Brain Training App Pilot Trial
Overview
18 percent of Australians aged 18 and over drink at hazardous levels, whilst one in five will experience an alcohol use disorder. Exposure to alcohol-related cues (such as images, sounds and advertisements featuring alcohol) is known to induce cravings which can lead to further alcohol use. This poses a particular challenge for individuals trying to cut-down or abstain, as alcohol-related cues are largely unavoidable in Australian society. These alcohol-related cues can subconsciously capture our attention and motivate us to seeking, and subsequently consume alcohol, and this tendency is called a ‘Cognitive Bias’.
We and others have shown that a form of computerised "brain-training" called Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) can reduce these impulses and reduce the likelihood of alcohol consumption after just four sessions were added to inpatient withdrawal treatment. CBM reduces a cognitive bias to alcohol cues by training people to repeatedly respond to alcohol and non-alcohol images in a certain way. Turning Point researchers have taken this form of brain-training and made it available in a new smartphone app to make CBM more readily accessible. An open-label pilot study of the app was conducted with 1309 Australians who met criteria for harmful/hazardous drinking and wanted to reduce their drinking. Participants were encouraged to complete two weekly training sessions for 4-weeks and then completed post-training surveys and a 1-month follow-up. We found the app had high feasibility and acceptability. In terms of its impact on drinking outcomes, participants significantly reduced their weekly consumption by a mean of 8.1 standard drinks and significantly reduced their drinking days, craving and severity of alcohol dependence.
In this world-first study of a personalised, smartphone-delivered CBM app the findings suggest it holds the potential to benefit the many thousands of Australians who drink at hazardous levels. Given its low-cost and high scalability-smartphone-delivered CBM could offer a convenient, anonymous and readily available tool to help reduce alcohol cravings and consumption at times when individuals need it most. This app is now being tested with a range of different populations and settings.
Project team
Turning Point team
Professor Victoria Manning, Professor Dan Lubman, Dr Joshua Garfield, and Mr Hugh Piercy.