Jellinek alcohol self-help course

Description:

The Jellinek alcohol self-help course is a fully automated, self-guided treatment program based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and motivational interviewing (MI). The course comprises of a number of different exercises to help you regain control of your drinking. There are three sections; the Basics section gives access to your personal journal, the configuration settings for the course, and the online users' forum. The Exercises section contains a range of course assignments and exercises; here you can keep track of your cravings and how much alcohol you drink, record your own personal pros and cons around drinking, compile a list of your Top 5 highest-risk situations, specify how you plan to deal with higher-risk situations and what you will do if you slip up and start drinking too much again. In the Records section, you can examine your craving and drinking records, see if you're achieving your targets, and identify situations in which you have trouble refraining from drinking. In the first week of the course, you rate your list of potential risk situations and then draw up a list of your top 5 highest-risk situations. You may also make entries in your journal and look at the users' forum. In subsequent weeks you will be assigned a new exercise each week. It is recommended that you use the program daily for at least 4 weeks, even if it is just spending 2 minutes a day filling in the record keeping form.

Service URL:

http://www.jellinek.nl/english

Agency Responsible:

Jellinek.

Details

Format:

Website.

Intervention Types:

Psychological – CBT and Other. Also utilises motivational interviewing

Course Length:

Long (more than 5 modules). Minimum duration of 4 weeks recommended

Support Option:

Automated only.

Target Audience

Primary Category:

Alcohol.

Target Audience:

Adult.

Languages:

English and Dutch. Also provided in Turkish and Moroccan Arabic

Access

Fee:

Free.

Access:

Open: With registration.

Contact Details:

preventie@jellinek.nl

Research evidence

Research Trials:

1

Research RCTs:

1

Outcome Summary:

One randomised controlled trial (RCT) has compared the Jellinek alcohol self-help course to an online therapy condition (which including synchronous text-based chat-therapy sessions lasting 40 min. each) and a no treatment wait-list control condition. Participants in the online therapy group and those in the self-help group both reduced their alcohol consumption significantly more than wait-list controls (d = .59 and d = .36 for each group respectively). Both treatment groups also experienced equal reductions in alcohol-related problems and improvements in quality of life. There were no significant outcome differences between the online therapy and self-help groups after 3 months, but after 6 months the therapy group showed larger reductions than the self-help group. Overall, the results of this study indicate that internet-based self-help is effective in reducing problematic alcohol use, but larger effects were obtained for internet-based therapy than for internet-based self-help.

Recommended rating, reviewer 1:

Recommended rating, reviewer 2:

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Research paper citations

Efficacy Studies

1. Blankers, M., Koeter, M. W., & Schippers, G. M. (2011). Internet therapy versus internet self-help versus no treatment for problematic alcohol use: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2011 Jun;79(3):330-41.

Additional Reference

1. Blankers, M., Koeter, M. W., & Schippers, G. M. (2009). Evaluating real-time internet therapy and online self-help for problematic alcohol consumers: a three-arm RCT protocol. BMC Public Health, 9(16).