objective: The Opiate Dosage Adequacy Scale (ODAS) is a clinical tool to individually measure the "adequacy" of opioid doses in patients on maintenance treatment. The aim of this paper is to provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the ODAS in a sample of patients in buprenorphine/naloxone (B/N) maintenance treatment. Method: Cross-s...

Section III of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Fifth edition (DSM-5) has generated a personality paradigm consisting of 25 personality facets identified in five domains. The developed assessment instrument Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) has showed good psychometric properties, but the potential for certain improve...

Background: Attentional bias towards substance-related stimuli has shown to be involved in the development and maintenance of cocaine dependence. The relationship between alcohol use and cocaine dependence shown in literature justify the need of study these two substances jointly. Methods: This paper analyzes patterns of attentional bias in 71 p...

The comorbidity between Personality Disorders and Substance Use Disorders is well documented. Relationships between these two mental disorders are complex, and their concomitance generates poorer therapeutic prognosis and more severe psychosocial problems than either disorder alone. The purpose of this study was to compare three models of the relat...

This study was aimed at designing a questionnaire for the assessment of addiction-related core beliefs and craving. The sample comprised 215 patients (85.8% males and 14.2% females) in treatment for dependence to alcohol (40%), cocaine (36.3%) and cannabis (23.7%). Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sample. Variance, regression an...

The aim of this study was to examine the association between baseline executive functioning and outcome measure of treatment in 226 cocaine dependent individuals who initiated treatment in therapeutic communities TCs. The study was conducted across six TCs located in the region of Andalusia (southern Spain). Neuropsychological testing included test...

The identification of different personality risk profiles for substance misuse is useful in preventing substance-related problems. This study aims to test the psychometric properties of a new version of the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS) for Spanish college students. Cross-sectional study with 455 undergraduate students from four Spanish...

Resumen Abstract original adicciones vol. xx, nº x · 2017 The identification of different personality risk profiles for substance misuse is useful in preventing substance-related problems. This study aims to test the psychometric properties of a new version of the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS) for Spanish college students. Cross-sectiona...

This systematic review aims to examine growing evidence linking cognitive-executive functions with addiction treatment outcomes, and to discuss significant cognitive predictors drawing upon addiction neuroscience theory. We conducted a systematic search to identify studies using measures of general cognition and executive functions in patients with...

Se analizó, en una muestra de adolescentes argentinos, el modelo de predisposición adquirida. El modelo propone que el rasgo desinhibición influye de manera indirecta, a través de variables cognitivas, sobre el consumo de alcohol. La exposición a modelos de consumo del grupo de pares influye directa e indirectamente (mediante las expectativas hacia...

Resumen En este trabajo analizamos, separadamente para hombres y mujeres, la relación entre im-pulsividad y consumo de alcohol. Clasificamos a los participantes en tres clases de consumo de alcohol y examinamos diferencias en impulsividad rasgo entre las clases. Participaron 435 jóvenes que completaron una encuesta online. A nivel bivariante, la re...

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of psychiatric comorbidity and severity of dependence on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Methods: One hundred and ninety-eight substance use disorder (SUD) patients were recruited from an outpatient center that provides treatment for SUD. The International Personality Disorder Ex...

Background and aims: There is a lack of instruments for measuring ketamine substance use disorders. The aims were (i) to estimate the reliability and provide evidence of validity of the Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS) in a sample of recreational users, and (ii) propose a cut-off point to determine the presence of dependence. Methods: We condu...

Background: In the field of drug and alcohol abuse, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been used as an important clinical and research outcome. The aim of this study was to establish score linkages (concordance) among three HRQoL assessment tools: WHOQOL-BREF, DUQOL and HRQOLDA scores, applying a Rasch-based common person equating procedur...

The aim of this study was to examine the association between social interaction variables and premature cessation of treatment, psychological adjustment and quality of life, as a function of co-existing diagnoses of personality disorders. The sample was composed of 95 individuals who commenced treatment for cocaine addiction. Of the sample, 53.7% h...

The Parenting Stress Index Short Form (PSI-SF) is a widely used instrument in scientific literature to evaluate the levels of stress a parent feels when facing parenting-related tasks. Despite the potential usefulness of the PSI-SF with at-risk families, no validation studies have been carried out on this population in Spain. The main objective of...

The present study was aimed at determining the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale in a sample of college students. Participants were 318 college students (36.2% men; mean age = 20.9 years, SD = 6.4 years). The psychometric properties of this Spanish version were analyzed using the Rasch model, and...

(1) To contrast functional connectivity on ventral and dorsal striatum networks in cocaine dependence relative to pathological gambling, via a resting-state functional connectivity approach. (2) To determin the association between cocaine dependence-related neuroadaptations indexed by functional connectivity and impulsivity, compulsivity and drug r...

The specific aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the English version of the Health-Related Quality of Life for Drug Abusers Test (HRQoLDA Test) applying the Rasch model, and emphasizing fit between empirical data and theoretical Rasch model assumptions; item(s) category probability curve; and precision in terms of inform...

Therapeutic success in the treatment of alcohol use disorders highly depends on an appropriate diagnosis. The Substance Dependence Severity Scale –SDSS- is a scale that assesses substance dependence in dimensional terms and that follows the diagnostic criteria established by the international classification systems. The aim of this study is to prov...

The goal of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Alcohol Expectancy Scale (AES-AA) applying item response theory. Data were obtained from 592 adolescents enrolled in private and public schools of the city of Córdoba (Argentina). This psychometric study was carried out with the Rating Scale Model (RSM), a polytomous Rasch mod...

Neural biomarkers for the active detrimental effects of cocaine dependence (CD) are lacking. Direct comparisons of brain connectivity in cocaine-targeted networks between CD and behavioural addictions (i.e. pathological gambling, PG) may be informative. This study therefore contrasted the resting-state functional connectivity networks of 20 individ...

Background: Therapeutic community (TC) clients frequently display a pattern of multiple substance use disorders (SUDs) which is associated with poorer treatment outcomes. This study aimed to characterize multiple SUD profiles in patients enrolled in TCs, and examine the association of these profiles with social, medical and psychiatric outcomes....

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to estimate the reliability and provide evidence for the validity of the Spanish version of the Substance Dependence Severity Scale (SDSS). Methods: A total of 211 substance abusers recruited at a public center that provides treatment for substance-related disorders in an outpatient setting were assessed. R...

The aim of this study was to examine the link between psychosocial adjustment, impulsivity and comorbid Axis II psychopathology, and the risk of treatment dropout in cocaine dependent patients. The sample consisted of 95 cocaine dependent participants, 53.7% of whom had been diagnosed with Axis II personality disorders. We utilised a descriptive me...

Background: Cocaine addiction and pathological gambling are commonly associated with steeper (impulsive) discounting of delayed rewards, which promotes ongoing drug and gambling behaviors. However, it is yet unclear whether impulsive delay discounting is a stable trait in cocaine and gambling disorders during abstinence, and whether it is signific...

El objetivo de este trabajo fue conocer el riesgo de abandono del tratamiento de pacientes en tratamiento por su adicción a la cocaína en función de variables como la psicopatología en el Eje II, el nivel de gravedad del ajuste psicológico o la impulsividad. La muestra estaba compuesta por 95 pacientes, de los que el 53.7 % presentaba un trastorno...

Background: This study aimed to explore the association between psychiatric comorbidity and treatment outcomes in therapeutic communities (TCs). Methods: A prospective longitudinal descriptive design was used. A baseline psychopathological assessment was performed within the first 15 to 20 days of treatment in the TCs. The length of treatment st...

One of the key outstanding challenges in cocaine dependence research is determining who is at risk of relapsing during treatment. We examined whether cognitive decision-making profiles predict objectively (hair) indexed cocaine relapse at 3-month follow-up. Thirty-three cocaine-dependent patients commencing outpatient treatment in a public clinic p...

Background: Raves may be considered recreational settings in which drug use and health risks related to polydrug use are higher than in others. Harm reduction behaviors implemented by ravers are of particular relevance in reducing such risks. This study analyzes harm reduction behaviors and their relationship to raver polysubstance use patterns....

La Substance Dependence Severity Scale �SDSS- es una de las pocas escalas que evalua la dependencia y abuso a sustancias segun criterios DSM en terminos dimensionales. Diferentes estudios psicometricos han aportado evidencias de validez y fiabilidad en su version inglesa, aunque no se dispone de una version en espanol. El objetivo de este trabajo h...

Background: The treatment of cocaine-dependent individuals (CDI) is substantially challenged by high drop-out rates, raising questions regarding contributing factors. Recently, a number of studies have highlighted the potential of greater focus on the clinical significance of neurocognitive impairments in treatment-seeking cocaine users. In the pre...

The Substance Dependence Severity Scale -SDSS- is one of the few scales that assesses substance dependence and abuse according DSM criteria in dimensional terms. Several studies have provided evidence of psychometric validity and reliability in its English version, but there is no Spanish version available. The aim of this work was to describe the...

Objective: Cocaine dependence often co-occurs with personality disorders from Clusters B and C, which are inherently associated with some of the executive dysfunctions found in addiction. We address the question of whether the comorbidity between cocaine dependence and different types of personality disorders is associated with differential profil...

This work falls within the framework of the study of acculturation processes of natives and immigrants. Its goal is to test an explanatory multi-group model of natives' acculturation attitudes as a function of diverse psychosocial variables: Prejudice and natives' appraisal of their own culture (in a direct way) and inter-group contact and perceive...

The objective of this study is to explore the stability of personality dimensions in a selection of psychoactive substance abuse patients during treatment in therapeutic communities. The baseline assessment was conducted 15 to 20 days from the start of therapeutic community treatment, and the second assessment was conducted 3 months after admission...

High impulsivity is common to substance and gambling addictions. Despite these commonalities, there is still substantial heterogeneity on impulsivity levels within these diagnostic groups, and variations in impulsive levels predict higher severity of symptoms and poorer outcomes. We addressed the question of whether impulsivity scores can yield emp...

El elevado consumo de drogas que se produce en las raves y las características propias de estas fiestas las convierten en un contexto recreativo de alto riesgo para la salud de los participantes. El objetivo de esta revisión es establecer una categorización de las investigaciones sobre raves y consumo de drogas a partir de sus objetivos y principal...