300,000+ clinical trials. Find the right one.

33 active trials for Alcohol Dependence

Imaging of Cannabinoid 1 Receptors Using [11C]OMAR and PET

The aim of the present study is to conduct a human trial of [C-11]OMAR, a new PET imaging agent for the brain cannabinoid type 1 receptors (CB1), to determine its pharmacokinetics and binding characteristics.

Start: June 2009

New Treatment for Alcohol and Nicotine Dependence

This research study aims to test whether topiramate (a drug that is being used for seizure) will help individuals who have problems with both alcohol and nicotine. The investigators believe that individuals taking topiramate will be more successful at abstaining from both alcohol and nicotine than individuals taking placebo.

Start: September 2011

Neurocognitive and Neurobehavioral Mechanisms of Change Following Psychological Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder

Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is a significant public health problem, with prevalence rates of 13.9% for current and 29.1% for lifetime diagnosis (Grant et al., 2015). AUD creates harm at the individual, familial, and societal level, with an estimated societal cost of $249 billion (Sacks et al., 2015) per year. The course of AUD typically is characterized by periods of relapse to problematic drinking (Maisto et al., 2014), signaling a need for better treatments and understanding of mechanisms of behavior change. The goal of this research is to conduct a randomized clinical trial with 140 participants who have an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Each participant will complete behavioral assessments, self-report surveys and brain imaging before and after receiving psychotherapy treatment to change their drinking behaviors. Various aspects of behavior change will be looked at to better understand changes in brain function and emotional reactivity when someone changes their patterns of alcohol use. The two treatment used in this study have been found to be helpful in reducing alcohol use. Participants will be randomly assigned to either Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) or Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) that will be completed in 12 weekly therapy sessions. It is anticipated that there will be numerous changes in brain function that are found when someone reduces or stops their alcohol use after the completion of 12 weeks of treatment.

Start: November 2018

Progesterone Effect on Individuals Diagnoses With AD and PTSD.

This is a randomized control trial with 36 participants diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and comorbid alcohol dependence. Participants will be randomized to receive either progesterone (200 mg. bid) or placebo in identical looking capsules for three days. One goal of this research study is to test if progesterone is more effective than placebo in reducing craving after exposure to trauma cues and alcohol cues in a laboratory paradigm among men and women with AD and PTSD. We hypothesize that progesterone in comparison to placebo will significantly reduce craving for alcohol in response to trauma cues alone and in combination with alcohol cues in individuals with AD and PTSD. A second goal is to examine if there are gender differences in progesterone effects on stress and alcohol cue-induced craving. We hypothesize that the effects of progesterone on stress and craving will be stronger in women than in men. Participants will be recruited primarily through advertisement, but also through the clinical facilities at the VA and from other collaborators.

Start: September 2016

Screening for Alcohol-related Cognitive Impairments in Cirrhotic Patients

80% of patients with alcohol use disorders (AUD) present cognitive impairments, such as memory and executive functions. These disorders may have repercussions in addiction treatment by altering the patient's adherence to care. The level of impairment is dependent on the onset of addiction, and also the duration of abstinence. A complete neuropsychological evaluation is necessary to highlight cognitive impairments. In practice, the evaluation of these disorders by practitioners, is done with the help of tools of screening like the MoCa (Montreal cognitive assesment) and the BEARNI (Brief evaluation of alcohol related neuropsychological impairment). However, none of these tools have been evaluated in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis. Indeed, some studies have suggested that liver disorders including cirrhosis may be a factor aggravating cognitive disorders. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the ability of the BEARNI tool to detect alcohol-related cognitive problems in patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis.

Start: August 2020

Individualizing Incentives for Alcohol in the Severely Mentally Ill

The investigators will evaluate the efficacy of a 2 various contingency management (CM) interventions (High-Magnitude CM, Shaping CM) for treating heavy drinking among individuals with serious mental illness and alcohol dependence who are seen within the context of a community mental health center setting. Participants will be 400 adults diagnosed with serious mental illness and alcohol dependence and those who demonstrate heavy drinking during the first 4 weeks will be randomized to receive treatment conditions.

Start: May 2018

Learning to Resist the Urge: Inhibition Training in Abstinent Patients With Alcohol Use Disorders

The study aims to investigate the effects of a short computerized training as a therapeutic add-on to standard therapy in patients with alcohol-use disorder.

Start: December 2016

Interdisciplinary Study of A Novel Anticonvulsant in Alcoholism

Alcoholism is the third leading cause of preventable death in the US, accounting for 80,000 deaths annually. Almost 18 million US adults have alcohol use disorder (AUD); however, approved medications for the treatment of AUD has shown limited effectiveness. Zonisamide (ZON), a broad spectrum anticonvulsant, has proven to be more effective than a placebo in reducing alcohol intake in individuals with alcohol dependence. ZON's mechanism of action seems to be quite distinct from currently approved anti-alcoholism medications, which holds promise for treatment of individuals who are not responsive to conventional medications. However, much remains unknown about ZON's therapeutic mechanisms and ZON's efficacy in treating patients with a diagnosis of AUD. To fill in these gaps, the investigators will conduct a double-blind randomized controlled study that assesses ZON's treatment mechanisms and effectiveness in reducing alcohol consumption in patients with AUD. Participants will be randomized to one of two conditions: 1) treatment with ZON and a computerized psychotherapy platform called Take Control (TC); 2) treatment with a placebo (PLC) and TC. To understand the neurobiology behind ZON's potential therapeutic effects on AUD, fMRI will be used to compare the brain activity of the ZON+TC versus PLC+TC group while participants perform an alcohol and emotional-word Stroop task, as well as an alcohol related cues task.

Start: September 2017

Safety and Efficacy of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation

The gut microbiota is critical to health and functions with a level of complexity comparable to that of an organ system. Dysbiosis, or alterations of this gut microbiota ecology, have been implicated in a number of disease states. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), defined as infusion of feces from healthy donors to affected subjects, is a method to restore a balanced gut microbiota and has attracted great interest in recent years due to its efficacy and ease of use. FMT is now recommended as the most effective therapy for CDI not responding to standard therapies. Recent studies have suggested that dysbiosis is associated with a variety of disorders, and that FMT could be a useful treatment. Randomized controlled trial has been conducted in a number of disorders and shown positive results, including alcoholic hepatitis, Crohn's disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), pouchitis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), hepatic encephalopathy and metabolic syndrome. Case series/reports and pilot studies has shown positive results in other disorders including Celiac disease, functional dyspepsia, constipation, metabolic syndrome such as diabetes mellitus, multidrug-resistant, hepatic encephalopathy, multiple sclerosis, pseudo-obstruction, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) or Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) infection, radiation-induced toxicity, multiple organ dysfunction, dysbiotic bowel syndrome, MRSA enteritis, Pseudomembranous enteritis, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), and atopy. Despite FMT appears to be relatively safe and efficacious in treating a wide range of disease, its safety and efficacy in a usual clinical setting is unknown. More data is required to confirm safety and efficacy of FMT. Therefore, the investigators aim to conduct a pilot study to investigate the efficacy and safety of FMT in a variety of dysbiosis-associated disorder.

Start: July 2019

Cannabidiol (CBD) for the Treatment of Alcohol Withdrawal

This study will explore the effectiveness and tolerability of Cannabidiol (CBD) in the treatment of alcohol withdrawal symptoms in an inpatient setting, in a double-blind randomised placebo-controlled trial.

Start: January 2020

The Self Match Study: A Study of Informed Choice in the Treatment of Addiction

The purpose of this study is to determine whether patient self-matching (as compared with treatment as usual by expert matching) improves quality of life, retention, and outcome for patients being treated for alcohol problems. There are at least two good reasons for offering patients a choice when the goal is a change in their behavior. The first is that patients are likely to know what treatment works best for them. Secondly, being allowed to choose between options may increase compliance in treatment. As a randomized controlled trial, this study will compare the efficacy of patient self-matching versus treatment-as-usual expert matching. The Self-Match Study is expected to increase knowledge on the importance of involving the alcohol dependent patient in choosing what treatment method is best for him/her instead of having experts to do that. The investigators expect to discover patient involvement as a way to improve compliance in treatment, hence preventing that patients drop out of treatment to early. If this hypothesis proves to be right, clinicians will have a viable strategy for matching treatment methods to patients, since the strategy does not demand further resources in the treatment system.

Start: May 2017

The Approach and Avoidance Task (AAT) in Alcoholic Inpatients

The approach and avoidance task (AAT) has evolved as a promising treatment add-on in the realm of psychology. Certain psychiatric diseases, such as behavioural addictions, social anxiety disorder, and arachnophobia, are characterized by a dysfunctional tendency to either approach or avoid disease-specific objects. This tendency can be measured by means of the approach and avoidance task. In this so-called diagnostic AAT participants are instructed to react upon the format or the frame colour of a picture. For instance, pictures have to be pushed away if they are presented in landscape format and pulled towards oneself if they are presented in portrait format (or vice versa). Hence, the format (or the frame colour) becomes the task-relevant dimension, whereas the content of the picture becomes the task-irrelevant dimension. However, what generally becomes obvious in the psychiatric diseases mentioned above is that the task-irrelevant dimension (picture content) exerts an influence on reaction times. For instance, alcoholic patients are generally faster to respond if alcoholic pictures are presented in a format requiring them to pull towards themselves and slower to respond if alcoholic pictures are shown in the format requiring them to push away a joystick. This behavioural tendency has been termed an approach bias for alcohol. In order to counteract these dysfunctional approach or avoidance tendencies, an AAT-training has been developed. In this training participants/patients learn to either avoid or approach disease-specific objects. Alcohol-dependent patients, for instance, learn to avoid alcohol-related pictures by pushing or swiping the image away. It has been shown that these trainings can enhance treatment outcome (e.g. lower relapse rates) among alcohol-addicted patients (Wiers, Eberl, Rinck, Becker, & Lindenmeyer, 2011). The aim of the current study is to test whether the avoidance gesture is as important as suggested by the AAT's name or whether inhibiting the urge to approach alcoholic content might be enough to bring about the effect.

Start: February 2017

Qi Gong as a Method of Craving Reduction in Severe Addict Patients

Craving arises in response to an affective tone that is associated with perceptual representations of a sensory object, rather than directly in response to the object. The investigators presume that qi gong functions to decouple pleasant and unpleasant experience from habitual reactions by removing the affective bias that fuels such emotional reactivity. Qi gong training may specifically target the associated learning process with an emphasis on the critical link between affect and craving in an addictive loop.

Start: October 2018