Alcohol Use Disorders- Mobile Based Brief Intervention Treatment (AMBIT): Technological innovation to bridge the treatment gap for hazardous drinking

AMBIT is a two-year project that is aimed at developing and evaluating a contextually appropriate mobile based brief intervention treatment to reduce hazardous drinking among adults in low resource settings.

AMBIT also aims to 1) Examine if it is acceptable/feasible to deliver such an intervention in an Indian setting; 2) Conduct preliminary testing to see if the intervention helps in reducing drinking; and 3) Fine-tune procedures for the definitive testing of the effectiveness of the intervention. The aims of the program will be achieved through a range of processes including identification of the existing evidence; development of the intervention in partnership with our technology partner and utilising feedback from a range of individuals and groups including hazardous drinkers; refinement of the intervention; and testing of its preliminary impact.

The output of this treatment development process would be a contextually acceptable and feasible mobile technology- delivered BI package which can then be tested in a larger trial.  If successfully developed and found to be cost-effective, our intervention can reach millions of people across the world (as mobile phone use has increased exponentially even across the developing world) and could be a real game changer in the field of public health.

Project Team

Prof Abhijit Nadkarni – Principal Investigator

Professor Richard Velleman – Co-Investigator

Sheina Paula Pereira Costa – Project Coordinator

Funder

Medical Research Council, UK

Project partners

VIAMO (Votomobile India Pvt. Ltd.)