A-CHESS App Helps Prevent Alcohol Abuse: Study

A new smartphone app helps prevent alcohol abuse by helping people refrain from risky drinking, according to a study.

The Addiction-Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System was developed by the National Institute of Alcohol, Abuse and Alcoholism to provide consistent support to those overcoming alcohol addiction. It provides access to various support groups and counselors to help patients maintain sobriety and abstain from risky drinking In addition, using GPS, these apps can track bars and drinking places and warn the users by sending alert messages in case they approach such locations.

David Gustafson, study author and professor of industrial engineering and preventive medicine at the University of Wisconsin said, "These sorts of systems have enormous potential. They are going to allow us to turn around not only addiction treatment, but the whole field of health care," reports HealthDay News.

Researchers from the University of Madison, Wisconsin, conducted a study to test the effectiveness of the A-CHESS app on 349 patients suffering from alcohol addiction. The participants underwent five de-addiction programs and nearly half of them were given a smart phone with the A-CHESS app a week before their release.

The apps had recorded videos of previously alcoholic people sharing their addiction distress or videos of a family member pleading them not to drink. Each time the subjects browsed for a bar, the app automatically played these videos, motivating them to avoid drinking.

 In twelve months, almost 52 percent of the participants who had used the app were able to achieve complete sobriety compared to 40 percent of those who did not receive the app.

The authors also noted a reduction in the risky drinking days by 1.4 days in A-CHESS using patients compared to 2.75 days in others.

"This type of application can help people learn ways of resisting alcohol use outside of a controlled setting like an addiction center. It does seem a little intrusive, but for people who are really battling with alcoholism, they need a lot of this type of monitoring and ongoing support. They do well in controlled settings, but when they leave the center and go back into their environment, they are at risk for relapse," said Scott Krakower, co-author of the study and  a drug addiction specialist and assistant unit chief of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital.

Experts said the app costs around$10,000,  which is expensive for the common public and estimated that it might require another year to reach 100 patients.

More information is available in the JAMA Psychiatry.