The Role of Conversational Agents for Substance Use Disorder in Social Distancing Contexts

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related policies, such as social distancing orders, are affecting the ability for people with substance use disorders (SUD) to seek prevention and treatment. In this commentary, we introduce conversational agents, a type of social technology. We discuss the role of conversational agents in the prevention and treatment of SUD in social distancing contexts and the potential benefits and limitations of designing and implementing such technology in the prevention and care for patients with SUD.

KEYWORDS:

• Conversational agent
• substance use
• addiction
• public health

Acknowledgments

We thank Jasmine Sran, Janak Kaur, Wirachin Hoonpongsimanont, and Ashley Weller for their contribution and feedback.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Role of the funder

The funders played no role in the study planning, analysis, or outcomes.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (grant #1R01AI132030-01), National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (grant # 1R33AT010606), and National Institute on Drug Abuse U2C DA050098.