Remote Alcohol Monitoring and Episodic Thinking
Condition: Alcohol Dependence; Alcohol-Related Disorders
MeSH terms: Alcoholism; Alcohol-Related Disorders
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Nearly 18% of United States adults meet criteria for alcohol dependence sometime in their
      lifetime, with only 24% of those individuals ever receiving any treatment for their disorder
      (Hasin et al., 2007). The pervasiveness of alcohol dependence indicates a need for continued
      development of high-impact treatments that are both effective and easily disseminated to a
      broad population. Recent evidence indicates that Episodic Future Thinking (EFT), the ability
      to self-project and pre-experience a future event, can help individuals to make changes to
      habitual behaviors, such as alcohol drinking (Snider et al., 2016). In this study, the
      investigators will evaluate the efficacy of EFT to help individuals reduce alcohol
      consumption. The investigators anticipate that EFT will result in a reduction in alcohol
      consumption over a 2-week experimental period when compared to the control group.
    

Detailed description: 
      After the initial consent and assessment sessions, participants will be asked to provide
      daily self-report assessments of previous-day drinking over cell phone for 7 days with no
      other study intervention taking place. The purpose for this baseline period is to quantify
      baseline drinking patterns and ensure that the participant reliably responds to and conveys
      study information via cell phone. At the end of this baseline period, participants who
      indicated adaquate patterns of drinking and successfully reported their level of drinking
      will be invited to continue in the study. Participants will return to the laboratory to be
      provided with a SOBERLINK breathalyzer and be given instruction in its use. The SOBERLINK
      device will automatically upload breathalyzer results, the participant's location, and the
      picture of the user to a centralized, secure website where the data will be available to
      research staff.

      Participants will be counterbalanced to either the active or control group based on alcohol
      use (e.g., average drinks per day). Both groups will be exposed to the same treatment events.
      The intervention period will last for 14 consecutive days, with three breathalyzer screens
      per day. During this 14-day period as they did during the baseline period, participants will
      self-report their previous-day alcohol use daily with a text message and/or phone call.
      Assessment sessions will be conducted prior to the intervention, immediately following the
      intervention, and at a 1-month follow-up.

      All participants will either be allowed to use their own personal cell phone for study
      communications or receive a prepaid cell phone with service through a nationwide cell phone
      service provider. The study-provided phones include usage controls, allowing us to restrict
      phone communication to a study phone and 911 service.

      Throughout the intervention phase of the experiment, participants will be required to submit
      three daily breathalyzer assessments at the predetermined times. They will be reminded via
      text message when a sample is to be collected, and samples will be accepted up to 15 minutes
      before the scheduled time and 30-60 minutes after the scheduled time, giving the participant
      45-75 minutes total to submit the sample.

      Participants will be assigned to either the active Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) condition
      or the control Episodic Recent Thinking (ERT) condition. EFT participants will generate
      positive future events they are looking forward to and that could happen at different future
      time points (e.g., in 2 weeks, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year) and participants in the ERT
      condition will list positive recent events (events that have already happened) that they
      enjoyed that occurred at different past time points (e.g., 12 hours ago, 24 hours ago,1 week
      ago). Participants will be instructed to use and think about their episodic cues as they make
      decisions. All participants will be provided with a copy of their episodic cues to take home
      with them and will receive periodic text messages from research staff to remind them of their
      cues. In addition, each day, participants will be asked to report how many alcoholic drinks
      they consumed the previous day (from the time they awoke to the time they fell asleep).
      Participants will be allowed to report this information via text message or phone call.
      Participants will receive a reminder to report their previous-day drinking with text
      messages, followed by a phone call if they haven't contacted us by early evening.

      Assessment sessions will be completed before the 14-day intervention period, immediately
      after the 14-day intervention period, and at a 1-month follow-up. Participants will complete
      a battery of questionnaires and tasks grouped into three general categories: measures of
      substance use (including a urine test for drug use and a breath sample to test for recent
      alcohol use), clinically relevant measures including treatment acceptability, and measures of
      alcohol value and sensitivity.
    

Intervention name(s): Episodic Future Thinking (EFT); Episodic Recent Thinking (ERT)
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): EFT participants will generate positive future events they are looking forward to and that could happen at different future time points (e.g., in 2 weeks, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year). Participants will be instructed to use and think about their episodic cues as they make decisions.; ERT participants will list positive recent events (events that have already happened) that they enjoyed that occurred at different past time points (e.g., 12 hours ago, 24 hours ago, a week ago). Participants will be instructed to use and think about their episodic cues as they make decisions.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Treatment