A review of the use of mobile technology in substance abuse treatment

Abstract

The problem with substance abuse is a global phenomenon, with physical, psychological and social repercussions to individuals and those around them. The use of the Internet to deliver interventions for substance abuse treatment has been well documented in the available literature. With mobile phones becoming more and more ubiquitous, this presents a new frontier and possible medium of healthcare delivery. Smartphone applications offer a wide range of interventions, including motivational enhancement and location-based services for timely intervention. This study aims to review the literature on the efficacies of mobile health technology, including smartphone applications and text messages, in helping abusers decrease alcohol and recreational drug consumption.

A literature search was conducted on EMBASE, Medline and PsycInfo for studies published up till July 2016, along with the references of the relevant articles. Only randomized controlled trials focusing on the effects of mobile health technology in affecting the consumption patterns of alcohol or recreational drugs were included for analysis.

311 papers were identified from the databases. Only eight papers fulfilled all of the inclusion criteria, covering mostly USA and Western European countries. They measured various outcomes in the change in alcohol consumption pattern. There were no relevant studies on other recreational drugs. Four studies focused on smartphone applications, whilst the other four researched on short messaging services.

The study results show that there is no definitive evidence demonstrating the benefits of mobile technology in decreasing alcohol consumption. There is also a lack of research on the efficacies of many of the commercial applications available for download. Whilst there are various hypotheses that try to explain the results of mobile technology found in certain trials, more research still needs to be done to demonstrate the efficacy of these mobile health interventions and to optimize their content.