NEWTON, Mass. – (myStudentBody.com – Inflexxion, Inc.) On campuses across the United States the consequences of student drinking include alcohol-related health problems, sexual and physical assault, vandalism, unintentional injuries, and academic issues. Unfortunately, traditional methods and interventions often occur after the damage has been done, while students who experience minor issues and consequences may slip through the cracks completely. Fortunately, evidence based online programs, such as myStudentBody® Alcohol, have emerged in recent years to meet the challenges of this increasing national concern.

Research shows that college students prefer self-directed methods to address alcohol misuse. But does online technology-transfer really offer an effective means of prevention and intervention for college students? Behavioral scientists at Inflexxion, Inc. have long held the answer – now the scientific community and college health professionals are beginning to echo a resounding “yes.”

According to findings from a groundbreaking single-blind randomized controlled study published in the
May/June issue of the Journal of American College Health, myStudentBody® Alcohol’s interactive and tailored approach demonstrated a greater impact on students' drinking behavior than a text-based alcohol education website. In a clinical trial funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism (NIAAA), students who used myStudentBody® Alcohol reported significant decreases in alcohol use as compared to control group participants who received only text-based materials.

The clinical trial involved 265 students aged 18 to 24 from five colleges and universities. All participants fulfilled the criteria of "binge drinking" within the previous week. Overall, the number of binge drinking episodes, typical drinking amounts and frequency, and the quantity of alcohol consumed on special occasions all decreased over the study period. In addition, the study demonstrates significant results for three important subgroups of the college population: females, persistent heavy drinkers, and low-motivation drinkers (those less likely to seek out services through other means).

Females who used myStudentBody® Alcohol significantly reduced their peak and total consumption during special occasions and reported significantly fewer negative consequences related to drinking, than females in the control group.

Persistent heavy drinkers using myStudentBody® Alcohol showed a rapid decrease in average and peak consumption and composite alcohol scores.

Low-motivation students who used myStudentBody® Alcohol reduced the number of drinks consumed per day significantly faster than those in the control group.
-over-

Funded through a competitive grant award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, myStudentBody® Alcohol was developed and scientifically tested for efficacy and user satisfaction prior to its commercial release in 2002. At the core of each component of the myStudentBody® Comprehensive College Health Suite, a self-administered risk assessment functions as a brief intervention or screening tool, providing tailored motivational feedback and website personalization based on specific areas of risk.

Additional resources: Campus health professionals and school administrators are encouraged to visit http://www.myStudentBody.com/ABOUT/findoutmore.asp

Chiauzzi, E., Green, T.C., Lord, S., Thum, C., & Goldstein, M. (2005). My Student Body: A high risk
drinking prevention website for college students. Journal of American College Health 53:
263-274.

Walters ST, Hester RK, Chiauzzi E, Miller E (2005) Demon Rum: High-Tech Solutions to an Age-Old
Problem. J Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research 29: 270-277.

Walters, S., Miller, E., & Chiauzzi, E. (in press). Getting wired for wellness: e-interventions for
addressing college drinking. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

About the myStudentBody® Comprehensive College Health Suite:
Combining the efforts of behavioral scientists, multimedia designers and educators, each component of the myStudentBody® Comprehensive College Health Suite has been developed by a top-notch team through a series of competitive grant awards from the National Institutes of Health. Working together with college students and nationally renowned experts, the myStudentBody® suite tackles the most relevant health-related issues on college campuses today. Current subscription offerings include:
myStudentBody® Alcohol, myStudentBody® STDs, myStudentBody® Stress, myStudentBody® Nutrition and myStudentBody® Tobacco.

myStudentBody® Data Reports companion websites offer fully customizable reports and real-time aggregate data that help college administrators and campus professionals plan successful health initiatives and monitor program outcomes. Additional websites covering nutrition and drugs are on the myStudentBody® horizon for release throughout the academic year. For more information, please visit: http://www.myStudentBody.com

About Inflexxion, Inc.
Inflexxion, Inc. [http://www.inflexxion.com] is a scientifically based, multimedia company specializing in healthcare solutions. Using interactive multimedia and Internet technologies that guarantee user involvement, Inflexxion® brings efficiencies and new treatment options to all aspects of health. The company draws upon the unique skills of psychologists, multimedia designers, scientists and educators to develop products characterized by their ability to engage the user, change behaviors, and take advantage of multimedia technologies. Inflexxion® Inc. is based in Newton, Mass.

Newton, MA – Inflexxion announced today the release of MyStudentBody-Parent, a new component of the company’s MyStudentBody comprehensive student health suite. MyStudentBody offers college health administrators a wide range of tools for implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies. With MyStudentBody-Parent, administrators can reach out to parents and families and help them communicate effectively with students about alcohol, drugs, and other health challenges on campus.

“Recent research has bolstered the support for engaging parents in campus prevention efforts, and we developed this program to help make it easier for college administrators to do that,” says Elizabeth Donovan, Ph.D., one of the research scientists at Inflexxion who led the development of MyStudentBody-Parent. “We hope that families will find the program both easy to use and engaging, so that it can be effective in helping administrators work with parents to reduce health risks for students throughout their college years.”
By offering this resource to families, administrators can:

Help parents encourage healthy behavior – To help families learn about good conversational strategies, the program offers online videos that explore a variety of ways to approach sensitive topics. These videos feature real parents and students, and are integrated in seven learning modules that cover key issues. The learning modules include Prevention Strategies, which has a "Key Conversation" that encourages parents create a plan with students for dealing with an alcohol poisoning emergency, and Share the Facts, which has articles on specific alcohol and drugs-related topics that families may wish to address with students.

Support a healthy transition to college -- To help administrators prepare families for the unique health challenges of the transition to college, the program includes user-friendly resources, such as a succinct, downloadable Parent Guide suitable for use in freshmen orientation, and an Orientation Checklist Tool, designed to help families successfully navigate orientation and learn about an institution's health-related policies and resources.

Strengthen health and safety initiatives -- Opening the lines of communication with families can help administrators garner additional support for their initiatives. Administrators can use MyStudentBody-Parent’s customizable interface to keep families informed about health-related events, programs, and resources. They can also help families learn about campus safety with Campus Perspectives, a series of audio stories that share insights from the campus professionals who work to keep students safe and healthy.

Every subscriber to MyStudentBody has full, free access to every component, including MyStudentBody-Parent.

Newton, MA – MyStudentBody®, a comprehensive online prevention, intervention and education program that delivers reliable college health information to students, recently expanded their expert advisory board. The MyStudentBody advisory board provides expert subject matter review of all program content (alcohol, drugs, stress, nutrition, tobacco, and sexual health) as well as professional guidance.

The newest members provided additional expertise specifically in the areas of alcohol education, intervention and prevention, as well as tobacco cessation and drug abuse. These newest members include: Dr. Steve Sussman, University of Southern California; Jim Matthews, Merrimack College; and Dr. H. Wesley Perkins, Hobart and William Smith Colleges. They join an advisory board comprised of other preeminent experts in the physical and mental health fields as well as distinguished professors at leading universities, including: Dr. Debra Franko, Northeastern University; Dr. Glenn Good, University of Missouri-Columbia; Dr. Joseph Greenberg, The George Washington University; and Tavis Glassman, University of Toledo. Together, this seven member board offers a combined 130 years of experience in the health education field and have collectively authored over 500 abstracts, articles, chapters, and books.

“As we move forward into the next generation of MyStudentBody, we are extremely pleased to add these acclaimed experts to the excellent group of professionals that comprise our Advisory Board,” says Emil Chiauzzi, PhD, Vice President of Product Strategy, Inflexxion, Inc. ®, “We have been able to involve notable college professionals from various disciplines who have an unparalleled grasp of prevention population level programming with respect to alcohol use and binge drinking, drug use, sexual health, stress, and nutrition Perhaps most importantly, members of our Advisory Board have each demonstrated a commitment to improving the lives of students, parents, campus staff and neighboring communities.”

Developed with $6 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health and validated through independent clinical trials, MyStudentBody tackles the most relevant health issues on college campuses today, with particular focus on the issue of binge drinking. The MyStudentBody comprehensive program provides interactive online health information and risk reduction services to more than 1 million college students, university administrators, and health professionals across the United States. In addition to its primary purpose of providing health and risk prevention education to college students, MyStudentBody provides schools with real-time aggregate data to help administrators and health professionals monitor outcomes of campus-specific health initiatives. Additional product information can be obtained from ahemm@inflexxion.com.

About Inflexxion, Inc.
Inflexxion Inc.,® (www.inflexxion.com), founded in 1989, creates behavioral health solutions for prevention, intervention, education, and disease management using engaging interactive technologies. Inflexxion develops clinically tested programs for health issues such as substance abuse and addiction, student health, pain management, and others. These innovative programs help health professionals and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies deliver quality care to diverse populations. Inflexxion is based in Newton, MA.