Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42802839›Full record

ArticleEClinicalMedicine2026

Short, animated storytelling social contact videos reduce addiction stigma in the UK, USA, and South Africa: a randomised controlled trial of 13,397 participants.

Maya Adam, Julia K Rohr, Merlin Greuel, Misha Seeff, Elizabeth Margulis, Jennifer Gates, Maxwell Klapow, Shuyan Liu, Doron Amsalem, Till Bärnighausen

Registry-linked trialAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in EClinicalMedicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06705205 (Short, Animated Storytelling Video to Reduce Addiction Stigma), which is not on this map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

NCT06705205 nacompletednot on this map

Short, Animated Storytelling Video to Reduce Addiction Stigma: Protocol for a Multi-country, Online, Randomized, Controlled Trial With 13,500 Participants

TypeinterventionalSponsorStanford UniversityRan2025 to 2025Enrolled13,397ConditionsSocial Stigma Towards People With AddictionArmsSAS video
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Maya AdamDepartment of Paediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Julia K RohrHeidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH), Medical Faculty and University Hospital, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
Merlin GreuelHeidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH), Medical Faculty and University Hospital, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
Misha SeeffThe College, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Elizabeth MargulisDepartment of Music, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Jennifer GatesDepartment of Paediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Maxwell KlapowDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Shuyan LiuDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Campus Charité Mitte), Berlin, Germany.
Doron AmsalemColumbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA.
Till BärnighausenHeidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH), Medical Faculty and University Hospital, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Societal stigma towards people with addiction fuels exclusion, undermines social support, and inhibits help-seeking. We evaluated a wordless, short animated storytelling (SAS) social contact video in three countries. Methods: We conducted a three-arm, online randomised controlled trial in the UK, USA, and South Africa. Adults aged 18-49 years were recruited via Prolific Academic between July 10th and July 24th, 2025, and randomly assigned (1:1:1) to a 2 min 40 s SAS video with soundtrack, the same video without soundtrack, or an informational control delivered within the online survey platform. The primary outcome was stigma towards people with addiction, measured using the 18-item Attribution Questionnaire (AQ-18) immediately post-exposure (T1) and two weeks later (T2). Secondary outcomes were optimism (Brief García Interactive Optimism Scale), hopefulness and attitudes of warmth towards people with addiction. Analyses included all participants who completed the relevant assessment and met attention-check criteria. Effects were estimated as ratios of means with robust standard errors and country fixed effects. The trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06705205; Nov 22, 2024). Findings: Between July 10th and July 24th, 2025, 13,500 participants were recruited; 13,397 (99%) completed T1 and 92% completed T2. Compared with control, mean stigma scores were 9% lower at T1 in the soundtrack group (ratio of means 0·91; 95% CI 0·90-0·93) and 6% lower in the no-soundtrack group (0·94; 0·93-0·95). At T2, stigma remained 4% lower with soundtrack (0·96; 0·95-0·97) and 2% lower without soundtrack (0·98; 0·97-0·99). Secondary outcomes improved at T1 in both intervention groups; at T2, warmth remained higher with attenuation. Interpretation: Single exposure to a wordless SAS social contact intervention reduced addiction stigma across three countries, with greater and more durable effects when accompanied by soundtrack. Our findings support integrating SAS social contact interventions into population-level addiction stigma reduction campaigns. Funding: Heidelberg Institute for Global Health, Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany. No specific grant number was assigned.

Indexed as

Addiction stigmaDigital health communicationRandomised controlled trialShort animated storytellingSocial contact interventionSubstance use disorder

Identifiers

PMID42802839
PMCPMC13616566

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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.