Can supportive text messaging post-detox boost treatment outcomes following inpatient alcohol and other drug withdrawal?

The project aims to examine whether supportive motivational text messages can serve as ongoing support to reduce relapse rates and extend the duration of continued abstinence among patients recently discharged from in-patient alcohol or other drug (AOD) withdrawal. To achieve this 100 patients who have completed detoxification at Wellington House will participate in a randomised controlled trial of the intervention (study design). Patients will be notified by nursing staff that the study is taking place during admission. Those deemed eligibility by the resident doctor will be approached and invited to participate towards the end of their stay. Eligibility criteria are: (i) owning a mobile phone with credit (ii) familiarity with sending and receiving text messages (iii) available for a telephone follow-up interview 1 month after discharge. If interested the doctor will provide information and oversee the consent taking process if they wish to participate. The consent process will include a request for permission for the researchers to access their screening and assessment data. The resident doctor will complete the client locator form so they can be contacted for a one-month follow-up interview. Once this documentation has been faxed to the research team, the study coordinator at Turning Point (Dr Manning) will take the next sealed envelope which will contains the condition to which the participant is allocated. Commencing the day after discharge and for the subsequent 4 weeks, the intervention group will receive twice daily motivational SMS and the control group will receive no motivational SMS and only one message a week providing them with the telephone number for Directline should they require support/assistance. Both groups of participants will continue to receive the usual care planned for them prior to discharge from Wellington House for the duration of the study. Baseline and outcome measures for this project are: (i) The AUDIT and DUDIT for substance use severity and (ii) the K10 to measure psychological distress (from the routinely completed screen and assessment). Additional measures at the one month telephone interview will be the Timeline Followback to establish alcohol and drug use in the past month. The follow-up interview will take approximately 30 mins to complete over the phone with a researcher. Participants will be sent a weekly SMS asking them to report (via reply SMS) the number of AOD using days for that week.