Trial reportSubstance use & misuse2024
A Seeking Safety Mobile App for Recovery from PTSD and Substance Use Disorder: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial.
Trial report in Substance use & misuse, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Feasibility and acceptability of remote technologies for the treatment of trauma- and stressor-related disorders in adults: mixed-methods systematic review.BJPsych open · 2025Review
- Practitioner training and user experience ofPeerJ · 2025Article
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of adverse events in clinical trials of mental health apps.NPJ digital medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 7 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPosttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorder (SUD) co-occur frequently and have deleterious impact. Seeking Safety (SS) - an evidence-based, present-focused, coping skills model - lends itself to mobile app delivery.
objectivesA novel SS mobile app is compared to a control app that lacks the interactivity, social engagement, and feature-richness of the SS app. We hypothesized that the SS app would outperform the control on primary outcome variables (substance use, trauma symptoms) and at least two secondary variables.
methodsOutpatients with current PTSD and SUD (
resultsThe SS app outperformed the control on the primary outcomes, but not on secondary outcomes. Also both conditions evidenced significant change over time from pre to post, with gains sustained at follow-up. External medication and supports during the trial did not differ by condition.
conclusionThis first RCT on a SS mobile app had positive results for reduction in substance use and trauma symptoms compared to a control app. This is noteworthy as mental health mobile apps, in general, evidence few positive outcomes. Our substance use finding is also notable as psychosocial interventions in PTSD/SUD populations find it harder to achieve reduction in SUD than trauma symptoms. Our control app may have represented too strong a comparison and weakened our ability to find results on secondary outcomes by condition.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.