The Effectiveness of a Mobile Game Intervention in Alcohol Use Disorder

Summary

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile game application targeting attentional bias modification for alcohol stimuli in patients with Alcohol Use Disorder. Attentional bias is the tendency for individuals to pay more attention to some environmental stimuli than others. Previous evidence suggests that attentional bias for alcohol stimuli is associated with severity of drinking and craving. The research questions are as follows; * Does the developed mobile game application reduce the attentional bias related to alcohol? * Does the developed mobile game application reduce alcohol craving severity? * Does the developed mobile game application reduce the severity of alcohol drinking? The researchers will evaluate the effectiveness of the mobile game, which aims to reduce attentional bias to alcohol stimuli, as standard treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder (medical treatment) versus standard treatment + mobile game application group. Participants, * Comply with the medical treatment prescribed by the doctor * Use the mobile gaming app every other day for one month * Come back in a month for an evaluation * Be available for a telephone interview three months after the first interview

Timeline

Start

2024-06-11

Primary completion

2025-05-30

Completion

2025-06-30

Publications

• Background Kvamme TL, Pedersen MU, Overgaard M, Thomsen KR, Voon V. Pilot study: Improving attention bias modification of alcohol cues through concealed gaze-contingent feedback in alcohol dependence. Addict Behav Rep. 2019 Nov 6;10:100231. doi: 10.1016/j.abrep.2019.100231. eCollection 2019 Dec.
• Background Heitmann J, van Hemel-Ruiter ME, Huisman M, Ostafin BD, Wiers RW, MacLeod C, DeFuentes-Merillas L, Fledderus M, Markus W, de Jong PJ. Effectiveness of attentional bias modification training as add-on to regular treatment in alcohol and cannabis use disorder: A multicenter randomized control trial. PLoS One. 2021 Jun 4;16(6):e0252494. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252494. eCollection 2021.

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