--- title: There's An App to Help Treat Alcoholism description: Your phone could alert you in "danger zones," such as when you're near a bar you used to frequent canonical: https://time.com/37970/smartphone-app-helps-alcoholics-in-recovery/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-26T20:00:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:57:51.249Z article:section: Health og:title: There's An App to Help Treat Alcoholism og:description: Your phone could alert you in "danger zones," such as when you're near a bar you used to frequent og:url: https://time.com/37970/smartphone-app-helps-alcoholics-in-recovery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a496ddc305e6f79/6986875c169ab02cf1278709/455116959.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5197 og:image:height: 2923 og:image:alt: 455116959 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's An App to Help Treat Alcoholism twitter:description: Your phone could alert you in "danger zones," such as when you're near a bar you used to frequent twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a496ddc305e6f79/6986875c169ab02cf1278709/455116959.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Smartphone App Helps Alcoholics In Recovery > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=2b8a0f41-614b-408c-a06a-5b0d52de2982&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Mar 26, 2014 8:00 PM UTC  Man enjoying a drink at the bar Man enjoying a drink at the bar Yagi Studio—Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Mar 26, 2014 8:00 PM UTC Relapse rates for recovering alcoholics are similar to those suffering from chronic illness, and continued help after leaving a formal treatment center is uncommon and difficult. But soon there may be an app for that. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison gave a group of of alcohol-dependent people leaving a residential recovery program a smartphone with the [Addiction-Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System app](http://chess.wisc.edu/chess/projects/AddictionChess.aspx). The app has audio-guided relaxation techniques, as well as alerts that go off when the participants might find themselves in high-risk situations, such near a bar they used to frequent. Use of the smartphone app was coupled with traditional treatment, and participants reported their drinking behaviors for the past 30 days at 4, 8, and 12 months. Participants who used the smartphone app reported less risky drinking days than those without, with risky drinking defined as drinking four drinks for men and three for women in a two-hour period. They were also more likely to abstain from alcohol overall. The results were published in the journal _JAMA Psychiatry._ The study authors believe apps like theirs could be used to augment alcohol-dependent treatment. “If other studies confirm our results, such applications could provide the type of care identified as most effective—that is, care that continues at least 12 months and involves proactive efforts to change patient behaviors,” the study authors write. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/37970/smartphone-app-helps-alcoholics-in-recovery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/37970/smartphone-app-helps-alcoholics-in-recovery/"},"headline":"Smartphone App Helps Alcoholics In Recovery","datePublished":"2014-03-26T20:00:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:57:51.249Z","description":"Your phone could alert you in \"danger zones,\" such as when you're near a bar you used to frequent","url":"https://time.com/37970/smartphone-app-helps-alcoholics-in-recovery/","keywords":["Alcohol","App","alcoholism"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a496ddc305e6f79/6986875c169ab02cf1278709/455116959.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a496ddc305e6f79/6986875c169ab02cf1278709/455116959.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"455116959","caption":"455116959","creditText":"Yagi Studio—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/alcohol/","name":"Alcohol"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/37970/smartphone-app-helps-alcoholics-in-recovery/","name":"Smartphone App Helps Alcoholics In Recovery"}}]}] ```