Smartphone-based Intervention for Young Adults With ADHD

June 12, 2026 updated by: Traci Kennedy

Training Inhibitory Control Using Personalized Strategies (TIPS): A Randomized Controlled Feasibility Trial of a Smartphone-Based Intervention for Alcohol Use in Young Adults With ADHD

The primary goal of this clinical trial is to test if a smartphone-based intervention is feasible & acceptable among young adults with ADHD who also engage in risky drinking behaviors. A secondary aim is to test preliminary intervention efficacy. The main questions it aims to answer are:

Is the smartphone intervention feasible & acceptable for participants (e.g., are they responding regularly, is there a low level of burden reported)?

Does the smartphone intervention improve symptom awareness, inhibitory control, and problematic alcohol use?

Participants will:

Attend a virtual baseline visit to assess ADHD, alcohol use, and other life experiences.

Complete either the TIPS smartphone intervention or a control smartphone protocol over the course of 31-days, starting the first Friday after the baseline visit.

Attend a virtual follow-up visit, where many of the same questions from the baseline visit will be asked again.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

70

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

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

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15213
        • Recruiting
        • University of Pittsburgh
        • Contact:
        • Contact:

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

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 18-25
  • Current diagnosis of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder-Combined Type according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Fifth Edition (DSM 5)
  • Drinks at least 4 (for females) / 5 (for males) alcoholic drinks in a single drinking session at least once per week
  • Owns a smartphone
  • Reads and understands English

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Currently in high school
  • Actively in treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder
  • Alcohol use disorder-severe

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: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Triple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention Arm
Participants in this arm will be randomly assigned to the Experimental condition of the smartphone portion.
Device: Ecological Momentary Assessment for ADHD and Substance Use - Intervention Group
Participants will rate their ADHD symptoms and impairment 4 times daily. Feedback on changes in ADHD symptoms will be provided visually via a graph at each prompt. They will also be texted suggestions following each survey to try behavioral strategies intended to help with their inhibitory control ADHD symptoms and related problems, with a particular focus on alcohol use and problems).
Sham Comparator: Control Arm
Participants in this arm will be randomly assigned to the Control condition of the smartphone portion.
Device: Ecological Momentary Assessment for ADHD & Substance Use - Control Group
Participants will receive 4 prompts per day in the same time windows as participants in the intervention group. However, participants in the control conditions will not be given the 3 TIPS intervention components (symptom monitoring, symptom feedback, and tailored strategy suggestions) and instead will report about their drinking behaviors. They will also answer several "neutral" questionnaires that have been designed by the study team to keep intervention prompt length similar between groups.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Average Completion Rate
Time Frame: Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
Completion rate will be defined as number of surveys completed out of the 124 that will be sent during the 31-day smartphone intervention period. 4 surveys will be sent every day. An average completion rate of 80% in the intervention group would indicate good feasibility.
Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
Average mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ) Rating
Time Frame: Within 1 month of intervention completion
The usability of the smartphone intervention will be assessed using the 18-item mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ), rated from 1-disagree to 7-agree, with an average of at least 5 indicating good usability.
Within 1 month of intervention completion

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in past-month average alcohol quantity
Time Frame: Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period,
A change in past-month average alcohol quantity from pre- to post-intervention, as measured by the 31-day timeline followback interview.
Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period,
Change in number of past-month binge-drinking episodes
Time Frame: Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period

A change in number of past-month binge-drinking episodes from pre- to post- intervention, as measured by the timeline followback interview.

Binge-drinking is defined as drinking 4 or more drinks in assigned female at birth participants, or 5 or more drinks in assigned male at birth participants within a 2-hour period.
Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
Change in number of past-month alcohol problems reported on the Young Adult Alcohol Consequence Questionnaire
Time Frame: Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
Participants will complete the 23-item Young Adult Alcohol Consequence Questionnaire at baseline (pre-intervention) and follow-up (post-intervention). For each item, participants will indicate whether the item is something they have experienced in the past month.
Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in inhibitory control
Time Frame: Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
Participants and collateral reported will complete the 8-item Inhibit subscale of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function Adult Version (BRIEF-A) at baseline (pre-intervention) and post-intervention follow-up.
Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
Change in awareness
Time Frame: Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
A change in awareness of inhibitory control from pre- to post-intervention, as measured by the 15 item Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)
Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
Change in objectively measured inhibitory control
Time Frame: Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
A change in objectively measured inhibitory control based on mobile CuedGoNoGo responses (rate of commission errors, i.e., when the participant tapped their screen when they weren't supposed to)
Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
Change in awareness of errors on mobile CuedGoNoGo task
Time Frame: Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
A change in awareness of errors made on the mobile CuedGoNoGo task (i.e., accuracy of participant's guess of how many commission errors they made), assessed immediately after completion of the task.
Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
Change in ADHD symptom severity
Time Frame: Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period
A change from baseline to post-intervention follow-up in ADHD symptom severity, as measured by clinician-administered and collateral informant-reported ADHD Rating Scale scores.
Enrollment to Completion of 31-Day Intervention Period

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Traci Kennedy

Collaborators

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Traci Kennedy, PhD., University of Pittsburgh

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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 (Estimated)

June 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

March 1, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

May 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 12, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 12, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

June 17, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 17, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 12, 2026

Last Verified

June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • STUDY25080182
  • K23AA029133 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

All collected IPD will be shared with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Data Archive (NIAAADA).

Analytic code may be shared on an open science platform at the time of publication of results.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Data will be uploaded to NIAAADA 6 months after data collection begins with no planned end date.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Investigators who obtain permission to access this data in NIAAADA will have access to the IPD.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

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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