Active clinical trials for "Alcoholism"

The primary hypotheses under test are that alcohol dependent subjects treated with apremilast will report decreased craving for alcohol following alcohol exposure in the laboratory and report significantly less drinking under naturalistic conditions, than those treated with placebo.

Alcohol use disorder, or heavy drinking, is commonly seen in patients who present to trauma centers. These patients are at risk for Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS), which is collection of symptoms that can range from anxiety and restlessness to seizures, delirium and even death. The Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment (CIWA) tool is routinely used to assess alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Benzodiazepines (BZD) are commonly administered to trauma patients who exhibit symptoms of AWS based on the CIWA scoring system. Although these medications have proven efficacy, they can also have negative side effects which may affect recovery. Valprate (VPA) is a medication which may have efficacy in management of AWS symptoms, thus ameliorating or preventing the need for BZD administration. This trial will study the effectiveness of VPA in the prevention of AWS symptoms by comparing the amount of BZD use in trauma patients who receive BZD treatment as indicated by CIWA scores with patients who receive prophylactic VPA therapy in addition to BZD as indicated by CIWA scores.

Alcohol use is the third greatest cause of disability and death for US adults. Care for unhealthy alcohol use is lacking in most primary care settings. This project will implement two types of evidence-based care for unhealthy alcohol use in the 25 primary clinics of a regional health system-Group Health (GH). These include preventive care and treatment. Preventive care consists of alcohol screening, and for patients who screen positive, brief patient-centered counseling. Treatment for alcohol use disorders includes offering shared decision making and motivational counseling designed to enhance engagement in one or more treatment options: counseling, medications, and/or specialty treatment. During a pilot phase, the research team at Group Health Research Institute partnered with Group Health leaders and front line clinicians to design, pilot test, and iteratively refine an implementation strategy in 3 Group Health primary care clinics. Objective This study uses state-of-the-art implementation strategies to integrate evidence-based alcohol-related care into 22 primary care clinics (detailed below). This study is a pragmatic stepped-wedge quality improvement trial to evaluate its impact on: The proportion of patients who have primary care visits who screen positive for unhealthy alcohol use and have documented annual brief alcohol counseling; The proportion of patients who have primary care visits who have AUDs identified, and a) initiate and b) engage in care for AUDs. Secondary outcomes will include: The proportion of patients who have primary care visits who have documented annual alcohol screening with the AUDIT-C; and The proportion of patients who have primary care visits who screen positive for severe unhealthy alcohol use and have AUDs assessed and/or diagnosed;

Alcohol-dependence is the most widespread addiction in Western countries and leads to a wide range of impairments at cerebral and cognitive levels. It has also been showed that alcohol-dependence is associated with emotional disturbances, particularly for the decoding of emotional facial expressions (EFE). In view of the crucial role played by EFE to develop and maintain satisfactory interpersonal relations, this emotional processing impairment may have deleterious consequences on alcohol-dependent patient's social well-being, and this deficit is thus of particular clinical interest. Nevertheless, this deficit has up to now been evaluated only by means of experiments using paradigms with low ecological value (i.e. presentation of EFE in isolation and in the central vision field), while in the real life, emotional stimuli are most frequently appearing together with other emotional stimulations (particularly voices) and in the peripheral vision field. Moreover, the cerebral correlates of this emotional deficit are still to be determined. The present study thus aims at exploring the Emotional Facial Expressions (EFE) decoding in alcoholism using a more ecological paradigm, based on peripheral presentation of emotional crossmodal stimuli (i.e. the simultaneous presentation of emotionally congruent face and voice). Main aim: Determining the electrophysiological characteristics (latencies and amplitudes) of the event-related components elicited among recently detoxified alcohol-dependent participants, while performing an emotion-detection task on crossmodal stimuli (voices and/or faces) presented centrally or peripherally, and comparing these characteristics with those obtained among paired healthy participants. Secondary objectives: Exploring the electrophysiological pattern modifications among alcohol-dependent participants for the emotional faces and voices decoding (unimodal conditions), using spatio-temporal analyses methods. Exploring the electrophysiological waves associated with peripheral crossmodal stimuli processing among healthy participants. Exploring the behavioral correlates (reaction times and accuracy) of the emotion-detection task among alcohol-dependent participants while processing peripheral stimuli. Exploring the psychopathological comorbidities among alcohol-dependent participants and their influence on the behavioral and electrophysiological results.

USE-PACT is a cohort study of patients initiating Selincro® with one-year follow-up, performed using a random sample of prescribers. The aim of the study is to evaluate the use of Selincro in real-life and its impact on alcohol consumption at one year.

The primary hypotheses under test are that alcohol dependent subjects treated with mifepristone will report decreased craving for alcohol following alcohol exposure in the laboratory and report significantly less drinking under naturalistic conditions, than those treated with placebo.

In 2004, acamprosate was approved in the U.S. for abstinence maintenance, by decreasing craving, in alcoholic patients who have undergone detoxification. while a new anti-craving drug was encouraging, only 36.1% of the subjects treated with acamprosate remained abstinent for 6 months. Having the ability to identify treatment responsive individuals would have a major impact on the use of acamprosate.

Alcohol dependence is accompanied by several neurological mechanisms involving neuronal plasticity and neoneurogenesis, requiring Brain Derived Neurotrophic factor (BDNF) synthesis. The investigators found that serum BDNF levels in alcohol-dependent subjects increased to a greater extent in subjects who had remained abstinent at 6 months after withdrawal than in subjects who had relapse. To verify if the BDNF serum levels variation is linked to the way that abstinence is installed, wthe investigators will measure BDNF serum levels in alcohol dependent subjects at the moment of withdrawal, and 14, 28 days, and 2, 4, and 6 months after to establish its evolution in relation to alcohol consumption, and other clinical characteristics : depression intensity, anxiety, alcohol craving, biological markers of alcohol consumption or toxicity. Monitoring serum BDNF concentrations in link with other clinical data could help to characterize alcohol dependence profiles in clinical practice, help predict relapses, and assist in adjusting care to prevent difficulties in alcohol withdrawal.

This study will compare serotonin transporter proteins in people with alcoholism and healthy volunteers to examine how these proteins may be related to the inability of people with alcoholism to appropriately regulate their alcohol consumption. Serotonin transporters regulate levels of the brain chemical serotonin. Problems in this regulation have been implicated in alcoholism. Healthy normal volunteers and people who suffer from alcoholism who are between 18 and 75 years of age may be eligible for this study. Candidates are screened with a medical history and physical examination, psychiatric diagnostic interview, blood and urine tests, an electrocardiogram, urine toxicology screen, and written psychological evaluations. Participants undergo positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning to measure serotonin transporter levels in the brain. PET uses small amounts of a radioactive chemical called a tracer that "labels" the serotonin transporters in the brain. The tracer used in this study is [11C]DASB. For the procedure, the subject lies on the scanner bed. A special mask is fitted to the head and attached to the bed to help keep the subject's head still during the scan so the images will be clear. A brief scan is done just before the radioactive tracer is injected. This scan provides measures of the brain that will help in the precise calculation of information from subsequent scans. After the tracer is injected through a catheter (plastic tube) placed in the arm, pictures are taken for about 2 hours. MRI uses a magnetic field and radio waves to produce pictures of brain structure. The subject lies on a bed that slides into the tube-like scanner, wearing earplugs to muffle loud noises the machine makes when the magnetic fields are switched. The scan takes about an hour, during which time the subject can communicate with the technician.

We propose to test, by DNA linkage analysis of family pedigree members, the following interrelated hypotheses: 1) that sexual orientation is genetically influenced; 2) that the development of Kaposi's sarcoma and other outcomes of HIV infection in male homosexuals is affected by host susceptibility genes, circulating sex hormone levels, or HLA haplotype; and 3) that alcoholism and other psychobehavioral conditions are associated with homosexuality on a genetic basis and/or influenced by candidate behavioral loci. The subjects for these studies will be self-identified male and female homosexual probands and their relatives from families in which there are at least two individuals with homosexual orientation. All subjects will be adults, and will be referred through NIH physicians, private practitioners, and gay and lesbian organizations. Subjects will undergo a sexual orientation and behaviors interview, a psychiatric interview, and phlebotomy for HIV testing, HLA determination, endocrine measurements, and preparation of DNA from cultured lymphocytes. The DNA samples will be analyzed for a series of genetic markers that span the human genome and for candidate loci chosen for function.