Effects of a New Behavioral Intervention on Alcohol Craving and Drinking

Alcohol Drinking Clinical Trial

Official title: Effects of a New Behavioral Intervention on Alcohol Craving and Drinking

Status Recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

Background:

Sights, sounds, and smells can be associated with alcohol and tempt people to drink. The connection between encountering cues and wanting to drink might be reduced by behavioral techniques, like giving the cues at certain times, in certain circumstances.

Objective:

To see if visual imagery and behavioral techniques can reduce alcohol craving and drinking.

Eligibility:

Healthy people ages 21 65 who are mildly concerned about their drinking and have had these habits in the past 3 months:

Women: More than 3 drinks any single day and more than 7 drinks per week

Men: More than 4 drinks any single day and more than 14 drinks per week

Design:

Participants will be screened with medical history, physical exam, blood tests, alcohol breath tests, hepatitis tests, and alcohol and drug use questionnaires.

Participants will get a smartphone to carry throughout the study. They will use it to report on their drinking, moods, and activities daily. The phone s GPS will record their locations throughout each day.

There will be 6 study visits over 4 weeks. Visits will last up to 4 hours, but the final visit lasts up to 7 hours. Visits include the following:

Not drinking alcohol or using illicit or over-the-counter drugs at least 24 hours before each

visit

Providing urine and breath samples.

Exposure to various cues. Participants reactions will be monitored by measuring heart rate,

blood pressure, and skin temperature.

Drinking alcohol or soft drinks. For visits with alcohol, transportation to and from the

visit will be provided.

About a month after the last visit, participants will be called to ask about their drinking and cravings.

Clinical Trial Description

Objective: To evaluate alcohol memory retrieval-extinction, a novel behavioral procedure for reduction of craving and drinking, in problem drinkers.

Study population: We will collect evaluable data from up to 75 participants. Participants are evaluable if they complete geographical momentary assessment (GMA, described below). All participants will be adult alcohol drinkers (men: > 14 drinks/week or > 4 drinks/day; women: > 7 drinks/week or > 3 drinks/day) whose drinking scores as hazardous on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. Participants will not be seeking treatment for an alcohol-use disorder, be physiologically dependent on alcohol, or have other drug use disorders.

Design: A randomized study with three groups. Participants will use smartphones to provide geotagged reports of alcohol craving and drinking in daily life (GMA reports) before, between, and after a series of laboratory sessions. During sessions, participants will drink an alcoholic beverage (individualized to produce a 0.06 g/dL blood alcohol content) or a soft drink. Participants will then be repeatedly presented with alcohol- or soft-drink-associated cues without further drinking. These are the memory retrieval and extinction portions, respectively, of memory retrieval-extinction. Previous studies suggest this procedure can robustly reduce Pavlovian associations between cues and responses such as craving. The mechanism seems to involve memory reconsolidation, in which freshly retrieved associations (e.g., drink cues and consumption - pleasant effects ) become more vulnerable to disruption by extinction.

Three groups will be tested: (1) alcohol retrieval / alcohol extinction will be compared to (2) soft-drink retrieval / alcohol extinction and (3) alcohol retrieval / soft-drink extinction. Before and after retrieval-extinction, participants will be tested for alcohol craving and cue-induced physiological responses in laboratory sessions. Retrieval-extinction will be followed by 1 week of follow-up GMA reporting, with telephone contact 30 days thereafter.

Outcome parameters: The co-primary outcome measures are: self-reported alcohol craving in the laboratory sessions before and after retrieval-extinction, and GMA reports of alcohol craving and drinking. Daily-life responses are important because the version of retrieval-extinction we will be using, with retrieval induced by drinking alcohol itself, rather than alcohol cues alone, may be especially likely to have effects that generalize from the laboratory to daily life. Secondary outcome measures are: (1) self-reported alcohol craving and drinking at 30-day follow-up, (2) physiological reactivity during sessions, and (3) urine biomarkers for alcohol consumption. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Alcohol Drinking
• Alcohol Drinking Related Problems

• NCT number: NCT02831049
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)
• Contact: NIDA IRP Screening Team
• Phone: (800) 535-8254
• Email: researchstudies@nida.nih.gov
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: May 5, 2017
• Completion date: February 1, 2026