Barbershop Talk: Reducing Excessive Alcohol Consumption Among Black Men
Drinking BehaviorDrinking Excessive1 moreSocially disadvantaged Black men are at increased risk for unhealthy drinking habits that may, in turn, increase preventable chronic disease. This project seeks to test the effectiveness of a Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) intervention for use within barbershop settings to reduce average drinking days and the number of unhealthy drinking days. Data from this study will further our understanding of how to reduce the risk of alcohol-related morbidity and mortality among Black men. Data will also improve our understanding of strategies that can improve the implementation of evidence-based care models in non-clinical settings; thus, extending the reach of evidence-based care to communities with the highest need.
Social Effects of Alcohol
Alcohol DrinkingIn this study the investigator will assess the effect of a moderate dose of alcohol on emotional responses and feelings of connection during a dyadic semi-structured social interaction
Effectiveness of a WeChat-based Alcohol Consumption Intervention Mini-program ("Sober Time ACT")...
Alcohol Use DisorderAlcohol AbuseThe purpose of this study is to explore whether "Sober Time ACT", a digital intervention tool for alcohol use developed based on wechat mini program, is effective in improving risky alcohol use among Chinese local drinkers.
Design and Evaluation of an In-Vehicle Real-Time Drunk Driving Detection System
Drunk DrivingAlcohol Drinking1 moreTo analyze driving behavior of individuals under the influence of alcohol while driving in a real car. Based on the in-vehicle variables, the investigators aim at establishing algorithms capable of discriminating sober and drunk driving using machine learning.
Semaglutide for Alcohol Use Disorder
Alcohol Use DisorderCigarette SmokingPharmacotherapy development remains a critical objective for reducing health and societal burdens associated with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Developing targeted treatments for specific AUD subgroups is a key aim under the NIAAA medication development strategy. Among those with AUD, cigarette smokers comprise a sizable and critical subgroup with disproportionally high long-term health risks, making it a key priority to advance therapies for concurrent AUD and cigarette smoking. Recent preclinical evidence indicates that glucagon-type peptide-1, an incretin hormone, impacts both alcohol and nicotine motivation and intake. This project will utilize human laboratory screening procedures to evaluate a GLP-1 receptor agonist as a novel candidate therapy for smokers with AUD. Participants who meet criteria for AUD and report smoking will complete laboratory alcohol administration procedures while receiving medication or placebo. This study will provide initial human data on the effects of a GLP-1 receptor agonist in relation to alcohol-related outcomes, including both alcohol and nicotine motivation, in participants with AUD. Validation of a candidate monotherapy for joint alcohol and nicotine reduction could have substantial public health impact.
Inner Engineering Yoga Program on Short and Long Term Health Effects (ISHA-Impact): A Longitudinal...
MediationMood10 moreThis study will include any participant who registered, and plans to attend the Inner Engineering In-Person Completion Course. In 2019, this course was offered in: Los Angeles in March, Philadelphia in April and Toronto & Dallas in November. This study has been involved in every IECO Course since 2019 and is still active today. Beginning in August 2021, investigators will recruit for the August Inner Engineering In-Person Completion Course. Investigators anticipate that this study can include up to 5,000 study participants. Participants would attend this course and complete the pre-modules regardless of whether or not they participate in this study.
Increasing the Temporal Window in Individuals With Alcohol Use Disorder
Alcohol Use DisorderEpisodic future thinking (EFT) is based on the new science of prospection, which was first identified in a Science publication in 2007 and refers to pre-experiencing the future by simulation. Considerable evidence suggests that prospection is important for understanding human cognition, affect, motivation, and action. Individuals with damaged frontal areas, as well as individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD), show deficits in planning prospectively. One systematic method to engender prospection is via EFT. EFT, as applied in our prior studies and in this proposal consists of having participants develop positive plausible future events that correspond to several future time frames (e.g., 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months etc). For each of these timeframes participants are asked to concretize the events (e.g., What are you doing? Who will be there? What will you see, hear, smell, and feel?). We and others have used EFT to decrease delay discounting (DD) in individuals with AUD and smokers, as well as normal weight, overweight, and obese populations when compared to the control condition, control episodic thinking (CET). Consistent with reinforcer pathology, EFT also reduces alcohol valuation in the purchase task among individuals with AUD. However, no study to date has examined whether EFT reduces alcohol self-administration in the laboratory. Moreover, the neural correlates of EFT in AUD are also unknown. In these studies, we propose to test an intervention, EFT, which we hypothesize will decrease reinforcer pathology measures in a bar-like setting in the laboratory; that is, EFT will decrease delay discounting, as well as alcohol self-administration, demand, and craving compared to a control episodic thinking (CET) condition. Moreover, we hypothesize EFT will enhance activation in brain regions associated with prospection (e.g., hippocampus and amygdala) and the executive decision system (e.g., DLPFC). We will also examine the effect of EFT on real-world drinking.
Ketone Ester Intervention in Alcohol Use Disorder
Alcohol DrinkingAlcohol Use DisorderThe purpose of this research is to study how a nutritional ketone ester may effect brain function and alcohol consumption in regular alcohol users. The study will see how the brain responds, once after drinking the ketone ester and once after drinking a "placebo", which will look and taste the same as the ketone ester drink. Metabolic ketosis induced by a ketogenic diet has been previously shown to elevate brain ketone bodies and reduce alcohol withdrawal symptoms in humans with AUD, and reduce alcohol consumption in alcohol-dependent rats. The study investigates whether metabolic ketosis induced by a one-dose nutritional ketone ester (KE) reduces brain reactivity to alcohol cues (fMRI), alcohol craving and alcohol consumption in humans with AUD, and if KE elevates ketone bodies using proton spectroscopy. This study uses a double blind, random ordered, 2-way crossover design in n=20 non-treatment seeking AUD who come in on two separate testing days: on one testing day the participants consume KE ((R)-3-hydroxybutyl (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate), and on another testing day a drink with isocaloric dextrose (DEXT), after which participants are scanned for 1H-MRS and fMRI and complete an alcohol consumption paradigm each day after scanning.
Trial Assessing Light Intensity Exercise on the Health of Older Breast Cancer Survivors
InflammationCognitive Impairment2 moreThe Trial Assessing Light-Intensity Exercise on the Health of Older Breast Cancer Survivors pilot randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the efficacy of a home-based, light-intensity physical activity intervention among 56 obese, older adult breast cancer survivors, in comparison to a usual care control condition.
Alcohol and Opioids
Opioid UseAlcohol DrinkingThis study will examine the effects of doses of alcohol/placebo and doses of opioid/placebo, alone and in combination. The primary outcomes are related to pharmacodynamic measures (subjective ratings of drug liking and other abuse-related effects; physiological outcomes) to determine the interaction effects of these compounds.