In conclusion, the methodological quality of attentional bias studies is moderate and can be improved. An attentional bias to sensory pain words exist in those who are concerned about pain. The implications for future research and for understandings of chronic pain, distress and suffering will be discussed. Objectives: People who drink in a problematic or risky manner comprise a larger group than people who are alcohol dependent, yet treatment for problem drinkers is much less prevalent in the U. S. Using technological solutions to bring interventions to problem drinkers promises to make appropriate treatment options more widely available. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) with speech recognition is an underused technology that is accessible to anyone with a telephone. IVR is being used to develop and evaluate an evidence-based automated treatment program based on Behavioral Self-control Training. This program is being tested in a randomized clinical trial for problem drinkers. Objectives: Stress and use of alcohol and drugs often vary from day to day. The goal of these studies was to investigate whether Interactive Voice Response (IVR) could serve as a useful technology for real-time assessments of stress as well as alcohol and drug use. Methods: Two samples are included. The first one is completed and includes 84 university students who were exposed to real-time IVR assessment three times daily during a total period of seven consecutive days. A second study is ongoing and will include 200 paroled clients to be followed daily during the first thirty days after release from prison. Half of the clients, randomised, will get automatic feedback on their results and simultaneously an e-mail report will be sent to the parole officer in order to provide a basis for further processing. Results and conclusions: In the first study, all the participating university students were followed throughout the week (100%). In total, stress and alcohol use was assessed in 1 567 out of 1 764 (89%) data collection calls. Preliminary data from the second study show the same high response rate, and 89% of all daily data collection calls have been answered. IVR methodology thus offers a promising new technology for daily assessments of stress and use of alcohol and drugs in both university students and paroled offenders. Background: The Influenza A/H1N1 outbreak was announced on April 24, 2009, and quickly made news headlines. This research investigated whether public anxiety about pandemic influenza was reflected in language use in web blogs, and whether the use of anxiety words on internet blogs was related to online informationseeking behaviour.