Digital recovery networks: Characterizing user participation, engagement, and outcomes of a novel recovery social network smartphone application

Ashford, Robert D.; Giorgi, Salvatore; Mann, Beau; Pesce, Chris; Sherritt, Lon; Ungar, Lyle H.; Curtis, Brenda

doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2019.11.005

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Studies of free, recovery-specific social network sites have focused on the most active users within Intherooms.com, available via website and smartphone application, and Sober Grid, available via smartphone application only (Ashford et al, 2020;Bergman et al, 2017). Individuals who participate on these sites may have substance use and psychiatric disorder histories, with the majority having attended formal treatment as well as MHOs such as AA.…”

Section: Recovery-specific Social Network Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, duration of recovery and degree of community engagement may be site dependent. For example, the average Sober Grid participant had less than 1 year of continuous abstinence and logged on for 12.5 sessions (Ashford et al, 2020), whereas the average Intherooms.com participant had 7 years of continuous abstinence and logged on several times per week for 30 min per session, on average (Bergman et al, 2017). Intherooms.com data, however, were based on participant report, while Sober Grid data were based on objectively derived site analytics.…”

Section: Recovery-specific Social Network Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Online digital recovery support services: An overview of the science and their potential to help individuals with substance use disorder during COVID-19 and beyond

Bergman

Kelly

2021

Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background The COVID-19 pandemic and related social distancing public health recommendations will have indirect consequences for individuals with current and remitted substance use disorder (SUD). Not only will stressors increase risk for symptom exacerbation and/or relapse, but individuals will also have limited service access during this critical time. Individuals with SUD are using free, online digital recovery support services (D-RSS) that leverage social engagement (i.e., social-online D-RSS) and simultaneously help these individuals to access support and adhere to public health guidelines. Barriers to SUD treatment and recovery support service access, however, are not unique to the COVID-19 epoch. The pandemic creates an opportunity to highlight problems that will persist beyond its immediate effects, and offer potential solutions that might help to address these long-standing, systemic issues. To help providers and other key stakeholders effectively support those interested in, or who might benefit from, participation in free, social-online D-RSS, we review the expected therapeutic benefits and potential drawbacks of social-online D-RSS; we provide a typology to describe the array of services that a D-RSS can provide; and we discuss a D-RSS “case study” to illustrate how to apply the theory and typology, what is known empirically, and whether to refer and how to engage individuals with these online resources. Method Narrative review combining research and theory on both in-person and online D-RSS. Results Studies targeting in-person recovery support services, such as AA and other mutual-help groups, combined with theory about how social-online D-RSS might confer benefits, suggest these digital supports may engage individuals with SUD and mobilize salutary change in similar ways. While people may use in-person and digital supports simultaneously, when comparing the two modalities, communication theory and telemedicine group therapy data suggest that D-RSS may not provide the same magnitude of benefit as in-person services. Research has not yet rigorously tested the effectiveness of social-online D-RSS specifically, though existing data suggest that those who use these services generally find their participation to be helpful. Content analyses suggest that these services are likely to facilitate social support and unlikely to expose individuals to harmful situations. Conclusions When in-person treatment and recovery support services are limited, as is the case during the COVID-19 pandemic, expected therapeutic benefits and emerging data, taken together, suggest providers, mentors, and other community leaders may wish to refer individuals to social-online D-RSS. Given the array of available services with little existing data to guide specific recommendations, providers may rely upon the provided D-RSS typology as well as trusted federal, academic, and national practice organization referral lists offered h...

show abstract

Section: Recovery-specific Social Network Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Recovery-specific Social Network Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online digital recovery support services: An overview of the science and their potential to help individuals with substance use disorder during COVID-19 and beyond

Bergman

Kelly

2021

Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are a few studies which have investigated the impact of recovery specific online communities on recovery [42], [18]. For instance, authors in [1] analysed the data of subjects from Sober Grid, a recovery social network site -smart phone application, to identify the demographics, engagement patterns, and recovery outcomes of active subjects and to examine between generational group differences on activity variables and recovery outcomes. In [3], authors carried out qualitative analysis on data from IntheRooms, an online addiction recovery tool, to study the effectiveness of this online recovery community.…”

Section: Social Media and Addictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2) We estimate relapse over time in our dataset of Reddit users 1 , applying a model based on survival analysis. We observe that the sharpest decrease in the survival probability (probability of not experiencing the first reported relapse) happens during the first 6 months of recovery, and the probability of relapse decreases with increasing time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Group Memberships Online Protect Addicts in Recovery Against Relapse?

Naserianhanzaei

Koschate

2021

Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Social Identity Model of Recovery (SIMOR) suggests that addiction recovery is a journey through time where membership in various groups facilitates success. With the help of computational approaches, we now have access to new resources to study whether a wide variety of different online communities can be part of the addiction recovery journey. In this work, we study the effects of two main social factors on recovery success: first, multiple group membership defined in terms of richness of online community engagement; second, active participation operationalized as the evenness in engagement with these groups. We then model recovery from addiction by applying the extended Cox regression model which accounts for the effect of these two factors on time to relapse. We applied our analysis to a dataset of 457 recovering opioid addicts that self-announced the date of their recovery, indicating that at least 219 (48%) addicts relapsed during the recovery period. We find that multiple group membership -in terms of the number of other forums that a subject had posted in -as well as active participation -in terms of how evenly their posts were spread amongst the different forums -reduced the risk of relapse. We discuss our findings with regards to the opportunity, but also risk, that online group membership poses for recovering opioid addicts, as well as the possible contribution that computational social science methods can make to the study of addiction and recovery.

show abstract

“…Foram desenvolvidos aplicativos mHealth com a capacidade de rastrear uma variedade de comportamentos de saúde, condições ou resultados, incluindo consumo de álcool, uso de substâncias e outros comportamentos de dependência (Ashford et al, 2020). Os dados coletados pelo celular podem ajudar a prever possíveis recaídas e intervir junto ao usuário antes do uso de substâncias (Ferreri et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Aplicativo mHealth para monitoramento de recaída no uso de substâncias lícitas e ilícitas vinculado a um serviço de saúde

Silva

Pinto²,

Garbi³

2022

RSD

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objetivo: O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar o processo de criação de um protótipo do aplicativo (App) mHealth, chamado APTAD Natal. O App se direciona aos pacientes dependentes de cigarro, álcool e/ou drogas ilícitas atendidos no Ambulatório de Prevenção e Tratamento do Tabagismo, Alcoolismo e Outras Drogadições (APTAD), localizado na cidade de Natal, no Brasil. O protótipo tem a finalidade de auxiliar no monitoramento de recaídas por meio do automonitoramento e da vigilância dos familiares, para que o paciente se mantenha abstêmio e, assim, reduza os fatores de risco para as Doenças Crônicas Não Transmissíveis. Método: Utilizou-se a prática de pesquisa do Design Participativo, visando a conscientização dos profissionais da equipe multiprofissional do serviço de saúde quanto ao uso das ferramentas da Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação (TIC). Resultados: Houve sucesso na entrega do protótipo do aplicativo mHealth APTAD Natal aos profissionais da equipe multiprofissional, aos pacientes atendidos no ambulatório e aos seus familiares. O instrumento se destaca por inovar ao prestar suporte terapêutico às três dependências mais prevalentes: tabagismo, etilismo e uso de substâncias ilícitas, além de funcionar integrado ao sistema de Prontuário Eletrônico do Paciente já em uso no ambulatório. Conclusão: Mediante o compartilhamento de dificuldades e experiências dos profissionais de saúde e o uso da TIC e das ferramentas do mHealth (Saúde Móvel), é possível inovar e aumentar o alcance das intervenções terapêuticas de forma remota através dos aplicativos mHealth, que auxiliam no tratamento dos pacientes diariamente, 24h por dia.

show abstract

Digital recovery networks: Characterizing user participation, engagement, and outcomes of a novel recovery social network smartphone application

Cited by 17 publications

References 38 publications

Online digital recovery support services: An overview of the science and their potential to help individuals with substance use disorder during COVID-19 and beyond

Online digital recovery support services: An overview of the science and their potential to help individuals with substance use disorder during COVID-19 and beyond

Do Group Memberships Online Protect Addicts in Recovery Against Relapse?

Aplicativo mHealth para monitoramento de recaída no uso de substâncias lícitas e ilícitas vinculado a um serviço de saúde

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About