A Chatbot To Support Substance Use Recovery

April 15, 2026 updated by: Dimagi Inc.

A Conversational Agent To Support Follow-up Care For Individuals In Recovery For Substance Use Disorder

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if/how an AI chatbot can support patients who in recovery for substance use, specifically those who are receiving medication for opioid use disorder.

Can the chatbot help lower drug use? Can the chatbot help improve clinical appointment adherence? Can the chatbot help patients build self-efficacy in leading their own recovery journey? Will the chatbot help reduce workload burden for primary care teams? Can the chatbot serve as a safe, useful and engaging tool to support patients?

Researchers will investigate the effects of using a chatbot to support follow-up care for patients in opioid use recovery.

Participants will:

  • Receive access to a chatbot for 12 weeks that they can use to prepare for upcoming clinical appointments, find community resources, learn about urge-surfing and wellness techniques, and query for assistance with other recovery-related information and tasks
  • Complete surveys and provide user feedback

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

55

Phase

  • Phase 2
  • Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02114
        • Massachusetts General Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 18-65 years old
  • Comfortable with reading, understanding, and communicating in English
  • Receiving medication treatment for OUD at MGH?
  • Able to participate in a remote interview?
  • Own or have reliable access to Wi-Fi or a cellular network
  • Willing to use a mobile device to access the chatbot?

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Has any cognitive, visual, or auditory impairments that may prevent the participant from using the chatbot on a mobile device?
  • Unstable medical condition that compromises the ability to safely participate

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Chatbot
Participants will receive access to a chatbot for 12 weeks that can be used from a mobile device to support follow-up care and recovery needs.
Other: chatbot

Participants will:

  • Participate in a baseline session to complete an initial survey and get trained on using the chatbot
  • Use the chatbot for 12 weeks and submit a brief weekly survey to provide feedback
  • Complete a final survey to provide substance use and health information as well as give feedback on the experience using the chatbot
  • Allow access to a limited set of demographic, substance use and health information in electronic health record for study analyses and context.
Other Names:
  • Suzy
  • conversational agent

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in SUD severity
Time Frame: 12 weeks
Addiction Severity Index (ASI) Drugs composite score; Scored 0-7 with higher scores indicating increasing severity
12 weeks
Change in psychological health (Anxiety)
Time Frame: 12 weeks
General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7); scored 0-21 with higher scores indicating increasing anxiety
12 weeks
Change in psychological health (Depression)
Time Frame: 12 weeks
Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8); scored 0-24 with higher scores indicating more severe depression
12 weeks
Change in self-efficacy for managing chronic conditions (Emotions)
Time Frame: 12 weeks
PROMIS Short Form 8a (Managing Emotions); scored from 8-40 with higher scores indicating higher confidence managing emotions
12 weeks
Change in self-efficacy for managing chronic conditions (Social Interactions)
Time Frame: 12 weeks
PROMIS Short Form 8a (Social Interactions); scored from 8-40 with higher scores indicating higher confidence with managing social interactions
12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in quality of life
Time Frame: 12 weeks
World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQoL-BREF) Assessment; higher scores indicate higher quality of life
12 weeks
Change in social needs
Time Frame: 12 weeks
Accountable Health Communities Health-Related Social Needs (AHC HRSN) screening; higher scores indicate higher unmet social needs
12 weeks
Chatbot usability
Time Frame: End of 12 week intervention
Chatbot Usability Questionnaire (CUQ); scored 0-100 with higher scores indicating higher usability
End of 12 week intervention
User Satisfaction
Time Frame: End of 12 week intervention
Net Promoter Score (NPS); scored -100 to 100 with higher scores indicating higher user satisfaction
End of 12 week intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Dimagi Inc.

Collaborators

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Massachusetts General Hospital
University of California, Los Angeles

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Y. Xian Ho, PhD, Dimagi Inc.
  • Principal Investigator: Jonathan Jackson, MEng, Dimagi Inc.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 7, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

August 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 18, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 20, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

February 25, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 20, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 15, 2026

Last Verified

April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2R44DA050218 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • 2R44DA050218-02 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

This study will include sensitive data from a small sample of patients with experience with substance use therefore data will be reported in aggregate and only qualitative data collected from participants may be reported individually and anonymously.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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