Pilot Study of Text Message Brief Interventions for Problem Drinkers

Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Alcohol Dependence

Treatments: Behavioral: Consciousness raising text messages; Behavioral: Personalized feedback text messages

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01180829

088/2010

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will provide a pilot test of two different text message interventions for problem drinkers. Participants will be recruited using a general population telephone survey. Participants in a control group (who will not receive text messages) will be compared to participants who receive one of two different types of text message packages (12 text messages sent once per week in each) - a series of personalized feedback text messages or a series of consciousness raising test messages (i.e., messages that keep the thought of cutting down on their drinking in the participants' mind). Participants in the three different conditions will be followed-up in three months time to assess changes in drinking. It is predicted that participants who receive either of the text message packages will report reduced drinking as compared to those participants in the control condition who do not receive any text messages.

Enrollment: 91 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 19+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Resident of Ontario
• 19 years of age or over
• Have consumed alcohol in the one month prior to the telephone survey.
• A score of 8 or over on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)
• Are willing to participate in follow-up at three months

Exclusion criteria

•None

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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91 participants in 3 patient groups

Control condition

No Intervention group

Description:

No interventions text messages sent

Personalized feedback text messages

Experimental group

Description:

A series of 12 text messages, each of which contains one personalized feedback item about the person's drinking

Treatment:

Behavioral: Personalized feedback text messages

Consciousness raising text message

Experimental group

Description:

A series of 12 text messages, each of which contains text designed to get the person to think about his or her drinking

Treatment:

Behavioral: Consciousness raising text messages