- Doctors Describe Texas Dairy Farm Worker’s Case of Bird Flu
- Does Preschool Boost Kids’ Long-Term Academic Success? Study Finds Mixed Results
- AI Might Spot Rare Diseases in Patients Years Earlier
- An Orangutan Healed Himself With Medicinal Plant
- Quit-Smoking Meds Not Working for You? Try Upping the Dose
- Fewer Americans Are Suffering Most Dangerous Form of Heart Attack
- Even Skipping Meat for One Meal Helps Liver Disease Patients
- You May Not Have to Fast Before Catheter-Based Heart Test, Study Suggests
- EPA Earmarks $3 Billion to Replace Lead Pipes Nationwide
- Johnson & Johnson Will Pay $6.5 Billion to Settle Talc Ovarian Cancer Lawsuits
Telehealth May Help People Stick With Alcoholism Treatment
Telehealth might be a more effective way of treating alcoholism than in-person therapy sessions, a new study reports.
Alcoholics who receive treatment through telehealth were more likely to engage in more therapy visits and stick to anti-alcohol medication longer than those who venture out for alcohol use disorder therapy, researchers found.
These results are “particularly important in the current context, as the United States debates whether to sustain or revoke pandemic-era policies that decreased barriers to telehealth,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Ponni Perumalswami, of the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from the Veterans Administration gathered during the pandemic, from March 2020 to February 2021, on more than 138,000 patients diagnosed with alcohol use disorder.
During the study period, 53% of patients had at least one video visit, 38% had at least one telephone visit but no video visits, and 9% had only in-person visits, researchers said.
Telehealth was associated with more therapy visits and medication use compared with in-person visits, researchers found.
What’s more, among those who received treatment through telehealth, video visits prompted significantly more therapy sessions than telephone visits.
Black patients were less likely to receive video telehealth treatment and were more likely to have in-person visits, highlighting “important disparities in alcohol use disorder telehealth use,” researchers said.
The new study was published recently in the journal Alcohol, Clinical and Experimental Research.
More information
The Cleveland Clinic has more about alcohol use disorder.
SOURCE: American Psychiatric Association, news release
Source: HealthDay
Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.