Efficacy of Virtual Agent-Based Digital Intervention (Echo-App V2.0) for Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Traditional conversational agents have emerged as potential psychological tools in mental health field. While the text-only interactions limit compliance and efficacy. Virtual agents (VAs) show great potential to solve this problem. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to assess whether the combination of Echo appV2.0, a VA-based digital psychological intervention and TAU (Treatment as usual) yield greater efficacy compared to TAU alone. METHODS 93 participants were randomized to 4-week Echo-app-v2.0 intervention combined with TAU compared to TAU alone. The primary outcome was change of craving. Secondary outcomes were relapse and change of emotional state, sleep quality, and treatment motivation. RESULTS The intervention group showed significant lower craving at week 8(β = -1.81, 95% CI: [-3.45, -0.16], p = 0.03) and week 16 (β = -1.97, 95% CI: [-3.61, -0.32], p = 0.02). A significant difference in relapse between the two groups at the week 8 follow-up (χ2=4.09, P=0.04). Statistically significant larger improvement in sleep quality was found in the intervention group (β = -3.28, 95% CI: [-5.08, -1.49], p