Smartphone-Based Intervention for Sleep Disturbance in Individuals Recovering from Alcohol Use Disorder

The most recent national surveys indicate that alcohol use disorders adversely affect the well beingwork productivityfinancial welfare and families of at leastmillion AmericansEvery year a very substantial proportion of the individuals who suffer from alcohol use disorderAUDattempt to stop drinkingbut somewhere betweenandwill relapse within the first three monthsOne of the most consistent correlates of early recovery is sleep problemsImportantlythese sleep problems constitute a major risk factor for relapseWhile some efforts have been made to address this critical risk factor through targeted interventionsto date these efforts have been limited to small populations of patients and have yet to receive broad disseminationHealthRhythmsIncwww healthrhythms comwas founded inwith the goal of using mobile technology to add the layer of behavioral health care to all of healthcareOur product model capitalizes on the ubiquity and intimacy of smartphones and their capacity to sense parameters of behavior that represent key indicators of behavioral health on abasis that are captured in the user s natural environmentWe then build on that measurement to create highly personalized interventions for mental and addictive disorders with a particular focus on sleep wake and rest activity regulationThrough our initial SBIR fundingwe have built and are currently validating Cuea mobile intervention app aimed at regularizing sleep wake and other behavioral rhythms as a means of ameliorating symptoms of depression and anxietyWe now propose to adapt Cueto the specific needs of individuals with AUD in early recovery who are experiencing difficulties with sleepThe product we envision will ultimately have three major componentsautomatic behavioral monitoring via the sensors on the smartphonepsychoeducation about sleep and the complex relationship between sleep and AUD andpersonalized intervention based on the principles of cognitive behavioral treatment for insomniaCBT Iand built upon the individual user s sensed behavioral profileThe Specific Aims of this Fast Track application arePHASE IAimAchieve a better understanding of the specific sleep difficulties experienced by individuals with AUD who are in the early recovery phasethe first six months of attempted abstinenceAimBased on the data obtained in these interviewscreate a Beta version of the proposed interventiontentatively calledCueToSleepPHASE IIAimBeta test CueToSleep andbased on user feedbackprepare the final version of the app for an adequately powered RCTAimTest the efficacy of CueToSleep in comparison to monitoring alone in terms of its ability to improve sleep and diminish the risk of relapse and examine moderators and mediators of treatment outcomePROJECT NARRATIVE HealthRhythmsIncis on a mission to become the world leader in tracking clinically meaningful behavioral health rhythms in order to provide automated intervention advice to patients around the globeThe work we propose in this Fast Track SBIR application will enable HealthRhythms create and test a smartphone application to address the sleep problems experienced by individuals with alcohol use disorder who are in early recoverySince such sleep problems represent a major risk factor for relapsethis intervention app has the potential to reduce the risk of relapse andin so doingimprove the lives of individuals with AUD and reduce the costs of their healthcare