Now, smartphone app can help recovering alcoholics avoid bars

A new smartphone app for recovering alcoholics has been developed that sounds a panic alert when they get too close to bars.

The smartphone application appears to help patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) reduce risky drinking days compared to patients who received usual care after leaving treatment in a residential program.

Alcohol dependence is a lifetime psychiatric diagnosis with relapse rates similar to other chronic illnesses. Continuing care for AUDs has been associated with better outcomes, but patients leaving treatment for AUDs typically are not offered aftercare.

The authors randomized 349 patients with alcohol dependence leaving three residential programs to treatment as usual (n=179) for a year or treatment plus a smartphone (n=170) with the Addiction-Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (A-CHESS) application.

The application featured audio-guided relaxation and alerts if patients neared a high-risk location, such as a bar they used to frequent.

Patients who used the smartphone application reported fewer risky drinking days (when a patient's drinking in a two-hour period exceeded four standard drinks for men and three for women) compared with controls (an average 1.37 fewer risky drinking days in the smartphone application group).

A standard drink is a 12-ounce beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits. Patients using the smartphone application also had a higher likelihood of consistent abstinence from alcohol.

The study is published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.