Videoconferencing in treatment for substance use disorder

Frequent contacts with a care provider are sometimes necessary for patients in treatment for substance use disorder. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many providers started offering psychological treatment via videoconferencing tools. The use of digital meetings, which may increase accessibility for patients, has led to a demand for video-based consultations to continue to serve as an option for psychological treatment after the pandemic restrictions were lifted.

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SBU Enquiry Service

Consists of structured literature searches to highlight studies that can address questions received by the SBU Enquiry Service from Swedish healthcare or social service providers. We assess the risk of bias in systematic reviews and when needed also quality and transferability of results in health economic studies. Relevant references are compiled by an SBU staff member, in consultation with an external expert when needed.

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Published: Report no: ut202213 Registration no: SBU 2022/281

Question

What systematic reviews are there on psychological treatment via videoconferencing in substance use disorder?

Identified literature

One relevant systematic review was identified but not reported due to high risk of bias.

Literature search

Medline via OvidSP 18 May 2022

Title: Videoconferencing-delivered psychological treatment of substance use disorders
/ = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; .sh = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; exp= Term from MeSH including terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; .ti,ab = Title or abstract; .tw = Title or abstract;.kf = Keywords;.kw = Keywords, exact; .bt = Book title. NLM Bookshelf.;.pt = Publication type; .ja = Journal abbreviation;.af = All fields; adjn = Adjacent. Proximity operator retrieving adjacent words, adj3 retrieves records with search terms within two terms from each other.; * or $ = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms Items found
Population
1. exp Substance-Related Disorders/ 300 965
2. "alcoholi*".ab,kf,ti. 96 786
3.  "addict*".ab,kf,ti. 75 294
4. ((substance or drug* or alcohol or opioid) adj3 (abuse or 'use' or misuse or disorder or dependen* or recover*)).ab,kf,ti. 273 501
5. 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 536 435
Intervention
6. Videoconferencing/ 2 228
7. Remote Consultation/ 5 521
8. Telemedicine/ 33 508
9. Therapy, Computer-Assisted/ 6 960
10. ("video*" not ((video or online or disorder) adj2 gam*)).ab,kf,ti. 147 652
11. ((online or on-line or webbased or web-based or virtual or digital or remote or distance or internet) adj5 (appointment* or communication or consultation* or visit* or clinic* or cognitive behavio* or cbt or psychotherap* or therap* or treatment)).ab,kf,ti. 40 026
12. 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 or 11 221 785
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis
13. ((Systematic Review/ or Meta-Analysis/ or Cochrane Database Syst Rev.ja. or ((systematic adj4 review) or "meta analys*" or metaanalys*).ti,bt,ab.) not (editorial/ or letter/ or case reports/))  
Combined sets:
14. 5 and 12 3 693
Final result
  13 and 14 191

Scopus via scopus.com 18 May 2022

Title: Videoconferencing-delivered psychological treatment of substance use disorders
TITLE-ABS-KEY = Title, abstract or keywords (including indexed keywords and author keywords); ALL = All fields; W/n = Within. Proximity operator retrieving terms within n words from each other; PRE/n = Precedes by. Proximity operator, the first term in the search must precede the second by n words; LIMIT-TO (X) = Includes only results of specified type, e.g., publication type or time range; DOCTYPE = Publication type; “re” = review; “le” = letter; “ed” = editorial; “ch” = book chapter; “cp” = conference proceedings; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms Items found
Population:
1. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( alcoholi* OR addict* ) 398 666
2. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( substance OR drug OR alcohol OR opioid ) W/2 ( abuse OR use OR misuse OR disorder OR dependen* OR recover* ) ) 353 775
3. 1 OR 2 603 168
Intervention:
4. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( virtual OR digital OR remote OR distance OR internet OR online OR on-line OR webbased OR web-based ) W/4 ( appointment* OR communication OR consultation* OR visit* OR clinic* OR "cognitive behavio*" OR cbt OR psychotherap* OR therap* OR treatment ) ) 157 261
5. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( video* AND NOT ( ( video OR online OR disorder OR internet ) W/1 gam* ) ) 584 093
6. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( telemedicine ) 58 508
7. 4 OR 5 OR 6 776 786
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis
8. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( systematic W/2 review ) OR "meta analy*" OR metaanaly* ) AND (EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “le”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ed”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ch”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “cp”))  
Combined sets:
9. 3 OR 7 157 261
Final result
  8 AND 9 241

PSYCINFO via EBSCO 18 May 2022

Title: Videoconferencing-delivered psychological treatment of substance use disorders
TI = Title; AB = Abstract; SU = Keyword, exact or part (including all other fields for indexed and author keywords); DE = Exact keyword; TX = All text; MR = Methodology; Nn = Near. Proximity operator retrieving terms within n words from each other; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms Items found
Population
1. DE "Substance Use Disorder" OR DE "Addiction" OR DE "Alcohol Use Disorder" OR DE "Drug Abuse" OR DE "Drug Dependency" OR DE "Opioid Use Disorder" 78 612
2. DE "Addiction Treatment" OR DE "Medication-Assisted Treatment" OR DE "Substance Use Treatment" 23 573
3. TI ( ((substance OR drug* OR alcohol OR opioid) N3 (abuse OR use OR misuse OR disorder OR dependen* OR recover*)) ) OR SU ( ((substance OR drug* OR alcohol OR opioid) N3 (abuse OR use OR misuse OR disorder OR dependen* OR recover*)) ) OR AB ( ((substance OR drug* OR alcohol OR opioid) N3 (abuse OR use OR misuse OR disorder OR dependen* OR recover*)) ) 216 027
4. TI ( alcoholi* OR addict* ) OR SU ( alcoholi* OR addict* ) OR AB ( alcoholi* OR addict* ) 120 569
5. 1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4 271 875
Intervention
6. ((DE "Computer Assisted Therapy") OR (DE "Teleconferencing" OR DE "Videoconferencing")) OR (DE "Teleconsultation" OR DE "Telepsychiatry" OR DE "Telepsychology") 3 472
7. TI ( (( virtual OR digital OR remote OR distance OR internet OR online OR on-line OR webbased OR web-based ) N4 ( appointment* OR communication OR consultation* OR visit* OR clinic* OR "cognitive behavio*" OR cbt OR psychotherap* OR therap* OR treatment ) ) ) OR AB ( (( virtual OR digital OR remote OR distance OR internet OR online OR on-line OR webbased OR web-based ) N4 ( appointment* OR communication OR consultation* OR visit* OR clinic*; OR "cognitive behavio*" OR cbt OR psychotherap* OR therap* OR treatment ) ) ) OR SU ( (( virtual OR digital OR remote OR distance OR internet OR online OR on-line OR webbased OR web-based ) N4 ( appointment* OR communication OR consultation* OR visit* OR clinic* OR "cognitive behavio*" OR cbt OR psychotherap* OR therap* OR treatment ) ) ) 25 807
8. TI ( video* NOT ( ( video OR online OR disorder OR internet ) N1 gam* ) ) OR SU ( video* NOT ( ( video OR online OR disorder OR internet ) N1 gam* ) ) OR AB ( video* NOT ( ( video OR online OR disorder OR internet ) N1 gam* ) ) 68  370
9. 6 OR 7 OR 8 93 945
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis
10. TI((systematic n3 review) OR "meta analys*" OR metaanalys*) OR AB((systematic n3 review) OR "meta analys*" OR metaanalys*) OR SU((systematic n3 review) OR "meta analys*" OR metaanalys*) OR (MR "Systematic Review" OR MR "meta analysis")  
Combined sets:
11. 5 AND 9 3 564
Final result
  10 AND 11 134
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