A new study by Mass General Brigham demonstrates that a wearable device employing HRV biofeedback can help individuals in early addiction recovery manage stress, reduce cravings, and decrease the risk of relapse.
A new study led by Mass General Brigham researchers has unveiled a promising non-drug solution for managing substance use disorders (SUD). The research, published in JAMA Psychiatry, highlights the effectiveness of a wearable device that employs heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback to mitigate stress, reduce cravings, and ultimately lower the risk of relapse in individuals recovering from addiction.
David Eddie, a Mass General Brigham psychologist at the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, emphasized the importance of this innovation, noting how stress and cravings are interlinked in the early stages of recovery.
“One of the hallmarks of early addiction recovery is poor self-awareness of emotional states,” he said in a news release. “People in recovery can experience a lot of stress, but they often don’t have great awareness of it or proactively manage it.”
Substance use disorders often entail a vicious cycle where stress triggers cravings, and the effort to resist these cravings generates additional stress, increasing the risk of relapse.
Eddie’s previous work has shown that HRV biofeedback, which involves harnessing breathing exercises to modulate heart rate variability, can alleviate craving and anxiety. The latest study aimed to evaluate this method’s effectiveness in a broader, real-world context.
In a phase 2 clinical trial funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 115 adults with severe SUD in their first year of recovery were enrolled.
The participants were divided into two groups: one received the Lief HRVB Smart Patch, an HRV biofeedback device, while the other continued with their existing recovery plans, such as therapy sessions, support meetings or medication.
The participants reported their daily mood, cravings and substance use via a smartphone app twice daily over eight weeks. The smart patch device detected low HRV, indicating stress, and leveraged artificial intelligence to prompt users to perform brief biofeedback exercises.
“The latest HRV biofeedback devices can detect when people are stressed or experiencing cravings, and, using AI, prompt them to do a brief burst of biofeedback,” Eddie added. “This allows people to get out in front of risk.”
The results were encouraging. The participants using the biofeedback device experienced fewer negative emotions, reported reduced cravings for alcohol and drugs, and were 64% less likely to use substances on any given day compared to their counterparts.
These findings suggest that real-time HRV biofeedback intervention can effectively disrupt the feedback loop of stress and cravings, significantly aiding in the recovery process.
However, the study was limited to individuals in their first year of abstinence-based recovery. Future research is necessary to understand the long-term benefits of HRV biofeedback for sustained recovery.
“The first year of recovery is immensely challenging,” added Eddie. “Our goal is to find tools that not only bridge people during that first year, but also help them manage their stress for the rest of their life.”
Source: Mass General Brigham