Active clinical trials for "Alcoholism"

The American College of Surgeons now requires screening for alcohol use in trauma centers. The purpose of this research study is to provide information about the best screening and treatment methods. The investigators hope the findings will provide information that will improve healthcare by reducing problems related to risky alcohol use. The trauma team is conducting a comparison of two different ways of talking about alcohol use. Participants will be randomized into one of the two study groups.

The objective of the present study is to evaluate the efficacy of topiramate (250mg/day) versus placebo in decreasing aggression and reducing alcohol consumption in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and alcohol dependence (AD).

Alcohol abuse and dependence are very prevalent and result in significant morbidity, mortality and cost to society (Harwood 2000). Pharmacotherapies to assist with alcohol dependence consist of disulfiram, naltrexone and acamprosate. Of these, acamprosate is unique in that it is not metabolized by the liver, but rather completely excreted renally. In contrast, naltrexone is metabolized by the CYP450 system of the liver and less than 2% is excreted unchanged and can cause liver damage (PDR 2005). Multiple cases of hepatitis, including both cholestatic and fulminant hepatitis, as well as hepatic failure resulting in transplantation or death, have been reported with administration of disulfiram (PDR 2005). The incidence of liver disease among alcoholics is high and increases with age and years of drinking and this may preclude the use of antabuse or naltrexone to help alcohol dependent patients with liver disease or that are elderly . Thus acamprosate has a unique safety profile that would make it ideally suited for treating alcohol dependence in the elderly, even in the presence of hepatic impairment. The current study is to evaluate the safety profile of acamprosate in elderly patients with alcohol dependence. Acamprosate, calcium acetyl homotaurinate, has been approved in most European countries and the U.S. for the maintenance of abstinence in recently detoxified alcoholics. The mechanism of action involves primarily the restoration of a normal N-methyl- D -aspartate (NMDA) receptor tone in glutamatergic systems (Rammes et al 2001). Several trials of acamprosate confirm its efficacy in the maintenance of abstinence in alcohol dependence (Lesch et al. 2001; Slattery et al. 2003; Mann et al. 2004; Verheul et al. 2004). It also reduces the severity of relapse in alcoholics in abstinence based treatment programs (Chick et al. 2003). There is limited data on the safety of acamprosate in the elderly (PDR 2005). For the purposes of this study, elderly will be defined as 60 years or older. STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine the short-term safety of Acamprosate in the treatment of alcohol dependence in the elderly.

This study is designed to address both alcohol misuse and violence among adolescents ages 14-18 seeking care in an urban emergency department (ED). The study is a randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of a combined Adapted Motivational Interviewing and Skills Training intervention, delivered either by a computer or by a counselor, and an informational handout control condition.

This five-year prevention services application is concerned with preventing substance abuse, comorbid mental and behavioral disorders, and school failure. We will direct an integrated set of first grade classroom based preventive interventions at two correlated and confirmed early antecedents: early aggressive, disruptive behavior and poor achievement. We will test a comprehensive Whole Day (WD) program directed at improving: 1) teacher's classroom behavior management; 2) family/classroom partnerships regarding homework and discipline; and 3) teacher's instructional practices regarding academic subjects, particularly reading. We will test WD effectiveness in a developmental epidemiological design in which children and teachers are randomly assigned to intervention and standard setting (control) classrooms in 2 classrooms in each of 12 schools. While following the first grade children to the end of third grade, we will follow their first grade teachers over two subsequent cohorts of first graders to test whether the support and training structure sustains high levels of WD practice. We will also test whether the support and training structure is successful in training non-WD teachers. This prevention services aim will be augmented by an economic analysis of the costs and cost-effectiveness of the WD program. This combined services and prevention research should increase the efficiency of developing evidence-based programs and extending their use system-wide in both the prevention and education fields. The aims of our proposed work are to: 1) Implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a whole-day preventive intervention program for first-grade (WD) directed at known antecedent risk factors for later substance abuse, school failure, and comorbid mental and behavioral disorders; 2) Measure the variation in impact of WD due to variation in the experimentally manipulated quality of teachers' specific WD practices around classroom behavior management, family/classroom partnership, and quality of instruction, regarding reading, taking into account family, peer, and community factors; 3) Test effective- ness of the support structure required to sustain, and extend to other teachers high quality implementa- tion of WD; 4) Carry out economic analyses of the costs of implementing WD and their cost-effectiveness.

This study will evaluate how effective mood stabilizers are in the treatment of bipolar disorder with comorbid alcoholism

The purpose of this study is to determine if Divalproex Sodium can be used to Treat and Prevent Depression in Patients with Bipolar Disorder who have Comorbid Alcohol Dependence/Abuse.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a telephone based self-help program will prevent relapse among individuals undergoing standard substance abuse treatment.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) represents a highly prevalent, costly, and often untreated condition in the United States. Pharmacotherapy offers a promising avenue for treating AUD and for improving clinical outcomes for this debilitating disorder. While developing novel medications to treat AUD remains a high priority research area, there are major opportunities to refine the process of screening novel compounds. A promising novel pharmacology for AUD consists of the ANS-6637 compound which provides novel aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) inhibition. Unlike disulfiram, a non-selective and irreversible ALDH2 and ALDH1 inhibitor, which produces an aversive flushing response, the oral ANS-6637 compound is a selective and reversible inhibitor of ALDH2 that attenuates the surge in dopamine (DA). Specifically, a preclinical study found that ANS-6637 blunted the surge of DA in ventral tegmental neurons without affecting the basal levels of DA in vivo in a rodent model of alcohol seeking behavior. In rodent models, selective and reversible ALDH2 inhibitors decrease alcohol seeking and taking, prevent operant self-administration, and block cue-induced reinstatement. These results suggest that ANS-6637 may be an effective treatment to reduce heavy drinking and suppress relapse in individuals with AUD. This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose response study of ANS-6637. A total of 75 men and women with current AUD will be randomly assigned to receive (a) ANS-6637 (200 mg), (b) ANS-6637 (600 mg), or (c) matched placebo for 7 days. On Day 4, participants will complete an fMRI task before and 45-minutes after a priming dose of alcohol (target Breath Alcohol Concentration (BrAC) of 0.03 g/dl). On Day 7 participants will return to the laboratory to complete an oral alcohol administration paradigm. The successful completion of this study will advance medications development for AUD by advancing the development of ANS-6637, a novel and promising compound for AUD.

The objective of this research is to better understand how to reduce hazardous drinking among OEF/OIF veterans by assessing the effectiveness of a low-cost, computer-delivered preventative program.