SBIR-STTR Award

The goals of this project are to develop, evaluate, and disseminate an Internet (web) application that teaches moderate drinking skills to members of the self-help organization, Moderation Management (MM) and to visitors to their web site. The application will be called Moderate Drinking (MD). MM (www.moderation.org) describes itself as an organization that can be helpful for problem or heavy drinkers but not alcoholics. It pursues this mission by specifying a program of behavioral change with a goal of moderate and non-problematic drinking. MM offers an online mutual-help community via a listserv, face-to-face meetings, and written materials describing the elements of behavioral change and the MM program. The core elements of behavioral change in MM are similar to those of behavioral self-control training (BSCT), a moderation oriented intervention with strong empirical support. MM has additional elements not usually included in BSCT protocols including a detailed consideration of abstinence as a goal, a 30 day period of abstinence with self-monitoring prior to attempting moderate drinking, management of urges and cravings, segues to abstinence if moderation is not successful, and a more detailed relapse prevention component. A self-help organization with an empirical orientation, MM is interested in working with researchers to understand the impact of their efforts and to improve the effectiveness of the help they offer problem drinkers. Developing, evaluating, and disseminating a Moderate Drinking web application could help more members of MM be successful with a goal of non-problematic, moderate drinking. The goals of Phase I are to develop a limited prototype web application and conduct a pilot study with established MM members to evaluate its technical merit and feasibility. A panel of MM professional advisors also will evaluate the prototype. Phase II goals include the completion of the application, pilot testing, and a controlled clinical trial with a 12 month follow-up to assess effectiveness.

Thesaurus Terms:
alcoholism /alcohol abuse education, behavior therapy, computer assisted instruction, educational resource design /development, self help Internet, alcoholism /alcohol abuse therapy, computer assisted patient care, computer system design /evaluation, drug /alcohol abstinence, education evaluation /planning, human therapy evaluation, information dissemination, training behavioral /social science research tag, clinical research, human subject

The goals of this project are to develop, evaluate, and disseminate an Internet (web) application, Moderate Drinking (MD). MD will use a behavioral self-control training (BSCT) protocol that helps drinkers learn skills to either moderate their drinking or to abstain. The target population is members of the self-help organization, Moderation Management (MM) and to visitors to their web site. MM describes itself as an organization that can be helpful for problem drinkers wanting to either moderate their drinking or to abstain. Its members tend to be less severe problem drinkers with few signs of dependence. MM offers written materials describing a program of behavioral change, an online mutual-help community, and face-to-face meetings. Their behavioral change program is a version of a current generation BSCT protocol that will be used in the web application. BSCT is an intervention with strong empirical support. The interactive program will be unique on the Internet. The program will help users choose a goal (moderation or abstinence) then learn cognitive and behavioral skills necessary to achieve and maintain their goal. Modules include goal setting, self-monitoring, "doing a 30," increasing motivation and self-efficacy, identifying and managing triggers, developing alternatives, coping with lapses/relapses, and a segue to abstinence if the user is having difficulty achieving and maintaining moderation. Because moderate drinking is an option, the program may to appeal to less severely dependent drinkers who might otherwise avoid a program that is purely abstinence based. This group of less severely dependent drinkers is an under served but growing population. Phase II goals are to complete the development of the program, pilot test it, and conduct a randomized controlled trial with a 12 month follow-up to assess its effectiveness. The experimental group will receive training via the MD web site and will participate in MM's online mutual help community. The control group will only participate in the online mutual help community.

Thesaurus Terms:
alcoholic beverage consumption, alcoholism /alcohol abuse education, alcoholism /alcohol abuse therapy, behavior therapy, computer assisted instruction, educational resource design /development, human therapy evaluation, self help Internet, clinical trial, computer system design /evaluation, drug /alcohol abstinence, education evaluation /planning, goal oriented behavior, interactive multimedia, longitudinal human study, relapse /recurrence, self help organization, training behavioral /social science research tag, clinical research, human subject, patient oriented research