Utility of interactive voice response self-monitoring in stabilizing initial change during natural recovery attempts among persons with alcohol use disorder

Background

Providing extensive low threshold, low intensity interventions during self-initiated recovery attempts may help to stabilize initial change during early recovery when relapse risk is high. This study provided untreated persons with alcohol use disorder (AUD) daily access to an interactive voice response (IVR) self-monitoring system during the early months of a natural recovery attempt to report drinking-related variables. The study prospectively examined event-level associations among IVR call frequency, urges to drink, and drinking practices to evaluate whether more frequent IVR utilization helped participants to manage urges and attenuated the established relationship between urges and relapse.

Methods

Recently resolved untreated problem drinkers (N = 128) recruited from the community received daily IVR access via telephone for 4–5 months to report their urges to drink and drinking practices during the preceding 24 h. Among IVR callers, analyses using SAS Proc Glimmix evaluated associations among IVR utilization, urges to drink, and drinking practices.

Results

Consistent with previous research, greater urges were associated with a higher likelihood of heavy drinking. Moreover, heavier drinking was associated overall with higher IVR utilization, and the more frequently participants called the IVR system over time, the likelihood of heavy drinking episodes was less strongly related to urges.

Conclusions

Recently resolved persons with AUD who experienced higher urges to drink and were consuming alcohol above heavy drinking thresholds received some limited benefits in slowing their return to a heavy drinking pattern if they called the IVR system frequently, even though they were not successfully maintaining their initial abstinent or moderation drinking recoveries. These results, using a prospective design, indicated complex event-level associations among IVR calls, urges, and drinking during early natural recovery that merit further investigation.