Alcohol Use Disorder
Conditions
Brief summary
This study identifies whether and how online support groups may work to confer therapeutic benefits onto its participants.
Detailed description
Online support groups (e.g., SMART Recovery) are an increasingly common non-professional intervention for people who engage in problematic alcohol use, but it is unclear how they help participants reduce their use. The primary objective of this study is to determine whether alcohol use decreases more after attending online SMART Recovery psychoeducational support group meetings, as compared to receiving psychoeducational content alone. The secondary objectives are to identify whether variables such as quality of life and recovery capital (i.e., resources to support recovery from addiction) relate to treatment outcomes.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALSupport Group
Support Group condition, meetings will be held online via HIPAA-compliant Zoom and run by a trained SMART Recovery meeting facilitator
OTHERPsychoeducational Email
Participants receive a weekly email with a Qualtrics survey link containing psychoeducational content.
Sponsors
Society of Addiction Psychology
Yale University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Is fluent in English and have a 6th grade reading level or higher * AUDIT score of ≥8 * Has some desire to cut down or quit their alcohol use * Has access to a phone or computer with reliable internet connection, a functional microphone and camera * Is willing to consent to being audio and video recorded during the meetings
Exclusion criteria
* Is not able to commit to the 6 weeks of intervention and the one- and three-month follow-up. * Has vulnerable population status (e.g., pregnant people, prisoners)
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in past-month alcohol use: drinking days | Baseline, 1 month and 3 months | Timeline Follow-back (TLFB) will be used via survey to characterize changes in alcohol and other drug use for study participants. Percent Drinking Days will be derived from self-report on TLFB. |
| Change in past-month alcohol drug use: heavy drinking days | Baseline, 1 month and 3 months | Timeline Follow-back (TLFB) will be used via survey to characterize changes in alcohol and other drug use for study participants. Percent Heavy Drinking Days will be derived from self-report on TLFB. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Quality of Life | Baseline, 1 month and 3 months | Quality of life will be assessed using the WHOQOL-BREF via survey; a 26-item self-report measure of quality of life in four domains. Scores range from 1-5. Each domain score is averaged. Higher scores indicate higher quality of life. . |
| Change in recovery capital | Baseline, 1 month and 3 months | Recovery capital will be assessed using the Assessment of Recovery Capital via survey; A 50-item self-report measure of recovery capital with ten domains; each item is rated in binary, score ranges from 0-50; higher scores indicate higher recovery capital. |
Outcome results
None listed