Group receives the 3-week, 6-session Anxiety Sensitivity Intervention. This is a 6-session psychotherapy occurring twice weekly (60-90 minutes) for three weeks. This psychotherapeutic treatment is focused on reducing anxiety sensitivity and includes many components, but primarily consists of psychoeducation about the relationship between anxiety and substance use disorders, interoceptive exposures, in vivo exposures, and cognitive challenging.

Receives only treatment as usual

3 week, 6-session psychotherapy targeting anxiety sensitivity

The ASI is a self-report measure consisting of 16 questions which ask about past-week fear of physical and psychological symptoms of anxiety and fear of potential sequelae of anxiety (e.g., "When I notice my heart is beating rapidly, I worry that might have a heart attack"; or "When my stomach is upset, I worry I might be seriously ill"). Scores over 25 are suggestive of clinically significant anxiety sensitivity (Peterson & Plehn, 1999).

The TLFB is an interview which asks patients to retrospectively report on daily drinking quantity and frequency for the past 30 days. Using a calendar, the interviewer asks the respondent to identify important holidays and other memorable events over the retrospective time window, and then uses these events to help cue the respondent's memory of alcohol /drug use quantity and frequency over this period. Using these prompts and the respondent's knowledge of his/her own drinking/drug use patterns, an report of types of drug used and estimates of quantity of use is obtained for each day in the window. In the current study, the baseline and follow-up TLFBs covered the past 90 days; the post-treatment TLFB covered the past 30 days.

The DASS is a 21-item self-report questionnaire which provides total scores for anxiety, depression, and stress subscales. The Depression scale assesses symptoms of dysphoria, hopelessness, devaluation of life, self-deprecation, anhedonia, lack of interest/involvement, and inertia. The Anxiety scale assesses symptoms of autonomic arousal, skeletal musculature effects, situational anxiety, and subjective experience of anxious affect. The Stress scale assesses symptoms of difficulty relaxing, nervous arousal, agitation, irritability/over-reactivity, and impatience. The DASS queries about symptoms in the past week and therefore outcome will be change in total score from pre-treatment to 3 months post-treatment.