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

Alcohol Dependence Clinical Trial

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

Status Recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

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.

Clinical Trial Description

The treatment of severe addiction to alcohol and one other or more psychoactive substances sometimes requires hospitalization for complex withdrawal. The medical term " sevrage complexe " is used in this file for hospitalization of patients with multiple addictions or with multiple comorbidities. In the french regulation the duration of hospitalization for " sevrage complexe " is at least 13 days.

The acute period of the first week is sufficient for physical weaning. A period relay for maintaining abstinence beyond the acute phase is a difficult stage. During this period the psychological craving related to the absence of the product causes dysphoria, stress, emotivity and increased difficulty in managing psychological aggression. The risk of relapse is then maximal and favored by many insults of everyday life.

Qi gong is classified by US National Library of Medicine as a mind-body therapy (MBT). It's an ancient traditional Chinese health practice believed to have special healing and recovery power. Today millions of people practice qi gong in China and around the world to treat various diseases. Qi gong is an ecole of breath, relaxation, guided imagery and inward attention. Practice of qi gong is believed to help cleanse the body of toxins, restore energy balance, reduce stress and anxiety. The Baduanjin qigong is one of the most common form of Chinese qi gong.

When going through withdrawal, craving is a psychological urge to administer a discontinued medication or recreational drug. Craving episodes may be triggered by seeing objects or experiencing moments that are associated with the drug or usage of it, and this phenomenon is termed post-acute withdrawal syndrome.

The main goal of our study is to demonstrate a reduction of craving during alcohol and coaddictions withdrawal. This demonstration is of first importance: first for the well-being of the patient during the first weeks after withdrawal, second for drug savings, and third abstinence rate because many authors consider that craving intensity is correlated with relapses risk.

The mind-body techniques of traditional Chinese medicine, as Qigong, are inscribed the number of current approaches in residential treatment. Their transmission would be an additional contribution to the stabilization via active management and motivated patient himself on his health.

The compulsion associated with addictive behavior can be defined as a pathological change in brain plasticity. The pathological learning process induced by the repeated use of the substance is causing behavioral control loss in the vulnerable individual.

Considering the impulsive nature of craving, this study will investigate the driving dynamics of impulses: Trieb "push". Return to the perception supported by the development of attention gestures leaning on the breath, puts us ahead of the motor action and is potentially a mean of influencing compulsive process. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Alcohol Addiction
• Alcohol Dependence
• Alcoholism
• Behavior, Addictive

• NCT number: NCT03589118
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris
• Contact: Alain BAUMELOU, MD, Ph.D
• Phone: 01 42 16 05 75
• Email: alain.baumelou@aphp.fr
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 4, 2018
• Completion date: December 2020