Randomized controlled trial of a smartphone app designed to reduce unhealthy alcohol consumption.

Background And Aims: Unhealthy alcohol use is common and causes tremendous harm. Most people with unhealthy alcohol use will never seek formal alcohol treatment. As an alternative, smartphone apps have been developed as one means to provide help to people concerned about their alcohol use.

Computer-Based Training for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Substance Use Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial Including Quantitative and Qualitative Health and Economic Outcomes: Formation informatisée pour la thérapie cognitivo-comportementale pour les troubles liés à l'usage de substances : un essai randomisé contrôlé y compris les résultats quantitatifs et qualitatifs en matière de santé et d'économie.

Objectives: Heavy alcohol and drug use is reported by a substantial number of Canadians; yet, only a minority of those experiencing substance use difficulties access specialized services. Computer-Based Training for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT4CBT) offers a low-cost method to deliver accessible and high-quality CBT for substance use difficulties. To date, CBT4CBT has primarily been evaluated in terms of quantitative outcomes within substance use disorder (SUD) samples in the United States.

Investigating Alexithymia as a Moderator of Outcomes in a Randomized Controlled Trial of an Online Intervention for Co-Occurring Depression and Hazardous Alcohol Use: Enquête sur l'alexithymie en tant que modérateur des résultats dans un essai randomisé contrôlé d'une intervention en ligne pour la dépression concomitante et la consommation dangereuse d'alcool.

Objective: Alexithymia is characterized by difficulty identifying and/or describing emotions, reduced imaginal processes, and externally oriented thinking. High levels of alexithymia may increase the challenge of supporting individuals with co-occurring depression and hazardous alcohol use. This secondary analysis sought to investigate whether or not alexithymia moderated the outcomes of an online intervention for depression and alcohol use.

Interactive effects of alcohol and cannabis quantities in the prediction of same-day negative consequences among young adults.

Background: Simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use is common, but observational studies examining negative consequences of simultaneous use have rarely considered dose-related interactions between alcohol and cannabis. This study examined interactions between quantities of cannabis and alcohol consumed in predicting negative consequences on simultaneous use days.

Methods: Young adults (N = 151; 64% female; 62% White) reporting recent simultaneous use and at least weekly alcohol and cannabis use completed 21 daily, smartphone-based surveys assessing previous day quantities of cannabis and alcohol used, types of cannabis used (flower, concentrates, edibles), and negative substance-related consequences.

Perceptions of the Seriousness of Different Addictive Behaviors in the United Kingdom.

Societal beliefs about the seriousness of different addictions were assessed in the United Kingdom (UK). An online panel, conducted in 2021 and sampled to be representative of the UK general population 18 years and over ( = 1499), was conducted and asked participants their views regarding the seriousness of different societal problems, including various addictive behaviors. Cannabis was ranked as the least serious of the addictive behaviors.

Assessing the Prevalence of Cannabis Use Through a Survey About Criminal Activity Versus One About Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs.

: The prevalence of cannabis use in the United Kingdom might be underestimated using the Crime Survey of England and Wales. The current study examined whether responding to questions about their cannabis use as part of a crime survey would be less likely to report that they use cannabis compared to those responding to the same questions that are part of a survey about health. : Participants were randomized to be told that the items about cannabis use came from a crime survey versus from a health survey.

Evaluating the impact of motivational interviewing on engagement and outcomes in a web-based self-help intervention for gambling disorder: A randomised controlled trial.

Background: Self-paced internet interventions for gambling problems offer cost-effective, accessible, and private alternatives to traditional psychotherapy for a population that rarely seeks help. However, these interventions have been relatively slow to develop, evaluate, and deploy at scale relative to those for other addictive behaviors. Moreover, user engagement remains low despite the high interest.

Patterns of remission from alcohol dependence in the United Kingdom: results from an online panel general population survey.

Background: Previous research has demonstrated that remissions from alcohol use disorders can occur without accessing treatment. The current study explored the prevalence of such untreated remissions in the UK and further, examined the extent to which people who resolved an alcohol use disorder regarded themselves as ever, or currently, being in recovery.

Methods: Participants were recruited using the Prolific online platform.

Examining Changes in Quality of Life as an Outcome Measure in Three Randomized Controlled Trials of Online Interventions That Included an Intervention for Hazardous Alcohol Use.

Background: Quality of life (QOL) summarizes an individual's perceived satisfaction across multiple life domains. Many factors can impact this measure, but research has demonstrated that individuals with addictions, physical, and mental health concerns tend to score lower than general population samples. While QOL is often important to individuals, it is rarely used by researchers as an outcome measure when evaluating treatment efficacy.

Effect of a smartphone intervention as a secondary prevention for use among university students with unhealthy alcohol use: randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To estimate the effects of providing access to an alcohol intervention based on a smartphone.

Design: Randomised controlled trial..

Normative Misperceptions About Cannabis Use in a Sample of Risky Cannabis Users.

Introduction: This study examines normative misperceptions in a sample of participants recruited for a brief intervention trial targeting risky cannabis use.

Methods: Participants who were concerned about their own risky cannabis use were recruited to help develop and evaluate intervention materials. At baseline, participants reported on their own cannabis use and provided estimates of how often others their gender and age used cannabis in the past 3 months.

Development of a Secondary Prevention Smartphone App for Students With Unhealthy Alcohol Use: Results From a Qualitative Assessment.

Background: Despite considerable efforts devoted to the development of prevention interventions aiming at reducing unhealthy alcohol use in tertiary students, their delivery remains often challenging. Interventions including information technology are promising given their potential to reach large parts of the population.

Objective: This study aims to develop a secondary prevention smartphone app with an iterative qualitative design involving the target population.

Applying the Canadian Low-Risk Gambling Guidelines to Gambling Harm Reduction in England.

There is a need for evidence-based guidelines for gamblers who wish to reduce their risk of harm by setting self-directed limits on their gambling. Recognizing this, the Canadian Low-Risk Gambling Guidelines were developed using data from 8 countries to establish the relationship between gambling behaviour and harm. The guidelines include recommended limits on gambling spending as a percentage of income, gambling frequency, and number of types of games played.

Disentangling Medicinal and Recreational cannabis Use Among People Living with HIV: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

This study examined the feasibility of using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to disentangle medicinal cannabis use (MCU) from recreational cannabis use (RCU) among people living HIV (PLWH). Over a 14-day period, PLWH (N = 29) who engaged in both MCU and RCU completed a smartphone-based survey before and after every cannabis use event assessing general motivation for cannabis use (MCU-only, RCU-only, or mixed MCU/RCU), cannabis use behavior, and several antecedents and outcomes of cannabis use. A total of 739 pre-cannabis surveys were completed; 590 (80%) of the prompted post-cannabis surveys were completed.

Learning to quit: can reinforcement theories predict the success of smoking cessation attempts using nicotine replacement therapy patches in a general population sample of smokers at 8-weeks and 6-months follow-up?

Primary, secondary, and tertiary reinforcement contribute to the maintenance of smoking behaviour and may influence the efficacy of different cessation treatments. This analysis examined these relationships in a large general population sample and investigated how previous experiences of the different reinforcement mechanisms impacted future quit attempts. Random digit telephone dialing was used to recruit a sample of Canadian adults who smoked and were interested in being part of a hypothetical program that would provide nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) patches free by mail and half of the eligible participants were randomized to actually receive a five-week supply of NRT patches.

Examining the influence of rurality on frequency of cannabis use and severity of consequences as moderated by age and gender.

Aim: A number of important health disparities associated with place of residence have been reported in the literature. The Remoteness Index (RI) was developed to account for community size, population density, and proximity to larger population centres. This exploratory analysis uses the RI to examine community level associations related to cannabis use.

Using a consistency check during data collection to identify invalid responding in an online cannabis screening survey.

Background: Inconsistent responding is a type of invalid responding, which occurs on self-report surveys and threatens the reliability and validity of study results. This secondary analysis evaluated the utility of identifying inconsistent responses as a real-time, direct method to improve quality during data collection for an Internet-based RCT.

Methods: The cannabis subscale of the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) was administered as part of eligibility screening for the RCT.

Augmenting an online self-directed intervention for gambling disorder with a single motivational interview: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Despite the success of gold standard cognitive-behavioral therapy for problem and disordered gambling, the majority of individuals with gambling problems do not seek or receive professional treatment. Thus, the development of less intrusive self-directed interventions has been encouraged. Bibliotherapy for problem gambling has shown promise, both alone and in combination with motivational interviews, but there is still a lack of online self-directed intervention research.

Online personalized feedback intervention to reduce risky cannabis use. Randomized controlled trial.

Background And Aims: Given the widespread use of cannabis, and the concomitant risks associated with the drug, there is a need to increase the availability of interventions designed to reduce risky cannabis use. One promising intervention in the addictions employs personalized normative feedback to motivate change.

Methods: A two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted in which participants who used cannabis in a risky fashion were randomly assigned to one of two groups - those who received an online personalized feedback report in addition to educational materials about risky cannabis use and those who just received the online educational materials.

Randomized controlled trial of online interventions for co-occurring depression and hazardous alcohol consumption: Primary outcome results.

Background And Aims: The current trial tested the benefits of offering a brief online intervention for hazardous alcohol consumption along with one for depression among people experiencing both conditions.

Methods: Online advertisements were used to recruit people with persistent low mood. Those who also had current hazardous alcohol consumption were identified and invited to take part in the trial (those not eligible were offered access to the online depression intervention).