title: The effectiveness of telephone counselling in the treatment of illicit drug and alcohol use concerns.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Technology-assisted substance use interventions such as 'high-tech' internet-based treatments are thought to be effective; however, the relatively 'low-tech' use of telephone counselling does not yet have an established evidence base. This paper reviews the literature including articles with information on the use of telephone counselling for the treatment of illicit drug or alcohol use.
  
  
  METHODS
  A systematic literature search using a set of telephone counselling and substance-related terms was conducted across four electronic databases. English studies prior to June 2014 that involved the use of telephone counselling with the treatment of illicit drug or alcohol use as a primary or secondary outcome were included. Review papers, opinion pieces, letters or editorials, case studies, published abstracts, and posters were excluded. In all, 94 publications were included in the review.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The literature was supportive of telephone counselling for the treatment of alcohol use in the short term; however, literature regarding illicit drug use was particularly scarce. The generalisability of findings was limited by evident methodological issues in the included studies.
authors.affiliation: National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre, Randwick NSW, Australia p.gates@unsw.edu.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gates
authors.affiliation: National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre, Randwick NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Albertella
mesh_terms: D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods*; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D013689:Telephone
keywords: Substance use; helplines; telehealth; telephone counselling; treatment