Active clinical trials for "Alcoholism"

Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD's) are a major health and social problem. Relapse is a rule rather than an exception in alcohol dependence, leading to poor outcomes. Craving are frequently associated with relapse. Keeping in mind the high burden of disease due to AUD, limited efficacy of available treatment modalities it is important to study new treatment modalities. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a promising neuromodulation technique with robust evidence in epilepsy and treatment-resistant depression. fMRI studies show that transcutaneous VNS (tVNS) replicates most of the biological effects of VNS with an additional advantage of being non-invasive. Percutaneous Electrical Neural Field Stimulation (PENFS) of auricular branch of vagus nerve is a variant of tVNS which has shown promise in the treatment of opioid withdrawal. The efficacy of PENFS has been evaluated in AUDs in only handful of studies. I propose to employ a double-blind randomized sham-controlled trial where 40 subjects with AUD will be randomized to 2 groups, with 1 group receiving 'Active' auricular PENFS, and another group receiving bilateral 'sham' auricular PENFS. Assessments will be carried out at baseline and after 15 days of advent of PENFS on tasks to assess craving, along with neurohemodynamic changes on functional Magnetic Resonance Image (fMRI). Follow up of patients will be done till the first relapse or till 3 months after the post evaluation, whichever is earlier. The investigator's hypotheses are: Active PENFS will lead to significantly greater improvement in subjective craving and drinking-related outcomes as compared to sham PENFS in patients with AUD over the follow-up period of 3 months. Active PENFS will produce a significantly differential Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) activation-deactivation pattern of brain regions (greater activation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex and along with deactivation of insular cortex) associated with craving during a cue-induction paradigm as compared to sham PENFS in patients with AUD. Active PENFS will result in a significant differential change in resting-state functional connectivity (fMRI measured) within and between addiction-related neural networks as compared to sham PENFS as evaluated with a resting state fMRI analysis in patients with AUD.

The investigators will evaluate the efficacy of contingency management (CM) in reducing alcohol use in individuals experiencing unstable housing but who are currently housed in shelters. Participants will be 20-30 adults diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and has a history or unstable housing or literal homelessness in the last year but is currently receiving housing through Catholic Charities Spokane or other locations. Individuals who demonstrate AUD and have measurable PEth >ng/mL at the baseline visit will be randomized to receive Phosphatidylethanol-based CM treatment or non-contigent treatment.

Alcohol is the most consumed psychoactive substance in France and is responsible for 49,000 deaths per year in the country. Addictions, characterized by "the repeated impossibility of controlling a behavior and the continuation of this behavior despite the knowledge of its negative consequences", are a major public health issue in France and worldwide. Alcohol dependence (DSM-5 moderate to severe use disorder) is a chronic behavioral disorder, whose main characteristic is its high and prolonged risk of "relapse", i.e. the resumption of problematic consumption after a period of improvement (abstinence or reduction). One of the main components of addiction is "craving", which can be defined as the irrepressible desire to use a substance (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association). To date, despite functional imaging studies (fMRI), the brain mechanisms involved in craving remain poorly understood. In recent years, a new neuroimaging device has become available, both in research and in clinical settings: high-resolution electroencephalography (HRE). This non-invasive method allows to observe brain activity at the millisecond level. The objective of the CRAVING-NET project is to better understand brain function in alcohol addiction, and in particular in craving.

Background: LGB people experience a large number of anxiety and mood disorders, and risk behaviors than heterosexual (Marshall et al., 2011). The evidence points to the importance played by the stress of minorities in the development of such problems (Bränstrom, Hatzenbuehler, Pachankis and Link, 2016). Objective: The present study aims to adapt and analyze the efficacy of the ESTEEM program designed for this population (Burton, Wang and Pachankis, in press) in: 1) the reduction of psychopathological symptoms, abusive alcohol consumption and risky sexual behavior, 2 ) the decrease in the level of stress, anxiety for rejection, internalized homophobia and level of concealment, and finally, 3) the improvement of assertiveness levels. The effect of the variables social support, emotional regulation strategies and rumination will be analyzed. Method: A quasi-experimental design will be used, where the LGB people (n = 63, 18<) will be assigned to the experimental group (immediate treatment), or to the control group (three-month waitlist). At baseline, 3-month, 6-month and 12-month assessments, participants completed self-reports of mental health and minority stress. Results: It is expected that after treatment, LGB people mental health will be improved, as well as, minority stress will be reduced.

This study evaluates the efficacy of a skills training web-based mobile phone application, Telecoach among individuals in the general population seeking help for their risky alcohol consumption on the Internet. The design is a two-armed randomized controlled design, and outcomes are measured in terms of changes in excessive alcohol use at follow up 6, 12 and 26 weeks after study initiation and baseline data gathering. The Telecoach web app delivers skills training in the form of exercises commonly used in psychosocial interventions for risky alcohol use. The controll condition is a web app providing information on the effects of alcohol on the consumers' health.

Long-term aim is the definition of a setup of mobile sensors and their integration in a mobile infrastructure that allows the prediction of stress related alcohol intake in an ambulatory setting. Here, we aim to identify stress- and alcohol cue-related physiological markers in a lab experiment to assess interactions between acute psychological vs. physical stress exposure and alcohol cue-exposure regarding their effects on measures relevant for the development and maintenance of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Further, we aim to identify neural correlates in brain circuits of motivational, cognitive, and affective processing. In addition to applying established stress-related markers, we will integrate innovative sensor-based measures.

To use pregnenolone (PREG; 300; 500mg) daily versus placebo (PLA) as a probe to assess the role of neuroactive steroids in individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD).

The overall goal of the proposed project is to improve the treatment of individuals with AUD. The investigators will conduct the first pilot human laboratory study to assess the effects of two doses of lacosamide on alcohol drinking and craving. The investigators will assess its effects on reducing alcohol intake using a human laboratory method, the Yale Alcohol Drinking Paradigm (ADP). The investigators will also assess the feasibility of the Alcohol Drinking Paradigm (ADP) in order to position our research team to have the capacity to conduct future, larger, hypothesis-testing human laboratory-based experiments designed to test the efficacy of potential alcohol treatments.

The specific aims of the ABCT_Military project are as follows: 1) To modify the existing, Alcohol Behavioral Couple Therapy (ABCT) model to treat service members in the reconstitution (post deployment, reintegration, or separation) stage of service, and develop optional psychoeducation modules to address relevant co-morbid problems and challenges in this population in a weekly, 15 session, stand-alone outpatient format. 2) To test feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the study intervention protocol in a successive cohort design for one cohort of 8 couples and one cohort of 22 couples, with iterative manual revision.

This proposed R21, Effect of CBT Microinterventions on Mechanisms of Behavior Change among Adults with AUD: Using Eye Tracking to Measure Pre-Post Cognitive Control, uses a translational team science approach to isolate and examine the effect of three different Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) interventions (functional analysis (FA), cognitive restructuring for alcohol related thoughts (CR), and dealing with cravings (DC)) on specific hypothesized mechanisms (cognitive control, stimulus salience, or craving/arousal, respectively).