Alcohol Help Center

Description:

Alcohol Help Center uses cognitive behavioural exercises to help participants to track their drinking practices, learn about its health risks, their triggers and aims to teach you how to set goals and learn useful techniques to cut down and plan for high risk situations.  The site includes a daily diary to monitor intake, an instant messaging service, 11 weeks of email support and 31 days of coping tips and text messages to keep you motivated. The program is designed for you to work through at your own pace and an online support forum also allows you to interact with others doing the program too.  Check Your Drinking, which is also summarised on Beacon, is an important aspect of the Alcohol Help Center program so we recommend you check that summary too.

Service URL:

http://www.alcoholhelpcenter.net/

Agency Responsible:

Evolution Health Systems Inc..

Details

Format:

Website.

Intervention Type:

Psychological – CBT. Also includes Relapse Prevention and Moderated Peer Support

Course Length:

Long (more than 5 modules). Self-paced but comprises 11 weeks of emails and 31 days of coping tips and text message support for those who reside in North America

Support Option:

Clinical support. Also includes lay support through online support groups

Target Audience

Primary Category:

Alcohol.

Target Audience:

Adult.

Language:

English.

Access

Fee:

Free.

Access:

Open: With registration. No registration is required to view the online support group

Contact Details:

bizdev@evolutionhs.com

Research evidence

Research Trials:

1

Research RCTs:

0

Outcome Summary:

One trial has been conducted on the Alcohol Help Center (AHC)  internet intervention, comparing it to a brief, validated intervention. 

The effectiveness of the AHC in reducing alcohol consumption (1) has been compared to a brief internet assessment of alcohol use (Check Your Drinking (CYD)). In this study, a group of 170 participants with hazardous drinking patterns were randomly assigned to either the AHC or CYD condition. At a 6 month follow-up, AHC participants showed lower levels of drinking (average number of highest drinks consumed on one occasion), compared to the CYD group (10.3 and 11.5 respectively). No other significant differences were reported between the groups at 6 months.

While the results showing AHC intervention was more effective than CYD in reducing alcohol consumption are promising, the findings are limited by the lack of a control group.  Further research utilising a control group is needed.

A larger randomised trial is currently underway (as of 2015), once again comparing AHC with CYD. This trial is aiming to randomise 240 participants to each of these interventions (N=480), and follow-up with them to 2 years post-intervention, increasing both the sample size and follow-up length of Cunningham's 2012 (pilot) trial.  

There have also been 5 other studies on a component of the AHC, the Check Your Drinking (CYD) intervention. These are reviewed under the Beacon listing for CYD.  

Recommended rating, reviewer 1:

Recommended rating, reviewer 2:

Read more about Beacon's Smiley Rating System.

Research paper citations

Evidence evaluation studies:

1. Cunningham, J. A. (2012). Comparison of two internet-based interventions for problem drinkers: Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 14(4), e107.

Additional references:

Van Mierlo, T. (2014). The 1% rule in four digital health social networks: An observational study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16 (2), e33.

Cunningham, J. A., van Mierlo, T., & Fournier, R. (2008). An online support group for problem drinkers: AlcoholHelpCenter.net. Patient Education and Counselling, 70(2), 193-198.

Cunningham, J. A., et al. (2015). "Randomized controlled trial of a minimal versus extended Internet-based intervention for problem drinkers: study protocol." BMC Public Health 15(1): 21.