Internet-based interventions to reduce opiods use

Internet-based interventions (including unguided stand-alone internet interventions and internet interventions as an add-on to treatment as usual) were found in a systematic review with meta-analysis (Boumparis et al., 2017, 17 RCTs, N = 2 836) to have a small but significant effect in:

• reducing drug use at post-treatment (pooled analysis of the 17 studies, g = 0.31; 95 % CI = 0.23-0.39, P < 0.001, N = 2 836) and at follow-up assessments (g = 0.22; 95 % CI = 0.07-0.37; P = .003, RCTs = 9, N = 1 906)
• decreasing any illicit drug use at post-treatment (g = 0.35; 95 % CI = 0.24-0.45, P < 0.001, RCTs = 9, N= 1 749)
• decreasing opioid use at post-treatment (g = 0.36; 95 % CI = 0.20-0.53, P < .001, RCTs = 4, N=606)

Digital interventions targeting opioid users were assessed in a different narrative review (Kiburi et al., 2023, 20 studies) and found some evidence of effect in:

• retaining people in treatment (of 20 studies, 10 reported statistical significance for abstinence and four increased treatment retention)