Web-based Interventions Proven Effective in Treating Substance Abuse Problems
A new study in the American Journal Of Psychiatry (Volume 171, Issue 6, June 2014) shows that incorporating a web-based educational intervention in the treatment of drug abuse can not only help people stop using drugs, but can also keep them in treatment longer. TES is a web-based version of the Community Reinforcement Approach plus Contingency Management, a packaged approach with demonstrated efficacy. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the NIH, funded this study. TES consists of 62 interactive modules that teach patients how to achieve and maintain abstinence from drug use and includes prize-based motivational incentives to encourage adherence to treatment. Patients given TES were less likely to drop out of treatment than those in the control group. Also, the web-based intervention helped patients stay abstinent from drug use, even those who were not abstinent at the beginning of the study. With such findings, web-based interventions like TES are promising a