View clinical trials related to Alcoholism.
Filter by:This study will develop and test a brief telephone-delivered motivational enhancement intervention for substance abusing military personnel who are not currently in treatment. The hypotheses being tested are that this intervention will prompt a willingness to participate voluntarily in a self-appraisal of substance abuse behavior and consequences, self-initiated change or enrollment in a treatment or self-help program, and cessation of abuse of alcohol or other drugs.
Functional recovery is of the utmost importance to evaluate in our returning Operation Enduring and Iraqi Freedom Veterans so that we can better understand their needs and experiences during the readjustment process from warzone to civilian life. Although most soldiers are resilient, concerning rates of PTSD (12-20%) and depression (14-15%) have been found, and as many as 24-35% report drinking more alcohol than they intended (Hoge et al., 2004). The current study proposes to follow returning Veterans for a one-year period to evaluate factors that influence the readjustment process and functional impairment. This information should guide the development of early intervention and treatment programs to help recovery.
Couples who use alcohol and other drugs (AOD) in South Africa are at high risk for engaging in risky sex behavior within their relationships and with other sexual partners. In addition, high levels of gender-based violence (GBV) in the Cape Town area intersect with AOD abuse and sex behavior. All of these interconnections raise concern for the importance of HIV prevention strategies within or surrounding drinking venues, where many of these behaviors occur. The specific aims of this study are as follows: Aim 1. To characterize the types of drinking venues (e.g., licensure status, size, plumbing, type of alcohol provided), their immediate context (e.g., observed availability and use of other drugs, observable violence and sexual activity), and surrounding neighborhood characteristics (e.g., quality of streets, building structures, and availability of electricity and plumbing) in the sampled neighborhood blocks in several large Black/African and Coloured communities in Cape Town, South Africa. Aim 2. To refine through qualitative methods the proposed interventions in relation to skills-building to address gender-role expectations, sexual partnering, gender and power, violence, and environments where drinking and sexual risk behaviors occur. Aim 3. To conduct a randomized group trial to compare the relative efficacy of a comprehensive intervention (Condition 3: Enhanced Couples) to the gender-focused intervention (Condition 2: Gender) and to (Condition 1: Men's Control and Women's CoOp) on reducing alcohol and other drug (AOD) use, sexual risk behavior, and gender-based violence at 6 month follow-ups. Aim 4. To assess the mechanisms through which the intervention effects may occur (e.g., mediators involving self-efficacy and condom mastery, negotiation, and communication skills) and to identify groups for whom the interventions have the greatest effect (e.g., partner characteristics such as race, gender, and age and neighborhood factors such as poverty) on study outcomes of AOD use, sexual risk, and gender-based violence.
The goal of this study is to train phone counselors working for the New York (NY) State Smokers' Quitline to advise callers who drink at hazardous levels to limit or abstain from alcohol use to determine whether this improves smoking cessation outcomes so that we can establish effect size estimates for a full scale multi-site trial.
Problem drinking gay and bisexual men who try to quit drinking are at risk for relapse to heavy or problematic drinking because their social lives and social outlets are often strongly associated with alcohol. These men are most receptive to interventions focused on moderation of drinking rather than abstinence. However moderation-oriented cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) and naltrexone (NTX) are both well established treatments for problem drinkers who wish to moderate, rather than stop, drinking. Research suggests that combining these treatments may enhance their efficacy. This study combines moderation-oriented CBT with NTX in the treatment of problem drinking gay and bisexual men, who do not wish to abstain from alcohol, to evaluate their efficacy alone and in combination. We also propose to utilize new data collection technology, Interactive Voice Response, to collect data on daily relations among drinking, sexual behavior and psychological variables thought to mediate treatment response. Our objectives are to evaluation the efficacy of 12 weeks of randomly assigned treatment, with 100 mg of NTX or placebo, combined with brief supportive therapy or modified, behavioral self-control therapy specifically tailored to gay/bisexual men; to evaluate conditional relationships between heavy drinking and likelihood of HIV risk behavior; and to evaluate daily associations among mood, craving, self-efficacy, motivation, and drinking. Assessments will include baseline, 3, 6, & 9 month follow-up. A substudy of the treatment trial will be conducted to collect and bank samples from blood for research aimed at associating naturally occurring differences in DNA with patient response to NTX, and with potential mediational mechanisms of action of NTX. Information gathered on genes or gene products may be used in conjunction with data on clinical psychological factors obtained as part of the clinical trial to evaluate relationships among genetic variants, drug effects, and mechanisms of treatment response. Patients will be asked to give a blood sample at Week 0 of the clinical trial for the purpose of carrying out genetic research.
The main aim of this study is to compare the impact of a minimal and a full Internet-based self-help intervention for problem drinkers in the general population.
Sertraline, a serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) that increases basal serotonin levels, was shown to reduce alcohol consumption in lower risk/severity and later onset (LOA) but not higher risk/severity earlier onset alcoholic individuals (EOA). By contrast, ondansetron, a 5-HT3 receptor reduced alcohol consumption in EOAs but not LOAs. To explain this contrast in clinical efficacy, one approach suggests that differential serotonergic response is based on a functional polymorphism of the 5-HTTLPR promoter region of the serotonin re-uptake transporter (SERT). These alleles have typically been classified as biallelic genotypes: LL, SS and SL. The LL variant is postulated to be associated with EOA and the SS/SL variants associated with LOA. To test this hypothesis the investigators therefore propose to match and mismatch serotonergic treatments to genetic polymorphic variants [in 132 non-treatment seeking alcohol dependent volunteers] in a double-blind placebo controlled 2 x 2 design human laboratory study. The investigators propose to randomize non-treatment-seeking alcohol dependent persons based on their 5'-HTTLPR variant genotype (LL or SS/SL) into one of two counterbalanced arms: participants in the first arm (LL) will first receive one drug (either 200mg/day of sertraline or ondansetron 0.5mg/day) for three weeks followed by an alcohol self-administration experiment (ASAE), [with a 1 week down-titration period if sertraline received first, during the first week of the "placebo period"] then receive placebo for two more weeks (this will be a single-blind portion to use as a comparison group and to wash out the pharmacodynamic effects of the first drug) followed by a second ASAE. Participants will then receive the second drug for three weeks followed by a third ASAE [all will receive medication for an additional 1 week period and those receiving sertraline last will be down-titrated]. Participants in the second arm (SS/SL) will receive the same medications in the same balanced design. Individuals in both arms will receive weekly medication management to enhance medication adherence. The long-term objective of this research is to prospectively examine serotonergic treatment matching for alcohol dependence based on genotyping. Of equal importance, the investigators also recognize the strong contribution of additional genetic and environmental influences on alcohol consumption.
Forty 18-year-old social drinkers will be selected from the sample tested in specific aim 1 ("Prospective Assessment of Adolescent Drinking Trajectories With Computer-Assisted Self-administration of Ethanol (CASE)"; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01063166). The functional magnetic resonance imaging blood-oxygen-level-dependent (fMRI BOLD) activity related to disinhibition measured with the Stop Signal task will be assessed during a continuous infusion of alcohol, clamping the arterial Breath Alcohol Concentration (aBAC) at 60 mg% for approximately one hour. It will be examined whether this fMRI BOLD activity is associated with the initial drinking trajectories and the alcohol consumption at age 18 and at age 20 identified in specific aim 1. Furthermore, fMRI will be used with the Taylor Aggression Paradigm to determine which brain areas mediate increased physical aggression during the same continuous infusion of alcohol as described above. All participants will undergo an alcohol and a placebo fMRI session.
Null hypothesis: There will be no significant difference in the change in craving parameters between right and left prefrontal high frequency rTMS in patients with alcohol dependence.
The proposed project aims to: 1. Obtain a preliminary assessment of the efficacy of topiramate treatment in reducing alcohol use in veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and alcohol dependence; 2. Obtain preliminary assessments of safety/tolerability of topiramate in these patients; 3. Assess the feasibility of recruitment and retention for topiramate treatment in this comorbid population; and 4) to inform the design of a planned subsequent larger controlled trial of topiramate. PRIMARY HYPOTHESIS: Topiramate treatment combined with Medical Management alcohol counseling will be associated with a significant decrease in percent drinking days from baseline to end of treatment. SECONDARY HYPOTHESIS: There will be significantly less percent drinking days in the topiramate treatment group compared to the placebo group.