Grant: Project Grant

Hazardous alcohol consumption is common among people suffering from depression. Further, there is evidence that excessive alcohol consumption among this group can make their depression worse. While many people with these dual disorders do not seek face-to-face treatment, they do seek help online. There are effective Internet interventions that target hazardous alcohol consumption or depression separately but none that combine these online interventions without the involvement of a therapist. In order to fully optimize the potential of Internet interventions, we need to develop an evidence base supporting the efficacy of Internet interventions for combined depression and hazardous alcohol use without any therapist involvement. This will allow us to capitalize on the strengths of Internet interventions - 24-hour access, wide availability, and cost efficient delivery of health services. This project proposes to recruit 986 hazardous alcohol consumers with current depression from recent registrants of MoodGYM - the most widely evaluated Internet intervention for depression. Participants will be assigned by chance to receive just MoodGYM or to receive MoodGYM plus an extensively evaluated brief Internet intervention for hazardous alcohol consumption - Check Your Drinking. Participants will be contacted 3 and 6 months after receiving the interventions to assess changes in drinking and depression status. It is predicted that participants receiving the Check Your Drinking intervention in addition to MoodGYM will reduce their alcohol consumption to a greater extent than those who just received MoodGYM. Further predictions include the impact of receiving Check Your Drinking on improvements in depressive symptoms. This research will yield the crucial first steps in developing lower-cost and efficacious Internet interventions for people suffering from depression who also drink in a hazardous fashion - promoting the widespread availability of care for those in need.