Active clinical trials for "Alcoholism"

The purpose of the research study of the K23 award is to develop a blood test that can check how much alcohol a person has consumed in the past few days. We will enroll heavy social drinkers who do not have alcohol-related problems but used to drinking 5 or more beers on a single occasion. Both men and women between ages 21 and 65 years can join the study. All participants must be of European decent.

According to the World Health Organisation, depression and problem drinking are among the leading causes of disability worldwide. Most patients who present with problem drinking and/or depression have poor quality of life and pose a great economic burden to society due to their higher use of health services. We seek to develop a new, enhanced, efficient, innovative and cost effective treatment strategy aimed at reducing the burden that these two mental conditions impose on sufferers, their families as well as the community and health systems. In a recent pilot study of supportive text messages in Ireland conducted by the Principal Applicant and a team of researchers for patients with problem drinking and co-occurring depression, we established that patients who received twice daily supportive text messages for three months had significantly less depressive symptoms than those who did not receive such messages. There was also a trend that patients who received the supportive text messages were more likely to have higher alcohol free days than those who did not receive any supportive text messages.Our study was limited by the small number of participants and it did not examine the impact of the text messages on health services utilization. Our study did not also examine the effects of supportive text messages on those with only depression or only problem drinking. The proposed study seeks to extend the knowledge gained from the pilot study in Ireland by examining the impact of supportive text messages in the individual disorders

Background: - Brain inflammation due to high alcohol intake may affect thinking, memory, and concentration. Researchers want to measure this using positron emission tomography (PET). Objective: - To study how excessive alcohol consumption affects brain function. Eligibility: Adults 30-75 years old who are moderate or severe alcohol drinkers. Healthy volunteers. Design: Participants will be screened with medical history, physical exam, interview, and blood and urine tests. Their breath will be tested for alcohol and recent smoking. Phase 1: Participants will stay in the hospital 3 days. They will have blood and heart tests and daily urine tests. A small plastic tube will be inserted by needle in each arm. One will go in a vein, the other in an artery. Participants will have 2 PET scans with 2 different radioactive compounds. Participants will lie on a bed that slides in and out of the scanner with a cap on their head. Participants will have magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Participants will lie in the scanner either resting with their eyes open or while performing an attention task. Participants will have tests of memory, attention, concentration, and thinking. They may answer questions, take tests, and perform simple actions. Phase 2 of the study will only be done if Phase 1 results show brain inflammation. Phase 2 will repeat Phase 1. For healthy volunteers, Phase 2 will begin 3 weeks after Phase 1. Other volunteers must not have alcohol for at least 3 weeks and stay in a hospital up to 4-6 weeks between Phase 1 and Phase 2. After Phase 2, they will have 5 follow-up calls over 3 months.

Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are highly prevalent among U.S. civilians, and even more prevalent in the U.S. Veteran population. AUDs are frequently co-morbid with depressive symptoms in psychiatric clinical populations, resulting in an increased severity of both conditions. Indeed, returning Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) Veterans have extraordinarily high rates of alcohol misuse and co-morbid psychiatric symptoms, indicating that future Veteran clinical populations will be particularly affected by AUDs. While FDA-approved medications are available to treat AUDs, their efficacy is low compared to available psychosocial treatments. Despite the lack of evidence for efficacy from controlled trials, antidepressants are frequently prescribed to clinical populations (including Veterans) with active AUDs. A better understanding of patient-level clinical variables that may confer poor response to treatment with antidepressants would allow clinicians better tools to distinguish those alcohol-dependent Veterans likely to do worse with antidepressant treatment.

Insomnia and other sleep abnormalities are common, persistent, and associated with relapse in alcohol-dependent patients. The overall, long-term objectives of the proposed research are to investigate the neurophysiologic mechanisms of sleep disturbance that are associated with relapse in patients with alcohol dependence, and to target those mechanisms with medication in order to reduce relapse risk. The specific research aims are: To investigate three potential mechanisms of sleep disturbance in alcoholic patients: impaired sleep drive, impaired circadian regulation of alertness, and brain hyperactivation; To investigate short-term effects of medication on sleep and its regulatory mechanisms in alcoholics; To investigate the short-term clinical course of alcoholism as a function of baseline sleep parameters. In Study Phases I & II (Screening & Baseline: 10+ days), subjects are assessed to diagnose alcohol dependence, determine baseline values for drinking and sleeping, and rule out confounding sleep-impairing causes. Phase III (Medication: 10 days), is a randomized, double-blind parallel design comparison of gabapentin vs. placebo on mechanisms of sleep. It is not a therapeutic or clinical trial. Phases II & III each have 7 days of monitoring sleep and activity, followed by 3 nights in the University of Michigan (UM) sleep laboratory to assess all-night EEG activity and Dim-Light Melatonin Onset (DLMO), a measure of circadian rhythm. Phase IV is a 2-day medication taper and Phase V (Follow-up) consists of one visit or telephone call after 12 weeks to assess course of drinking. In summary, sleep disturbance in alcoholic patients increases their risk of relapse. This study proposes to investigate the mechanisms causing sleep disturbance in alcoholics and to determine if those mechanisms predict return to drinking after 12 weeks. Relevance: Alcoholism is a devastating chronic disorder that in any one year affects 10% of adults, costs over $185 billion, and causes more than 100,000 deaths in the U.S. Despite treatment, most alcoholic patients achieve only short-term abstinence. Medically-based treatment improvements are needed that target neurophysiologic mechanisms of relapse. Overall public health will be improved by developing science-based treatments that can augment existing, but only partially effective, treatment approaches.

This Project will explore the hypothesis that individuals with a family history positive for alcohol dependence (without any current Axis I disorder, except nicotine dependence), experience an alteration in the reward "valence" (balance of positive and negative effects) of the GABAA receptor agonist barbiturate (thiopental) compared to family history negative age-matched subjects. Further, variation in genes involved in brain GABA function may influence the risk for alcoholism by altering a component of the discriminative stimulus effects of ethanol.

The purpose of this research study is to learn about the use of a combination of two medications, baclofen and naltrexone, for the treatment of alcohol dependence in men and women ages 25-60 years old. Naltrexone is an FDA approved medication for treatment of alcohol dependence. The most widely accepted idea for naltrexone's effect is that it reduces the alcohol "high", which decreases a desire to consume alcohol. As a result, alcoholic patients treated with naltrexone are less likely to relapse to heavy drinking. Furthermore, naltrexone treated patients drink fewer days and are more likely to maintain abstinence. However, naltrexone does not have any effect on other symptoms that may contribute to relapse such as anxiety, sleep problems and irritability. Baclofen, an FDA approved medication for muscle spasms, may improve some of these symptoms. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to gather information on whether adding baclofen to naltrexone is feasible and well tolerated.

This project is designed to compare college drinking interventions on outcomes and cost-effectiveness. We plan to recruit 700 students with residence hall alcohol violations to participate in a randomized study to evaluate 3 brief interventions: in-person brief motivational intervention, Alcohol 101plus (an interactive CD-ROM program), and AlcoholEdu (a Web-based tutorial). Participants will be followed over 12 months to determine changes in alcohol consumption and related problems. We will also explore which participants might respond better to one intervention vs the others.

The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of quetiapine (Seroquel) in reducing substance use in persons diagnosed with schizophrenia. The primary hypothesis is that quetiapine treatment will be associated with a decrease in substance use.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of multi-family group psychoeducation (MFGP) on the families of people living with a diagnosis of substance abuse disorder on patients and their families. It has been reported that families are affected by substance-related disorders. Families that are the target of psychoeducational practices for families are defined as follows: "Family" is a relative, biological family member, partner, close friend, or any other support person or a person who sees herself/himself as the patient's family. In most studies, it has been stated that including family members in the patient's treatment provides additional benefits to substance use services and makes long-term recovery more likely. Studies have found that MFGP is associated with fewer relapses and hospitalizations, improved family well-being, increased participation in vocational rehabilitation, higher employment rates, and reduced costs of care. Multifamily psychoeducation aims to increase the family's knowledge about substance use disorders and to include them in the recovery process. Study Design:The intervention involves 8-week MFGP for families. During the 8 sessions, it was planned to conduct face-to-face psychoeducational group work, with each session lasting 75 minutes on average. The MFGP to be covered during 8 sessions was created by evaluating MFGP modules from 3 different sources. Intervention protocols included these subjects: First session: Psychoeducation on Substance-Abuse Disorders Second session: Effects of Addiction on the Family Third session: illness management Fourth session: Supporting Recovery Fifth session: Improving Stress Coping Skills/Stress Management Sixth session: Developing Problem-Solving Skills Seventh session: Strengthening the Family Eighth session: Working with Stigma Study population: Families of people suffering from substance abuse disorders were studied. Expected outcomes: An increase in general and social functionality, a decrease in depression, anxiety, and self-stigma, an increase in quality of life, and treatment compliance are expected for patients. For families, it is expected that depression, anxiety, self-stigma, and caregiving burnout decrease, funcitonalty and quality of life increases and people gain skills to cope with stress.