WASHINGTON – Internet-based brief screening and self-help interventions for addictions provide an option for people who otherwise might not make it in to see a clinician in person, according to an addiction specialist who has been piloting such programs for alcohol and tobacco abuse.
Studies have shown that problem drinkers and gamblers, for instance, have ready access to the Internet and may be more likely to first seek help online rather than in a face-to-face encounter, said John A. Cunningham, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto.
Dr. Cunningham, who spoke at the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse, has worked as a consultant with Toronto-based V-CC Systems Inc., a company that develops and supports community-based interactive disease management programs.
One such tool can be found at www.checkyourdrinking.net
V-CC Systems has tried to evaluate whether using the screen changes behavior. It recruited study participants through random dialing, from which 185 people were selected. They were contacted 3 and 6 months after taking the brief screen. It was determined that those who had access to the Web site had reduced the number of drinks by 6 to 7 a week. It seemed that the screen was effective for people who had a drinking problem, but not as much so for other [addictions], said Dr. Cunningham.
Another V-CC site, www.alcoholhelpcenter.net
This site has not yet been evaluated in a formal study, but 650 posts to the online support groups have been analyzed, said Dr. Cunningham. A third of those were greetings and messages of support from support specialists, which is important because participants often are isolated and in need of such support. The support specialists are given specific instructions on how to “seed” discussions and respond to posts.
At the Stop Smoking Center (www.stopsmokingcenter.net
The Internet-based sites can be targeted to various audiences. For example, V-CC (www.v-cc.com