AAT-App Rehabilitation Trial: The effect of smartphone-delivered cognitive training on relapse and treatment re-admission among patients leaving residential alcohol treatment.

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“Approach bias modification” (ApBM) is a cognitive training task designed to reduce impulses to seek and consume alcohol. ApBM has been shown to reduce risk of relapse when delivered by computer during residential treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD), but no previous studies have tested whether giving people access to ApBM via smartphone app that they can use after leaving rehabilitation treatment is also an effective way to prevent relapse. We have designed “AAT-App”, a smartphone app that incorporates ApBM training. We aim to conduct a randomised trial comparing the “active” version of AAT-App (which includes ApBM training) to a “control” version which also contains a cognitive task that is similar to ApBM but which (unlike ApBM) is not designed to change the mental processes that are believed to contribute to urges to seek and consume alcohol. We will provide AAT-App to participants when they discharge from residential rehabilitation. The app will send notifications prompting participants to complete the cognitive task and provide weekly reports of their alcohol use over a 4-week intervention period. We predict that participants who receive ApBM training will be more likely than those who receive the control version to abstain from alcohol during the intervention, and at 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month follow-ups after the end of the intervention. We also predict that they will have lower average alcohol consumption, less severe dependence on alcohol, less craving, reduced impulses to approach images of alcohol, and will be less likely to require readmission to hospital or residential treatment for AUD, as well as reduced depression, anxiety, and stress and improved quality of life and enjoyment of life.

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