Text message-based intervention helps with sobriety maintenance

(HealthDay)—Mobile alcohol interventions may help liver transplant candidates with alcoholic liver disease (ALD) maintain sobriety, according to a study published online March 2 in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Kelly DeMartini, Ph.D., from Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and colleagues conducted an eight-week pilot study examining the feasibility of a text message-based alcohol intervention among 15 liver transplant candidates diagnosed with ALD who reported at least one drinking episode in the past year.

The researchers found that participants responded to 81 percent of messages received and reported high rates of intervention satisfaction, looked forward to receiving the messages, and found it easy to complete the intervention. No participants in the text message group had positive urine alcohol tests at the end of the trial, while two of the six participants in the standard care group tested positive. The intervention had no effect on craving. Participants receiving text messages had less stress at four weeks and eight weeks, compared to the control group at baseline.

"Participants who received the intervention had better treatment outcomes than those who received standard care," the authors write.