Wednesday, April 24, 2024
4/24/2024
PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Woebot for Substance Use Disorders (W-SUDs) is a two-phase NIDA-funded SBIR. Presently, W-SUDs, a novel digital therapeutic, is being evaluated in the Phase I pilot. Phase II will investigate W-SUDs’s efficacy compared to an active control condition. Since the initial award, and across mere months, Covid-19 became a global pandemic, and users worldwide came to Woebot to discuss it and seek help. The company responded by building and deploying Covid- 19 specific programming (W-C19) in March 2020. W-C19 elements have been integrated into W-SUDs; we felt it was timely and appropriate to address users' concerns about the pandemic and demonstrate that Woebot was ‘intelligent’ to the crisis. Experts expect Covid-19’s direct and indirect impact upon individuals with SUDs to be particularly heavy. These individuals often have physical vulnerabilities, which increase the relative risk of death from Covid-19, and face limited health care access -- fundamentally challenging given often comorbid mental illness. Moreover, high rates of housing insecurity hinders compliance with shelter-in- place and social distancing recommendations, thereby increasing contagion risk. This proposal, with the timely addition of a randomized controlled trial comparing W-SUDs to a waitlist control (WL), expands understanding of W-SUDs’ efficacy whilst investigating Covid-19’s impact upon the SUD population. Secular trends of increased substance use are anticipated given Covid-19 stressors (e.g., shelter-in- place, disease concerns, economic strife, under-/unemployment). Hence, the WL condition is essential for testing W-SUDs’ efficacy in mitigating these Covid-19 related downstream effects. This proposal extends the parent grant by: (i) adding a randomized controlled evaluation of W-SUDs compared to WL and (ii) investigating potential between group differences on (a) substance use, (b) Covid-19 related components (e.g., social distancing; employment and parental factors), and (c) other SUD treatment engagement. While 20.2 million (8.4%) American adults had a SUD within the past year, only 20% received treatment, given significant treatment access barriers [1]. W-SUDs: (i) is poised to reduce or eliminate common yet significant barriers to traditional SUD treatment; (ii) offers virtual access, optimal for socially distancing and shelter-in-place adherence; (iii) has unconstrained and immediate scale potential; and (iv) delivers content text-based conversation, optimal for engagement. This study offers immediate access to a digital therapeutic in a resource constrained, socially distanced healthcare ecosystem for an already vulnerable and underserved population, likely faced with readily growing psychological challenges.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
