Usefulness of Supportive Text Messages in the Treatment of Depressed Alcoholics

Summary

Background:

There is abundant evidence that rates of comorbidity between substance use and depression are high (1, 2) and the risk of poor outcome is higher among individuals with the dual disorder compared with those with a single disorder (3, 4, 5, 6). Previous research has shown that about 50% of persons studied with severe mental illness and past substance abuse are likely to have a recurrence of substance abuse within 1 year of discharge from treatment (7).

There is therefore a clear clinical challenge in treating patients with the dual disorder which may calls for further research and the possible introduction of new and innovative strategies including the use of mobile phone technology to provide increased support for patients with the dual diagnosis.

There are established research evidence for using Short Message Service (SMS) text messages to remind patients of scheduled medical appointments (8,9,10,12, 13), coordinate medical staff,(14) deliver medical test results,(15,16) , promote smoking cessation ( 17), improve self-monitoring among the youth with type 1 diabetes( 18), promote weight loss among obese subjects (19 ) and monitor patient side effects following treatment(20).

Relevance of the research:

To date, after an extensive review of the literature using MEDLINE, Pub Med, ERIC, Web of Science, Science Direct and PsycINFO, no studies was found on the use of SMS text messages as an intervention to address abstinence amongst alcohol dependent subjects who are co-morbid for a depressive disorder. Thus, the investigators seek to determine if text messaging is a useful and effective strategy to help maintain abstinence, improve adherence with medication and ultimately promote mental stability in depressed patients discharged from an in-patient dual diagnosis programme. The investigators hypothesize that, daily supportive/reminder SMS text messages to depressed patients discharged from an in-patient dual diagnosis programme would increase alcohol abstinence rates , improve medication adherence rates and improve the overall mental well being of patients compared with those receiving treatment as usual.

Conditions

• Depression
• Alcohol Use Disorder

Interventions

OTHER

Supportive SMS text messages

Patients in the intervention group would receive twice daily supportive SMS text messages for 3 months from the treating team which would encourage/motivate them to refrain from drinking alcohol and comply with their medication. They would also receive a fortnightly phone call from an unblinded member of the research/treating team which would only serve the purpose of confirming that they still uses the mobile phone and receive the text messages.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• St Patrick's Hospital, Ireland

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Dublin, Trinity College

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Declan McLoughlin, PhD · University of Dudlin Trinity College & St Patricks University Hospital

• Conor Farren, PhD · St Patrick's University Hospital

• Vincent IO Agyapong, MSc MRCPsych · University of Dublin, Trinity College Dublin

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

64 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2009-09-30

Primary Completion

2012-01-31

Completion

2012-01-31

Countries

• Ireland

Study Locations