Text Messaging to Reduce Alcohol Relapse in Prelisting Liver Transplant Candidates: A Pilot Feasibility Study

Abstract

Participants reported high satisfaction with the intervention, looked forward to the messages, and found it easy to complete. Participants who received the intervention had better treatment outcomes than those who received standard care. They maintained higher levels of self-efficacy and lower stress. Mobile alcohol interventions may hold significant promise to help ALD liver transplant patients maintain sobriety.

A review of behavioral alcohol interventions for transplant candidates and recipients with alcohol-related liver disease

“…Search procedures (Figure ) yielded 471 unique abstracts (1986‐2018), 75 full‐text articles screened, and 11 eligible reports from 10 unique research teams. Reports included 2 completed and 1 failed randomized trial, and 8 observational studies (3 prospective and 5 retrospective) . Refer to Table for study characteristics.…”

“…DeMartini et al reported the first test of a technology‐based relapse prevention intervention. Researchers randomly assigned 15 transplant candidates to receive an 8‐week text messaging intervention in addition to psychological addiction counseling, or psychological addiction counseling alone.…”

“…Notably, there remain no controlled trials of RP for ALD patients. However, DeMartini et al found initial evidence for the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of a novel text‐messaging intervention informed by RP.…”

“…Randomized, prospective research on behavioral alcohol interventions in the transplant context is scant, leaving providers to make decisions about AUD treatments without ample research evidence. Nonetheless, several teams internationally have reported information on behavioral interventions for ALD patients, including some novel innovations . Given that there have been few efforts to summarize this literature, this scoping review aims to summarize characteristics and clinical outcomes of behavioral alcohol interventions for ALD patients in the transplant context.…”

Using Digital Interventions to Support Individuals with Alcohol Use Disorder and Advanced Liver Disease: A Bridge Over Troubled Waters

“…There has only been 1 peer‐reviewed study to date exploring the use of a digital intervention for individuals with ALD and AUD. DeMartini and colleagues () randomly assigned pre liver transplant candidates with alcoholic liver disease who reported at least 1 drinking episode in the past year to either receive 3 messages per day for 4 weeks and 3 messages per week for 4 weeks including feedback on cravings, mood, identification of high‐risk situations and coping ( n = 8), or no intervention ( n = 7). Main findings were that the SMS intervention was well received by participants and resulted in 0 of 8 participants with positive urine alcohol at 8 weeks versus 2 control participants.…”