Dynamic Modeling of Problem Drinkers Undergoing Behavioral Treatment

We use dynamical systems modeling to help understand how selected intra-personal factors interact to form mechanisms of behavior change in problem drinkers. Our modeling effort illustrates the iterative process of modeling using an individual’s clinical data. Due to the lack of previous work in modeling behavior change in individual patients, we build our preliminary model relying on our understandings of the psychological relationships among the variables. This model is refined and the psychological understanding is then enhanced through the iterative modeling process. Our results suggest that this is a promising direction in research in alcohol use disorders as well as other behavioral sciences.