Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment remains greatly underutilized. Innovative strategies are needed to improve AUD treatment access and patient engagement. The Ria Treatment Platform (RTP) is a patient-centered telemedicine AUD treatment program accessed through a smartphone application (app) that includes a package of physician visits (with AUD prescriptions as appropriate), text- and phone-based support from a recovery coach, video monitoring of medication adherence, and Bluetooth-linked breathalyzer tracking of alcohol intake.
Objectives: The purpose of the current study is to examine changes in alcohol use among patients utilizing the RTP.
Methods: This study examines daily breathalyzer blood alcohol content (BAC) readings collected from 77 adult patients (50.7% male) over the first 90 days in treatment with the RTP. Data were analyzed using dynamic structural equation modeling.
Results: The treatment retention rate at 90 days was 55%. The best fit for the BAC data was given by a cubic curve, which showed that among patients who remained engaged for 90 days average BAC levels declined approximately 50% (from .091 to .045) from baseline to day 90.
Conclusion: This study provides preliminary evidence of substantial alcohol use reductions among patients utilizing the RTP, an innovative telemedicine program accessed via smartphone. Although other alcohol-reduction apps have shown promise from scientific evaluations, the RTP appears to be the only app that incorporates physician-prescribed medication and a recovery coach. Research incorporating random assignment and meaningful comparison groups is needed to further evaluate this promising strategy.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00952990.2019.1658197 | DOI Listing |
BMC Med Res Methodol
December 2024
Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Background: The aim of this study is to develop a method we call "cost mining" to unravel cost variation and identify cost drivers by modelling integrated patient pathways from primary care to the palliative care setting. This approach fills an urgent need to quantify financial strains on healthcare systems, particularly for colorectal cancer, which is the most expensive cancer in Australia, and the second most expensive cancer globally.
Methods: We developed and published a customized algorithm that dynamically estimates and visualizes the mean, minimum, and total costs of care at the patient level, by aggregating activity-based healthcare system costs (e.
Sci Rep
December 2024
Department of Neurologic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA.
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic relapsing brain disorder characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol consumption despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences. AUD affects nearly one-third of adults at some point during their lives, with an associated cost of approximately $249 billion annually in the U.S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlcohol
December 2024
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, 34 Park Street, 3(rd) Floor Research, New Haven, CT 06508, USA.
Stress is a major contributing factor to binge drinking and development of alcohol use disorders (AUD), particularly in women. Both stress and chronic ethanol can enhance neuroinflammatory processes, which may dysregulate limbic circuits involved in ethanol reinforcement. Clinical and preclinical studies have identified sex differences in alcohol intake in response to neuroinflammatory triggers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDrug Alcohol Depend Rep
March 2025
Department of Population Health, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA.
Preliminary data from a prospective micro-longitudinal study (30 days) that examined the co-evolution of return to use risk among people diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder (AUD) in residential substance treatment is presented. Data assessed the feasibility of using the open dynamic interaction network (ODIN) responsive ecological momentary assessment (rEMA). rEMA collected daily estimates on affect, urges, sober-support engagement, and use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Psychiatry
December 2024
The Second Department of Critical Care Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, P. R. China.
Background: Although alcohol consumption is considered one of the risk factors for delirium in intensive care unit (ICU) patients, quantitative research on the association between alcohol use disorder (AUD) and the development of delirium in the ICU remains relatively scarce.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted using the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care-IV database, including all patients admitted to the ICU for the first time and underwent delirium assessment. Patients were divided into AUD and non-AUD groups, with the primary outcome being the occurrence of ICU delirium.
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!