CanCope: Digital Intervention for Coping With Cannabis Craving

Trustees of Dartmouth College

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cannabis Use

Treatments: Behavioral: CanCope

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05328362

STUDY00032248

Details and patient eligibility

About

The CanCope Study is a micro-randomized trial conducted to gather evidence about and compare the effectiveness of a momentary intervention to help young adults cope with cannabis cravings as they attempt to reduce their use.

Full description

The CanCope Study is designed to test the effectiveness of two distinct strategies (mindfulness and distraction) to cope with cannabis cravings in young adults (19 - 25 years) who are attempting to reduce their cannabis use. Cannabis use is determined using a single-item question about the number of days out of the past 30 days the individual used cannabis. Young adults who reported using cannabis >10 out of the past 30 days, who were not pregnant or breastfeeding, and who were not currently in treatment for problems related to substance use were eligible to enroll in this four-week study.

The CanCope intervention was delivered to participants through the MetricWire app, which was available for download on the participants' personal smartphones. Participants were asked to complete five ecological momentary assessments (EMA) per day, which asked questions related to cannabis use including one question about current level of craving on a scale of 0 - 10. If a participant reported a craving level >4, a message was sent via the app encouraging the participant to try a mindfulness or distraction coping strategy, or the participant received a thank-you for completing the EMA which served as an attention control.

Enrollment: 55 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 19 to 25 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Used cannabis at least 10 out of the past 30 days

Exclusion criteria

• Currently pregnant or breastfeeding
• Currently in treatment for problems related to substance use

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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55 participants in 3 patient groups, including a placebo group

CanCope mindfulness

Active Comparator group

Description:

The CanCope intervention was delivered through the MetricWire app which was available to each participant on their personal smartphone. The intervention included a "push" component which was responsive to a participant's level of craving (based on self-report assessed via EMA) and sent messages to each participant via the MetricWire app according to a decision rule. MetricWire randomized delivery of the push component with a probability of 0.33 for receiving a mindfulness coping strategy, 0.33 for receiving a distraction coping strategy, and 0.33 for receiving a thank-you message (attention control) at each decision point when participants were available for the intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: CanCope

CanCope distraction

Active Comparator group

Description:

The CanCope intervention was delivered through the MetricWire app which was available to each participant on their personal smartphone. The intervention included a "push" component which was responsive to a participant's level of craving (based on self-report assessed via EMA) and sent messages to each participant via the MetricWire app according to a decision rule. MetricWire randomized delivery of the push component with a probability of 0.33 for receiving a mindfulness coping strategy, 0.33 for receiving a distraction coping strategy, and 0.33 for receiving a thank-you message (attention control) at each decision point when participants were available for the intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: CanCope

CanCope attention control

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

The CanCope intervention was delivered through the MetricWire app which was available to each participant on their personal smartphone. The intervention included a "push" component which was responsive to a participant's level of craving (based on self-report assessed via EMA) and sent messages to each participant via the MetricWire app according to a decision rule. MetricWire randomized delivery of the push component with a probability of 0.33 for receiving a mindfulness coping strategy, 0.33 for receiving a distraction coping strategy, and 0.33 for receiving a thank-you message (attention control) at each decision point when participants were available for the intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: CanCope