Time Matters: Uncovering dynamic mechanisms and optimising the intervention timing across the addictions

Addictive behaviours cause unprecedented disease burden and human suffering. Supporting people to quit is an urgent priority yet absolute quit rates are low due to momentary lapses which beget further lapses and relapse. Studies using high-resolution measurements in people’s daily lives have found that fluctuations in biopsychosocial factors (e.g., cravings, self-efficacy) are associated with lapse risk at the within-person level. This has led to my conceptualising addictive behaviours as dynamical systems which change continuously and non-linearly over time. Potent relapse prevention interventions will need the ability to provide the right type of support to individuals, when and where they most need it. However, this cannot be achieved through relying on dominant addiction theories which do not encode temporal information about dynamical systems and state-of-the-art experimental methods which are not suited for studying intervention effects over time, within individuals.Time Matters will integrate previously unconnected theoretical and methodological advancements from addiction science and control engineering, including my unique skills in formal, dynamical systems modelling and novel within-person experimental designs, to uncover dynamic mechanisms of lapse and relapse across the addictions and optimise the intervention timing in systems which change over time. To achieve these ambitious goals, I will conduct five empirical studies and use advanced analytical techniques to integrate dynamic insights from temporally dense empirical data using low burden ‘microinteraction’ smartphone surveys, a new behavioural task suitable for smartphone delivery, smartwatches and smartphone meta-data. If successful, Time Matters has the potential to transform relapse prevention theories and interventions, ultimately helping to solve the perennial challenge of when, where and how to intervene for each person and reducing the global disease burden caused by addictive behaviours