title: Alcohol cognitive bias modification training for problem drinkers over the web.
abstract: Following successful outcomes of cognitive bias modification (CBM) programs for alcoholism in clinical and community samples, the present study investigated whether different varieties of CBM (attention control training and approach-bias re-training) could be delivered successfully in a fully automated web-based way and whether these interventions would help self-selected problem drinkers to reduce their drinking. Participants were recruited through online advertising, which resulted in 697 interested participants, of whom 615 were screened in. Of the 314 who initiated training, 136 completed a pretest, four sessions of computerized training and a posttest. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions (attention control or one of three varieties of approach-bias re-training) or a sham-training control condition. The general pattern of findings was that participants in all conditions (including participants in the control-training condition) reduced their drinking. It is suggested that integrating CBM with online cognitive and motivational interventions could improve results.
authors.affiliation: Addiction Development and Psychopathology (ADAPT) Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: r.wiers@uva.nl.
authors.forename: Reinout W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Wiers
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Katrijn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Houben
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Education and Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran; School of Psychology, Bangor University, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Javad S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Fadardi
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands; RIVM, Centre for Infectious Disease Control, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van Beek
authors.affiliation: Methods and Statistics, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mijke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rhemtulla
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Bangor University, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: W Miles
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Cox
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Alcohol; Approach bias; Attentional bias; Cognitive bias modification; E-health