Dr Katrina Prior – Post Doctoral Fellowship Recipient

Up to 60% of young people who receive treatment for alcohol use disorders relapse to heavy drinking. This is particularly true for people who drink to cope with anxiety. Research has shown that Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) brain training interventions are effective treatments for anxiety and alcohol use individually, particularly when combined with traditional face-to-face treatments. However, there is no research on the effectiveness of CBM among individuals who experience both disorders.

Australian Rotary Health funded the development and first trial of a new internet delivered CBM program for young people, called ‘Re-Train Your Brain’. In total, 100 young Australians aged 18 to 30 participated in the trial. All were experiencing anxiety symptoms and drinking alcohol above recommended safe levels. To test whether the Re-Train Your Brain program effectively reduced anxiety symptoms, harmful drinking, and cognitive biases (i.e., unhealthy mental habits), half of participants were randomly allocated to receive the Re-Train Your Brain intervention which involved 10 brain training sessions plus treatment as usual, and the other half received treatment as usual only. All participants completed online surveys about their anxiety, alcohol use and cognitive biases before the program, as well as 6 and 12 weeks after commencing the study.

Results from the study showed that the Re-Train Your Brain program (which was delivered to participants in two different formats) was feasible and acceptable to young adults. Completing the Re-Train Your Brain program alongside treatment as usual had clear benefits for young people involved in the trial. Over the 12-week follow-up period, young people who received the Re-Train Your Brain program experienced fewer social anxiety symptoms, alcohol cravings, anxiety interpretation biases and comorbid interpretation biases, compared to participants in the control group.

Findings suggest that the Re-Train Your Brain program has potential to be a scalable, low cost, and non-labour-intensive program to help improve mental ill health among young people; however, a larger randomised controlled trial is required to replicate the results.

Media contact: [email protected]       First published 1st March 2024

Graphic acknowledgement: FreePik.com