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Advancing Scalable Alcohol Brief Interventions in the ED: A Trial of Conversational AI With Digital Reinforcements

ConditionAlcohol Misuse
Trial statusNot yet recruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age18-65
SponsorStanford University

About this trial

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a novel digital strategy combining a generative AI counseling agent (MICA) and weekly SMS boosters works to reduce risky drinking among Emergency Department patients.

Eligibility criteria

This trial does not accept healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

For men: 1+ days with 5 or more drinks OR any week with 14+ drinks/week in the past 3 months

For women: 1+ days with 4 or more drinks OR any week with 7+ drinks/week in the past 3 months

Owns a mobile phone

Reads English language

Disqualifiers

For women: current or planned pregnancy in next 12 months

Prisoner or active military status

Trial design

Design model

Parallel

Treatments tested in this trial

  • MICA

    Behavioral

    MICA is an AI chatbot that uses a secure API with ChatGPT and prompted to follow MI principles to support individuals in exploring and resolving ambivalence about their alcohol use. MICA follows a predefined conversational framework and steps: introduction, engagement, focusing, evoking, planning, and closing-adapted from Miller \& Rollnick's Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change (3rd ed.).

  • TRAC

    Behavioral

    Weekly SMS check-ins designed to support goal-setting, self-monitoring, and adaptive self-regulation strategies. Beginning the Sunday after enrollment, participants will engage with an automated SMS program once weekly for 12 weeks. Prompts include reporting on the past week's alcohol use and whether they are willing to commit to a drinking limit goal for the upcoming week. Responses trigger tailored feedback.

Treatment groups

750 Participants
are divided into 3 treatment groups
Group A: MICAExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: MICA+SMSExperimental treatment 2 interventions
Group C: Standard careNo intervention 0 interventions

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

1

Mean weekly alcohol consumption

Participants report (1) the average number of days per week they consumed alcohol and (2) the typical number of standard drinks consumed on a drinking day. Estimated weekly alcohol consumption will be calculated as: Mean weekly drinks = (average drinking days per week) × (typical drinks per drinking day)

Time frame
Baseline, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups

Secondary outcomes

1

Number of heavy drinking days

Asking participants: "Over the past 30 days, how many days did you have 4+ standard drinks (women) / 5+ standard drinks (men)?"

Time frame
Baseline, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups
2

Number of drinks per drinking day

Asking participants, "Over the past 30 days, on a typical drinking day, how many drinks did you have?"

Time frame
Baseline, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups

Other outcomes

Sponsors and contacts

Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.

Stanford University

Lead sponsor

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Collaborator

Source ClinicalTrials.gov

This trial is not recruiting at the moment. You can still explore other options: