A personalised smartphone brain training app featured in Monash Lens has shown significant results in reducing alcohol consumption among outpatients receiving treatment for alcohol dependence.
According to Research Fellow Dr Joshua Garfield, the lead author of the paper in Addiction, the app helps people recovering from alcohol dependence by reducing the tendency to notice and respond to environmental cues that might trigger a craving to drink. 
These cues include pubs and bottle shops, alcohol advertising, and the sights, sounds and smells of alcohol at social events.
“We found that, four months after installing the app, participants had significantly reduced their alcohol consumption,” Dr Garfield explains. 
“On average, their weekly alcohol consumption reduced by 36%, compared to a non-significant 6% reduction in the control group.” 
By offering a simple, personalised and accessible intervention, the brain-training app empowers participants to take an active role in their recovery by using the brain training when and where they need it.
“The findings provide promising evidence that smartphone-based cognitive training could become an accessible and effective addition to standard treatment,” Dr Garfield says. 

• Read the paper: Efficacy of a personalised alcohol approach bias modification smartphone app in people accessing outpatient alcohol use disorder treatment: A randomised controlled trial
• Read the article in the Monash Lens: The brain-training app that reduces alcohol consumption by one-third

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