Recovery & Continuing Care: There is an App For That

A-CHESS (Addiction-Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System) was developed as an accessible, multifaceted continuing care option for people with an alcohol use disorder, allowing for monitoring, information sharing, communication, and access to support services for patients, including spaces for patients and counselors to continue communicating post-treatment.

Upon discharge from one of three residential treatment facilities, 349 patients were randomized to receive A-CHESS (or were placed in the control group). During the 8-month long intervention, and 4-month long follow-up period, participants receiving A-CHESS reported significantly fewer drinking days than participants randomized to the control condition.

A-CHESS participants were more likely than control patients to remain abstinent throughout the entire intervention and follow-up period.

Subsidiary analyses revealed a dose response effect such that number of risky drinking days was associated with number of pages viewed in A-CHESS and number of days the participant used A-CHESS. Number of services used through A-CHESS was not associated with number of risky drinking days.

CITATIONS

Gustafson DH, McTavish FM, Chih M, Atwood AK, Johnson RA, Boyle MG, Levy MS, Driscoll H, Chisholm SM, Dillenburg L, Isham A, Shah D (2014). A Smartphone Application to Support Recovery from Alcoholism: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online March 26, 2014.